We all know Stanley Kubrick was one of the finest filmmakers to ever breathe. Sure, his perfectionist genius curbed his level of productivity, but as far as visual storytelling goes, there’s no one better. And in case you didn’t know, the movie A.I. was a project he shepherded from the beginning with plans to direct, but eventually gave the project over to Steven Spielberg for a variety of reasons. Well, it looks like another project Kubrick once had plans to direct may be taken up by another director, a film called LUNATIC AT LARGE. And according to Production Weekly’s Twitter feed, Sam Rockwell (right) and Scarlett Johansson (below) may be attached to star.
Dug up from a script treatment custom-made for Kubrick, LUNATIC AT LARGE is said to follow ex-carnival worker Johnnie Sheppard, a man dealing with serious anger issues, who strikes up a relationship with barfly Joyce. There’s some mystery as to one of the characters being an escapee from the nearby asylum and as series of strange events as they bond.
Word is writer Jim Thompson, who collaborated with Kubrick on THE KILLING & PATHS OF GLORY in the 50s, wrote the treatment as a potential follow up vehicle for Kubrick after 1960’s SPARTACUS. Ultimately, the project fell into the abyss of lost time. That is, until now!
You see, Kubrick’s son-in-law Phillip Hobbs has recently shown interest in getting the movie made, and seeing how a draft of the script was etched in 2006 by Stephen R. Clarke, that interest may soon become a reality. No word if Clarke’s script will be allocated, or if one time attached-director Chris Palmer still plans on shooting the film as his directorial debut.
Regardless, this is a story we’ll definitely be monitoring as it progresses. I mean, c’mon…it’s f*ckin’ Kubrick we’re talkin’ about here!