Word broke months ago that Oscar-winning director of photography Wally Pfister (Moneyball, and every Nolan film minus Memento) is taking a seat in the big boy chair.
Now we have it officially that Christopher Nolan and his producing partner/wife Emma Thomas (that’s an awesome team-up) are going to executive produce Pfister’s first film.
No word on whom, what, or when, but all we know is that this is happening via the press release below:
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN AND EMMA THOMAS TO EXECUTIVE PRODUCE ALCON ENTERTAINMENT’S UNTITLED WALLY PFISTER DIRECTORIAL DEBUT
LOS ANGELES, CA, JUNE 13, 2012 – Producing partners ChristopherNolan and Emma Thomas are coming on board to executive produce Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister’s untitled directorial debut which Alcon entertainment is financing and producing, it was announced by Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.
The screenplay, written by newcomer Jack Paglen for Pfister to direct, was developed by Annie Marter and sold as a pitch to Straight Up Films, whose Company principals include Marisa Polvino, Kate Cohen and Regency Boies. Polvino, Marter and Cohen will produce along with Johnson and Kosove. Boies will co-produce. The plot is being kept under wraps.
Principal photography is set to begin in the fall or early winter.
Pfister is an Oscar winning cinematographer (for INCEPTION) and is best known for his work on projects with Christopher Nolan. His collaboration with Nolan has spanned seven films, beginning in 1999 with MEMENTO, and earning him three Oscar nominations and one win.
Nolan and Thomas stated: ‘We have been hoping to work with Wally as a director for a long time, and are thrilled to be working on such an original and exciting project alongside him and Alcon’.
While this is his first feature project, Pfister has been directing commercials for several years and gained notice for his powerful work on PSAs for “The Montana Meth Project” alongside the work of Directors Darren Aronofsky, Tony Kaye, and Alejandro Inarritu.
Pfister recently completed THE DARK KNIGHT RISES with Nolan and served as the cinematographer on last years best picture nominee, MONEYBALL. Other credits include THE ITALIAN JOB and LAUREL CANYON.
Kosove and Johnson added: “Chris and Emma, with whom we worked so closely on INSOMNIA, are supremely talented, as filmmakers, as collaborators, as storytellers, in all ways large and small, and we are delighted to be in business with them again.”
This is good news for everyone involved and film fans everywhere. At the very least, we’ll get a (I don’t subscribe to this school of thought) Prometheus - great visuals, sets and cinematography, with a muddied story only tolerable because of how pretty the film is. I dunno, I’ll judge the work when I see it, Pfister has a great eye, but can it spot talent and story? We’ll wait and see.
