British director Tony Kaye has had relatively steady, non-mainstream work since famously trying to yank his name off of the powerful, Edward Norton-starring American History X in 1998. After a dispute with the studio, the star recut the film (either to give himself more screentime or to mold the film into more of a commercial feature), and Kaye tried to remove his name from the credits and replace it with the pseudonym “Humpty-Dumpty.” But, according to unnamed sources, Mr. Dumpty objected, since he himself was trying to remove his name from every Rob Schneider movie ever made.
Now, Variety says that Kaye is circling Attachment, an indie thriller written by Christopher Denham that “centers on a married woman’s one night stand with a student coming back to haunt her when the lover begins to date her daughter and stalk her family.” It’s reported ed that the film will be fully financed by W2 Media.
Hollywood loves crazy talent, but not crazy talent who happen to be a major pain in the ass to work with; and even most of the time, those people will continue to work steadily. Since the PR fiasco associated with American History X, Kaye has directed the documentary Lake of Fire — which looks at both sides of the abortion debate — something called Lobby Lobster, and has two films yes to be released: Black Water Transit, a crime drama set in post-Katrina New Orleans starring Laurence Fishburne, and, funnily enough, Detachment, which stars Adrien Brody as a substitute teacher; that will be distributed next year by Tribeca Films.
Does Attachment sound intriguing to you? Are you a fan of American History X?