A movie that has literally been years in the making, showing of some early footage way back in 2010, "Waltz With Bashir" director Ari Folman's followup "The Congress" has been coming along at a steady, if unhurried pace. While we've had glimpses here and there, a batch of new images have arrived giving the best look yet at how the live action/animated film will be coming together.
Based on the short story "The Futurological Congress" by Stanislaw Lem, and starring Robin Wright, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Paul Giamatti and Danny Huston, the story follows an aging, out-of-work actress (Wright) who accepts one last job so she can make ends meet to care for her disabled son: A major studio will scan her image and likeness and use it as they see fit, essentially making her irrevelent and unhireable for any future projects. However, the consequences go beyond what she was ever expecting.
All told, the images look similar in style to "Waltz With Bashir," but the live action stuff is fascinating and seem to indicate that Wright will playing digital clones of herself in a variety of guises — superhero and lounge singer among them. The animated sections and equally compelling as well, and needless to say, this only ups our anticipation for this one. And in case you're wondering, the film will feature 70 minutes of live action material, and 50 minutes of animation.
There's still no word on when or where this might show up, however Folman did previously say that the movie would be done by January. And as we do for for every movie around this time of year that looks potentially close to being finished, we can't help but wonder — will it be at Cannes? [Kinopoisk]