22 July (Paul Greengrass) - 10/10/18

[Hoke Moseley]

EXCLUSIVE: Paul Greengrass will next direct a movie he has written about the Norwegian terrorist who in 2011 murdered 77 people in the country’s deadliest attack since WWII. Netflix has won the right to make the film in heavy competition. Scott Rudin will produce with Greg Goodman and Eli Bush.

The horrific violence was inflicted by Anders Behring Breivik, a self described right-wing Christian extremist with a hatred for Muslims. He started the carnage by detonating a fertilizer bomb outside the headquarters of the prime minister that killed eight people. After that, Breivik dressed in a police uniform, took a short ferry ride to Utoya Island outside of Oslo, and methodically murdered teens attending a Labor Party Youth Camp as they tried to escape. The madman, who wrote a 1500 page manifesto critical of Muslim immigration and European liberalism that he was not permitted to read at trial, was sentenced to 21 years. That was the maximum possible sentence in a country that doesn’t have the death penalty.

I’m told the film will be shot in Norway at a $20 million budget with local actors. Prep will begin this week for a fall shoot. It sounds similar to his 2002 film Bloody Sunday, about theIrish civil rights protest march and subsequent massacre by British troops on January 30, 1972, or United 93, the Best Picture nominated 2007 film that Greengrass directed about the heroism of passengers who lost their lives wresting control of a plane and crashing it in Pennsylvania before terrorists could slam it into the White House or the Capitol Building on September 11, 2001. I wrote about the passionate pitch that Greengrass made on that film, and this sounds like the same kind of passion project with difficult and troubling subject matter. Greengrass last directed Jason Bourne, and before that the Best Picture nominee Captain Phillips, the latter a film that was produced by Rudin along with Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti. Rudin is aligned with Greengrass on Memphis, the final days of Martin Luther King Jr, his assassination and the subsequent manhunt by the same FBI agents who haunted the Civil Rights leader. So far they haven’t gotten that one made. Rudin also produced the Noah Baumbach-directed The Meyerowitz Stories, a film that debuted at Cannes and will be released exclusively on Netflix.

Greengrass had expected to make the Brian Helgeland-scripted film Ness, about the famed incorruptible lawman, at Paramount. There was talk that Greengrass’s favorite leading man collaborator, Matt Damon, was being courted. But instead he will next make this movie. It is a big get for Netflix’s Scott Stuber-run feature division, winning over five other offers to make the picture when Greengrass’s reps at CAA brought the project to the marketplace.

Source

Clearly sounds like a perfect project for Greengrass. Looking forward to it.

[Mothravka]

Netflix and Paul Greengrass? Already two reasons this probably won't end up well.

[Todd Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by Mothravka

Netflix and Paul Greengrass? Already two reasons this probably won't end up well.

Why not ? Outside of the Bourne films Greengrass is best known for his docudramas based on historical tragedies and acts of terrorism. Netflix is one of the few studios who will now fund mid-budget films which are a little more ambitious and they give their film-makers free artistic reign.

For anybody interested in how this type of subject matter can become a powerful and tremendously moving film, check out one of Denis Villeneuve's early Canadian film "Polytechnique", which I still think is his best film.

[NARMAK]

Not sure how to feel about this tbh. The events were a horrific terrorist event and not sure exactly how long a time period they'll focus on to tell the events of why he did what he did and how.

[MJD64]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

Not sure how to feel about this tbh. The events were a horrific terrorist event and not sure exactly how long a time period they'll focus on to tell the events of why he did what he did and how.

This sounds like it will be a tough watch considering how horrific that tragedy was, but Bloody Sunday and United 93 were likewise tragic events that made for compelling cinema. I feel this material is in respectful good hands with Greengrass at the helm.

[Hoke Moseley]

According to IMDb, this is currently filming.

Glad to have another Greengrass movie on the way.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Hoke Moseley

According to IMDb, this is currently filming.

Glad to have another Greengrass movie on the way.

Good to hear.

And just to second what Todd said upthread, the Villeneuve film Polytechnique is very powerful and very finely made. I'm not sure that I agree that it's his best, but it's quite something.

[tezster]

United 93 is on my top 5 list of one of the most moving (emotionally-affecting) films I've watched, so I'm looking forward to how Greengrass handles this material.

[kylor]

I find it very distasteful to make a murderer famous like this. I don't think they deserve their own movie at all, but that's just me. You could say it serves the memory of those who died, but it also serves the killer.

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by kylor

I find it very distasteful to make a murderer famous like this. I don't think they deserve their own movie at all, but that's just me. You could say it serves the memory of those who died, but it also serves the killer.

So films shouldn’t be made about about real life bad people? A lot of Martin Scorsese movies should never have been made then huh?

[kylor]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

So films shouldn’t be made about about real life bad people? A lot of Martin Scorsese movies should never have been made then huh?

Looks like I struck a nerve. And yes, I think movies based on bad people in real life shouldn't be made, because you're basically immortalizing the killer/s and what they did.

[Hoke Moseley]

Originally Posted by kylor

Looks like I struck a nerve. And yes, I think movies based on bad people in real life shouldn't be made, because you're basically immortalizing the killer/s and what they did.

Are you saying history books shouldn't be written either?

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by kylor

Looks like I struck a nerve. And yes, I think movies based on bad people in real life shouldn't be made, because you're basically immortalizing the killer/s and what they did.

I'm fairly certain that someone like Jeffrey Dahmer was about as famous as you could be at the time he was arrested. I know, in fact. Ted Bundy? Osama bin-Laden? These people weren't famous before some mini-series or movie was made about them?

How do you feel about a documentary such as Night and Fog about the Holocaust?

And this isn't even beginning to address films that are actually about "bad people" but names are changed, situations are shifted, etc.

[Cremildo]

I get what kylor's saying, somewhat. For instance, I have zero interest in watching movies about Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson if they're told from their perspective - which is a way of putting the viewer in their shoes, "empathizing" with them. That I find morally objectionable. However, there are films about bad people that keep them at a distance, shifting the focus to other characters. Greengrass' own United 93 is an example: the film is mostly about the victims; the terrorists are not given the narrative spotlight.

[Hoke Moseley]

Now titled 22 July.

Will be in competition at Venice.... 133 minute runtime.

[Creed]

Originally Posted by Hoke Moseley

Now titled 22 July.

Will be in competition at Venice.... 133 minute runtime.

Interesting.

[Cremildo]

[Impossible]

Looks great, can't wait!

[Hoke Moseley]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVpU...ature=youtu.be

[Creed]

Holy shit, does this look exceptional! Love Greengrass' work. Only almost a month to go.