With the likes of Narc and Smokin’ Aces, Joe Carnahan has built himself a nice little reputation as an action director with a little bit more to offer than just explosions and fighting, and with this summer’s The A-Team he look set to properly break into the big time. That’ll certainly be good for him, as numerous projects he’s been attached to have had trouble getting in front of the camera in the past few years, including The Grey, James Ellroy’s White Jazz, Killing Pablo and Bunny Lake Is Missing.
Now he’s been talking to Cinematical about his plans for the future and revealed that Bunny Lake, which fell apart when Reece Witherspoon left, will probably never get made. He still has hopes for White Jazz though, even if making it is still something of a long shot. He says that “I think it’s a tremendous script, and I think there’s always a place for that kind of movie,” but the studios won’t give him the bugdet. However Joe’s still “bound and determined to make that movie”, even if he doesn’t know when or how.
Killing Pablo and The Grey are still alive though, even if they have both been in the works for quite a long time, and it’s the latter he’s hoping to do next. He says “There’s a film that I wrote that I want to do called The Grey, which is about a group of pipeline workers in Alaska flying back into civilisation after being remote for a number of months. The 737 they’re on goes down, and they begin to be hunted by a pack of rogue wolves. It’s very much a man vs. nature adventure, existentialist kind of drama that I want to do. We’re very, very close to it now.”
As we said, following The A-Team he may find a lot more doors will open for him and he can get White Jazz made, although The Grey sounds pretty cool too. However if all else fails, at least he’s still got Killing Pablo.