Oscar winning director Errol Morris has been swimming in the documentary pool for long enough now - and with spectacular enough results - that it's easy to forget that the man does narrative film from time to time as well and fans waiting for the man to return to narrative over documentary don't have long to wait. It has just been announced that Morris' next film - as yet untitled - will be a black comedy about cryogenic technology in the 1960s. Here's the official announcement:
STEVEN ZAILLIAN¹S FILM RITES CHILLS WITH ERROL MORRIS AND ZACH HELMLos Angeles (April 15, 2009) Through their co-venture Film Rites, partners Mandate Pictures and Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Steve Zaillian have tapped Academy Award®-winner Errol Morris to direct their UNTITLED CRYONICS PROJECT. Zach Helm is writing the dark comedy inspired by Robert F. Nelson¹s memoir, We Froze the First Man, and an episode of This American Life entitled, ³You¹re as Cold as Ice.²
The film will tell the true story of Bob Nelson, a California TV repairman in the 1960s who joined a group of enthusiasts that believed they could cheat death with a new technology called cryonics. But freezing dead people so scientists could reanimate them in the future turned out to be harder than Bob thought...
Film Rites¹ Garrett Basch brought in the project and will co-produce with Mandate's Tendo Nagenda.
A perfect match of director to material here, methinks ...
