This one has been brewing for a while, and was even packaged and looking for buyers at Cannes, but it took another round at AFM for buyers to come onboard, and now Paul Schrader‘s next film “The Jesuit” is on the way.
Set to star Paz Vega, Willem Dafoe and Michelle Rodriguez, who were attached earlier this year (though no word of Oscar Isaac also linked at the time), the intriguing sounding flick centers on a wrongly imprisoned man who seeks vengeance when he learns his wife’s been murdered and his son’s been kidnapped. Given the title, there is undoubtedly a religious bent to the picture as well, which is not surprising given it’s a theme that Schrader continually returns to. But needless to say, a vengeance pic from the writer of “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver” and “Blue Collar” has us definitely jacked.
No word yet on what this means for Schrader’s gestating Bollywood debut “Xtrme City” which was announced last year, but we imagine that with “The Jesuit” gearing up for a March 2011 shoot, that project is on the backburner for now. Indie outlets Maya Entertainment and Open Window Films have acquired the rights to the pic which we’re guessing won’t hit until 2012 but luckily we’re the patient type. We hope this film marks a comeback for the writer/director who has seen his last few films “The Walker,” “Adam Resurrected” and his “Exorcist” prequel fly ridiculously under the radar (or in the case of the latter, get taken away and reshot by someone else); he’s definitely due for a return to the spotlight.
