Gondry's Film Commitments

Following Jonathan Glazer's excellent Bravia ad from last summer, the third installment in the campaign was lined up for Michel Gondry. He's now passed, citing 'film commitments' as his reason for not being able to shoot the spot.

It seems that Be Kind, Rewind is all but mass duplicated and on the back of the van, so which commitments exactly? Is the Blondie movie about to shoot? Possibly.

Let's discount the Ripley film - is there anything else? Only Tokyo, the anthology film to shoot in the city. This is what I expect we'll find out: Gondry is about to shoot his slice of Tokyo before doing the Rewind press tour; then the Blondie movie will roll; then, possibly, a collaboration with Dan Clowes and Jack Black on The Death Ray. Maybe. Perhaps. If it all pans out.

At least we know he's going to be on set rolling film for one project or another any week now.

And the new Bravia spot, if you had been wondering, is now going to be directed by Frank Budgen. Not a bad choice, but I would have plumped for Antoine Bardou-Jacquet.

Er... This Is Weird... More On The Ripley Film And A Christmas Carol

The Michel Gondry/Ripley story has taken an odd twist...

Bob Hoskins really let the cat out of the bag when he mentioned Zemeckis' upcoming Christmas Carol film. Now the beans have been spilled, however, Variety have fleshed out some of the details: Jim Carrey will be playing Scrooge, sure, but he'll also be playing the ghosts of past, present and future.

According to ImageMovers, Zemeckis' outfit that are producing the film at Disney, Hoskins hasn't actually signed yet. Hopefully they won't boot him for his loose lips.

The same Variety piece goes on to discuss Jim Carrey's crowded schedule: Christmas Carol, I Love You Phillip Morris and Ripley's Believe It or Not. Regarding the latter they say "Paramount, armed with a Steve Oedekerk rewrite, is trying to find a schedule that will allow Tim Burton to direct, even as he completes post-production on Sweeney Todd".

So, was Gondry just a back up? Was he a plan B that won't ever be taken? Or just a human poker chip, used to influence Burton?

Or did the rumour spark up some other way? Perhaps somebody just invented it with no foundation - I mean, it wouldn't be the first time.

I put a call in to Partizan to see if there's any comment - saying Gondry hasn't signed is too easy an out, really, and leaves half of the story untold - and, hopefully, they'll respond.

In the meantime: the director of Ripley's Believe it or Not appears to be none other than Tim Burton.

Don't Believe It - Time For Tears

So, sadly, the Michel Gondry/Believe it or Not story appears to be a dead end. MTV approached Gondry's publicist and they denied he had any involvement. Truth be told, I wouldn't have any idea how to reach Michel's publicist, or I would have fired off an e-mail in the first place.

Now, if you're still feeling hopeful, cling on to this: he may be in talks and the publicist is playing semantic games to sidestep the issue. But I don't know why they'd issue a denial if he was. That'd be silly. Are you listening, Shia LaBouef?

I'm actually rather disappointed by this and so is my source.

He and I agree, though: somewhere along the line, something was going on and getting spoken about in Gondry circles.

I Googled about and found two corroborating reports - one of which actually turned out to be the IMDB pages for the film and director. Now, it is possible that my source's source was part of a chain that led to the news going up on Gondry's IMDB page, or, unfortunately, it is also possible that the IMDB page was the original source overall.

Ah, the IMDB. There's nothing like a nice reliable movie database with which to check your facts - and (hold your sides, they're going to split) the IMDB is nothing like a nice reliable movie database with which to check your facts. Which is why, generally, I don't have much to do with it.

The other report was on a Russian website. Hmmm. Possibly even less reliable than the IMDB? That's the reputatuon they have anyway.

I'm sad, but the story was nice while it lasted. It gave the Ripley movie a glimmer of hope. Now we can all divert our attentions back to the Blondie movie Michel has been developing, and hope and pray that, for some reason, Kirsten Dunst has to pull out and, say, Maggie Gyllenhaal has to step in.

Michel Gondry In Talks To Direct Ripley's Believe It Or Not

I was expecting Tom Shadyac to take the reins of the Ripley film after Tim Burton left the project but I'm told today that, actually, Michel Gondry is in talks to direct the film.

My source has been 100% accurate on all things Gondry in the past, so I believe it. Doesn't meant I'm too happy about it. If this leads to another rewrite, then I'll be happy. Just in terms of the film's style, the look of a Gondry directed action adventure really does promise to be something special.

I'm speculating that Jim Carrey has been the missing link to bring Gondry over to this side of Hollywood, but I haven't been able to confirm this. Stay tuned for more.