Alain Guiraudie was completely unknown to yours truly until just a couple of years ago, but after his erotic thriller, Stranger By the Lake — maybe, possibly a masterpiece; one of last year’s very best, at any rate — the French writer-director is of immense interest to yours truly. It was with no small amount of curiosity, then, that I read news of his next endeavor: a road movie entitled Rester Verticale (Staying Vertical in English). Not that we know a whole lot. The most that’s been said thus far comes from Guiraudie himself, who’s claimed it “will be set deep in the heart of France” and says it has “the aim of making the implausible plausible, the impossible possible and to go on a long journey close to home, to bring elsewhere closer and escape around the street corner.” [Little White Lies]
Whatever that actually means — feel free to make guesses in the comments! — Staying Vertical is expected to begin production in September, leaving open the opportunity for a debut at next year’s Cannes Film Festival.
In other directorial news, The Wrap tell us Kenneth Branagh is partnering with 20th Century Fox, Scott Free, and Genre Films for the latest adaptation of Agatha Christie‘s Murder on the Orient Express. Little information is available, save for the screenwriting credit that’s being handed to Michael Green (of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2) and a promise of A-list talent, but it is based on one of the best-known mystery stories ever written and following in the footsteps of a well-liked Sidney Lumet film. Add to this a general awareness of Branagh’s extravagantly designed period work, and any surprise will be a big one indeed.