Love him or hate him, Roman Polanski has definitely led an interesting life — a life that will soon receive the biopic treatment.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the unauthorized biography will be something of a passion project for Damian Chapa:
Amadeus Pictures head Damian Chapa will write, produce and direct “Polanski,” which will include passages about the director’s childhood in Poland during the Holocaust; the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by followers of Charles Manson in 1969; and his conviction for sex with a minor that has kept him out of the U.S. for decades.
“It’s a very intense story we’re going to carefully base on court documents and public-domain records,” Chapa said. “I’ve looked at the court documents of his (statutory rape) case, and they’re so brash and in-your-face. What happened there has overshadowed his whole life yet also been swept under the carpet. I’ve always been fascinated by his story and couldn’t understand why no one has done a movie about him.”
In addition to writing, producing, and directing Polanski, Chapa will take a supporting role as Eugene Gutowski, the Polish producer who collaborated with Polanski early in his career. Production is set to begin early next year.
Not to be outdone, Polanski’s got his own project in the works; as the AP reports, the director is set to helm an adaptation of Robert Harris’ The Ghost next year. From the article:
The book’s narrator is a ghostwriter, hired to help a former British leader complete his memoirs, who becomes enmeshed in a web of espionage and political intrigue.
It has caused ripples in Britain for its parallels to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has known Harris for 15 years. Like Blair, fictional premier Adam Lang is a once-popular politician brought down by his close alliance with the United States in its “war on terror.”
“There’s a lot of psychological intrigue in the story, as well as espionage and politics, and most of the action takes place in an oceanfront house during the middle of winter – all of it classic Polanski territory,” Harris said.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Source: AP
