david jacobson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Odds and ends from Monday:

• It's official: Nicole Kidman has joined the cast of The Golden Compass, New Line's first film in an eventual trilogy based off Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. As previously reported, the actress will be taking on the villainous Mrs. Coulter. Chris Weitz is directing, with the studio currently eying a November 16, 2007 release.
• Writer/director David Jacobson (Down in the Valley) has signed on to adapt and helm Roadside Picnic, based off the book by Russian writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. Story revolves around the aftermath of an alien visitation, in which "gangs of smugglers plunder the lucrative artifacts left behind." Hmm, I wonder if any of those "lucrative artifacts" include my seventh grade math homework? Upon misplacing it on several occasions, my teacher mentioned that, perhaps, aliens had stolen the missing equations.
• Rumor has it Melissa George (The Amityville Horror) will be joining Josh Hartnett in 30 Days of Night, to be directed by David Slade (Hard Candy). Based on the comic written by Steve Niles, Night tells of a group of vampires who attack an Alaskan town during a month-long period of darkness, leaving it up a husband-and-wife Sheriff team to help end the carnage. Josh Hartnett fighting vampires? Something tells me this town is screwed.

ThinkFilm has picked up North American distribution rights for Down in the Valley, an indie "romantic crime drama" starring Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood. The movie is a modern western of sorts, in which Norton (who also produced) plays "a mysterious cowboy type" with a murky past. Wood is a high school kid who is drawn to him; their relationship upsets her suspicious dad (the sheriff), who thinks that Norton is much sketchier than he pretends to be.

Though the film has so far had only a few festival screenings, writer/director David Jacobson has a good reputation (he also wrote and directed Dahmer and Criminal, both of which were well-reviewed, despite being rarely seen), and the only published review I can find makes this effort sounds pretty incredible. ThinkFilm plans to have the film in limited release by spring.