December
17Bringing Back the Sunshine
Sam Mendes reflected last week upon the shock of hitting it big with “American Beauty.” “The night I received my Oscar,” he recalled, “I didn’t go back stage to face friends and colleagues wanting to congratulate and reassure me. I was promptly ushered into a room full of reporters shouting questions at me and demanding what I wanted to do for an encore.”
Determined to keep working at his craft, Mendes returned to the theater and, three years later, filmed “Road to Perdition.”
Others were not that lucky. The young German filmmaker with the florid name of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has yet to follow up his impressive debut in “The Lives of Others.”
And what ever happened to that loveable husband-and-wife team of Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton who gave us “Little Miss Sunshine” four years ago?
Well, good news on the “Sunshine” front. Faris and Dayton tell me they are ready to roll a new film based on the Tom Perrotta novel, “The Abstinence Teacher.” It’s about a sex education teacher who runs into problems with the culture wars and with evangelical activists in the community.
“Our problem is we enjoy writing,” Faris says. “We feel like we’re making a movie when we’re writing.”
Dayton says the success of “Sunshine” was “validating” but that every stage of the filmmaking process poses the question, “How in hell are we going to do this?” Fortunately, the couple has always found an answer to that question. They also sustain a steady flow of commercials, like last year’s NBA campaign. As well as bringing up their three teenage kids.
While Dayton & Faris have completed their new screenplay, they must now confront the casting process. But they’re determined to start their film early next year at Warner Bros.
And they’re also determined not to be stalled like Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
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to think the director of lives of others didnt work for 2 years because he was with CAA is ludicrous....its usually the talent boys and girls....now that hes signed with lucifers representative on earth,beezlebub zimmer, im sure all his problems will disappear
Posted by: elderstatesman | 12/19/2008 2:40:17 PM
I often wonder what happened to the lady that made "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? Did she have a sophomore pic or did she just...disappear? How about "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"? Wasn''t that guy a critical fave? My theory is that these rookies pour their entire lives into their debut and fall off because they have nothing to say after that.
Posted by: Steve | 12/18/2008 9:35:43 PM