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Cannes laureate Kornél Mundruczó is juggling multiple high-profile projects across different continents.
There’s the Ellen Burstyn-starrer “Place to Be,” currently filming in Australia, “At the Sea” featuring Amy Adams and now post-production, and a revival of his long-dormant “Elephant Man” adaptation that promises to transform the Victorian classic into a “colorful summer story.”
The Hungarian filmmaker, who won the Fipresci prize at Cannes for “Delta,” and the festival’s Un Certain Regard prize for “White God” and gained further recognition with Venice winner and Oscar-nominated Netflix feature “Pieces of a Woman,” is clearly continuing to diversify his portfolio.
“Place to Be,” Mundruczó reveals, was inspired by his desire to work with Ellen Burstyn again after their brief but impactful collaboration on “Pieces of a Woman.”
“I’m so much of a fan of hers. I love what she did in her entire career, how brave she was,” Mundruczó tells Variety. “She told me, ‘I never really played a romance.’ It stayed with me, and I felt that would be a very nice possibility to write a movie for her.”
Written by Mundruczó’s frequent collaborator and multiple award-winning screenwriter Kata Wéber, the film follows Burstyn’s character as she spends a weekend traveling from Chicago to New York, encountering Taika Waititi’s character — a middle-aged man struggling with a midlife crisis — while juggling her own family dynamics.
The director describes the narrative as an journey that has evolved from its initial concept: “It started growing into this odyssey when she is spending one weekend from Chicago to New York and meets a middle-aged guy who is in real trouble with his midlife crisis, played by Taika Waititi.”
Emmy-winner Murray Bartlett, who portrays Ron, the hapless brother of Pamela Anderson’s character, receives high praise from the director. “Murray is a full actor. I love his comedic skills, obviously, but also he has such depth as a dramatic actor,” Mundruczó says. “At his age range, very few have such complex and dimensional talent.”
If “Place to Be” was inspired by Burstyn, “At the Sea” came about because of Adams.
“It’s a tribute for Amy Adams. She’s an unbelievable actress, and long time not seen in a dramatic role like that,” Mundruczó says. “The movie’s theme is very simple: how you can lose connection to your family, and is there a possibility to get connected again after you have a big mistake in your life.” The drama also stars Bartlett as Adams’ husband, with Chloe East playing their daughter.
Beyond “Place to Be” and “At the Sea,” Mundruczó shares updates on “The Revolution According to Kamo,” expected to begin production next year.
“This will be a Georgian language movie, so it’s not in English. That’s very important to me,” he explains. “I’m coming from a Soviet country. I lived 15 years of my childhood in the communist time, so I’m kind of connected to that past.”
The film explores the relation between a young Stalin and his fellow revolutionary known as Kamo.
“I was very fascinated this unbelievable friendship between Stalin and his friend Kamo,” Mundruczó says. “It’s kind of a gangster movie where loyalty and friendship is everything. I love gangster movies. I never did it, but I really feel like that could be a new chapter or an interesting chapter for me.”
The director also reveals that his previously announced adaptation of “The Elephant Man,” initially revealed in 2019, may be revived.
“I just heard back that the project wants to go on again. That’s crazy. It’s also a love story,” he says. Initially, Mundruczó wanted to do the film with Adam Pearson and Margaret Qualley. “At that time, Margaret really was not a huge star, but I fell in love with in her, with her talent, and that was our cast, and that was un-financeable at that time. It was simply the budget not coming together, because authenticity was not a topic at that time and these days authenticity is everything.”
Mundruczó’s vision for “The Elephant Man” differs significantly from David Lynch’s classic.
“[It’s a] very different take than the Lynch movie, which is dark, Victorian, black and white. Ours is a colorful summer story with a lot of cherries and cherry tree blossoming, cherry tree flowers all over,” he says. “The visual will be a very different take, very like a celebration of life and otherness.”
“Place to Be” is produced by Jomon Thomas, Megan Wynn, and four-time Oscar-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky. Executive producers include Natalya Pavchinskaya, Stuart Manashil, Pankaj Mamtora, Kanesh Mohana Sundaram, Ashley Levinson, Sam Levinson, Viktoria Petranyi, David Edelstein, and the late Kevin Turen. WME Independent is handling international sales. The film is backed by S’YA Concept with further support from the NSW Government through Screen NSW’s Made in NSW fund.
