What does Edward Norton do with the all spare time he affords by forgoing opportunities like joining "The Avengers"? By turning his hand to producing interesting projects like this, we guess.
Asked what's on horizon, Norton recently revealed he is currently in the process of developing a mini-series adaptation of "Band Of Brothers" author Stephen Ambrose's novel about the Lewis & Clark expedition, "Undaunted Courage," hopefully for television.
"We’re trying to make this big — HBO is doing all these historical miniseries, which I think they’ve done an amazing job with a couple of them," Norton told A.V. Club. "We’re trying to produce one for them about Lewis and Clark. There’s that Stephen Ambrose book, 'Undaunted Courage,' about the Lewis and Clark expedition. We’re trying to assemble that, and it’s very big. It’s so out of scale with anything my partners and I have produced. It’s a very interesting set of equations to get something like that made. We’re pretty thick in that right now." Soldiers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead a team backed by Thomas Jefferson on an expedition to the Pacific Coast and back, the first overland one of its kind, which was instrumental in paving the way for much of the westward expansion of the United States. Here's a short synopsis of Ambrose novel about the tale, courtesy of Amazon.
A biography of Meriwether Lewis that relies heavily on the journals of both Lewis and Clark, this book is also backed up by the author's personal travels along Lewis and Clark's route to the Pacific. Ambrose is not content to simply chronicle the events of the "Corps of Discovery" as the explorers called their ventures. He often pauses to assess the military leadership of Lewis and Clark, how they negotiated with various native peoples and what they reported to Jefferson. Though the expedition failed to find Jefferson's hoped for water route to the Pacific, it fired interest among fur traders and other Americans, changing the face of the West forever.
"If we can get something like this Lewis and Clark thing made, it will be really interesting for us. It’s like making 'Lonesome Dove' or something. It’s something you don’t really expect to do more than once. And if we get it together, John Curran is going to direct it, which will be really fun." No word yet on whether Norton will feature in an acting capacity at all.
As for its prospects, we're sure cable television would eat up something like this — a perfect companion project for the plethora of strong projects set to hit screens within the next year or so. And with the success of Martin Scorsese and Terrence Winter's collaboration on "Boardwalk Empire," surely the way has already been paved for more and more cinematic talent to transition to the small screen.
Can someone please get some smelling salts ready, because we may just pass out from excitement. The NY Times reportsAl Pacino is set to play controversial musical producer Phil Spector in a film to be written and directed by none other than David Mamet.
The currently untitled film which will be made at HBO is still in early stages of development with Barry Levinson producing (who directed the multiple Emmy nominated "You Don't Know Jack" starring Pacino earlier this year). There's no word yet on what the focus of the film will be; if it will be a sweeping biopic or tackle the bizarre later years in the already eccentric producer's life. At any rate the soundtrack is sure to be aces. Spector developed his famous Wall Of Sound production, made instantly classic songs for a variety of girl groups including The Crystals and The Ronettes, made his contemporaries green with envy and perhaps most famously, mixed and finished the Beatles last album "Let It Be." In more recent years, he's known for outrageous hair and for murdering actress/model Lana Clarkson.
However unsavory his personal life, his mark on the music world is undeniable and a film about him is sure to be fascinating. But more importantly: Spector + Pacino + Mamet? Fuck. Yes.
While it's no longer the cause-du-jour in Hollywood, AIDS is still a colossal problem, particularly in the developing world; 4000 people die of the disease every day in Africa. World AIDS Day is coming up on December 1st, and HBO and Anonymous Content have teamed with the charity (RED)™ for a new 30 minute documentary, "The Lazarus Effect."
Directed by music video and documentary veteran Lance Bangs, and executive produced by his regular collaborator Spike Jonze, the film follows the amazing hope offered to HIV sufferers by Antiretroviral drugs in Zambia, and hopes to raise awareness of their benefits -- 40 cents can pay for a day's worth of ARV medication. It'll air on HBO, and channels around the world, on World AIDS Day, but you can watch the complete film right now below.
It's a thoroughly excellent piece of work, heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measure, and really, if you watch one thing today, you should make it this. You can find out more about (RED)™ here on their official site. [Movie City News]
Nine Inch Nails front-man and all round musical maverick Trent Reznor has confirmed that his band's 2007 dystopian concept album Year Zero is currently being developed as a miniseries with production giants from either side of the Atlantic, HBO and BBC, already on board.
The album's television adaptation has been in the works for quite some time with Tarantino-regular Lawrence Bender, but now looks to be gaining momentum with "Carnivàle" writer Daniel Knauf already scribing and BBC becoming involved.
“We are in pre-production with HBO and BBC to do a miniseries,” Reznor unveiled to Hero Complex. “It’s exciting. I probably shouldn’t say too much about it except that I understand that there’s a thousand hurdles before anything shows up in your TV listing. It’s been an interesting and very educational process and it cleared the HBO hurdle a few months ago and now we’re writing drafts back and forth. So it’s very much alive and incubating at the moment.”
“BBC was the first to show interest and came on as the studio,” Reznor elaborated. “Our writer is Daniel Knauf from ‘Carnivàle’ and he’s busy with pages right now and revising the overall world Bible. It’s been an interesting collaborative effort but I’ve learned that [television development] moves at a glacial pace.” It's not yet known what part of the album the adaptation will explore but, as a concept album built on on the criticism of the contemporary U.S. government's policies and the exploration of ideas of their implications in the year 2022, it's presumed that futuristic, sci-fi vision is what is being tapped into. HBO and cable television in general has been on an astounding run of late and looks to be expanding with the recruitment of stellar cinematic talent including Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Kathryn Bigelow and Jonathan Demme, just to name a few. After only two episodes, Scorsese's "Boardwalk Empire" has already been touted as the next "Deadwood" and been renewed for second season with such success likely to continue the company's expansion and development; Reznor's adaptation hopefully included.
It'll be interesting to where the project eventually goes though, as forewarned by Reznor's comments, we probably shouldn't expect to see anything come together a little while yet. If and when it does but, we'll be expecting Reznor to launch another mass-media marketing assault -- Year Zero was renowned for the groundbreaking marketing campaign that preceded its release which included the likes of an alternative-reality game, various online campaigns and, on a much simpler note, the release of music through hidden USB drives at concerts. There is a pretty fascinating and exhaustive breakdown of that campaign here.
What does Edward Norton do with the all spare time he affords by forgoing opportunities like joining "The Avengers"? By turning his hand to producing interesting projects like this, we guess.
Soldiers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead a team backed by Thomas Jefferson on an expedition to the Pacific Coast and back, the first overland one of its kind, which was instrumental in paving the way for much of the westward expansion of the United States. Here's a short synopsis of Ambrose novel about the tale, courtesy of Amazon.
