Is Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar going all genre on us? One could argue the filmmaker is already knee-deep in it. Though the first half of his career was marked by colorful and irreverent comedic melodramas, of late, his films have been taking on a more thriller-ish tone and these kinds of elements have been around for years. "Volver" definitely sports a mystery vibe with some Hitchcock-ian notes (filtered through Almodovar's distinct personality of course), "Broken Embraces" is like a '40s noir, "Bad Education" has many a thriller moments and even "Talk To Her" has moments of intrigue outside of just melodrama.
And in Almodovar's most recent picture, "The Skin I Live In," those elements are even more pronounced, and it's the closest thing the director has ever come to making a horror film (albeit a very Pedro one). Meanwhile, his next film, "I'm So Excited," looks as if he'll return to his campy humorous days only with more of a screwbally zing to it.
So what's next? There was talk last year that his next project would be a biopic titled “Mina” about the life of the Italian pop singer of the same name, based on a novel by Paolo Limiti. That could still be the case, but in an interview with Variety that ran today, Almodovar brought up his desire to go into a world previously uncharted for the filmmaker: sci-fi. And evidently his inspiration is his love for the 1956 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
"I am still young enough to make a science fiction movie. I have ideas for this genre," the director said this weekend. "The way I would like to do it is present something impossible in a real, domestic way. One of the scripts on my desk is of that genre, so I hope to make that."
One note of caution, Almodovar doesn't seem to have a timetable yet. "I live with my stories for many years. I write more like a novelist than a screenwriter," he said. But with a sci-fi screenplay in his hands, hopefully he can tweak it to his needs and make it work. Much like "The Skin I Live In," we assume a sci-fi film by Pedro Almodovar wouldn't be a traditional sci-fi film to say the least, but in delving into genre, it simply allows the filmmaker to keep things fresh — something he's done for over thirty years with hardly any clunkers in the bunch. No small feat. Pencil in Almodovar untitled sci-fi project conservatively for 2014 or later? Hell, we can wait.