Director James Gray is still obsessed with melodrama and themes of class, but he is broadening his scope. The first half of his career was always laser-focused on crime stories and family dramas set often in the outer boroughs of New York; emotionally big, tragic melodramas. But as of late, while playing with the same themes, Gray has expanded the palette; “The Immigrant” was a New York period piece set in 1921, “The Lost City of Z” was set in the Amazon jungle at the turn of the 20th century, and his latest, still unfinished film, is a futuristic sci-fi movie called “Ad Astra.” He couldn’t be further than the Tri-State area of late.
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And the director will continue to keep audiences guessing. His next twist will be directing “I Am Pilgrim, “an adaptation of the espionage thriller trilogy by Terry Hayes, a series Matthew Vaughn (“Kingsman: The Secret Service“) was once set to direct. The first book follows a now-retired former intelligence agent who once headed a secret U.S. espionage unit, who becomes involved in a case where someone uses a forensic pathology book he wrote to commit untraceable murders.
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Here’s the synopsis which isn’t very clear, but it does add the relevant geopolitical element to the story:
A breakneck race against time…and an implacable enemy. An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid. A father publicly beheaded in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square. A notorious Syrian biotech expert found eyeless in a Damascus junkyard. Smoldering human remains on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan. A flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity. One path links them all, and only one man can make the journey. Pilgrim.’
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Apparently “I Am Pilgrim” will be Grays next project after “Ad Astra.” As for that project? The film stars Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland and Jamie Kennedy, and it’s scheduled for a rather terrible January. 11 2019 release date, but let’s hope that means it hits the festival circuit sometime this year first. [Deadline]