In the too-soon hall of fame of horribly conceived ideas, director Brian De Palma‘s next film could take a special Palme d’Or-like prize. The filmmaker — who made his name on voyeuristic suspense, crime and psychosexual thrillers like “Dressed To Kill,” “Blow Out,” “Body Double,” “Passion” and many more — announced last week he would be making a movie based on the recent Harvey Weinstein scandal that rocked Hollywood and helped further motivate the #MeToo movement.
“I’m writing a film about this scandal, a project I’m talking about with a French producer,” De Palma explained to the French press last week. “My character won’t be named Harvey Weinstein, but it will be a horror film, with a sexual aggressor, and it will take place in the film industry.”
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Seemingly born to dance to on the razor’s edge of terrible ideas that come out either brilliant or horrible (most of which are terrific, actually, but the later era is a mixed bag), it’s a very De Palma-ian idea that could go terribly wrong, and the sheer audacity (and perceived opportunism) of its concept has already sparked blowback.
And the collective ire, especially among film industry and media people, isn’t about to cool any time soon. In France to promote his first-ever full La Cinémathèque retrospective and the joint promotion of his first French novel, the political thriller “Are Snakes Necessary?,” co-written with journalist/companion Susan Lehman, De Palma revealed to Le Point the Weinstein-themed film would take place during the Toronto International Film Festival, which sounds like a trigger for any actress that has ever been to Canada in September during festival season.
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The setting is not unlike 2002’s thriller “Femme Fatale” which took place at the Cannes Film Festival and production could begin as early as next summer. Just imagine De Palma and crew at the Lightbox theater in Toronto. What would Cameron Bailey do?
Next up for De Palma first, however, is the murder mystery “Domino” with “Game Of Thrones” stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Carice van Houten, and Guy Pearce, but apparently making the film was a “horrible experience,” its release may be in doubt and drama is brewing.
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Meanwhile, “Are Snakes Necessary” is apparently based on an idea he once had for a movie. “It’s pretty close to ‘Blow Out,’ he explained, as captured by the De Palma fan site De Palma Ala Mod. “I combined several ideas that I had. The main character is a senator who comes to the elections. There is also his campaign director, a malicious character, and a photographer who finds himself hired to take pictures on a film that is the French version of ‘Vertigo.’ After all, you know that ‘Vertigo’ is inspired by a French novel by Boileau and Narcejac. There’s all this and I had a lot of fun.”
[Le Point via The FilmStage]
