Ari Folman has been steadily moving forward with “The Congress,” his animated, sci-fi followup to “Waltz With Bashir.” The director unveiled some early footage last year at the Cartoon Movie Symposium in Lyons, France and has Robin Wright long attached to star, with Kodi Smit-McPhee revealing last month that he had joined the project as well.
Now a few more names that have been cropping up in association with the film — Harvey Keitel, Danny Huston and Paul Giamatti — most recently on a now-defunct Facebook page for the picture, are officially on board as well. Reps for the actors have confirmed with The Playlist that they have joined.
Based on the short story “The Futurological Congress” by Stanislaw Lem (best known as the author of “Solaris,” which was obviously made into a movie, twice: once by the great Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and once by Steven Soderbergh in 2002), the live-action/animated film follows an aging, out-of-work actress (Wright) who accepts one last job so she can make ends meet to care for her disabled son (we presume McPhee). The twist? A major studio will scan will her image and likeness and use it as they see fit, essentially making her irrevelent and unhireable for any future projects. And the consequences of her decision affect in her ways she didn’t see coming.
It’s a wickedly high-brow, smart sounding sci-fi and as big fans of ‘Bashir’ we’re eager to see what Folman will put together. No word yet on what roles Keitel, Huston and Giamatti will play. Production should already be underway on the film, but no release dates have yet been set.
