John Hillcoat

[MacGuffin]

Hillcoat, Penhall line up projects
Director, writer eye potential Daniel Craig pics
Source: Variety

Their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" may depict a desolate, post-apocalyptic future, but for director and writer John Hillcoat and Joe Penhall, the road ahead is paved with intriguing projects.

Penhall is in talks with Daniel Craig to write an English remake of Gallic heist pic "La Bonne Annee" for the thesp to star in.

The original film, which was made in 1973 by Claude Lelouch, follows a criminal recently released from prison who hatches a plan to rob jewelers in Cannes.

Penhall and Craig previously worked together on "Some Voices" in 2000 and Ian McEwen adaptation "Enduring Love" in 2004.

Hillcoat is also talking to Craig about another project and is developing a bigscreen adaptation of Nick Cave's novel "The Death of Bunny Munro," about a sex-obsessed traveling salesman on his final road trip. Cave composed the music for "The Road" and also wrote the screenplay for Hillcoat's previous pic, "The Proposition."

Penhall is also working with helmer Mike Nichols on Patricia Highsmith adaptation "Deep Water." That project, about a man who allows his wife to sleep with other men as long as she doesn't leave their family, is set up at Fox 2000.

Penhall and Hillcoat may even end up working together again.

The duo are planning to re-unite on a bigscreen adaptation of Penhall's own play "Landscape With Weapons," about a military technician who invents a revolutionary new weapon set to change the face of warfare. The man then finds himself battling against the military-industrial complex desperate to get hold of the intellectual ownership of the new technology.

[MacGuffin]

John Hillcoat's 'The Promised Land' With Shia Labeouf And Ryan Gosling Attached Falls Apart
Source: The Playlist

How's this for a way to start the new year and decade? Ugh.

In a diary-type piece with British tabloid The Telegraph, director John Hillcoat has tragically revealed that his highly-anticipated dream project, "The Promised Land," is no more.

Based on the Matt Bondurant novel "The Wettest Country In The World," Hillcoat's depression era crime-drama was set to shoot in February and had already attracted the likes of Shia Labeouf, Ryan Gosling, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Dano, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon. We reviewed the script last November and described Nick Cave's story as "remarkable, vivid and tactile." Unfortunately, Hillcoat now announces that the film is dead in the water in an epilogue to his "The Road" production diary.

"The joke on set and in the edit suite was that we had to get ["The Road"] out before it became a reality. Ironically, the movie industry itself now faces its own apocalypse. The perfect storm has arrived in Hollywood: a global economic downturn combined with piracy and the increase of downloading on the internet – what happened to the record companies years ago but with much higher stakes. The reactionary first phase has kicked in – few films in development, many films put on hold or shut down.

My own new project – with a much-loved script by Nick Cave and a dream all-star cast – has fallen apart. The finance company that we began The Road with has also fallen apart, having to radically downsize to one remaining staff member. The great divide has begun, with only very low-budget films being made or huge 3-D franchise films – the birth of brand films such as Barbie, Monopoly: The Movie – who knows what's next, Coca-Cola: The Movie?

I end the year appropriately – gazing into the apocalypse of my own industry."

Before it even got the green light, we foresaw potential problems the project would face if left gestating until Hillcoat's "The Road" hit theaters and predictably underwhelmed. The bleak tone and atmosphere of "The Promised Land" mirrors that of "The Road" so when audiences didn't warm to that film, alarms probably were raised. That was surely the nail in the coffin to the already risky project backed by the shaky Millenium Films.

You've got to feel for Hillcoat who would have been licking his lips at the prospect of working the talents of Gosling, Labeouf and company. Furthermore, his pessimistic diary entry is a stark and brutal reminder of the state of the film industry which looks to only be receding further at the turn of the new decade.

With "The Promised Land" off his list, the director still has an adaptation of Nick Cave's novel "The Death Of Bunny Munro" with UK TV in development, a Joe Petrosino film with Benicio Del Toro attached and Pete Dexter writing and a project titled "Mob Cops" with 'Sopranos' writer Terrence Winter in the works. The last two projects though sound awfully similar and could very well mean a one-or-the-other situation. On top of that, Hillcoat was also in talks to remake 1973 French heist film "La Bonne Annee" with 'Road' scribe Joe Penhall and actor Daniel Craig though nothing seems to live up to the potential of the gritty 'Promised Land.' Nevertheless, here's to hoping someone takes a "risk" on the talented helmer soon.

[MacGuffin]

John Hillcoat Directing 'The Revenant' With Christian Bale
by Elisabeth Rappe; Cinematical

Director John Hillcoat hasn't had a lot of luck, lately. The Road (in my opinion, the most underrated film of last year) was given one of The Weinstein Company's half-dead releases. His follow-up, an adaptation of the novel The Wettest Land, has fallen through due to financing. But a man of Hillcoat's reputation doesn't lack for work, even if he can't always get financing, and Bloody Disgusting is reporting he's attached to direct The Revenant. Christian Bale is in talks to star, and Mark L. Smith penned the script.

The Revenant is based on Michael Punke's novel, which is itself based on the true story of Hugh Glass. A man of many adventures, Glass goes West in 1822 in the employ of Captain Andrew Henry to do some profitable fur trapping. Glass is attacked by a bear, and badly injured. Miraculously, he survives, but the terrain makes it impossible to carry him back. Henry tries, but eventually hires two mercenaries to simply stand watch and bury him. They abandon Glass, alone and defenseless, but unfortunately for them, he recovers. He resolves to hunt down the men who abandoned him. The story has actually been done before as Man in the Wilderness, with Richard Harris as the mauled man out for revenge, but I wouldn't go so far as to call this a remake. It's history!

CHUD notes that The Revenant was once set up to be directed by Chan Wook Park, and set to star Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson continued to be attached after Park's departure, but apparently the revival of the project has left him behind. (Probably due to that massive Marvel contract.) That would have been a fascinating pair to tackle this story. If there's one downside to the Hillcoat and Bale version, it's that we know what kind of grim, bloody adventure we're going to get.

[Fernando]

Levi's ad by Malick *ahem* John Hillcoat

http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/john-hillcoats-regrettable-levis-commercial/20574

[Stefen]

It's Hillcoat remaking DGG's George Washington!

I liked it.

[pete]

wow stevie, you wasn't kidding.
but I don't like it for that same reason.

[diggler]

john hillcoat made that? i liked it up until the point it revealed itself to be a commercial for jeans

[wilder]

John Hillcoat To Direct Feature Adaptation Of J.G. Ballard Novella 'Running Wild'
Deadline

Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat is set to helm Running Wild, an adaptation J.G. Ballard's novella off a screenplay by David Leland.

CAA Media Finance will represent this film's worldwide rights with Hillcoat producing with Jonathan Pavesi through Blank Films Inc.

The movie is set in an exclusive gated community in the desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles where thirty-two adults, all brilliant, successful professionals, who have built their homes with pride, are brutally murdered, and their children abducted with not so much as a trace. A Forensic Psychologist is enlisted to delve into the circumstances of this heinous crime. As their investigation continues and they dig deeper into the events, they soon runs into conflict with their superiors as their suspicions fall on a very different kind of community – a religious cult, invoking memories of the Branch Davidians and their charismatic leader, David Koresh.

Ballard's Running Wild caused an uproar when it was first published in 1988, and it continues to be both sensational and controversial.

Ara Keshishian and Petr Jakl from ZQ Productions are also producing. ZQ is financing the film's development alongside partners Boxo Productions. Martin J. Barab is executive producing.

Hillcoat is repped by CAA, Curtis Brown, Bard Dorros at Anonymous, Keith Redmon at Black Bear, and attorney David Weber from Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern LLP. His feature directing credits include The Proposition, The Road, Triple Nine and Lawless.

Leland and The Ballard Estate are represented by Jenne Casarotto at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates. Leland is also represented by Nelson Davis LLP. ZQ Productions is represented by CAA.


Big fan