What I like most about a filmmaker like Michael Winterbottom is his continual drive to create and not “categorize” himself in terms of subject matter, genre or filmmaking formula. He certainly would make for an interesting auteur theory study.
Just coming off the Berlin film festival (and Best Director award) with his foot to the stomach revealing documentary co-directed by Mat Whitecross and called The Road to Guantánamo and North American audiences are currently loving his unfathomable comedy called Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. Just prior to this with recently had a little porn/concert experiment in 9 Songs, a sci-fi romance in Code 46, a hands on refugee story In This World and the U.K music scene with 24 Hour Party People. Now there are two more films on the horizon.
Most likely to be Winterbottom’s next is a story playing with the occult in Genova, a ghost story set in Italy and written by Laurence Coriat (Wonderland) this is about two American girls and their British father who move to Genova after their mother dies. In development is a political drama which will most likely star the excellent actor and Winterbottom film habitual Steve Coogan. Murder in Samarkand is based on
the memoirs of Craig Murray, the former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan who was sacked in 2004 after drawing attention to torture and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan. This project is in the works and may take a while before being close enough to mention as an upcoming production.
