Butler's Script Sale of the Week...
November 25th, 2001
Not a busy sales week thanks to the Thanksgiving holidays. Out of the slim pickens were still a few interesting projects, including the mystery thriller, ID, Miramax's pick up of HORNET, and Disney's bio of skate legend Tony Hawk, HAWK: OCCUPATION: SKATEBOARDER.
My pick this week is 20th Century Fox's acquisition to the rights of the Russian sci-fi thriller novel, SOLARIS by Stanislaw Lem.
I've picked SOLARIS for three reasons. The first two are Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, who may possibly re-team for a third time on this project. I've sung the praises of these two men many times before in this column (particularly when they work together), so I won't kiss any more ass here today. Although if ever there were asses that deserved kissing .
The third reason is Andrei Tarkovsky. He's the legendary Russian director who filmed SOLARIS in 1972. Tarkovsky is thought of as perhaps the most influential Russian film director since Eisenstein. He shot to fame with his first feature, IVANOVO DETSTVO (MY NAME IS IVAN), which won the Venice Film Festival in 1962.
Tarkovsky was a brilliant, often controversial, filmmaker (the best kind). He counted Ingmar Bergman among his many fans. Film critic Leonard Maltin said of him, "He is at his most compelling when examining the individual's search for his soul, the lack of true spirituality in contemporary society, and the inability of mankind to adequately respond to the demands of a rapidly evolving technology." Gee, sounds like he'd be perfect for the current world climate.
Unfortunately, Tarkovsky is no longer around to cinematically examine our current society. He died in 1986 of cancer. At least we have Soderbergh to take on a new version of SOLARIS, which concerns a psychologist sent to the Solaris space station situated over a mysterious planet. The psychologist finds one man dead and the two survivors suffering from strange visions. Soon, the psychologist himself is suffering from the same hallucinations.
I've never seen SOLARIS, but I'll be checking it out as soon as I can. Apparently, SOLARIS was Tarkovsky's least favorite film in his amazing canon. I can't wait to see what Soderbergh does with it. He's already remade OCEAN'S 11, but remaking a film many consider to be a science-fiction masterpiece akin to Kubrick's 2001, is an entirely different undertaking than remaking a mediocre Sinatra flick.
Hell, I'd say Soderbergh needs the challenge.
-- Edward Butler
My pick this week is 20th Century Fox's acquisition to the rights of the Russian sci-fi thriller novel, SOLARIS by Stanislaw Lem.
I've picked SOLARIS for three reasons. The first two are Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, who may possibly re-team for a third time on this project. I've sung the praises of these two men many times before in this column (particularly when they work together), so I won't kiss any more ass here today. Although if ever there were asses that deserved kissing .
The third reason is Andrei Tarkovsky. He's the legendary Russian director who filmed SOLARIS in 1972. Tarkovsky is thought of as perhaps the most influential Russian film director since Eisenstein. He shot to fame with his first feature, IVANOVO DETSTVO (MY NAME IS IVAN), which won the Venice Film Festival in 1962.
Tarkovsky was a brilliant, often controversial, filmmaker (the best kind). He counted Ingmar Bergman among his many fans. Film critic Leonard Maltin said of him, "He is at his most compelling when examining the individual's search for his soul, the lack of true spirituality in contemporary society, and the inability of mankind to adequately respond to the demands of a rapidly evolving technology." Gee, sounds like he'd be perfect for the current world climate.
Unfortunately, Tarkovsky is no longer around to cinematically examine our current society. He died in 1986 of cancer. At least we have Soderbergh to take on a new version of SOLARIS, which concerns a psychologist sent to the Solaris space station situated over a mysterious planet. The psychologist finds one man dead and the two survivors suffering from strange visions. Soon, the psychologist himself is suffering from the same hallucinations.
I've never seen SOLARIS, but I'll be checking it out as soon as I can. Apparently, SOLARIS was Tarkovsky's least favorite film in his amazing canon. I can't wait to see what Soderbergh does with it. He's already remade OCEAN'S 11, but remaking a film many consider to be a science-fiction masterpiece akin to Kubrick's 2001, is an entirely different undertaking than remaking a mediocre Sinatra flick.
Hell, I'd say Soderbergh needs the challenge.
-- Edward Butler
Comments
Only logged-in members can comment. You can log in or join today for free!
Advertisement
