With “Precious” director Lee Daniels soaking in all the ecstatic buzz from his brutal coming-of-age drama, he’s already setting his sights on future projects. (We’re waiting for someone to realize that the least impressive thing about “Precious” was its technical ineptitude, both on the directorial and editorial fronts. Seriously, this thing is like cinematic finger-painting sometimes.)
He told our buddy Edward Douglas over at Coming Soon that he wants to do a big screen version of the insanely popular “Miss Saigon.” Again, this is an intriguing prospect but “Miss Saigon” would require a more refined stylistic approach, instead of Lee Daniels’ stylistic sledgehammer. The other film he’s looking to make is called “Selma,” another in a long line of Civil Rights dramas where the hero is a white guy (see also: “Ghosts of Mississippi,” “Amistad,” etc.)
Daniels explained the movie to Douglas in his typically inarticulate, theatrical way: “It’s really Lyndon Johnson’s story. Martin Luther King is a part of it, but it’s really the arc of a man that starts out as a racist who is forced to look at himself in the mirror and then ultimately side with King. It’s really a journey of a white cat and how he sneers at tradition and against George Wallace, against everybody, says, ‘Uh-uh.'”
Right.
We liked bits of “Precious” and overall were quite moved, but these emotions were in direct sentiment to anything the director put forth. Hopefully he’ll quell his overactive stylistic urges and make a solid movie, devoid of any of that bullshit. – Drew Taylor
