While it wasn’t quite as brilliant as the TV series which inspired it, “The Thick Of It,” last year’s British political comedy “In The Loop” was still one of the best, most quotable comedies of the year, and elevated writer/director Armando Ianucci, who British comedy fans have been obsessed with since his work on “The Day Today” and the Alan Partridge shows, to a fully-fledged big screen career.
He revealed last year that, in a departure from his first film, he was working on a visually-driven “slapstick comedy,” inspired by the likes of Buster Keaton and Peter Bogdanovich’s “What’s Up Doc?” and the project was officially announced yesterday by BBC Films at Cannes. Entitled “Out the Window,” Ianucci will team up with writing partners Will Smith (no, not that one, a British comedian) and Roger Drew, who worked on the third, and best, series of “The Thick Of It,” as well as doing some uncredited work on “Bruno.”
A glimpse at the pair’s agency CV reveals that the project was at some point called “Perpetual Commotion” (a title we rather prefer), while Screen Daily reveals that the script revolves around voyeurism and is “about an incident that is witnessed but deeply misinterpreted, setting off a series of events that spiral out of control,” making it sound like a comedic spin on “The Conversation,” or the episode of “The Simpsons” that riffs on “Rear Window.” Christine Langan, creative director of BBC Films, revealed that the project will feature “significant US casting,” and that there’s a relatively hefty $20 million budget.
At least until the new British government break it up into little pieces and sell it off to Rupert Murdoch, the publicly-funded BBC are a huge influence on the British film industry, and they revealed a strong slate yesterday, also including “My Week With Marilyn,” the Michelle Williams-toplined Marilyn Monroe comedy we reported on last week, which the Weinstein Company are close to boarding, and may star Hugh Jackman as Laurence Olivier.
There’s also an adaptation of Claire Tomalin’s “The Invisible Woman,” which looks at Nelly Tenan, who had an affair with Charles Dickens, being written by the excellent Abi Morgan (“Sex Traffic,” “Brick Lane”), and a new project from the prolific Peter Morgan.
The “Frost/Nixon” writer has both “The Special Relationship” and Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” set for release later in the year, and his new script “Three Sixty,” a riff on Arthur Schnitzler’s play “La Ronde” (which was also adapted by David Hare into the Nicole Kidman-toplining play “The Blue Room”), about love and sexual obsession, is set up with new company Lava Bear. We’re obviously most excited about the Ianucci project, but all these prospective films sound promising to varying degrees, and we’re glad to see the Big British Castle showing a strong hand.