Last summer we reported on a project from India’s well-celebrated director Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth” and its sequel, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”) called, “Paani” (“Water”),” that Danny Boyle was apparently so gung-ho to do he’s trying to convince Kapur to delay another film.
Boyle and Kapur had talked about some sort of collaboration, but never really talked specifics. “We are looking at a potential collaboration,” Kapur said then. “We are at a creative stage right now and there is nothing concrete yet.”
We imagined that might be some sort of producer/director collaboration? Who knows.
But Deadline just reported some additional news on this sci-fi-ish project about an era when water has run out (sounds sci-fi in the same vein as Fernando Meirelles’ “Blindness” which is more like not-too-distant-future dystopian) and it appears that “Slumdog Millionaire” composer A.R. Rahman will score the picture.
No word on Danny Boyle’s involvement at all from Deadline, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be some kind of executive producer giving the film some clout. Boyle is afterall an Academy Award winner and pretty much had his pick of the litter of projects after ‘Slumdog’ (he instead chose the intimate character study and true story piece, “127 Hours” about a hitchiker trapped under a boulder in the Colorado mountains).
Kapur’s project has been gestating for over five years now. In a 2005 blog post he wrote:
“Today another dream was rekindled. Paani. A film that has lived in my consciousness for almost 5 years, when I watched 50 women and children standing in the hot sun in Mumbai. Each carrying a bucket waiting for a tap to start dripping with water. Paani means Water in Hindi. I had just come down from a friends place in Pali Hill, one of the more expensive residential areas in Mumbai. My friend had me waiting for half an hour while he showered. He lived on the 30th floor, and the slum where there was no water was just below his apartment building. This inequity in the most basic resource.”
While most are probably hoping for another “Children of Men,” we’re pretty sure Kapur will turn in something fairly different. Though in this film climate, it’s probably good for the film director to attempt to put on something like this that could sound more appealing than, “drama in India where water has run out.” To most studios (and hell film bloggers) that’s meh, but throw the “sci-fi” tag and people pop out of holes like groundhogs. More power to them if they get funding and a green light.
Recent reports in India said that Kapur had approached Kristen Stewart for a role, but he quickly dismissed those that talk. However, he didn’t rule it out either and it’s sounds like the two had some very preliminary conversations. “Kristin Stewart is not aboard ‘Paani,’” Kapur said. “We have just had one conversation. She still needs to read the script. People are jumping to conclusions.” Yeah, it’s called the Internet, people will do that (and some will argue we’re doing just that, but we’re just collating some facts. Make of them what you will…)
Update: You gotta wonder why we bother with Deadline sometimes and their pithy two sentence stories racing to get out there first at the expense of context. THR has more details. Here’s the true synopsis.
The project is a love story set in a mega city in a future where precious H2O has all but run out and corporations go to war over its control. The city is divided into two conflicting halves, in which the upper city hoards all the water and drip feeds the slums of the lower city. A girl from the upper tier meets a water rat boy and falls in love against this backdrop.
The film has a $30 million dollar budget, will hopefully shoot in November and Danny Boyle will get some kind of producing credit for pushing Kapur do this project now because he felt it was so relevant and timely.
