It has been two years since Jacques Audiard‘s bruising and beautiful "Rust And Bone," but the "A Prophet" director is getting ready to shoot his next project. On October 13th, cameras will start rolling on "Erran." Penned by Audiard, the story centers on "a Sri-Lankan Tamil fighter who is a political refugee in France, where he works as a caretaker on an ‘unruly’ council estate in the Parisian suburbs." Besides that, details are being kept under wraps at the moment. There’s not even any word on the cast, but we’d wager that information is just around the corner. Production will go until mid-December, and one has to think that Audiard and the producers already have an eye on Cannes next spring for a premiere. [Cineuropa]
Another day, another project with Antoine Fuqua‘s name on it. The filmmaker is now attached to direct an adaptation of Jeff Hobbs‘ "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League," that tells the true story of "a young African-American man who left the crime-ridden streets of Newark to attend Yale. There, he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics and excelled at school, but the troubles from his upbringing continued to plague him until his violent and all-too-soon end." Powerful stuff. [THR]
With "Burying The Ex" premiering at Venice and now in the can, Joe Dante has another supernatural project in the works. "Ombra Amore" is a "Romeo & Juliet" style romance between Pete, a financial trader and werewolf "responsible for Italy’s current economic crisis," and Maggie, whose vampire "family is a formerly wealthy aristocratic clan brought to bankruptcy by the greedy werewolves." Uh oh. [THR]
Barry Levinson is headed to TV to direct Jennifer Lopez in the NBC series "Shades Of Blue." The very believable premise centers on "a single mother and detective who is recruited to work undercover for the FBI’s anti-corruption task force." Filming gets underway next summer, with the network already ordering thirteen episodes. [Deadline]