Though it's taking its time to get here "The Congress," Ari Folman's ambitious follow-up to his celebrated "Waltz With Bashir," continues to tease, and this new look dug up by Thompson On Hollywood (via Cinemascopian) is the most intriguing yet.
If you feel like you've been hearing about this movie forever, you kind of have. Based on the short story "The Futurological Congress" by Stanislaw Lem, the first footage for this one started knocking around as far back as the spring of 2010, but the high concept seems to be one Folman is eager to get right before he shows it off to the world. Starring Robin Wright, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Paul Giamatti and Danny Huston, the story follows an aging, out-of-work actress (Wright) who accepts one last job so she can make ends meet to care for her disabled son (we presume McPhee). The twist? A major studio will scan her image and likeness and use it as they see fit, essentially making her irrevelent and unhireable for any future projects. And the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't see coming. And it looks like it's going to be another year long wait until we finally see the finished product.
"We just returned from a round of rough-cut screenings in Israel and Europe. The film has 70 minutes of live-action and 50 minutes of animation, the live action part is locked (except for the effects) and the animation is still in the Animatic phase, but most of the designs are done," Folman told the blog Cinemascopian. "We're now going into an insane journey of finishing the animation in 10 months, in five different countries: here, in Jaffa, Poland, Belgium, Germany and Luxemburg. After that, post-production. The movie should be done by January 2013."
You can check out this clip below which popped up during the spring to get a taste of the movie. It's certainly pretty far out there, but also looks pretty damn awesome.