Noah Baumbach Tackles 'Emperor's Children'

Noah Baumbach's new film, Greenberg, is better than his last, Margot at the Wedding, but it still doesn't quite hit the high notes of The Squid and the Whale. He's now taking a stab at someone else's material, so we'll see what he can do with that. The Wrap reports that Baumbach will direct the adaptation of The Emperor's Children, a 2006 novel by Claire Messud. And he walks into a pretty good situation with a cast already in place: Richard Gere, Eric Bana, and Keira Knightley. Of course, Knightley has sort of been the kiss of death for movies over the past 18 months or so, although I don't think it's really her fault. The indies The Edge of Love and Silk barely got released, her new flick, Last Night, doesn't have a stateside release planned, a King Lear adaptation with Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts lost funding (how?), and she was part of the My Fair Lady carousel that now apparently includes Carey Mulligan. Hard to figure, really. But as I've pointed out many times, I applaud Knightley for not just being a tart who only shows up in blockbusters. If anything, she should probably do a couple more. In the meantime, there's this, which is described as a story of "fate and fortune, of innocence and experience, seduction and self-invention; of ambition, including literary ambition; of glamour, disaster, and promise." That doesn't mean much without assembling the characters, and this story of fate and fortunes concerns three New York friends who haven't quite lived up to lofty ambitions as they prepare for their 30s. The events in the book take place leading up to 9/11, but I don't know if that will continue to be a component of Baumbach's script. That's not exactly the sort of thing he's done in the past.

Comments

[Bill]

Seriously. Knightley, Bana, Gere, Baumbach and 9-11. There wasn't a toilet nearby to just fluch the money away without wasting money on craft services.

I really don't know how Hollywood makes any money. I guess if it wasn't for Todd Phillips, Cameron, Spielberg, Burton and the guys at Pixar they wouldn't.

I don't know if Noah Baumbach has pictures and files on people like J. Edgar Hoover did or he just gives good... The fact that he isn't asking me if I need fries with my order instead of working in Hollywood is further proof that life just isn't fair.

That dude's on easy street while there's a child overseas that will make me a pair of pants that I will be able to wear in 20 years who won't get more than 5 bucks a day. For the rest of their life.

[homeless dad]

bill, tell us how you really feel...