Ok, so maybe the specter and influence of Doug Liman’s a legendary do-gooding attorney father is actually compelling the filmmaker to create serious films.
You’ll remember a recent New York magazine profile fascinatingly illustrated Liman’s (the director of “Swingers,” “The Bourne Ultimatum,” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) conflicting desires to make popcorn thrillers (see the upcoming “Jumper” for a full-on example of escapist fluff) and important films about significant and weighty topics.
The piece basically concluded that the dark side of entertainment had won and his next project would be a stargazing untitled fanciful story about a private expedition to the moon. “All this talking about [worthy stuff],” he says, “it goes out the window when I have a story I want to tell.” Ok, whatever, at least he’s self-aware, yes?
However, stop the presses. It seems like the ever-shifting Liman has gone and changed his fickle mind once again.
The MTV Movies blog has reported that Liman’s next project will actually be a biopic of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, starring Nicole Kidman (thanks to Vulture for the stolen image). Liman has a fondness for casting those who lost for other films (Brad Pitt was originally supposed to star in ‘Bourne,’ Liman later recast him in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) and this film is no exception to that predilection. “[Nicole’s] perfect if you’ve ever met Valerie. She was supposed to play Jane Smith in ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith.’ We owe a movie together! That’s an unrequited thing between me and an actor where I fell in love with them for a role and never get to consummate it.”
Despite the fact that much of Plame’s “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House,” was heavily censored by the C.I.A., Liman thinks he has a ingenious way to make the film (though he doesn’t say what that ingenious technique will be).
I have a really, really insane take on how to tell it. It’s so outrageous,” Liman said. “Ultimately, I’d be doing something no one has ever done before. Therefore it’s automatically appealing to me. I’m just starting to explore whether [what I have in mind] is even possible to do.”
We’re assuming lots of black bars and scenes left on the cutting room floor?