Meanwhile, Greengrass Says ‘Memphis’ Will Get Made In “Due Course”
Updated: Reps for Paul Greengrass confirm that he is indeed attached to this project.
It would seem that Paul Greengrass is still trying to find his next film. As you might remember, the director was gearing up his Martin Luther King Jr. biopic “Memphis” to shoot this year until Universal got cold feet and put the kibosh on it after King’s estate wouldn’t sign off on the project. Speaking recently with The Washington Post, Greengrass admitted his portrayal was “a little bit warts-and-all,” but he feels it was an “honorable” representation of the civil rights leader, and holds out hope it can still get made.
“We’ll set about making the film in due course,” he said. “The good thing is this: The way the world is turning right now makes King’s legacy and ideas increasingly more relevant. Look at what’s happened in the Middle East right now. What do we see? Millions of disenfranchised, mainly young people pressing for radical non-violent change…This great, unstoppable ideal that King developed in the U.S., is alive and moving across the world today in profound ways.”
But until that happens, Greengrass has spent the year mulling over a number of films including Fox‘s “Frankenstein” (which it looks like Shawn Levy will now direct); the racing film “Rush” (which Ron Howard is directing); “Travis McGee,” based on the novels by John D. MacDonald, and most recently it seemed the pirate rescue story “Maersk Alabama” was good to go with Tom Hanks in the lead, but word on that seems to have quieted as well. So what else could he be taking on? Perhaps “The Fear Index.”
In an interview with The Telegraph, author Robert Harris says Greengrass is attached to direct an adaptation of his forthcoming book, which boasts an interesting premise. The story follows “a genius who creates a highly profitable hedge-fund based on a computer that can predict human mood swings. His world is, however, thrown into turmoil after an intruder breaches the security systems at his home.” It seems like an interesting take on the financial world drama genre, though it does seem somewhat outlandish. But Harris is no stranger to high concept thrillers, having penned “The Ghost,” which Roman Polanski turned into “The Ghost Writer.”
Whether Greengrass is officially attached or (more likely) just sniffing around, we’ll have to wait and see. Harris is writing the script himself, and we’d guess Greengrass will give it a read before deciding on anything. So just add this to the growing list of Stuff Paul Greengrass Might Do and let’s hope at least one of these projects eventually gets moving.
