Is Todd Solondz’s new quasi/sorta sequel to 1998’s “Happiness” now titled, “Forgiveness”?
Well, for one, the project formerly titled, “Life During Wartime,” is now listed on IMDB as “Forgiveness” and ScreenDaily is reporting that Fortissimo Films has has acquired international rights from Werc Werk Works for the film which they also label by the new title. Sounds like this is the one.
Paris Hilton, Allison Janney, Ciaran Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Shirley Henderson, Michael Kenneth Williams and Paul Reubens are among the cast as previously reported.
In a Werc Werk Works pdf we found online, Solondz says of the project. “Ten years have
passed since HAPPINESS, but I prefer not to be beholden to the literalness of time or circumstance. I like to tweak things, get at stuff from a fresh angle, and so, for example, some characters have aged five years, some twenty years, some histories have been altered, and I have allowed race not to be something set in stone. Of course, it’s a completely different cast.
It’s more fun and interesting that way.”
There’s also a long synopsis for the film as well that unveils a lot of the plot details.
The characters in this part-sequel/part-variation on HAPPINESS struggle to find a place for themselves in an unpredictable and volatile world. The past haunts the present and imperils the future: ghosts circle and loom, trouble and console. The question of forgiveness, and its limits, threads throughout a series of intersecting love stories, offering clarity and, possibly, alternatives to the comforts of forgetting. There is Joy (Shirley Henderson), who discovers her husband Allen (Michael Kenneth Williams) is not quite cured of his peculiar “affliction” and runs away, seeking solace and guidance from her mother and sisters; her former suitor, Andy (Paul Reubens), now deceased, but still never giving up in his effort to win Joy’s heart; her sister Trish (Allison Janney), who meets Harvey (Michael Lerner), a lonely divorced man on the cusp of retirement, and hopes that a new man in the house will bring stability to her fragile family; her sister Helen who feels victimized by both her family and her Hollywood success; her mother Mona (Renée Taylor), who can’t let go of her bitterness about men; Harvey’s son Mark (Rich Pecci), who struggles with social isolation and profound pessimism; Bill (Ciáran Hinds), Trish’s former husband, just released from prison and on a quest to reconnect with his son Billy (Chris Marquette); Jacqueline (Charlotte Rampling), the needy woman who forgoes caution in her desperate search for love; and Kristina (Chane’t Johnson), a fugitive from prison who can’t let go of her obsessive—albeit chaste—love for Allen. These and other characters and storylines as well—alternately funny and sad, outrageous and poignant—dovetail, expand, and collide to create a kaleidoscopic and emotionally resonant portrait of prisoners of love and life during wartime.
Sounds like Paris Hilton’s role if small if they mention eleven actors and not even a peep of her. Will we see “Forgiveness” this year? It’s possible. The film is apparently already in post-production. Here’s to hoping Solondz delivers something with a bit more staying power than “Palindromes,” though we have to admit, once we got over our initial anger and outrage, the hatefulness of “Storytelling,” turned out to be pretty amusing.
