It took eight long years between Hou Hsiao-hsien‘s "Flight Of The Red Ballon" and his latest, Cannes Best Director prize winning "The Assassin." And the good news for fans of the filmmaker is that he’s already brewing his next picture and hopefully it won’t take so long to get it made. His next project is about "a waterway enthusiast who encounters a river goddess while studying the city’s waterway system," and it will be set in the modern era. Shu Qi will return to star, with Chu Tien-wen ("The Assassin," "Millennium Mambo") penning the script. No word yet on when production starts. [Taipei Times]
READ MORE: Cannes Review: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s ‘The Assassin’ Is An Epic Visual Poem
Catherine Hardwicke will tackle another tale about young people, signing up to helm "Love Letters To The Dead." An adaptation of the book by Ava Dellaira (who will also write the script), it "centers on a character named Laurel who for an English class assignment writes a letter to a dead person, Kurt Cobain. Soon, she has a notebook full of letters to famous dead people including Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, and Heath Ledger. In these letters, she shares her own experiences about starting high school, figuring out friendships and finding love. She also writes about the abuse she suffered and the death of her sister May, who was supposed to be looking after her. By writing down the truth about her experiences, she starts to come to terms with the truth about her sister." The project is set up at Fox 2000. [THR]
Will Gluck ("Easy A," "Annie") heads to Disney to direct a movie about "a consistently unlucky woman whose streak of bad luck continues when everyone in her small town wins a lottery except for her. But it turns out to be a blessing in disguise that will ultimately allow her to save the town from ruin." Martin Hynes ("Stealing Harvard") is rewriting the script that originally had a male in the lead role. [THR]