After collaborating on seven different projects, it was only inevitable that the directing and producing duo of Carlos Saura and Elias Querejeta would be teaming up once again. Now, Variety tells us that they’ll join forces for a project entitled 33 Dias, which will delve into the world of Cubist painter Pablo Picasso and his “emotional turmoil as he painted his masterpiece Guernica.”
Throughout his almost 60-year career, Saura has written and directed over 40 pictures, including Cria Cuervos, The Hunt, and Tango; in the past, Saura and Querejeta worked together on Hunt, Raise Ravens, and Deprisa, deprisa, just to name a few.
The subject matter seems perfect for the Spanish duo, who have remained close to their Spanish roots throughout their careers. We’ve seen Picasso portrayed in film for many, many years — most recently depicted by Marcial Di Fonzo Bo in Woody Allen‘s Midnight In Paris. Anthony Hopkins also played the influential painter in the 1996 film Surviving Picasso, but you don’t remember that.
The film has a current budget of about $7.7 million, with longtime Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro currently in final negotiations to join the project. His very impressive resume includes Apocalypse Now, The Last Emperor and Last Tango In Paris. The film will be in both Spanish and French, with plans of shooting sometime next summer in Paris and Guernica, where they will then reproduce Picasso‘s Paris studio.
Does 33 Dias interest you?