Ok, how should we start this one… Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell are attached to star in movie titled Lunatic at Large, which is based on a story from late filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and pulp fiction novelist Jim Thompson.
Yeah, yeah, we know Kubrick passed away in 1999! But, see, that's why you should keep all your work in one big library, or room, or box, or whatever…
So, this is not going to be horror movie, but a dark mystery to discover which person, of several plausible candidates, is an axe-murderer and escaped mental hospital patient. Ok, maybe we have some parts that look like horror, but it's not!
A previous draft by Stephen Clarke was set in 1956 and centered on an ex-carnival worker with anger management issues and a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up in a tavern. Or, if you want some 2006 description of the script, there you go:
“Set in New York in 1956, it tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, an ex-carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up in a Hopperesque tavern scene. There's a newsboy who flashes a portentous headline, a car chase over a railroad crossing with a train bearing down, and a romantic interlude in a spooky, deserted mountain lodge.
The great set piece is a nighttime carnival sequence in which Joyce, lost and afraid, wanders among the tents and encounters a sideshow's worth of familiar carnie types: the Alligator Man, the Mule-Faced Woman, the Midget Monkey Girl, the Human Blockhead, with the inevitable noggin full of nails.”
It already sounds like very interesting story, so we guess you're all happy to hear that film is finally going to be produced. And looks like Kubrick liked it as well, it's just that he…well.. couldn't find it!? We're not joking!
Kubrick's son-in-law, Philip Hobbs, found the 80-page treatment in 1999 adding:
“When Stanley died, he left behind lots of paperwork. We ended up going through trunks of it, and one day we came across ‘Lunatic at Large.' I knew what it was right away, because I remember Stanley talking about ‘Lunatic.' He was always saying he wished he knew where it was, because it was such a great idea.”
Though a director is currently unconfirmed, you can already guess that Rockwell will play Johnnie Sheppard, an ex-carnival worker who has noirish adventures with Johansson's Joyce, or our lovely Scarlett Johansson.
Ok, this is not something that we expected, but we're glad to hear this kind of movie is coming! Good story, good cast, and for the rest of information, you'll just have to wait.
But since there's no such thing as big secret in Hollywood, we'll be back very soon, with more detailed report. Stay tuned!
