Could James Gray’s “The Lost City Of Z” be going in front of cameras later this year after Brad Pitt finishes with Bennett Miller’s baseball drama “Moneyball”? That’s apparently the consensus from Cannes where the adaptation of David Grann’s novel of the same name is evidently attracting major interest.
The adventure tale is being excitingly billed as a “Lawrence Of Arabia”-style epic and now has Inferno Entertainment’s Bill Johnson and Jim Siebel on board alongside Brad Pitt and his Plan B shingle with buyers at Cannes “flocking to the project.” Reports also have it that if “key elements come together,” principal photography could commence as soon as Pitt completes his turn in “Moneyball.” Please, do your thing, movie gods.
The film will be a 15-year epic that follows English soldier-turned-explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, whose obsession with the Amazon and belief that an ancient civilization resided there, led him on many expeditions where he narrowly escaped death. After financing eventually dried up, Fawcett self-funded one last adventure into the Amazon with his son, from which neither returned.
It’s definitely a fascinating story and one that looks to be exploring grander philosophical ideas in the vein of fellow Pitt-starrer, David Fincher’s “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” — though, hopefully, with more success. “What does being a member of the civilized world mean? [Does] that mean being part of the human race?” Gray asks. “It is a fundamental issue that has strong resonance even more today than yesterday. Here is a man who spent his time in the heart of the jungle and who has found beauty.”
Fingers crossed everything pans out well at Cannes which would potentially mean a production start by year’s end and — at the risk of getting way ahead of ourselves — a release next year? We briefly touched on the 2010’s fairly weak releases in our Most Anticipated piece but thankfully it looks like you can’t keep a good thing down with 2011 – it’s shaping up very, very nicely.
