It’s been a while since Fernando Meirelles’ 2008 feature “Blindness,” but the director seems to eager to get back in the director’s chair. Earlier this year he executive produced the excellent short film tribute to Pele “1,284.” He recently attached himself to direct “360,” a sexual drama scribed by Peter Morgan and based on Arthur Schnitzler’s (“Eyes Wide Shut”) play “Reigen” and also has a gestating Janis Joplin biopic in the works with Amy Adams attached to star. But that’s not all.
Speaking to the Guardian (via Bleeding Cool), Meirelles says he is working on an adaptation of João Guimarães 1956 novel, “Devil To Pay In The Backlands.” The celebrated Portuguese novel tells the story of Riobaldo, a former jagunço (mercenary or bandit) as he recounts his life to a stranger from the city (thank you Wikipedia). The celebrated book has long been thought to be untranslatable, but Meirelles is going to have a go at it, revealing, “it will be extremely hard but I imagine it happening in a similar style to Godard.” So with lots of gorgeous French girls, smoking cigarettes and talking about Balzac? Probably not, but considering Godard’s immediately recognizable visual style, and flouting of traditional film language it sounds like Meirelles has something fascinating up his sleeve for what he hopes will be his “signature film.” And we thought he made it already with “City Of God.”
So where do all the pieces fit in Meirelles’ schedule? Well, he pretty much has the rest of the year locked up; he will be shooting his segment for the forthcoming “Rio, I Love You” omnibus as well as “360” this year (so we would guess casting should be announced soon). From there, we’ll have to see which projects float up to the top and which get put on the backburner. But Meirelles definitely has some challenging, interesting work ahead and we look forward to the results.