Christoph Waltz is prepping his directorial debut, The Worst Marriage in Georgetown, for which he will also produce and star. In the film, Waltz will play Albrecht Muth, a man who sought to enter the social elite and the privileged political circles by marrying the wealthy, 71-year-old Viola Drath when he was just 26. The couple threw lavish parties as he climbed the social ladder, but Muth increasingly lied about his background, and he was ultimately revealed when Drath turned up murdered many years later. Muth was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 50 years in prison just last year.
The Worst Marriage in Georgetown is actually based on a New York Times Magazine article of the same name by Franklin Foer (read it here). Variety reports that Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn (Proof) will be adapting the screenplay and that Erica Steinberg (Inglorious Basterds) and Nicolas Chartier will also be producing.
We reported yesterday on Orson Welles‘s 100th Birthday that there were originally plans to finally release his last, uncompleted film, The Other Side of the Wind. The film had been locked in legal battles and was never completed by Welles before his death. Now on the day after his birthday, Peter Bogdanovich and the team restoring the film have taken to Indiegogo to get the film completed. They’re asking for $2 million in funding and offering everything from posters of the film to invitations to the New York premiere, and even a 35 mm print for a person donating $25,000.
The Indiegogo page details many of the autobiographical similarities between Welles and the film’s story. It talks about why The Other Side of the Wind has seen such a long delay. And it also shares greater details about the film’s story and cast, which includes John Huston, Bogdanovich, Oja Kodar, Lillie Palmer, and Dennis Hopper.
Jason Clarke, Rosamund Pike, Jack O’Connell, Mia Wasikowska, and Jack Reynor will all next star in HHHH, a World War II drama about the life of Reinhard Heydrich, the highest-ranked Nazi Officer considered one of the main architects of the Holocaust. According to Variety, Clarke will play the Nazi Officer and O’Connell and Reynor will play the two resistance paratroopers who successfully assassinated him. Pike will play Heydrich’s wife and fellow Nazi sympathizer, and Wasikowska will play a Czech resistance fighter.
Variety reports that the film will be directed by Cedric Jimenez, who just directed the action thriller The Connection with Jean Dujardin. Shooting is expected to begin in August. Here’s what producer Alain Goldman had to say about HHHH:
“HHHH is a utterly compelling story which juxtaposes two antagonist forces — the worst and the best of human nature — as did ‘The Connection’ in its depiction of Judge Michel’s heroic journey to bring down the French Connection,” Goldman told Variety. “In the first chapter, we portray Heydrich intimately and professionally, and we shed light on his darkest side; while in the second chapter, we follow the two paratroopers as they embark on a foolish yet epic mission to kill Heydrich.”
Emily Blunt will soon get back into the action movie “saddle”, so to speak, with her next film, Bronco Belle. Screen Daily reports that Blunt will play Raylene Jackson, “a stubborn but vulnerable and determined American woman with a chip on her shoulder who dreams of becoming a champion bull-rider.” First time Writer and Director Khurram Longi was inspired by Blunt’s badass work in Edge of Tomorrow and described Bronco Belle as a “female Rocky-on-a-bull” movie.