Earlier this year it was revealed that Christian Bale was planning a reunion with the writing and directing duo of Brad Anderson and Scott Kosar from 2003’s “The Machinist,” for an adaptation of J.G. Ballard‘s urban thriller “Concrete Island.”
While the project doesn’t seem to be any closer to realization, TwitchFilm has now uncovered the first sales poster for the film, a dystopia-set urban thriller which already promises to boast another of the sort of physically and mentally challenging roles that Bale has almost become synonymous with. Described as a twisted, unfilmable adaptation of the Robinson Crusoe castaway survival story, “Concrete Island” follows a wealthy architect who finds himself trapped on a man-made island between two West London motorways with only the contents of his car in his possession. Of course, there’s much more to it than just that so here’s a longer synopsis from production company Filmax:
Los Angeles, 2020. Robert Maitland is a highly successful architect. One day, he speeds down the freeway losing control of his car and crashing into the middle of a manmade ‘island’ underneath a freeway intersection. After days of suffering agonising physical pain and the mental turmoil, he begins to suspect that he may not be the only person on the ‘island’. When his fellow inhabitants finally reveal themselves, it soon becomes clear to Maitland that on this ‘concrete island’, only the strong survive.
Anderson has already noted that Bale is “on board to do that when we can fit it into his schedule,” but nothing can really happen until the movie gets backing. Filmax heads to the American Film Market next month, where we presume they’ll be trying to drum up sales for the movie and if they can get the pieces in place, we’ll probably start to see this project move forward. Until then, Bale certainly isn’t without work to do. Of course, he’s currently filming “The Dark Knight Rises,” he’s got that mysterious new Terrence Malick project in the works and he’ll be stumping for Zhang Yimou‘s “The Flowers Of War” this Oscar season. And after that? He’s got loads of options including a potential teaming with Darren Aronofksy for the helmer’s dream project “Noah.”
A reunion with Bale seems to be Anderson’s best shot at redemption after the misfire of “Vanishing on 7th Street” and the concept is pretty nifty. But these are still very, very early days, with a lot of steps in the development process yet to take place.
