Sorry, Gus Van Sant.  Apparently the proof-of-concept scene you shot with Alex Pettyfer did not convince Universal and Focus Features you are the man to direct the feature adaptation Fifty Shades of Grey, because they are still looking.  THR reports that Joe Wright (Anna Karenina) has emerged as a frontrunner to direct Fifty Shades.  Given its reputation, I am surprised the project is attracting acclaimed directors.  But Wright makes sense as a candidate, continuing his relationship with Focus Features after Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, and Anna Karenina.  Wright has recently been linked to the Neil Gaiman adaptation The Ocean at the End of the Lane and a Houdini biopic.

Kelly Marcel is adapting E.L. James‘ novel about a literature student who “embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair” with young entrepreneur Christian Grey.  Read the book synopsis after the jump.

Tackling a seminal work of fiction always presents a filmmaker with a unique set of challenges, even more so than book adaptations in general.  For director Joe Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard on Anna Karenina, those included not only condensing a mammoth book into a slightly over two-hour movie but doing so in a manner that stood out from the numerous previous adaptations.  The result is a mixed bag with many parts to love individually but a whole that simply falls short. 

Author Neil Gaiman (Coraline) will release his first adult book since 2005′s Anansi Boys with The Ocean at the End of the Lane, due to drop later this summer.  Focus Features and the Playtone team of Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman are currently closing a deal to acquire the novel’s feature rights.  It looks like the producers are tapping Joe Wright (Anna Karenina) to direct the adaptation.

The latest of Gaiman’s works to be put into development, The Ocean at the End of the Lane centers on a narrator who tells a tale from his childhood that involves suicide, horrible monsters and the protection provided him by three strange women in a rundown farm at the end of the lane.  Hit the jump for more details.

Joe Wright’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy‘s classic novel Anna Karenina is now playing in theaters.  The film takes place in late 19th century Russian society, and stars Keira Knightley as an adulterer who questions her happiness.  In true Wright fashion, this isn’t exactly a straightforward adaptation; the director has set much of the film in a lush theater that uses over 100 interconnected sets to allow the action to move fluidly through various settings.  The film also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Olivia Williams.  For more on Anna Karenina, here’s Matt’s review, five clips, and all our previous coverage.

At the press day, I spoke to Joe Wright.  We talked about when he decided to tell the story in an unconventional way and whether he ever thought about going with a more conventional telling, the studio’s reaction when he told them of the change, whether things got altered on set as a result, deleted scenes, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Anna Karenina opens today in limited release.]

Joe Wright is a gifted director. His direction is daring, inventive, captivating, and unforgettable. But that doesn’t make him a great director. A great director finds a way to take the material he’s given and bring it to its maximum potential. Joe Wright doesn’t elevate his movies; he exceeds them. Pride and Prejudice and Hanna are marvelous, but Atonement and The Soloist are terrible. Granted, any director can only do so much with a script he’s given, but Wright seems content to leave his poor stories in the dust so that we can sit in awe at his bold direction like the long take of Dunkirk in Atonement or the musical colors in The Soloist. In his new film, Anna Karenina, Wright has once again blown past his story by using a melodrama to wrap his fascinating framing device rather than the other way around. Anna Karenina is a wonder to behold, but it leaves you wondering what you’re holding.

Five clips from director Joe Wright’s adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina have been released.  The film takes place in late 19th century Russian society and stars Keira Knightley as an adulterer who questions her happiness.  In true Wright fashion, this isn’t exactly a straightforward adaptation; the director has set much of the film in a lush theater that uses over 100 interconnected sets to allow the action to move fluidly through a door and into a separate setting entirely.  Early word has praised the gorgeous framing device, and it should be fun to take it all in when the pic hits theaters later this month.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Olivia Williams.  Anna Karenina opens on November 16th.

Long before glorified street performers David Blaine played with electricity or Criss Angel freaked your mind, there was the one and only Harry Houdini.  For a life (and death) as theatrical and dramatic as Houdini’s was, with a career that’s a good old-fashioned, American success story, it’s surprising that there aren’t more biopics about the escape artist.  Director Joe Wright (Anna Karenina) may remedy that.  Wright is reportedly in talks with Lionsgate about helming Houdini, a picture based on the biography, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.  Hit the jump for more.

Three new TV spots for director Joe Wright’s (Hanna, Pride & Prejudice) adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy classic Anna Karenina have landed online.  The romance pic stars Keira Knightley as an adulterer who questions her happiness, and Wright has boldly chosen to set most of the film’s action inside a rundown theater with over 100 interconnected sets that allow the action to move fluidly through a door and into a separate setting entirely.  The stunning visuals are on full display in these TV spots, highlighting the gorgeous settings in which Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Johnson interact.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spots, and click here to read Matt’s review of the film from the Toronto Film Festival.  The pic also stars Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Williams, Matthew Macfadyen and Domnhall Gleeson.  Anna Karenina opens on November 9th.

Joe Wright is a gifted director.  His direction is daring, inventive, captivating, and unforgettable.  But that doesn’t make him a great director.  A great director finds a way to take the material he’s given and bring it to its maximum potential.  Joe Wright doesn’t elevate his movies; he exceeds them.  Pride and Prejudice and Hanna are marvelous, but Atonement and The Soloist are terrible.  Granted, any director can only do so much with a script he’s given, but Wright seems content to leave his poor stories in the dust so that we can sit in awe at his bold direction like the long take of Dunkirk in Atonement or the musical colors in The Soloist.  In his new film, Anna Karenina, Wright has once again blown past his story by using a melodrama to wrap his fascinating framing device rather than the other way around.  Anna Karenina is a wonder to behold, but it leaves you wondering what you’re holding.

Some new images from two promising fall releases have surfaced.  First up is new images from director John Hillcoat’s (The Road) prohibition-era drama Lawless.  The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, and Jason Clarke as three brothers who became bootleggers in the South during Prohibition.  I caught the film at Comic-Con and thought it was great.  The violence is brutal and hard-hitting, but the film is grounded with engaging characters and bits of dark humor.  Moreover, Guy Pearce is terrifying as a corrupt FBI agent who’s obsessed with bringing the Bondurant brothers down.  Lawless opens on August 31st, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Additionally, we’ve got a couple of new images from director Joe Wright’s (Hanna) adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina.  Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Johnson star in this visually impressive period pic that’s definitely high on my list of anticipated fall titles.  Anna Karenina opens on November 16th.  Hit the jump to check out all the images.

A few release dates have been shifted for some promising upcoming pics.  Briefly:

• Director Martin McDonagh’s (In Bruges) dark comedy Seven Psychopaths, starring Colin Farrell, has been moved up a month to October 12th.
• Joe Wright’s (Hanna) adaptation of the classic tome Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, has been pushed back slightly to November 16th.
• The remake of Gambit, starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz, has been pushed to an unspecified date in Winter 2013.

Hit the jump for more details.

Continuing our assault of new movie images from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, in this grouping we’ve got the new films from Joe Wright, Ben Affleck, Robert Redford and Jin-ho Hur.

• Anna Karenina (directed by Joe Wright) Stars Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
• Argo (directed by Ben Affleck) stars Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Kyle Chandler.
• The Company You Keep (directed by Robert Redford) stars Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick, Stanley Tucci, Chris Cooper and Nick Nolte.
• Dangerous Liaisons (directed by Jin-ho Hur) stars Cecilia Cheung, Dong-gun Jang and Zhang Ziyi.

Hit the jump for the images and synopses.

Though the involvement of director Joe Wright (Hanna, Pride and Prejudice) ensured that the upcoming adaptation of Leo Tolstoy‘s Anna Karenina would be anything other than your typical period romance, the first trailer gave us a peek at Wright’s truly ambitious vision for the film.  A 6-minute clip has now landed online, with Wright’s introduction explaining how they filmed most of the drama inside a rundown theater with over 100 interconnected sets allowing for the action to move fluidly through a door and into a separate setting entirely—anything from a Russian landscape to a horse training ground.  This clip highlights some of that fluidity Wright was talking about, anchored by promising performances from Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Johnson.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  Anna Karenina opens on November 9th.

The first trailer and poster for director Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina has been unveiled.  The film is an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic tome about late 19th century Russian society and stars Keira Knightley an adulterer who questions her happiness.  We knew from Wright’s previous resume (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Hanna) that Anna Karenina wouldn’t be a straightforward, boring period piece, and this trailer speaks volumes to the director’s strength as a filmmaker.  The visuals are absolutely gorgeous and he appears to using some truly mesmerizing set design to change the film’s setting in one take.  Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Johnson all look great, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how Wright’s adaptation plays out in full.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and check out the poster.  The film also stars Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Emily Watson, Alicia Vikander, Olivia Williams and Ruth Wilson.  Anna Karenina opens on November 9th.

The first images from Joe Wright‘s adaptation of Anna Karenina have gone online.  The adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel stars Keira Knightley as the eponymous protagonist, and the film co-stars Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, and Ruth Wilson.  As he proved with Pride and Prejudice, Wright doesn’t do boring period pieces.  He does remarkable unbroken takes, and when Wright’s paired with a strong script, he’s unstoppable.  I’ve never read Anna Karenina, but I’m excited to see what Wright has in store.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film is due out in the UK on September 7th and we should expect the US release around the same time.