The dramatic thriller The Island is to be directed by Cold War's Pawel Pawlikowski and will shoot next year.
Pawel Pawlikowski has set his first feature since 2018’s greatly-admired Cold War, this time bagging the services of two high profile stars to lead the film. It has been announced that The Island will feature the talents of Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix. It’ll be a thriller that is set to be loosely based on real events, and will having nothing to do with the Michael Bay-directed movie of the same name.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story will follow ‘an American couple in the 1930s who escape to their own private paradise on a deserted island and live off the land. A millionaire passing by on his yacht turns the couple into a tabloid newspaper sensation which leads to a self-styled countess appearing with two lovers and plans to build a luxury hotel on the island. As battle lines are quickly drawn, psychological warfare ensues between the countess and the American couple as sexual infidelity, betrayal and eventually murder takes place among the island interlopers.’
Given the way that Cold War was revered upon its release in 2018, Pawlikowski was not going to be short on Hollywood collaborators for his follow-up project and in Phoenix and Mara, the filmmaker has cast two actors (and real-life partners) who should not only make the most of this explosive-sounding material, but will also bring the project a huge amount of profile.
FilmNation will be shopping the project to studios at the upcoming American Film Market and we imagine there’ll be no shortage of bidders for this one. Whoever does end up bagging it, we just hope it sees the inside of a cinema. Phoenix has recently been shooting Napoleon with Ridley Scott whilst Mara has been confirmed as the lead in an upcoming Audrey Hepburn biopic.
As for The Island, we’ll let you know more on the project as we hear it.
