Over a decade after the project was first announced, Edward Norton has revealed that his adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s noir-detective-tale “Motherless Brooklyn” is still in the works.
“It’s partly a function of my time, just weeding through other things that I’ve made commitments to and finding the time for myself to finish the script,” Norton explains to Movieline. “I’m underway with it. The nature of the story, needing to find the right way to make that film…but a lot of it has to do with my time. I’d like to clear up some other things first, but I will get around to it.”
Lethem’s novel centers on a Brooklyn detective in 1999 who has Tourette’s syndrome and displays its symptom of involuntary tics. Norton is attached to write, direct and star in the project and had reportedly been close to production several times in the past — the original announcement actually reported it to be Norton’s follow up to “Fight Club.”
The concept of a detective suffering from Tourette’s is a fascinating one and with Lethem’s novel in the capable hands of Norton, the project has great potential, even if it’s at long odds to ever stepping into production.
UPDATE: Norton further discusses his adaptation with The A.V. Club noting the lack of the development is due to the fact he’s “not a person who can just sit and hammer out something like that while doing other things. So unfortunately I end up needing the time… It’s just sort of the challenge of finding the room and space to concentrate and finish it, to be honest.”
“I just don’t have any relationship with it yet as a director,” Norton adds. “I think I’m going to wait until I do it to talk about it. I don’t see any upside, really, in explaining it before I’ve even done it. I’m only halfway through writing the script, so I can’t really talk about it yet as a director. I’d say any relationship to it as a director is hypothetical at this point. I mean, I have an idea about it that I’m trying to get on the paper right now.”