TheJury Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You may have noted my mention of a playwright named Beau Willimon last week. If not, it was in a post about a remake of the British miniseries The Jury, which Finding Neverland's Marc Forster will direct. I pointed out that Forster actually handpicked Willimon to be the screenwriter of that project after reading the guy's play Farragut North. The political drama is set to open on Broadway early next year with Jake Gyllenhaal starring and Mike Nichols directing, and I figured that eventually there'd be a movie in the works, possibly with that prestigious duo re-teamed for the big screen version. But no, it seems Gyllenhaal and Nichols just aren't good enough for Warner Bros., who owns the film rights. Instead they've cast some guy named Leonardo DiCaprio for the lead and are hoping to sign on some old television has-been named George Clooney to direct.

According to Variety, the project is also being produced by DiCaprio's company, Appian Way (The Aviator), and Clooney's company (with Grant Heslov), Smoke House (Leatherheads); both companies apparently teamed up after reading the script (were they at the same party as Forster?) and then together brought the thing to Warners. In the film, DiCaprio will play a young idealist working on a presidential campaign who ultimately ends up resorting to bad tactics like backstabbing and trickery. Basically, it sounds like the sad story of the common politico who still thinks there's room for Mr. Smith's out there, only to wake up and discover the real world of Washington. But as much as it sounds familiar, or obvious, or otherwise trite, it seems the play is somewhat autobiographical, as Willimon based it on his experience working on Howard Dean's 2004 campaign. Certainly the film would be a great timely release for 2008, but right now the film, which Willimon is adapting himself, doesn't have a clear start date. Hopefully Warners can grab DiCaprio as soon as he's done with Ridley Scott's Body of Lies and Clooney as soon as he's done with the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading for a just-in-time Fall opening.

When I first saw the headline, I thought Marc Forster was remaking the 1995 Pauly Shore classic. But no, fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your position), he is sticking to more serious fare. According to Variety, the director of such melodramatic films as Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland is now attached to an adaptation/remake of the British miniseries The Jury, which first aired in 2002. The original, written by The Queen's Peter Morgan and directed by Pete Travis, is about a murder trial involving a Sikh student charged with killing a classmate. Like a modern, more expansive version of 12 Angry Men, the miniseries focuses primarily on the members of the jury and the process through which they reach their verdict -- though apparently (I haven't seen the miniseries), The Jury bears no resemblance at all to Reginald Rose's play nor either of the films it spawned.

Rather than hiring Morgan to rewrite his own script -- the Oscar-nominee is pretty busy these days -- Fox 2000 has gone with Beau Willimon, who Forster himself recruited based on the playwright's well-received political drama Farragut North. While it seems that Willimon is inexperienced in writing for film, he presumably has a lot of time to work on The Jury, since Forster will next be directing the latest installment of the 007 franchise, tentatively known as "Bond 22". Whenever The Jury gets made, we should expect that it will follow in the tradition of other UK minis-turned-features like Traffic and the currently-in-production State of Play. It will probably have a cast of heavies and a lot of Oscar promise.