Development Hell
Disney Tosses David Mamet's Diary of Anne Frank Into Turnaround
A couple of things about David Mamet’s The Diary of Anne Frank, that recently announced remake you know you were never totally comfortable with: First of all, it’s not a straight “remake” at all, but rather a contemporary exploration of anti-Semitism. And second of all — and this should really help you relax about the project — it’s not going to be made anyway. At least not at Disney.
The Wrap reports that Mamet’s much-discussed (and parodied) project is a casualty of cold feet at Disney, which has seen a minor bit of turbulence in the last week and is determined to take a more careful route back to mega-profitability. Thus production chief Oren Aviv’s decision to knock the film into turnaround; Mamet’s script is simply “too dark” for Disney’s taste, sources say.
Too dark? As if there’s a way to sweeten one of the 20th century’s best-known tragedies, right? Well, no, but that’s part of Disney’s problem: This isn’t actually The Diary of Anne Frank to begin with:
[T]he screenplay is not a retelling of the famous Holocaust drama taken from the diaries of Frank, but about a contemporary Jewish girl who goes to Israel and learns about the traumas of suicide bombing.
“It’s very intense, and dark and scary,” said the executive. “It’s not a film version of The Diary of Anne Frank. The story evolved into something more intense.”
So basically it’s Mamet’s Inglourious Basterds, but with better source material, a more urgent moral imperative and improved spelling. Harvey Weinstein will take it, thank you very much.
· Mamet’s Anne Frank in Turnaround from Disney [The Wrap]
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Posted 24 Sep 2009, 4:16 PM
STUDIO HEAD (bites lip, sucks in air): Does she have to be Jewish?
Posted 24 Sep 2009, 4:20 PM
STUDIO HEAD (picks Blackberry off desk, avoiding Mamet's eyes) And does she really have to die at the end?
Posted 24 Sep 2009, 4:31 PM
Wasn't the original diary about the Holocaust?
Couldn't that be considered intense, dark, and scary?
Posted 24 Sep 2009, 4:47 PM
Well, damn. I was wondering how much makeup it would take to turn Rebecca Pidgeon a convincing 15-year-old girl....
Posted 24 Sep 2009, 10:02 PM
Alright, when the hell did Samuel L. Jackson contract vitiligo?