This afternoon, Michel Gondry spoke at a SXSW panel about his new documentary “A Thorn In The Heart” based on his septuagenarian aunt Suzette.
But during the Q&A moderated by IndieWire’s Eugene Hernandez the director also discussed his still forthcoming animated film “Megalomania,” which is a collaboration with his teenage son, Paul.
In the works since 2007, the film, long described as a big screen adaptation of the dictator/slave relationship between Gondry and his son Paul, the director revealed a new, and delightfully bizarre element of this quasi science-fiction story saying, “it’s about three kids who discover how to create energy from hair. And they shave everyone on the planet. The rich people wear and rule the world. So the rich people wear wigs and the poor people are just bald. And they want to make a better world, but the maker — which is sort of based on my son — is a horrible dictator.” So, it’s a father/son relationship film about the power of hair to save the planet? That sounds awesomely off-the-wall.
Described by Gondry as a “rebellious story of an adolescent,” the film will be animated using Paul Gondry’s artwork and has a script written by comic book author Dan Clowes (“Ghost World,” “Art School Confidential”). But if you’re expecting a film that will be essentially Gondry-squared, think again. The director says his son has his own voice, and we imagine the film will fully play up their dichotomy. “I didn’t want him to be the son of me, I want him to be his own person. I always saw him as an individual from the first second he was born. I always appreciated from him from how different he was from me. He’s very well dressed and stylish and much more confident then me. He’s street smart,” he told the audience at the panel.
While Steve Buscemi has long been attached to a voice role in the film (and grouchily admitted the film was still maybe happening last month), in an separate interview with the Playlist (conducted laster in the afternoon, which we’ll expand upon later) Gondry revealed that Seth Rogen (who he’s directing in “The Green Hornet”) and Juliette Lewis are on board for voice roles as well.
All this being said, the film still needs to find financing and seems a ways off from going into full on development. It sound intriguing to say the least, and Gondry’s enthusiasm and desire to talk about it certainly hasn’t waned, so we hope it’s one he gets to soon.
More to come from our interview with Gondry shortly.
