It never hurts to gain a little financial boost for your film, and in this case, the generous folks at Screen Australia have announced that they've lent a hand to two notable projects catching our eye: a re-teaming of Nash and Joel Edgerton for a feature that has the duo writing and Nash directing, as well as a return from "Sleeping Beauty" helmer Julia Leigh who is adapting one of her own works for the big screen.
While there's not too much detail on the Edgertons' project in the announcement — other than it having a temporary title of "The Untitled Lucky Project," and that it's based on Nash's 2005 short "Lucky" — an interview with him at Cannes last year does provide a little more color. Nash explained that "the thing [he's] writing now is one of my shorts that I'm expanding into a feature — the world and the style of it… Joel and I are writing [it], pretty close to finishing the script. It hasn't got a title but it's cross-genre. It's sort of action crossed with crime, horror, a love story."
The 4 minute short "Lucky" is embedded below, and it pretty much plays like an action set piece with Nash helming and starring — after all, he's held just about every job in the film industry and does a lot of stunt work, including doubling for his brother and Ewan McGregor of all people, having done the 'Star Wars' prequels and "Beginners." It remains to be seen how the feature-length version will evolve from there, but a teaming of the Edgerton brothers is definitely an exciting prospect, as is another effort behind the camera from Nash after his 2008 neo-noir "The Square."
Leigh, meanwhile, is turning to one of her own novels to follow up her last effort, "Sleeping Beauty," which saw her earn the honor of a directorial debut premiering in competition at Cannes. She'll now adapt her 2008 novel "Disquiet," a psychological family drama set in rural France. The book earned comparisons to Kazuo Ishigora's acclaimed "Remains Of The Day" upon publication with the following synopsis, courtesy of Amazon, promising yet another dark effort from the author-turned-helmer:
Olivia arrives at her mother's chateau in rural France (the first time in more than a decade) with her two young children in tow. Soon the family is joined by Olivia's brother Marcus and his wife Sophie but this reunion is far from joyful. After years of desperately wanting a baby, Sophie has just given birth to a stillborn child, and she is struggling to overcome her devastation. Meanwhile, Olivia wrestles with her own secrets about the cruel and violent man she married many years before.
No word on when either project will get underway, but we'll be keeping an ear to the ground. [mUmbrella]
Sleeping Beauty wasn't an adaptation of a Leigh novel, The Hunter was. In any case, Disquiet is an excellent novella and definitely a more nuanced piece of writing than Sleeping Beauty.