Update: Wild Bunch has clarified the film will not be about Dominique Strasse-Kahn specifically, but more generally about politicians. "Abel Ferrara is currently writing a script about politics, the weakness of today’s politician, who is at the same time all-powerful and lost, miserable in his personal life," Vincent Maraval said. Both Depardieu and Adjani are nowhere near to being locked. As you were. [THR]
Controversial filmmaker Abel Ferrara (“Bad Lieutenant,” “4:44 Last Day On Earth”) is lining up a new project that sounds as intriguing as it does tentative. Ferrara is working with screenwriter Christ Zois (who previously co-wrote Ferrara’s 1997 film “The Blackout,” and not much else) on a script that will be somewhat inspired by the sexual assault scandal involving former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani have been linked to the project, which will be greatly fictionalized and also feature aspects of other politicians who have dealt with sexual scandals, such as Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi.
The film is being put together through French financing, but Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval points out that things may not come together on the creative front, saying, “…like every day in this business, we have to see if there’s a film there.” Maraval goes on to point out, “If it becomes a serious thing, I’m not even sure it will be the same film with Adjani and Depardieu.”
Thanks to Maraval for letting us know that some films in development do not get made and that news of an actor being locked-in for a film (Michael K. Williams in “Django Unchained,” for instance) can sometimes end up not working out. It’s best that Adjani and Depardieu don’t confirm their presence in the movie until they’re actually on the set. Louis “Not Spider-Man” Lerman can attest to that.
Hell, it’s probably best to wait until you see yourself in the thing at a multiplex. James Van Der Beek shot a whole section of Todd Solondz’s “Storytelling” only to have it excised from the film. That debacle was sent up during an episode from season five of “Dawson’s Creek,” in which Van Der Beek is walking past a movie theatre when his date says, “Want to see ‘Storytelling’?” To which Van Der Beek responds that he's "not interested." This writer couldn’t make that up. Check the DVD.
As for Ferrara, it’s nice to see that he’s keeping busy, having made obscure, often unreleased films throughout much of the 2000s. We weren’t really crazy about his latest film, "4:44 Last Day On Earth," but hopefully Ferrara will return to form with this next project, which may or may not get made, starring actors to be named later, or maybe the ones mentioned above (Not you, Lerman, don’t go tweeting about this).