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Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace) have been hired to write an original action thriller by the Imagenation Abu Dhabi and Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald of Parkes/MacDonald. The thriller, devised by producer Michael Lieber and Parkes, follows an American anthropologist called back to the Sahara to help clear the name of a friend accused of a terrorist attack. The story will be set among the Taureg tribes of Sahara West Africa, a nomadic people whose uranium rich land has become a flashpoint for both energy companies and terrorists. “We’re always looking for interesting character-based movies and this one has a fascinating man at the centre of it,” Purvis tells Deadline. “The fact that it takes place in a magical, forgotten part of the world and we get to work with great producers is of course a bonus.”
No word on what it’s called yet, but Purvis and Wade are no strangers to this kind of conspiracy thriller, having written both the latest Bonds and an adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Mission Song for UK producer Potboiler. The Constant Gardener, Potboiler’s previous Le Carré adaptation, was also about African corruption. They are repped by Jenne Casarotto in London and Jeremy Barber of UTA in the States.
Parkes MacDonald/Imagenation was established in October last year with a $10 million revolving development fund. The company invests in future Parkes/Macdonald projects developed under their first-look deal with DreamWorks, as well as directly with Imagenation. MacDonald and Parkes have teamed up with Studio Canal on a remake of Graham Green’s The Fallen Idol, adapted by David Farr (Hanna). Parkes/MacDonald are prepping the 3D Men in Black 3, which Columbia Pictures will release on May 25, 2012, and most recently produced Dinner for Schmucks.
Anthropology is a subject that producer Michael Lieber certainly knows a lot about. He spent 9 years working as a cultural anthropologist, writing a book about street hustlers in Trinidad. He then found a job as development head at new Century Productions.
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“Anthropology is a subject that producer Michael Lieber certainly knows a lot about. He spent 9 years working as a cultural anthropologist, writing a book about street hustlers in Trinidad. He then found a job as development head at new Century Productions.”
Studying street hustlers in Trinidad? What better training could a producer get? Move over USC et al!
Ha, love it — I’m an anthropologist-turned-filmmaker myself, and everyone is welcome to scoff, but I have found that a lot of the knowledge and skills that come with years of seriously studying human cultures and behavior actually transfer nicely to creating interesting characters and telling compelling stories.
At least more so than, say, people coming into film from the world of finance or with a freshly-minted MBA, which we just take for granted. Or even a 22-year old Fincher/Tarantino-aping trust fund kids coming out of USC film school…I mean do we really care what those kids have to say?
A lot of great films have benefited from significant contributions from anthropologists (“Witness,” “Dances with Wolves,” etc…), and a lot of other films would have benefited from working with them at all. Just sayin’.
Rock on Lieber!
Anthropologists are mostly subjectivists, who transfer their identities onto another culture and its sub-cultures and make mostly spotty judgement, transforming observation into subjective control. Even the highest levels of the science are ridden with this malady (Malinowski, Levi Strauss). Just look at the one above, who observes movie culture from the outside and renders his judgement without even studying it.
la russe, you are completely missing Anthis Rule’s point and making a straw man argument here. S/he is not saying anthropology as an academic field is any more or less subjective or flawed than any other field.
S/he was addressing Ripsnorter’s initial dismissive comment that intimated people with training in anthropology have no business getting involved in filmmaking, that’s all.
Take your annoying and pretentious name-dropping and anthropology-bashing elsewhere.
Are you a novelist? You seem like one.
Great. Another film with black people as bad guys.
Okay. I tried real hard. I read Mein Kampf. I put on my white cloak and hood. I even burned a couple of crosses. But I cannot for the life of me figure out how Peggy concludes from the article that the bad guys are black. If Hollywood holds true to itself, they will be, if anything, Brits.
I immediately thought of ” Blood Diamond ” when I read this. Being set in a far off place like that does give a movie a strange atmosphere. An anthropologists viewpoint might really help overall storywise, but as far as the dialogue goes?, who knows. Of possibly less value could be the input of Psychologists and Psychiatrists. Yes, I do know how many times they get things right on the nose, however-they have made some truly tremendous fuckups over the years. Just watch the nightly news for a few months, then tell me I’m wrong. Some of the crap they come up with at times makes me wonder if their “science” is only a rung or two up the ladder from astrology.