8/22/2010

Jim Jarmusch is a busy dude

For awhile if you had nailed me down and asked me who the most unique directors working today were, Jim Jarmusch would've been the first name I threw out there. I'll put his films Stranger than Paradise, Night on Earth, Down By Law, Dead Man, and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai up against anybody's. Then somewhere after that he seems to have hit a roadblock.Where his films have always been a bit eccentric or idiosyncratic, his most recent work has upped these traits to such a degree that I can't imagine anybody liking them except for Jarmusch himself.  I defy you to explain to me what the hell The Limits of Control is about.

With that said, I look at every project he involves himself with as a potential event. In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Jarmusch revealed that he's got multiple projects on the burner right now. The one he seems most interested in is an as yet untitled film, for which he's lined up an impressive cast already. Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender, and Mia Wasikowska have agreed to be in whatever that turns out to be. He hopes to begin filming early next year, but admits that financing hasn't been secured. Hopefully we'll have details  soon. Swinton is starting to become a Jarmusch regular, having starred in both Broken Flowers and The Limits of Control. Maybe I'll ask her what they're about.

Jarmusch also revealed that he's working on some sort of unconventional "opera" about Nikola Tesla, the famed engineer and rival of Thomas Edison. There's also a biopic centered around The Three Stooges, but Jarmusch admits this project is years away. I'm assuming it has nothing to do with the one we've heard was already in the works.