With his latest drama, The Light Between Oceans, opening this Friday (our review), Derek Cianfrance is already eyeing his next project. According to Variety, he’s prepping an adaptation of Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, S.C. Gwynne‘s book about the last great Comanche chief, Quanah Parker. The project will be made for Warner Bros., with Cianfrance co-writing with Darius Marder, collaborators on The Place Beyond the Pines.
Cianfrance calls Parker, who had his mother abducted and spent years trying to find her, “really one of the great American heroes. [He] grew into his manhood, raged against the theft of his mother and spent his whole life trying to find her again.” He also tells Indiewire, “Hopefully I’ll be in production on in the spring, but then again, that’ll be like a 100-day production and that’ll be another year editing that. I’ve already spent three years writing that.”
While Cianfrance’s content changes, his interests in scope remains intact throughout each project. Oceans was his self-described John Cassavetes movie in a David Lean landscape, mixing the intimate with the epic, and about this he told us, “I’m obsessed with legacy: The passing of the torch, passing of pain, and decisions, and the ripple effect of decisions.”
As we await more details, check out an interview with Cianfrance below, along with his dissection of a scene from his latest feature.