A recent, years-long stretch of stop-and-start development have not affected the productivity of Spike Lee, who’s clearly getting back to his quick-working: Oldboy is set to open in less than four weeks’ time, his Kickstarter project has already completed shooting, and, now, a latest bit of development news has just come in. According to THR, the writer-director is beginning to circle a disco tale, Spinning Gold, which, for two years, has had Justin Timberlake lined up to portray Neil Bogart, a legendary music executive “who was closely aligned with the rise of disco.”
The subject’s own son, Timothy Scott Bogart, is behind the screenplay, which shows the quick rise of a man responsible for bringing names such as KISS, Parliament, Gladys Knight, Village People, Curtis Mayfield, and Bill Withers into the public eye (to say nothing of his association with bubblegum pop) before succumbing to cancer at the age of 39. On the surface, it’s not a story that makes one think of Lee and his narrative sensibilities — but perhaps that’s exactly what will make Spinning Gold a worthwhile effort. As always, we simply look forward to seeing what he does next.
Foresight Unlimited will produce alongside Timberlake, Mark Damon, Laurence Mark, Gary A. Randall. The title is currently being shopped around the American Film Market.
Meanwhile, TheWrap report that Robert Zemeckis has yet another potential project in his sights. After news of Chaos Walking and Marwencol, word has it he’s looking toward The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane — which, as people will half-cleverly point out, is yet another story involving rabbits, though likely sharing no significant commonalities with a certain ’80s picture. The latest draft, as written by Jeff Stockwell (Bridge to Terabithia), concerns “a porcelain rabbit who falls off a boat in the 1930s and spends nearly a year at the bottom of the ocean until he’s rescued and adopted by a series of owners from various backgrounds.” Amazingly, its time at the ocean’s surface is a real-time experience; the section wherein the item gets swapped around comprises a six-minute montage before credits roll.
New Line (i.e. Warner Bros.) are behind the project; Zemeckis is expected to produce via his own ImageMovers.
On a different note, Deadline indicate new activity for Christopher McQuarrie. As he prepares Mission: Impossible V, Skydance hope to keep him in their business by putting a bit more focus on, of all things, a ’70s anime series, Space Battleship Yamato — some time after they had approached him to fashion that property into a new feature by the name of Star Blazers. (More commercial than that first known iteration, at least.) It’s the sort of sci-fi yarn you already know every component of from several other titles: Earth, in the future, is no longer a habitable territory, and the surviving humans (living underground from the threat of alien forces) are hoping to escape their planet when word of radioactive material begins to circulate. Thankfully, they come across the existence of “alien technology that can deliver a small crew across the universe and back with the means to stave off extinction.” Adventure follows.
There’s no word as to how Star Blazers may affect his current schedule, nor what’s even necessarily taking place on that front. Expect more in the coming months.
The next bit of news goes smaller, informing us that Myth of the American Sleepover helmer David Robert Mitchell is already rolling cameras on his follow-up, It Follows, with Maika Monroe (The Bling Ring, Labor Day), Keir Gilchrist (It’s Kind of a Funny Story), and Daniel Zovatto in the leads. Potentially a spiritual successor of sorts to the low-key, much-acclaimed feature debut, this new title is said to be “a terrifying coming-of-age nightmare about sex, love and the unseen horrors that follow us”; such descriptors are perpetuated by Visit Films, selling it at AFM, who cite the picture as an example of “psychologically terrifying filmmaking.” By most counts, a deviation from the melancholy verisimilitude of Sleepover.
Animal Kingdom, coming off Short Term 12, are to produce alongside Northern Lights Films.
Finally, THR have another dispatch from the American Film Market: D.J. Caruso (I Am Number Four, Eagle Eye) is looking to make his next title The Disappointments Room, a new screenplay from Stoker‘s Wentworth Miller that, judging by an early description, bears some kinship with the Park Chan-wook thriller. In their combined effort, one mother’s move into a country home proves dangerous when “[the] woman slowly begins to lose her sanity as she learns of the home’s bloody past and is afflicted by visions of a dead girl.” Kate Beckinsale is up for the lead, though this, obviously, is not to say she’ll certainly be taking the part; Underworld 5 must beckon.
Relativity Media (and Universal Pictures, by likely extension) are expected to pick up The Disappointments Room.
Which of the noted projects are you most hoping to see? Do any especially pique your interest?