Baz Luhrmann fans already know what the Australian director is up to next: a movie about the historical figure Joan of Arc. Has Luhrmann found an actress for the lead role yet? He was mum on that during a new interview with the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, but he did talk about why he believes making the film is politically important. Oh, and he also revealed that he once had the option to make a movie based on a certain Marvel superhero.
READ MORE: Baz Luhrmann Making Young Joan Of Arc Movie, ‘Jeanne d’Arc,’ On Hunt For Young Actress
Let’s cover that tidbit first. While Luhrmann hinted that he’s had several chances to direct big IP over the years, he only got specific about one instance: when he was offered the chance to helm a movie about the Silver Surfer in the ’90s. “I very stupidly said ‘no’ to…the first versions of a couple of extraordinarily super iconic…franchises,” said the “Elvis” director. “And I would be a very wealthy person [had I directed them]. So I was pretty silly.”
Luhrmann failed to confirm if the rumors around him doing a “Batman” film were true, but he did confirm, “definitely “Spider-Man,” an IP Amy Pascal offered him, and, “”Harry Potter,” you know, like the very first.” He wasn’t interested in those projects, however, mainly because they didn’t suit his sensibility. “My brand is about taking stuff that people think is cheesy or forgotten or even new works, but primary stuff,” continued Luhrmann. “I need to prove it to be relevant and new and fresh and of the moment. I’m not quite sure why, but it is [my] brand.”
But Luhrmann had an early chance to “rebrand” himself with a Silver Surfer movie. “This will become a lot of clickbait, but way back in the day, I just thought, oh, I love Silver Surfer so much. Before Marvel was so big, you know, this was really early. And the guy who owned Marvel sent me all those Silver Surfer toys and books and I went like, hmm, philosophical, surfer in space, you know…” recalled the director. “But alas, no, I did “Romeo and Juliet” instead. It worked out for everybody.”
As for his “Jeanne d’Arc” film, Luhrmann sees it as a culmination of earlier epic biopics about historical figures he almost made, only now with contemporary inspiration. “I was very deeply involved in an Alexander the Great with the legendary Dino De Laurentiis. Then Steven Spielberg and I were working on Napoleon, so they were the two,” said Luhrmann. “I just wanted to do a big epic, and I was fascinated historically by those characters, but all the way through it, I’d always drive, you know, we live in Paris a lot, and I drive past that golden statue of Jeanne in Place Vendôme. And I used to look up at her and go like, ‘Yeah, she’s probably the one, but oh my gosh, you know, a 17-year-old girl and all those soldiers and horses, that’ll kill you, you know? Be careful.'”
It didn’t click for Luhrmann to make a film about Joan of Arc until recently, however. “With what’s happened in the world recently, the way the world has moved, I realized that a story in a world where I’m working with this wonderful young writer in England, this woman who’s so cool, Ava Pickett,” he continued. “And we were writing and she came up with this line where Jeanne says, we’ve got to this poor king, he’s a kid really, he’s only 25, we’ve got to peel this world out from the knobbly old fingers of these men. And I just thought the world we’re in needs a 17-year-old to come out of some small country town and lead the new generation to believe that they can reclaim their world and put an end to this echo chamber that belongs to the nobly old hands of the last century.”
“So I thought that this: I don’t really make the things I want to make,” Luhrmann went on. “The things I want to make, I mean, I have so much more fun just to direct, I don’t know, “James Bond” or something, you know? But, well, I mean, Bond takes a lot too. I don’t want to dismiss the work on that. [But] I make what I think is needed, and I think the story of Jeanne d’Arc in two years’ time will be deeply needed.”
Two years’ time is plenty of time for Luhrmann to find his Jeanne d’Arc. Stay tuned for who he chooses. In the meantime, check out the entire “Happy Sad Confused” interview with Luhrmann below.
