‘Blue Valentine’ Director Derek Cianfrance Announces Next Project ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’

Updated: Ryan Gosling Joins As The Lead

Update: Vulture reports that the film will star Ryan Gosling, and is aiming to shoot next summer. No plot details yet, but its said to be a “Jack London–inspired” tale. Additionally, HBO has tapped Cianfrance to develop a TV show for the network.

With December firmly underway, we’re starting to work on our best-of-the-year lists, and one film that’s virtually certain to feature is one Derek Cianfrance‘s “Blue Valentine.” Playlist staff caught the flim at various festivals over the course of the year, and pretty much all flipped — it’s a raw, bruising relationship story, expertly helmed and featuring two of the finest performances of the year from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.

The film was only Cianfrance’s second narrative feature, coming twelve years after his debut, “Brother Tied” (the director mostly worked in documentaries in the intervening years), but the good news is that it sounds like we won’t have to wait a similar length of time for another film from the director. The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Cianfrance at the Gotham Awards on Monday night, and he revealed the title for his next project, as well as a few vague details.

Cianfrance shared, “I have a film called “The Place Beyond The Pines,” which is all about fathers and guns, and it has motorcycles and guns in it. One thing I wanted to do with “Blue Valentine” was to make a really violent film without guns in it. The next one will have guns, so it will be easier. No studio yet. We’re in the middle of financing it right now.”

It’s not a huge amount to go on, but we’re going to take a stab in the dark and suggest that it’s possibly some kind of crime drama. But if Cianfrance makes a film as physically violent as “Blue Valentine” is emotionally violent, “The Place Beyond The Pines” is going to have more blood and gore than “Riki-Oh“ (link NSFW). Suffice to say, we’re excited, and we’re sure more details will follow.

Cianfrance also discussed the film’s impending appeal to the MPAA, after it was awarded the dreaded NC-17 rating in one of the more baffling decisions in recent memory. Cianfrance seems confident, saying “I haven’t really met anyone who thinks that rating is just. We are still fighting it and hoping it can be changed to an “R.” Bottom line is we are not changing the movie out of respect. The movie is this movie… it has no harm in it. It is about loving, intimacy, care and emotions. It is the intangibles of emotion and intimacy you don’t see that got us the rating.”

He’s pretty much hit the nail on the head there, and we sincerely hope that common sense will win out. In the meantime, you’ll finally be able to see what the fuss is about when “Blue Valentine” begins its limited roll out on December 31st.