Relativity places bounty on Annaud for ‘Kashmir’

Some directors work best in pressure situations and some work best in locations that mimic the true nature of the source — Jean-Jacques Annaud is one of those fringe filmmakers who enjoys working in such production climates. Variety reports that Relativity Media have nabbed the French filmmaker to lense Kashmir — a D.B.Weiss, David Benioff and Guymon Casady project originally set up at Warner Bros. but now scopped up and being readied by Relativity who bought the script and agreed to finance production. Before shooting in the late spring of next year, they are scouting less dangerous places like Argentina, Mexico and pieces of India for the film’s backdrop.

Scribe newcomer Weiss’s pic would revolve around three ex-mercenaries who stumble upon information as to where a wanted terrorist will be for a short period of time. They decide to brave a trip into the volatile region between Pakistan and India to catch the terrorist and claim the $30 million bounty on his head. Each man has a different motive for taking the dangerous journey, and their loyalties are tested when the going gets rough.

Annaud takes his sweet ass time between projects having worked on only three films in the past decade with back to back family fair projects of His Majesty Minor and Two Brothers, but 2001’s sharp-shooting, ear-popping Enemy at the Gates was perhaps not a critically lauded sample of his work – but the overall production value and sound quality was impeccable. Perhaps we’ll see a reunion with Jude Law in this picture?