With two Oscars holding down his mantle, it seems that Christoph Waltz is in the position of being able to do whatever the fuck he wants. Lately, that means jumping onto some interesting projects, including Tim Burton‘s drama “Big Eyes,” the Stephen Gaghan project “Candy Store,” and he’s already wrapped Terry Gilliam‘s “The Zero Theorem.” And next? How about a procedural?
Waltz is now aboard “True Crimes,” a project his “Carnage” director Roman Polanski was kicking the tires on a couple years back. Based on a 2008 New Yorker article by David Grann, the true story kicks off in December 2000 with Dariusz Janiszewski found dead in the Oder River in Poland. Police investigated, but after six months the case ran cold and was presumed unsolved, until detective Jacek Wroblewski (Waltz’s role) picked it up. He targeted Krystian Bala, a Polish intellectual for the crime, and the investigation grew more interesting when it was revealed that the murder had some eerie similarities with Bala’s book “Amok.” Soon Jacek “becomes entangled in the dark underworld of Poland’s sex rings, prostitution and drugs” as he tries to solve the case.
Said to be in the vein of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” (which every Euro thriller is compared to now), there’s no director yet but apparently, Polanski is still interested. So we could see a little reunion here if that works out. Brett Ratner is one of the producers which is still mind boggling, and a distributor needs to be found.
But this sounds like a nice transition for Waltz into a more subdued, serious role rather than the more flamboyant stuff he’s done with Tarantino. Hopefully, this gets moving soon. [THR]