In some of the most satisfying (and potentially wondrous) news of the last little while, Entrainment One has announced that in partnership with Stanley Kubrick’s son-in-law Phillip Hobbs and the producers of television series including Saving Hope and Hung, it will bring two undeveloped Kubrick properties to the small screen.
It’s been a long 13 years since the acclaimed auteur of unmatched masterpieces such as Dr. Strangelove, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket suffered a heart attack at age 75 shortly after wrapping work on the twisted thriller Eyes Wide Shut.
Stanley Kubrick had a number of unfinished projects to his name at the time of his death including (among others) the eventually-adapted A.I. Artificial Intelligence and his Napoleon epic, which was the subject of the novel Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made.
Now, two more of the Manhattan native’s works will come to fruition, the first titled Downslope which will become a TV movie and secondly, God Fearing Man, which will be adapted as a mini-series.
Check out the respective descriptions for both below:
“Written by Stanley Kubrick and based on a true story by Civil War historian Shelby Foote, TV movie ‘Downslope’ is an epic Civil War drama following the activities of Confederate Army Colonel John S. Mosby and his plot to settle the score after Custer captures and hangs several of his men.
Adapted for television by Brit screenwriter Stephen R. Clarke based on a screenplay by Kubrick, mini ‘God Fearing Man’ tells the true story of Canadian minister Herbert Emerson Wilson who became one of the best safe-crackers and most successful bank robbers inAmericain the early 20th century.”
To be truly honest, both of these projects sound fantastic and though Kubrick’s deft directorial hand will be missed when these screenplays are adapted, I’m sure his skill at writing will be lovingly reflected.
Stanley Kubrick is certainly no stranger to the war genre (with the aforementioned Full Metal Jacket as well as Paths of Glory and Spartacus to his name) but was only able to gift us with one heist film (The Killing), so God Fearing Man should be particularly rewarding, especially in its extended format.
This is also not Hobbs’ first attempt to bring his father-in-law’s works to life, as he previously has plans to make Downslope into a big budget feature film and God Fearing Man into the now-on-track mini-series.
While we certainly won’t see the initially proposed $100 million budget for the former (which would have been amazing), we’ll get to see both rendered on screen regardless.
We’ll be sure to keep you posted as details on these two projects are released.
(Source: Deadline)