Producing partners Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are coming on board to executive produce Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfisters untitled directorial debut. Alcon entertainment will both finance and produce, Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove announced today.
The screenplay, written by newcomer Jack Paglen for Pfister to direct, was developed by Annie Marter and sold as a pitch to Straight Up Films, whose Company principals include Marisa Polvino, Kate Cohen and Regency Boies. Polvino, Marter and Cohen will produce along with Johnson and Kosove. Boies will co-produce. The plot is being kept under wraps.
Principal photography is set to begin in the fall or early winter.
Pfister is an Oscar winning cinematographer (for Inception) and is best known for his work on projects with Christopher Nolan. His collaboration with Nolan has spanned seven films, beginning in 1999 with Memento, and earning him three Oscar nominations and one win.
Nolan and Thomas stated: "We have been hoping to work with Wally as a director for a long time, and are thrilled to be working on such an original and exciting project alongside him and Alcon."
While this is his first feature project, Pfister has been directing commercials for several years and gained notice for his powerful work on PSAs for The Montana Meth Project alongside the work of Directors Darren Aronofsky, Tony Kaye, and Alejandro Inarritu.
Kosove and Johnson added: Chris and Emma, with whom we worked so closely on 'Insomnia', are supremely talented, as filmmakers, as collaborators, as storytellers, in all ways large and small, and we are delighted to be in business with them again.
Pfister recently completed The Dark Knight Rises with Nolan and served as the cinematographer on last years best picture nominee, Moneyball. Other credits include The Italian Job and Laurel Canyon.
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