Paul And Michel Gondry’s Animated Film Called, ‘Megalomania,’ Steve Buscemi To Voice

Way back when (October 2007), fanciful French director Michel Gondry revealed he was making a animated film with his son Paul.

“We’re translating our relationship into a futuristic story with a dictator and a rebel,” he explained of the film’s rudimentary outline. “He’s the dictator in the story [and] it will be based on [his] art.” /Film also noted that Daniel Clowes, the creator of alt-comics “Ghost World” and “Art School Confidential” (he also wrote the screenplays for their feature-length adaptations) would be penning the script.

Now Gondry has revealed the title and key details of the movie in a long-form interview with ComingSoon. The despot-themed film is going to be called “Megalomania,” and Steve Buscemi has been cast as the lead voice actor. Gondry says serious work [i.e. with Michel himself on board] on it will begin after “The Green Hornet.”

“We’re [doing] a cartoon, an animated film that I co-directed with my son, called ‘Megalomania,’ and it’s being produced by Curious Pictures in New York. Dan Clowes wrote the screenplay and we have Steve Buscemi doing the voice of the main character. I guess I will do that more efficiently after “The Green Hornet” but they already started to work on it.

Guess this blows our possible theory/speculation that Steve Buscemi will star in Gondry’s long-gestating, Clowes-penned script for “Master Of Space And Time.” Gondry also has high praise for his son.

“He’s been doing comic books since he was 10 and he’s pretty amazing. He has tons of drawings and paintings, just a really strong artist. I guess he’s going to probably continue [making films on his own. He has this challenge to survive, (because) it’s always difficult when you have a father people know before they know you. I know it’s not easy so he has to find his way and he’s screaming his independence most days and I have to let him be who he wants to be.”

Gondry animated the Willowz’s video for “Take A Look Around” (see below).

Bonus extra credit. Did you know that the always-candid Gondry called out Sofia Coppola for trashing her soon-to-be ex husband in her last film? “There was a character in ‘Lost in Translation’ that was clearly based on Spike,” Gondry told the New York Times in a September 2006 article. “And it was not nice. I don’t believe in being mean-spirited or mocking, and I told her that.”