I should know better than to put filmmakers in some expectations-mandated box just after their breakthrough, but you can, still, understand my surprise with the following piece of news. According to Deadline, Dee Rees, helmer of 2011’s Pariah, is going from the inner-city to Mars: she’s been tapped by the Philip K. Dick-oriented Electric Shepherd Productions to adapt the author’s novel, Martian Time-Slip, which would seem to take a massively different direction than her most recent feature. Here’s hoping this not only proves a fine change of pace, but also a wide-ranging exposure
A description of Martian Time-Slip can be read below (via Amazon):
“On an arid Mars, local bigwigs compete with Earth-bound interlopers to buy up land before the UN develops it and its value skyrockets. Martian Union leader Arnie Kott has an ace up his sleeve, though: an autistic boy named Manfred who seems to have the ability to see the future. In the hopes of gaining an advantage on a Martian real estate deal, powerful people force Manfred to send them into the future, where they can learn about development plans. But is Manfred sending them to the real future or one colored by his own dark and paranoid filter? As the time travelers are drawn into Manfred’s dark worldview in both the future and present, the cost of doing business may drive them all insane.”
In a change of pace from the Mars action of that particular Dick adaptation, TheWrap tell us documentarian Charles Ferguson is moving from the financial corruption of Inside Job and governmental incompetence of No End in Sight to a different issue plaguing our current condition: energy consumption. In Our Energy Future, high-echelon forces behind the matter are investigated, as well as climate change and “the future of nuclear power, the feasibility and scalability of energy efficiency, solar and wind, the possibility of American energy independence, shale oil and gas, and the relationship between future energy choices and economic growth.”
Backed by 4K digital photography and on-location shooting, Ferguson is expected to deliver the project by 2015 — thankfully, by which time, his points will remain as vital as ever.
In other news, Aaron Katz (Cold Weather) and Martha Stephens are partnering on Land Ho!, a buddy comedy they’ve scripted and are expected to direct together — and assisting, as executive producer, is David Gordon Green, with whom the pair share a UNCSA alumnus credit. Gamechanger Films — an outlet dedicated to supporting features directed or co-directed by women — will back the title, in which former brothers-in-law (Paul Eenhoorn [This Is Martin Bonner] and Earl Lynn Nelson [Stephens‘ Passenger Pigeons and Pilgrim Song]), striving to capture their better, younger days, traverse “Reykjavik nightclubs, trendy spas, and rugged campsites.” There’s no word as to when production begins, though we’ll be looking out — for us, it’s the most-anticipated title listed herein.
Which of these titles do you think has the greatest potential?