Swinton, Zonca team up for ‘Julia’

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It’s time again to crank up the Remake Machine (or Reinterpretation Machine) as Tilda Swinton and director Erick Zonca ready Julia, a film ‘inspired’ by John Cassavetes‘ late great Gloria. The road movie, about a woman who uses a young boy to extort money from the mob, will be Zonca’s American directorial debut. The film is slated to start shooting in mid-October, with Los Angeles and Mexico its chief settings.

Zonca made a splash back in 1998 with his feature length directorial debut Le Vie revee des anges (The Dreamlife of Angels). He followed that film up with 1999’s Le petit voleur (The Little Thief), which was well-reviewed but not the overwhelming success Dreamlife of Angels was. Since then, he’s been practically dormant, being credited only once since as a co-writer of Virginie Wagon’s Le Secret in 2000. Zonca is known for his Dogme 95-esque style, portrait-like framing and pacing, and his keen eye for detail.

Swinton, who seems to have the “Crazy Mom in a Movie” role monopolized with Toni Collette, will step into the high heels once filled by Gena Rowlands and, to a much lesser extent, Sharon Stone. It’s been a banner year for the versatile Swinton and she is the sort of actress who’ll join a project knowing she can be the difference between a first-timer’s dream being realized. She’s finally cracked through the indie lines to emerge in mainstream multiplex monsters like The Chronicles of Narnia and Constantine, while still maintaining her indie cred with Thumbsucker and Jim Jarmusch’s fantastic Broken Flowers. Art-house fans will next see her in a solid performance in Stephanie Daley with the George Clooney vehicle Michael Clayton and Marilyn Manson’s directorial debut Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll on tap for next year.