You may think that Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme has had a quiet few years following 2008’s “Rachel Getting Married,” but that’s actually far from the truth. Since then Demme has directed a whole heap of documentary and concert films, and last year he was getting behind the camera for the pilot of “A Gifted Man” and a couple of episodes of “Enlightened.” In fact, there may be few busier directors out there right now, with Demme’s super low budget “Wally and Andre Shoot Ibsen” currently in post-production, and an animated adaptation of Dave Eggers’ “Zeitoun” and an adaptation of Stephen King’s time travel thriller “11/22/63” both in the works. Oh, and he also looks set to re-team with Anne Hathaway on “Song One,” which he’s producing.
Now, Demme has another project to add to that list: he is attached to direct an indie family dramedy, “Old Fires.” The Heather McGowan (“Tadpole”) penned project follows a famous architect who, with the help of his snarky therapist, goes about rebuilding his damaged relationships with his wife and children after waking from a coma. It’s another relatively low-budget feature for Demme, and it’s tentatively scheduled to get underway next summer.
So what does that mean for Demme’s other projects? Well last we heard “Zeitoun” was still looking for financing so we weren’t expecting to see that any time soon. “11/22/63,” on the other hand, we expect will now be Demme’s next picture after “Old Fires” presuming all goes well on that commercially attractive project. This new project sounds like another interesting one – does Demme do anything but interesting? – and it’s something for fans of the director to look forward to while his other projects take longer to develop. [Variety]
