Lost City of Z Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Brad Pitt's 'The Lost City of Z' Gets Cooking
Filed under: Action », Casting », Deals », Scripts »
It's been a while since word hit earlier this year that Brad Pitt had picked up the rights to David Grann's upcoming book called The Lost City of Z. But after months of silence, the ball is rolling once again. Variety reports that Paramount has tapped James Gray (We Own the Night) to adapt Grann's work and then helm it with Pitt definitely taking the starring role as British explorer Percy Fawcett.Lost City follows the true story of Fawcett, a man who "left Victorian society" in the '20s to explore the Amazon, obsessed with the legendary, advanced city Z. He made his way into the jungle with his son in search of this legend, and disappeared. Over the years, even Grann himself have tried to retrace Fawcett's steps. There are a number of rumors and possibilities, but as with any expedition many years later -- none have been verified.
There's no word on whether this will stay back in time, or merge Fawcett's quest with Grann's later discoveries. But either way, Fawcett is an icon who not only inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, but is also rumored to be the inspiration for Indiana Jones. That Crystal Skull was a fiasco, so maybe it's time to hand the reigns over to the original explorer and get a whole new taste of archaeology.
Brad Pitt Digs Con Men and Meth Heads
Filed under: Drama », Deals », Paramount », Scripts », Brad Pitt »
So before anyone accuses me of pandering to celebrity by putting a picture of Brad Pitt on this news item, I want you to know that I tried to find a picture that was a little more 'newsworthy', but caved when I came up with nothing. So, it's Pitt you get. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Pitt's production company, Plan B, have purchased the rights to the true life tale of local journalist Linda Trest, and her take-down of a conman posing as a federal agent in Gerald, Missouri.Anthony Walton and Andrew Dresher have already been tapped to write the story of a small town journalist by the name of Linda Trest who had been receiving complaints about drug searches that had been conducted by Bill A. Jakob (a new-to-town federal agent who had supposedly been sent to handle the town's Methamphetamine problem). After conducting her own investigation, Trest uncovered that Jakob was an unemployed former trucking company owner, a former security guard, a former wedding minister and a former small-town cop -- one thing he wasn't was a federal agent. Jakob eventually pleaded guilty to impersonating an officer, and is facing six years in prison.
Plan B has been snatching up new properties left and right lately, including Eat, Pray, Love, with Ryan Murphy directing, The Killer and Black Hole with David Fincher, and the just-announced Battling Boy. Like with most Plan B projects, rumors are already brewing over whether or not Pitt will star (presumably as Jakob). But as we all know, Pitt has the bad habit of dropping out of movies even after signing on the dotted line, so we'll have to wait and see.
Brad Pitt Looking For 'Lost City of Z'
Filed under: Drama », Casting », Deals », Mystery & Suspense », Paramount », Newsstand », Brad Pitt »
Now this is an intriguing movie premise. Variety reports that Paramount and Brad Pitt have grabbed up the rights for Lost City of Z, David Grann's yet-to-be-published manuscript about a group of lost explorers. Brad Pitt will be producing with his Plan B shingle as a potential starring vehicle.Grann's book uncovers the forgotten story of British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, who set out in 1926 with a group of explorers to find a legendary "City of Z" in the Amazonian rainforest. They disappeared without a trace, and over the next 70 years numerous explorers have tried to retrace their steps, including Grann himself. No one has ever succeeded.
The book, which will be published by Doubleday in February 2009, is an expansion of an article Grann wrote on Fawcett for the New Yorker. (There's an abstract available on the New Yorker site, but one needs access to Lexus-Nexus to obtain the whole thing.) It sounds like a page turner of a story -- rumors of Fawcett being held in captivity, murdered by native tribes, even a theory that the City of Z was a portal to another dimension. The early years of the 20th century were such a hotbed of exploration, too. Everyone wanted to find tombs and lost cities. There haven't been many serious movies set around the heyday of the tomb raiders, so this could be really promising. Or it could completely stray from nonfiction and jump into the realm of the metaphysical -- maybe Pitt is sorry he passed up The Fountain and wants to tackle Mayan spirituality after all?
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