Mark Romanek Still Hopes To Make ‘A Cold Case,’ Talks ‘Parking Ticket’ With Ben Stiller; New ‘Never Let Me Go’ Trailer

During his eight-year hiatus from filmmaking between the Robin Williams vehicle “One Hour Photo” and this year’s “Never Let Me Go,” former music-video guru Mark Romanek juggled several projects, including an infamously fallen murder thriller titled “A Cold Case,” based on a script by Eric Roth that was set to star Tom Hanks.

The project’s demise was a deeply affecting one for Romanek who recently noted that “issues with the life rights at the last minute that torpedoed that project which was crushing to me. I kind of curled up into a fetal position for six weeks because I was so disappointed.”

Color us surprised then with news today that the director is still looking at a return to that very project. “We had a life rights issue, where we couldn’t get the life rights to a key character,” Romanek reiterated to WorstPreviews. “The killer in the film is being paroled soon. When he dies, we can make the film. We still hope to make that movie one day.”
As you might recall, the film followed the true story of Andy Rosenzweig who vowed to capture the culprit responsible for the death of his friend in 1970. The killer, Frankie Koehler, was captured in 1997 and was 68 at the time of his arrest. As Romanek waits out Koehler, now in his early 80s, to meet his maker, “A Cold Case” doesn’t sound like something that will threaten his immediate plans, though it is exciting that the project remains on his radar.

Romanek also looks to have another potential project on his plate with Ben Stiller. The two were linked earlier this year to “Voices,” the story of a man and his talking pets but, as the helmer explains, he is now talking with the actor about the father-daughter comedy previously known as “In Deep.”

“There’s this thing with Ben Stiller that Steve Conrad wrote, who is a great writer who wrote ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ and ‘The Weather Man.’ He’s a terrific writer, it’s called ‘A Parking Ticket,'” he noted. “[In the movie], Ben Stiller decides to fight an unjust parking ticket and teach his daughter how the system can work and ends up on death row… It’s a very funny movie. It’s a black comedy, but it’s quite funny. We’re working on the script still, fiddling with it a little bit. I just spoke with Ben the night before last.” Sounds promising.

So what’s next on the chopping block for Romanek then? Evidently neither of these projects, with the director concluding that he’s moving forward with another unnamed project that’s been in the works for 15 years. Romanek stopped short of elaborating but did say that he has “secured a screenwriter and has two actors attached.” No idea on what it could be, however, Romanek did recently reveal that he has two screenplays done and dusted that were written during his eight-year break. Surely, one of ’em is this upcoming project he speaks of with more news just on the horizon.

In the meantime, “Never Let Me Go” has been making the festival rounds (read our review from TIFF) and will see a limited release as of today. You can check out a new spot for the film below via Empire.