Sony Classics Grabs Polanski’s ‘Carnage;’ His Follow-Up Could Be ‘True Crime’
The past couple years have seenRoman Polanskiembroiled once more in decades-old controversy, but he is continuing to do the work of making movies. His most recent project,Carnage, has just been picked up for released by Sony Pictures Classics. And now he is reportedly considering a new film calledTrue Crime, which tells of a very unusual murder case in Poland.
First up, let’s hit the deal to distributeCarnage. (WhichDeadline, in its write-up, refers to asGod of Carnage, which was the original title of the film, based on the play of the same name byYasmina Reza.) SPC is finalizing a deal to distribute the film that starsJodie Foster,Kate Winslet,John C. ReillyandChristoph Waltz. No word on when the film might open, but we could well see it at Cannes, and it is a safe bet for arthouse release later this year. And with that cast playing two couples who spend an evening tearing into each other after their kids get into a playground altercation, I can’t wait to see it.
And then there isTrue Crime, a film thatBrett Ratneris producing based on aNew Yorker articleabout a very unusual murder mystery that took place in Poland in 2000. The project is set up at Focus Features with a script byJeremy Brock(The Last King of Scotland) and Deadline says Mr. Polanski is considering it as a next project.
True Crimesounds like perfect Polanski material. The article byDavid Grannis an account of the murder of Dariusz Janieszewski, who was found dead in Poland’s Oder River. The case went cold until it was revived by a detective who connected calls on the victim’s cell phone to Krystian Bala. The latter had written a book called Amok that featured a murder almost identical to Janiszewski’s. So the detective focused his investigation on Bala, and things go from there. I won’t give more details away, but you can check the original article, linked above, for the full tale. It is pretty crazy stuff, and ideal thriller material.
