Documentary filmmaker Marina Zenovich, who is best known for her now-controversial 2008 film, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” is set to direct a feature documentary based on the 2008 Mark Harris book “Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood.”
“Pictures” looks back nostalgically at the inception period of the so-called second golden age of Hollywood and chronicles the production and release of the five best picture nominees for the 1967 Oscar: “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Graduate” and “Dr. Dolittle.”
Yes, some of it is been-there-done-that. The stories of François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard being interested to not-really-interested in making “Bonnie & Clyde” are pretty well documented, and some of the “Graduate” stories have been told now a few times as well, but it is well researched and well written and we recommend the book regardless. In a way, the book is a pretty great companion piece to Peter Biskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood” and the IFC documentary, “A Decade Under The Influence,” only the latter book and doc track the denim-y/sideburns feel of the ’70s and Harris’ book is obviously late ’60s.
Oscilloscope Laboratories is partnering with Specialty Films for production of the project. No time line for completion has been set. [Variety]
