Julian Schnabel

[MacGuffin]

Schnabel's 'Doll' plays with 9, Killer

LONDON -- U.K.-based production company Number 9 Films is teaming with New York-based Killer Films to produce "The Lonely Doll," to be directed by Julian Schnabel. The project is based on the life story of Dare Wright, the author and photographer of the children's book "The Lonely Doll" and its sequels. Schnabel, the painter-turned-director whose credits include "Basquiat" and "Before Night Falls," will film a screen adaptation penned by Carl Lund. The movie will focus on the close relationship between the childlike Wright and her mother, a well-known portrait artist and single mom in the 1950s.

[Ghostboy]

Wow, I loved those books when I was growing up. I was looking for a birthday present for my little sister a few months back and rediscovered them.

[cowboykurtis]

on a side note - how great is basquiat

[MacGuffin]

on a side note - how great is basquiat

Brilliant film.

[cowboykurtis]

i constantly revisit it - I just really enjoy watching it - such a beautiful film - the casting is amazing - and claire forlani is just gorgeous

[MacGuffin]

i constantly revisit it - I just really enjoy watching it - such a beautiful film - the casting is amazing - and claire forlani is just gorgeous

The use of music is perfect. It's one of the rare films about an artist that captures his/her art.

[w/o horse]

If I didn't connect with the tone of Before Night Falls, is Basquiat still something I should check out?  The premise sounds inviting, intriguing, etc.

[cowboykurtis]

i think basquiat is flawless - really do check it out

[w/o horse]

Purchased.

[hedwig]

has anyone seen "Downtown 81"? (i know it's not a Schnabel film but the real J.M. Basquiat stars in it.) I really like "Basquiat" too and I agree that it captures the "flavor" of his work...i've seen some of his paintings, they're HUGE! and INSANE! and awesome.

[w/o horse]

Basquiat was amazing indeed.  That's why I come here, because if you guys hadn't told me to try it out I probably wouldn't have or would have way down the road.

Mac said, "It's one of the rare films about an artist that captures his/her art." but I would one up that and say it got his heart, his life, his craft, everything.  That was my favorite part of the movie, how it never became a melodrama, as biopics of artists tend to, and it kept its focus all the way through.  It was never about Basquiat's girls or friends or dependencies or even his art, these were all just parts of one man's life, and the movie was about one man.

When he walked into his first painting gallery with the headphones on, then the headphones get taken off and you hear the real noise of the room.  Fuck.  That's just one of many moments that nails perfectly what the artist is.  No movie that I can think of (although I might just be suffering from momentary Basquiat vision) has so perfectly captured the edge of life which artists live on, which we pay them to live on, which people let them live on so that they don't have to.  It showed the thin line without dramatizing that line, it showed that that line is his walk.

My next question is:  could I now go back and like Before Night Falls?  I haven't seen it in two or three years, was I perhaps just not ready for the movie?  If the movie is indeed as subtle as Basquiat I might have missed the point, I might have watched the movie as something else.

I don't know though, Basquiat was so good I think I'll just watch it a couple more times regardless if I'm going to watch Before Night Falls again.

[hedwig]

also wasn't Jeffery Wright's performance just great?

[w/o horse]

Hell yeah it was.  He was great in Angels in America too.  I hope he sticks around.

[cowboykurtis]

I hope he sticks around.

...proves them wrong.

[MacGuffin]

Schnabel on new slate set by Number 9
Source: Hollywood Reporter

CANNES -- British production banner Number 9 Films, run by husband-and-wife team Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen, is gearing up development on a slate of projects including movies from Julian Schnabel and Miguel Arteta.

The company also has promoted in-house development exec Kate Lawrence to head the department. She joined the company in 2003.

Karlsen, in Cannes for a series of meetings for her company, said she was looking forward to working with a range of talent from Schnabel and Arteta to recent National Film School graduate Jamie Johnson.

Karlsen is in preproduction with "Son of Eurovision," a feature docu about the junior version of the Euro songfest, directed by Johnson.

Schnabel, whose "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" unspools In Competition on Tuesday, will direct an adaptation of classic kids' book "Edith and the Lonely Doll," penned by Caroline Thompson ("The Corpse Bride").

The company is also developing "The Sound of No Hands Clapping," Toby Young's sequel to "How to Lose Friends," about his foray into the world of Hollywood screenwriting. Directed by Bob Weide, "Friends" begins shooting in June with Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst.

Arteta is developing "Together" with Fox Searchlight, a conceptual remake set in Los Angeles of Lukas Moodysson's Swedish comedy about family life on a commune.

Ian Fitzgibbon is set to direct Irish drama "Perrier's Bounty," written by Mark O'Rowe ("Intermission") and co-produced with Parallel Films.

"We are very happy to be working with all these talented partners," Karlsen said.