Tracking Shot October 2011: Kim Jee-woon, Jonathan Glazer and Zal Batmanglij

At the beginning of every month, Ioncinema.com’s “Tracking Shot” features a handful of projects that are moments away from lensing and that we feel are worth signaling out. This October 2011, we are keeping tabs on a five projects including an Arnold Schwarzenegger, 30 million dollar action project which we would normally never include on such a list. Last Stand has I Saw the Devil‘s Kim Jee-woon directing which means this could be bad-ass in terms of tone and style. This tells the story of a drug cartel leader who busts out of a courthouse and speeds to the Mexico border, where the only thing in his path is a sheriff and his inexperienced staff. The craft services budget on that project is probably close to the budget of another project we’re looking forward to on the U.S indie front which appears to be a fresh take on what Van Sant explored with Gerry. In a piece written by 2008’s Blacklist breakout writer Kyle Killen. Scenic Route has been pegged with a start date this month but is still without its leads. The helming debut from commercial directors Kevin and Michael Goetz focuses on a par of college pals who get stranded in the desert and begin to clash emotionally and physically while coming to grips with the fact they might not be rescued.

Less than ten months after presenting Sound of My Voice (also co-written and starring Brit Marling) in Park City, Zal Batmanglij gets backed by Fox Searchlight once again with a story that centers on contract worker who is tasked with infiltrating an anarchist group, only to find herself falling for its leader (Alexander Skarsgård). Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell and Marling also star in The East.

We lost sight of Brit helmer Jonathan Glazer a little after 2004 when he followed his exceptional debut film Sexy Beast (2000) with the Nicole Kidman fascinating blunder Birth (2004). Based on Michel Faber’s novel, his third film will employ Scarlett Johannson in the role of an alien using her curves to her advantage in a Scottish backdrop. Under the Skin‘s production start date and further casting should be announced shortly. In the same neck of the woods (U.K), Neil Jordan is adapting a play and returning to fantasy vampire genre with Byzantium. The pic is suited with a duet piping hot A-listers in Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton.

Byzantium
Directors: Neil Jordan
Screenwriter: Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre)
Producers: Number 9 Films’ Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley with Alan Moloney
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Caleb Landry Jones and Sam Riley
Filming in INS

The East
Directors: Zal Batmanglij
Screenwriters: Batmanglij and Brit Marling
Producers: Scott Free Productions’ Michael Costigan and Jocelyn Hayes
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell and Marling
Filming somewhere in the U.S.

Last Stand
Directors: Kim Jee-woon
Screenwriters: Jeffrey Nachmanoff, George Nolfi and Andrew Knauer
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Stormare and Zach Gilford
Filming in the U.S

Scenic Route
Directors: Kevin and Michael Goetz
Screenwriter: Kyle Killen (The Beaver)
Producers: Best Medicine Productions’ Brion Hambel and Paul Jensen (SXSW winner Natural Selection) and Anonymous Content
Cast: To be announced.
Filming in the U.S – logically somewhere out West.

Under The Skin
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Screenwriter: Walter Campbell
Producers: Nick Wechsler (The Road) and James Wilson (Attack The Block).
Cast: Scarlett Johansson
Filming in Glasgow and other parts of Scotland.