Roman Polanski, Vincent Gallo, and Panos Cosmatos Plan New Features

Nearly 92, more controversial than ever, and coming off perhaps the least-liked film of his career, Roman Polanski has not entirely been expected to direct again. Yet he, still among our greatest filmmakers, doesn’t seem content to let The Palace‘s final shot close his story. (That will mean nothing if you’ve not seen the film; those who have understand fully.) Polanski recently met with Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Maciej Wróbel, who revealed that their conversation concerned “plans related to the production of a new film” that will shoot in the director’s native country. [Wiadomości Gazeta]

As Polanski tends to keep a low profile, we’ve no pre-existing details on what it might be, though this hint of advanced funding and logistics stages suggests word would arrive shortly. As for who agrees to star in it or what festival opts to premiere it––that should be a point of interest all its own.

Let’s treat the next bit of news as a strong, tantalizing possibility before we go ahead and confirm anything. Signs nevertheless point to a long-awaited return of Vincent Gallo, Filmmaker, and it wouldn’t be so shocking if he––more notorious as a public figure than artist, however much the merit the latter deserves––did so under strange circumstances. Deadline reports on an already shot, Gallo-led feature about the Golden State Killer, which a) has secured stateside distribution from Lionsgate’s Grindstone imprint and b) you may remember as some source of controversy when, last year, a horrible audition process landed in the news. (To say nothing of it serving as a potential comeback for the still-embattled James Franco.) While once known as a project helmed by Jordan Gertner, it’s now cited as a film from Vito Brown.

But Vito Brown’s IMDb page was only made two days ago; before that, searching his name and the site only yielded Gallo’s own character in Claire Denis’ Keep It for Yourself. (He also plays Vincenzo Brown in Nénette and Boni, Shane Brown in Trouble Every Day, Captain Brown in U.S. Go Home, Billy Brown in his own Buffalo ’66, and––why not just drive this point home––made a film called The Brown Bunny.) And if “Vito Brown” actually wrote and directed this film, what accounts for the changeover towards this total, absolute unknown from Gertner, who’s still attached as a producer? Could the significant controversy it attracted at such an early stage be cause for this obfuscation? Let’s expect a fascinating premiere.

More than a year after learning Panos Cosmatos would follow Mandy with Flesh of the Gods, Deadline tells us Kristen Stewart and Oscar Isaac are to be joined by Elizabeth Olsen, who will play “the mysterious and enigmatic Nameless.” The film––written by Andrew Kevin Walker (The Killer, Seven) and deriving from a story penned by he and Cosmatos––concerns Raoul and Alex, a wealthy married couple who trawl “an electric nighttime realm of 80’s LA” and find themselves meeting a “mysterious and enigmatic woman and her hard-partying cabal.” Thus ensues “a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills, and violence”––on the basis of Cosmatos’ CV, likely filled with ominous synthesizer tunes and the harshest neon lights your eyes have ever seen. (Cosmatos himself calls the project a “propulsive and hypnotic […] hot rod joy ride deep into the glittering heart of hell.”)

Adam McKay and Betsy Koch will produce Flesh of the Gods, which has no set start date.

Last and least, Spring Breakers: Salvation Mountain. Bella Thorne (Club Random), Ariel Martin, Grace Van Dien (Stranger Things), and True Whitaker (Rachel Sennott’s forthcoming HBO series) will lead the ostensible sequel directed by Matthew Bright (in his first feature since 2003’s infamous Tiptoes) and presented by the original film’s producers. Per Variety, it constitutes a “a bold new ride for Gen Z,” with a new group of girls whose wayward plans force them “to outrun the chaos they’ve created.” We look forward to watching parts of it at 1 a.m. on TUBI while scrolling our phones.

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