Update: Deadline have pulled one of their famous about-turns, and removed any mention of Dillon from the original story, now saying that the second male lead “isn’t cast yet…” Did they jump the gun on Dillon? Or will it end up being someone else entirely? Paging Ralph Fiennes…
Even with his legal problems behind him, temporarily at least, we figured it would be a little while before Roman Polanski got moving on another feature. So we’re slightly stunned that not only does the legendary director have his next film financed and ready to shoot in February, but it’s also fully cast. And what a cast it is.
Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Matt Dillon will all star in “God of Carnage,” the adaptation of the hit play by French writer Yasmina Reza (“Art”), which has long been thought to be Polanski’s next project. The story, set in New York (which the helmer can’t film in, for obvious reasons, and will instead shoot in Paris), follows two sets of middle-class parents who meet for dinner after their children get into a fight at school.
What’s perhaps most surprising, considering the wealth of stars who’ve appeared in the show on the West End or on Broadway, including Ralph Fiennes, Janet McTeer, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden, James Gandolfini, Lucy Liu and Hope Davis, is that Polanski’s gone with an entirely new cast, but with one this high-calibre, we don’t mind too much. We’re particularly glad to see that the director’s attempting to salvage Dillon from the Screen Gems hell that his career seems to have entered recently. Our guess is that he and Winslet will play Alan and Annette, while Waltz and Foster will play Michael and Veronica, but there’s a number of possible permutations here. The only cast member who could improve on one of these four, considering the prevalent themes of racism, homophobia and misogyny? Foster’s friend Mel Gibson…
Despite the likelihood of “The Ghost Writer” figuring high in our end-of-year worst list, we’re excited about this — the source material is very smart and funny, and Polanski’s rarely better than when he’s dealing with explosive situations in contained spaces. The biggest question is whether Polanski will be able to open the play up to feel a little more cinematic. With a twelve week shoot planned for February, it’s possible that it’ll be ready for the awards season next year, but our guess is that, following the footsteps of “The Ghost Writer,” it’ll premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in early 2012. [Deadline]
So you think that Ghost Writer was one of the worst films of the year? That's silly.
I'm probably the lone Playlister who thought "Ghost Writer" was good B-movie fun. Its not without its problems but certainly not one of the year's worst. The score is ace.
Seriously, there have been far worse films than the Ghost Writer. I know you guys gave it a low grade, but come on… it's really not that bad. I didn't even like it that much, but it's not as awful as your review suggested. Perhaps you need to give it a second look.
Fully aware that lots of people liked the ghost writer and my review was in the minority. C'est la vie. I thought it was pretty terrible and thought McGregor was really bad.
The ending? So laughable, I can't imagine how anyone can take that seriously.
But did many other Playlist members like it? Yeah, i think so. Sometimes we're not always on the same page, life goes on.
The Ghost Writer is definitely a minor Polanski work, in the same way that Frantic is. But both of them are very tense, capable thrillers with strong central performances and strong psychological themes. One of the better films of this year, though not up there with Inception
Yeah, I thought it was horrible – Olivia Williams was terrific, but virtually every other performance was awful, especially McGregor. And the plotting was turgid and silly.
I'm sure there's worse out there (I try to avoid The Last Airbenders of the world if I can), but personally, I haven't seen anything else this year quite so am-dram and turgid.
I'm sorry "twelve weeks?" That's gotta be a typo. Why in the world would it take that long to shoot when, per the basic premise of the play, the 2 sets of parents spend most of the time together?
Wow, what's going on here? "The Ghost Writer" is an absolute masterpiece of Cinema on every level!
http://spaze.info/tales/2010/07/the-ghost-writer-2010-dir-roman-polanski/
also surprised he's shooting again so soon, great news.
This girl on my Twitter keeps talking about The Ghost Writer. It's decent. And funny.
I was predicting a repeat of the cast of The Ghost Writer for God of Carnage. But the fact that the movie is cast AND KATE WINSLET IS GONNA BE IN IT is good enough for me to almost make a hole in my floor. HAPPYDANCE!
First a C- for Natural Born Killers, which is one of the most seminal films of the 90s, and now calling The Ghost Writer one of the worst of the year. You guys are off your game today.
@InSneider This from the guy who's favorite movie the year up until recently was "Kick-Ass." Really? 😉
The Ghost Writer among the worst? Just how long a worst list will you make? I mean Rotten Tomatoes shows it at 84%. You're really in the minority on this. Maybe you think it was merely overrated? But we're not talking Clash of The Titans or The Last Airbender bad.
Hope they get Gandolfini