VERHOEVEN AND ANDERSON EYEING NEW PROJECTS

By Sarah Sluis

Today the trades were filled with project updates from a
couple of film school idols and perennial buzz makers: Paul Verhoeven and Wes
Anderson.

Returning to the ground he covered in Basic Instinct, Paul Verhoeven is in talks to direct a thriller
about a college intern who has an affair with his boss's wife (cue the angry
boss out for revenge and twist-filled manipulations of power dynamics). Wendy Miller wrote the screenplay, and
although she has lengthy television credentials, she has no film credits to her
name. She's currently working on VH1's
frenetic pop culture recap show Best Week
Ever. Considering the film has been
billed as "Fatal Attraction meets Risky Business," I imagine that some of Best Week Ever's madcap humor made it
into her script�it would certainly make for some good one-liners.

Wes Anderson plans to rewrite French film Mon Meilleur Ami for Universal Pictures,
with the possibility that he will direct the project. Rewriting an existing work is a good choice
for Anderson, whose last
couple films have failed critically, and some have
cited scripting issues as the cause. Like so many others, I fell in love with Rushmore, The Royal
Tenenbaums, and Bottle Rocket on
video, watching them again and again, but have been disappointed by his
subsequent projects, The Life Aquatic
and the The Darjeeling Limited. The repetition of style, characterization,
and plot elements to an audience already intimately familiar with their
trajectory fell flat, and his visual and musical ornamentation of plot could
not disguise its lackluster form.

A few years ago Slate
contributor Field Maloney wrote an article after the failure of The Life Aquatic, attributing the
success of Anderson's first films to his co-writing with Owen Wilson, which he
felt tempered Anderson's tendency towards esoteric references and style over
narrative�his "fantasy world." Testing
this theory by reuniting this writing team will not come anytime soon. After some kind of nervous breakdown last
year, Wilson's
rebound pic, Marley & Me, seems
like a forced attempt at happiness: based on a memoir about a neurotic but
loveable dog, the film includes sitcom star Jennifer Aniston as a love interest. Not exactly Wes Anderson-style material.

Anderson has since worked with a variety of writers, including acclaimed writer/director
Noah Baumbach, on The Life Aquatic
and upcoming animated picture The
Fantastic Mr. Fox. With Wilson unavailable, perhaps having a pre-existing script
will aid Anderson
in tempering his style. While he won't
be working off original ideas, the plot itself seems ripe for an Anderson adaptation. The story centers on an unlikable man oblivious
to the fact that all his friends hate him, until an awkward moment at a dinner
party clears this up. His business
partner then challenges him to produce a best friend in ten days, in order to
win a vase (an expensive vase, mind you). With his black book of "friends" yielding no results, the man ends up
enlisting a taxi driver, who teaches the gruff man about politeness.

I can already see this film populated by Anderson's trademark cast�Bill Murray would
be phenomenal in the title role. Like
all of Anderson's
films, this plot involves a character using deception and lies to develop a
superficial relationship, only to seem surprised when others are upset when
they find out about the ruse. In the
end, his characters still end up developing an "unlikely friendship," to use
plot synopsis terminology. Case in
point: Gene Hackman pretends he is dying to move back into the family home and
reconnect with his family in The Royal
Tenenbaums. With the characteristic Anderson plot already a part of Mon Meilleur Ami, Anderson
should have smooth sailing ahead of him. I am curious to see how this film moves forward, especially with
casting.  Anderson needs this picture or Mr. Fox to break away from the narrow
path he has created for himself.