Two top directors to film overseas
Michael Bodey | October 20, 2008
TWO of Australia's most revered directors will take disparate paths with their next projects.
George Miller, who recently threatened to take his upcoming movies, including Happy Feet 2, offshore after being denied access to the new 40 per cent producer rebate for his Justice League Mortal comic book adaptation, is planning to adapt Homer's masterpiece, The Odyssey with US actor Brad Pitt.
In another blow to the implementation of generous new government incentives for the film industry, Sydney director Peter Weir will shoot his next film in Bulgaria.
Weir, who last directed Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World in 2003, has written the screenplay and will direct The Way Back.
The script traces the true story of an escape by soldiers from a Siberian gulag in 1940.
It is based primarily on Slavomir Rawicz's book The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, his account of capture by the Red Army in 1939 and his subsequent journey of escape across the Siberian Arctic, the Gobi desert and the Himalayas, before settling in Tibet and India. No one has been cast as yet.
The private Weir, who has directed Picnic At Hanging Rock, Gallipoli and The Truman Show, had been developing an adaptation of Gregory David Roberts's novel, Shantaram, with Johnny Depp to star.
Weir dropped out for unspecified reasons and the movie is now in turnaround.
Miller will adapt Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, with the intention of moving the ancient tale of Greek hero Odysseus's journey home to Ithaca after the fall of Troy to a futuristic outer-space setting, according to Hollywood newspaper, Variety.
It is not known where the film will shoot, if it is produced.
Pitt starred as Achilles opposite Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom in the 2004 film adaptation of Homer's The Iliad, Troy. It earned nearly $US500million globally in cinemas despite mixed reviews.
Miller has long wanted to update the DC Comics superhero franchise, Justice League, by alluding to the mythic Greek origins of Superman, Batman and their friends.
The son of Greek immigrant parents, Miller was once an altar boy at the St George Greek Orthodox Church in Rose Bay before becoming known as the writer and director of the Mad Max series of films.
He is still developing Justice League with the Warner Bros studio, as well as Happy Feet 2 and Babe 3.
There are also plans to develop a fourth Mad Max movie and/or videogame, entitled Fury Road.
