From remakes to biopics, a couple of currently brewing projects on the small and big screen now have filmmakers to guide them, so let’s jump right in shall we?
First up, you have may forgotten about NBC‘s previously announced plans to reboot “Rosemary’s Baby” as a miniseries. Well, it’s moving forward and the network has made the rather fascinating choice of Agnieszka Holland to direct the project. The filmmaker is known to film buffs for her more arthouse oriented stuff like “Europa Europa” or even more recently the HBO Europe mini-series “Burning Bush,” which spent some time on the festival circuit this past fall. But she’s also gone behind the camera on episodes for acclaimed shows like “The Wire,” “The Killing” and “Treme” so she’s no stranger to the format.
This new take on the birthing of demon spawn is based on the novel by Ira Levin, and being adapted by Scott Abbott (“Queen Of The Damned,” “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge“) and tells the story you already know, but sets it in Paris, where filming is due to begin in January. As for who will take the iconic parts played by Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes in Roman Polanski‘s version? We’ll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, the Freddie Mercury biopic gets closer to the stage with the rising Dexter Fletcher now tapped to direct. He’s the Brit filmmaker behind “Wild Bill” and “Sunshine On Leith,” and his name has been buzzed about of late. Ben Whishaw is in the lead role in the Peter Morgan penned movie that will track Queen’s rise all the way to their gig at Live Aid in 1985 but will not focus on Mercury’s death or last days. So basically, just another band movie? We’ll see. Production is aiming to begin next year. [Deadline]
