Late last week we spoke to Steve Buscemi at a junket for the rather ungood (to put it nicely), “Saint John of Las Vegas,” which the actor also executive produced.
Since that picture left a lot to be desired, when we cornered the actor, we decided to ask him about Paul Gondry’s (yes, Michel Gondry’s son), animated featured called “Megalomania,” which Buscemi was going to voice (the lead character) and would be written by Daniel Clowes — the creator of alt-comics “Ghost World” and “Art School Confidential” (he also wrote the screenplays for their feature-length adaptations; Clowes was also supposed to pen Gondry’s “Master Of Space And Time” sci-fi adaptation, but that seems to have gone long-dormant).
Buscemi confirmed he was part of that project, but somewhat cynical and surly on that day (he didn’t want to be there, but junkets are soulless, he gets a pass) when asked about the project he sounded very pessimistic about it. “Wow,” he said with a long pause as if to jog his memory that this project even existed. “I think it’s happening, I haven’t heard from Michel in a while, but I think that’s still maybe moving forward.”
That didn’t sound too optimistic too us and we were rather bummed, but in that EW interview with Gondry that keeps on giving, the director said the project, which he will co-direct, is still on the horizon. It still sounds like it’s in the preparation stage, but Gondry said, “I have a lot of projects. People think I would rest, but instead of that, my brain is racing through all the ideas I have, and I want them to come out.”
What’s it about? Many moons ago, Gondry said about his son’s conceived project, “We’re translating our relationship into a futuristic story with a dictator and a rebel. He’s the dictator in the story [and] it will be based on [his] art.” You can check out some of Paul Gondry’s art in this old post of ours from last year. It might be super slow going (it’s been in the works for a few years now), but we’re pleased to hear this project is still moving forward. -additional reporting by Kimber Myers