Scott Free & Studiocanal On Board To Produce
After the successful collaboration with Tilda Swinton on the sumptuous drama, “I Am Love,” Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is ready to follow the lead set by foreign contemporaries like Tomas Alfredson and Paolo Sorrentino in bringing European sensibilities to an English-language feature.
Currently untitled, the project will team the director with StudioCanal and Ridley and Tony’s Scott Free shingle for an “under $30M”-budgeted tale set on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria. Guadagnino himself went onto describe the pic as a ‘rock ‘n roll anthem of sex, love, murder and emotional rescue: a dive into the politics of desire between man and woman where one plus one makes four.’ “
There have been rumors of a Guadagnino remake of Jacques Deray‘s “La Piscine (The Swimming Pool)” — which starred Alain Delon, Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin — with names like Jeremy Renner and Mia Wasikowska bandied about. Reps for both actors have since denied their involvement, but with the “one plus one makes four” line in the synopsis and the Mediterranean setting reported by Variety, it appears the Italian helmer could potentially be veering into remake territory (not a bad thing at all). Deray’s film centers on a couple who are vacationing in Southern France when their friend arrives with his 18 year-old daughter in tow, which sets into motion shifting relationships and passions which ultimately turn deadly.
While this picture, whatever it is, appears next — casting underway and a production start on the horizon — Guadagnino also has some other projects brewing including an England-and-Wales-set reunion with Swinton (a project said to be a Michael Powell homage) and a crime flick, “Corsica 72,” that Gemma Arterton said she was eyeing (with Andrew Garfield as the rumored co-star).
In addition to Guadagnino’s latest, Euro-shingle StudioCanal also has the next feature from comic-book artist Joann Sfar on its radar. That project will team Sfar with John Carls, producer on “Rango” and “Where The Wild Things Are,” for a 3D English-language animated adaptation of his “Little Vampire Goes To School.” Sfar’s debut feature is the recently released Serge Gainsbourg biopic “Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.” The trailer for “The Swimming Pool” below, as our hunch is it’s indeed the basis for Guadagnino’s next film.