Brooke Bunny
While the film he was originally going to make his directorial debut, “Promised Land” has hit DVD – and is likely already being sold, traded, and swapped (it was a good film, just not an easy market so it didn’t do too well), Matt Damon seems to have settled on a piece called “The Foreigner” to cut his directing teeth on.
“The Foreigner”, says Deadline, is based on an April 4, 2008 New Yorker article “A Murder Foretold” by David Grann, and would detail “corruption and a series of high-level murders in Guatemala that reached all the way to the country’s president. The whole thing broke open at the funeral of Rodrigo Rosenberg when a videotape was circulated that implicated the president, his wife, and other close aides in the wealthy businessman’s killing.”
Good folks involved in the thing, from screenwriter Chris Terrio (“Argo”) and in-demand Steve Zaillian, whose producing.
This sounds like a much better fit for Damon to make his directorial debut on. As I said, “Promised Land” wasn’t the type of attention-grabbing film he needs to make for his debut as a filmmaker.
But just on the aforesaid discussion, I, out of interest, had a look-see around the net to see if “Promised Land” is going cheap yet, or being traded on various DVD swap or retailer websites, and it is – so why not grab it? It’s actually quite a good film, the story was written by John Krasinski (“The Office”) and he co-stars alongside Damon. The Oscar Winning “Good Will Hunting” scribe was going to direct the film at one stage, but dropped out at the 11th hour – suggesting Gus Van Sant take over. As I said, it’s not a huge movie, and it’s definitely not an easy market (which might explain why it’s already being traded and sold cheaper than most titles), but it’s worth a watch. It’s one of those ‘part history lesson, part entertainment’ movies.
