In July of 2008, we posited the question: Where have all the good times indie auteurs gone? We asked about missing in action indie helmers like Alison Maclean (“Jesus’ Son”) Alexander Payne (who still hasn’t made a film yet, though he has one on the way and another script in the can), Whit Stillman and Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsey.
As we discussed then, Ramsay — who has two startlingly original feature films under her belt, “Ratcatcher” and “Morven Callar” — was hired to adapt and direct Lionel Shriver’s disturbing novel about a school shooting, “We Need To Talk About Kevin.” She had that gig ages ago, even before we wrote that piece in ’08.
It’s been a slooooow gestation, but it’s finally coming to the screen. Tilda Swinton joined the cast in May of 2008 (officially confirmed a few days later in Variety) and now according to Variety again, Luc Roeg’s Independent Film Company has picked up the international rights.
It’s a crazy book and tells the story of a smart, educated New York mother who does her best to raise a difficult, unwanted son who breaks down her marriage and then goes on a murderous crossbow-killing rampage at his high school just before his 16th birthday. She then has to deal with the grief and then questions if she ever loved the boy and just how much she is to blame. Filming is set to start in early 2010 so hopefully we’ll see a picture before the year’s end. It’s been seven years since 2002’s “Morven Callar” — which, by the way, has one of the best soundtracks in any film this decade — so we welcome back Ramsey and greatly anticipate her overdue return.
