Director Talks About Almost Working With Aphex Twin & Plaid, Was Asked To Do ‘Jane Eyre,’ But Turned It Down
Exclusive: If you haven’t already surmised, the consensus seems to overwhelmingly suggest that “We Need To Talk About Kevin” — the long-awaited return of Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay — is a big winner. Starring Tilda Swinton, in a performance that’s already turned towards Oscar talk, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller (Antonio Campos‘ “Afterschool“) and boasting a score by Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood, ” our review from Cannes earlier this year described the movie as a “haunting and unflinching drama… Swinton is superb, and if there were any doubt she’s one of our greatest living actresses, that has now been removed with one swift stroke.” A recent tweet from our Toronto International Film Fest correspondent said the picture was, “beautiful, brooding, devastating — I need a stiff drink. Maybe two.”
After the devastating one-two punch of her mesmerizing (and Criterion-approved) debut “Ratcatcher” and 2002’s equally expressive follow-up “Morvern Callar,” clearly there’s no doubt “We Need To Talk About Kevin” will be a must-see picture when it arrives in U.S. theaters on December 2 in limited release.
But it’s been nine long years since “Movern Callar” and she’s been clearly missed on the screens of cinema (part of that was due the fiasco of trying to adapt “The Lovely Bones“; she eventually left the project under unfortunate circumstances when Peter Jackson took interest and it turned sour). Fortunately, it sounds like we won’t have to wait one more near-decade to see another Ramsay feature. During Cannes, the filmmaker hinted that she had two projects in the works and in a conversation yesterday with Playlist scribe Kevin Jagernauth, Ramsay gave us a few hints on what those projects might be. She also noted that while ‘Kevin’ did take a few years to find proper financing, she kept busy int the interim.
“I’d written a couple of other scripts in the meantime,” she said. “I was asked to direct “Jane Eyre” but I didn’t want to, I’d only do that if it was my version and the producers had a script and wanted it very classic.”
While telling us about Jonny Greenwood‘s soundtrack work on “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” she revealed that two highly acclaimed electronic artists were interested in scoring the film, both Aphex Twin and Plaid, but the timing didn’t work out. Still, she hopes to work with them in the future and also has afilm set up at the sister company of those artist’s record label, a company behind the likes of “This Is England” and “Tyrannosaur.”
“I’m working with Warp Films and I’ve had a project set up there for years,” she said of the company that recently released the horrific and unforgettable “Kill List” in the U.K. “And they’ve been waiting so probably the clever thing would have been to do that [project] first, but ‘Kevin’ always felt like it was just about to happen and it was felt if I abandoned it I don’t think it would get made. So I thought, ‘I’ve got to make this and I’m now making the Warp Films [picture] next year.”
Ramsay actually told us the artist she has in mind for the soundtrack, but we’re sworn to secrecy for now (hint, not one of the two Warp acts already mentioned). “I’m constructing the soundtrack at the moment, and it’s set in Glasgow,” she said.
And that’s not all, as there’s an even more ambitious project on the horizon as well. “I’ve got a much bigger project that’s a psychological science fiction film,” she said. “So I’m looking forward to that one, that’s exciting, but they’re both beautiful but in a different way. The Warp Project project’s easier to make and get done right now, I had that in my mind for a while and it’s written and all set to go.”
Ramsay also says she’ll be making a short film for the Olympics as well, so there will be no shortage of her work coming our way in the next 24 months.”It will be very beautiful and after the long construction of ‘Kevin’ it will be a nice palate cleanser.”