

What Chris is Working On Now



19 July 2006

Chris in Dazed & Confused about Samantha Morton in Sheena: "I've been writing a part for her in my feature film, so it was a good opportunity to do something fun together."



25 January 2006

I was recently contacted by a fella named Jon. His godbrother attended a workshop at the Portobello Film Festival where Chris spoke, apparently last August. Says he, "The conference displayed music promos from local directors and then a tutorial in final cut. Bored and frustrated, my godbrother was getting ready to leave, when suddenly, the host announced "Ok, let's bring chris on stage.." and low and behold, Chris Cunningham came on stage to talk about his work on ... 2 feature length films and a kids film. They then showed Rubber Johnny and some short film of these teletubby-like characters bouncing up and down on a hill. I'll try to get more info..." This info is partially confirmed at the Portobello site.



Chris in Time Out: "All I ever do is talk about films and then not make them. As a result I thought: just shut up about it - make a film then talk about it when it's done. But it's got to be something that I'm absolutely frothing about. After three or four years tinkering with other people's material I came to the conclusion that I just had to develop my own material from scratch."





Ranx / Happy Birthday, Lubna

Ranx is also dead, as noted in this TimeOut article.



Development funding was in place for Chris to direct and co-write his first feature film for Warp Films, with whom Chris was at the time committed to "for all future full-length film projects." He has since left Warp Films to produce things independently.



Entitled either Happy Birthday Lubna or Ranx, the proposed film was an adaptation of the comic book RanXerox 2: "Happy Birthday Lubna", part of the RanXerox comic book series by Tanino Liberatore and Stefano Tamburini.



A short explanation: RanXerox "features a punk, Frankenstein's monster (made from photocopier parts) named RanXerox and Lubna his teenage sidekick. Together they form a bizarre beauty and beast team in a post-apocalyptic world."



Some notes:

The UK Film Council awarded Chris and Rule 8 Productions Ltd. £95,300 ($164,200) from its Development Fund for this project.



Variety reported that the script was being co-written by Gordy Hoffman.



Two men were checked as producers: Paris-based Fernando Sulichin (Jonas Akerlund's Spun, three Oliver Stone films), and former FilmFour executive producer Jim Wilson, who went on to produce Chris' Horrors video.







Neuromancer

Neuromancer is most definitely dead.



Chris Cunningham and Neuromancer author William Gibson began work in 2000 on the script to this film, based on the Gibson novel, but weren't able to work out all of the bugs.



On November 18, 2004, in the FAQ on the William Gibson Board, Gibson was asked:

Q: Is it true there's a movie of Neuromancer in the works?

A: Perpetually, it seems, and going on a quarter of a century now. The most recently rumoured version, to have been directed by Chris Cunningham, is now definitely not happening.



Some notes: Numerous attempts were made to produce this before Chris came along. None of the Neuromancer scripts on the net are real (as of 2005). Aphex Twin was to provide the soundtrack.



In an August 1999 Spike Magazine interview, Gibson remarked that Neuromancer was to be Chris' Wind in the Willows. "Chris is my own 100 per cent personal choice," he says firmly. "My only choice. The only person I've met who I thought might have a hope in hell of doing it right. I went back to see him in London just after he'd finished the Bjork video, and I sat on a couch beside this dead sex little Bjork robot, except it was wearing Aphex Twin's head. We talked."



Later, Gibson penned a Cunningham-like figure in his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, whose apartment included a female robot from one of his videos.





A Scanner Darkly

Chris also tried to adapt Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly into a script, without success. "I couldn't figure out how to approach it without ruining the essentials. It was a lesson for me, that I should have more faith in a world of my own, rather than attempt any kind of cannibalism." (RES)



Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman also tried to adapt it. His first draft is here. Anyway, now A Scanner Darkly has been adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Linklater. Its official website is here.



