Director Jonathan Demme has one less potential project on his desk.  A little over a year ago, Demme signed on to write, produce, and direct an adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi novel 11/22/63.  It was rather exciting news, as the story centers on a 35-year-old high school English teacher who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  Well it appears that Demme and King didn’t exactly see eye to eye on how to adapt the project, as the director has now exited the project.  Hit the jump to find out why.

Director Jonathan Demme is adding yet another project to his pile.  Variety reports that the Silence of the Lambs filmmaker is attached to direct the family dramedy Old Fires for Anonymous Content.  Written by Heather McGowan (Tadpole), the story centers on a world-renowned architect who, after waking up from a coma in need to physical and mental rehabilitation, tries to repair his damaged relationship with his children and wife.  It’s relatively smaller fare for Demme in the vein of Rachel Getting Married, but it sounds like a promising character-centric pic.

Demme recently released the documentary Neil Young Journeys and wrapped the very low-budget My Dinner with Andre reunion Wally and Andre Shoot Ibsen.  Production on Old Fires is set to begin next summer while Demme continues to develop an adaptation of Stephen King’s time travel novel 11/22/63 and an animated iteration of the Dave Eggers book Zeitoun.

In Neil Young Journeys, Academy Award winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme embarks on a road trip with Young in his 1956 Crown Victoria as he drives from his idyllic hometown of Omemee, Ontario to downtown Toronto’s iconic Massey Hall to perform the last two nights of his solo world tour.  A long-time fan and collaborator, Demme captures Young recounting insightful and introspective tales of his childhood and masterfully weaves them together with his mesmerizing music including songs from the 2010 album Le Noise and powerful renditions of earlier Young classics.  Through the tunes and the tales, Demme portrays a personal, retrospective look into the heart and soul of the artist.

We sat down at a roundtable interview with Demme to talk about the inspiration behind his most recent collaboration with Young.  He told us what attracts him to artists like Young, David Byrne and Robyn Hitchcock who write words that are almost scripts in themselves, how filmmaking for him is all about following his enthusiasm, and why he is in awe of Young and what he has contributed musically to the world.  He also discussed the sound technology behind Neil Young Journeys and why he considers this the most autobiographical piece of all.  Hit the jump for the interview.

Though we’ll see her as Catwoman in this summer’s The Dark Knight Rises and she performs a chill-inducing rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” in the Les Miserables trailer, Anne Hathaway is lining up a more smaller scale project to tackle in the near future.  Variety reports that the actress is in early talks to produce and star in the indie drama Song One.  The pic would reunite Hathaway with her Rachel Getting Married producers Marc Platt and Jonathan Demme.

Kate Barker-Froyland will be making her feature directorial debut with the film in which “Hathaway would play a young woman who returns home after her brother is injured and romantically connects with his favorite musician, who draws inspiration from the siblings.”  The actress has yet to fully commit to the project, but Variety notes that she has a fairly open schedule for the rest of the year.  With an Oscar nomination under her belt and two high profile roles, her schedule likely won’t stay open for long.

Director Jonathan Demme has had a fascinating career thus far, crossing genres and subjects as varied as Philadephia, The Silence of the Lambs, and Rachel Getting Married. For his next project, Demme will be helming a reunion of sorts from the team behind 1981’s My Dinner with André. The New York Times reports (via The Playlist) that Demme will helm Wally And André Shoot Ibsen . The film will be adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder and will star Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride) and André Gregory. The film will be shot on a single location on a budget less than $1 million, and Demme describes the film thusly:”It’s like a Hitchcock movie with a vein of humor running through it.”

If you’re a fan of Community and My Dinner with André sounds familiar, that’s because the TV series paid homage to the intimate drama with the season two episode “Critical Film Studies” in which Jeff and Abed shared a dinner together while the gang planned a Pulp Fiction surprise party for Abed. Filming on Ibsen is set to get underway in a few weeks, so hopefully we’ll get to see the film soon. Demme is also working on an adaptation of Stephen King’s time travel thriller 11/22/63. Hit the jump to watch the trailer for My Dinner with André.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the worldwide rights to Jonathan Demme’s documentary Neil Young Journeys.  The film follows Young’s journey to his hometown of Omemee Ontario where he played the last two nights of his solo world tour.  The documentary mixes Young’s performances with his trip back into town.  Neil Young Journeys is the third Neil Young doc from Demme who previously directed Neil Young: Heart of Gold and Neil Young Trunk Show.  I missed Journeys when it played at the Toronto Film Festival, but I heard only positive things about the doc from those that saw it.

Hit the jump for the full press release.

Biopics tend to celebrate the famous.  We like the familiar and directors like to explore the range of an artist or historical figure’s influence and the arc of their extraordinary accomplishments.  Non-famous people, however, tend to have their accomplishments relegated to a five-minute segment on the evening news, usually stuffed in between the latest local murder and the five-day weather forecast.  Jonathan Demme’s new documentary I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful celebrates a woman who isn’t famous but whose personality and accomplishment are worth more than five minutes of your time.

It’s a good week to be a Stephen King fan. Yesterday we reported that Harry Potter director David Yates is teaming up with Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves for a multi-film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, and now it looks like another Stephen King film adaptation is on its way as well. Variety reports that Jonathan Demme has optioned the feature film rights to King’s upcoming sci-fi novel 11/22/63 with plans to write, direct and produce the adaptation. The intriguing story centers on a 35-year-old high school English teacher who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. King will serve as executive producer on the project.

This is exciting stuff, as Demme’s last feature film outing was 2008’s indie Rachel Getting Married. He’s got a knack for character pieces (as evidenced by The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia), and it’ll be incredibly interesting to see him tackle sci-fi. While the film is currently without a distributor, Demme plans to start shooting by fall 2012.

Yesterday, we reported on the strong documentary line-up for the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.  Today, we have the first images from four of the documentaries: Wim Wenders’ first 3D film Pina, Nick Broomfield’s Sarah Palin – You Betcha!, Jonathan Demme’s I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful, and Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss.

Hit the jump to check out the images along with a synopsis for each film.  The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8 – 18th.

We’ve already seen the heavy-hitters of non-documentary films showing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.  Today, TIFF has announced its impressive documentary line-up along with line-ups for the interesting smaller films that are worth your attention at the fest.  The documentaries include Morgan Spurlock’s Comic-Con: Episode IV – A Fan’s Hope, Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss, Jonathan Demme’s I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful, and Wim Wenders’ 3D film Pina. The Midnight Madness line-up includes Bobcat Goldthwait’s latest, God Bless America and Douglas Aarniokoski’s The Day starring Ashley Bell and Dominic Monaghan.

Hit the jump for the documentary line-ups (“Real to Reel”), “Midnight Madness”, “Vanguard” (international genre flicks), “TIFF Kids”, and “City to City” (an annual programme that focuses on films from one city; this year is Buenos Aires).  The 2011 Toronto Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th.

Jonathan Demme was one of the brightest spots of filmmaking in the 1980’s. Like early Spielberg, his sensibilities for Americana were funky but authentic. He liked weird people, but not in an ironic or grotesque way. He loves people, and it shows in every bit of his casting. Though the academy would reward him for The Silence of the Lambs, and unintentionally turn him into a serious director for a while, his loosey-goosey charms were never more apparent than in Something Wild, which the Criterion collection has released. It stars Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith, and introduced the world to Ray Liotta. Check out our review of the film on Blu-ray after the jump.

The list to direct the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s horror-comedy parody novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is growing after David O. Russell left the project at the beginning of the month.  As we previously reported, David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) is on the list.  Deadline updated their original story by reporting that Mike Newell (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) and Neil Marshall (Centurion) are also in the running.  TheWrap is also throwing out some interesting names circling the project: Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), Matt Reeves (Let Me In), Mike White (The Year of the Dog), and the directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs).  Hit the jump for more details on these potential helmers.

As more name actors make the jump back and forth from the silver screen to the flickering box, the great divide  of “success” between film and television actors has been dwindling.  Even further evidence of this closing gap can be seen in the talent behind the camera.  While film directors often direct the pilot of a new series for a big boost in viewership, more and more directors are being utilized for single episodes of series and HBO seems to have cornered the market.  Deadline reports the cable network’s new comedy series Enlightened has a lined up an impressive group to helm the episodes, including Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs)

Hit the jump for the rest of the directors and a refresher on the series’ story.

Jonathan Demme is reportedly considering directing the Paul Haggis-scripted Honeymoon With Harry, giving the project a good shot at finally getting made after spending six years stalled.  According to Deadline, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro read the lead roles at a New Line read-through several weeks ago.  The film is described as a “James Brooks style” story of two characters who hate each other and are stuck together out of desperation, and it’s based on an unpublished novel by Bart Baker that Paul Haggis adapted and was previously attached to direct with Vice Vaughn and Jack Nicholson potentially starring.  De Niro and Cooper are reportedly already attached, though no deals have been made.  Hit the jump for a more detailed synopsis.

Walt Disney has sent over a new image of Anne Hathaway as the White Queen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  They’ve also included a Q&A with the actress.  While you’re going to get vanilla answers to every question, if you’re really looking forward to Alice in Wonderland, you might enjoy the interview.  Hit the jump to check it out: