And He’s Directing ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Tonight
If you think just because Michel Gondry now has his first studio tentpole under his belt, he’s abandoned indie films forever, you’d be mistaken. As usual, the director has a number of projects in various stages of development that he continues to tinker with and as he revealed last month, one of projects is a documentary on the world-renowned linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky. Details at the time were scarce except that it would be animated and that he had already started the interview process with Chomsky.
However, speaking with Collider recently, the chatty Gondry expanded further on his approach which includes doing drawings for the film every night. Thanks for making us feel likes slobs, Michel. “I’m doing an animated documentary on Noam Chomsky. So it’s very specific. I’ve been interviewing him many times and I took all the sound, because I barely shot him… I shot him a few occasions but mostly it’s sound. I’m doing it in animation so I have my animation camera, it’s a Bolex 16mm. And I’m doing all the drawings. It’s something I do every night when I go home. It’s very exciting to be very complex because we talk about linguistics and it’s… captivating because he has this very personal and convincing views on how language was created as a genetic mutation more than a slow, evolutionary process. And I’m illustrating that.”
That actually sounds pretty intriguing and the animated approach is a great way to make a pretty dry topic (linguistics, snore) find some real life on the screen. But of course, animation is a time consuming and arduous process and if you’re all doing drawings at night, it might take a while to get finished. Collider inquired just when we might get a chance to see it and they got a Gondry-esque reply. “I hope to be done before… I die. Or before he dies. Or before the world dies. So… I hope within two years. Maximum.” Well, let’s hope no one has to die before we see this.
It definitely seems like a project that Gondry will keep toying with between bigger films, but nonetheless, it is definitely yet another interesting direction for the helmer who continues to juggle numerous projects, jumping between studio projects and indie productions. Last we heard, Gondry will get to “The We And I” next, with filming aiming to start in the summer. When we spoke with Gondry last spring he said it the film was borne out of meetings with the publishers of “You’ll Like This Film Because You’re In It: The Be Kind Rewind Protocol,” which is about community filmmaking, inspired by Gondry’s film.
But for now, you can get your Gondry fix in theaters with “The Green Hornet” which opens tomorrow or if you can’t wait until then you can watch him direct “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tonight. Seriously.