Michael Winterbottom is not your average director. In fact he’s more like three directors, one of whom makes edgy but relatively mainstream fare like 24 Hour Party People, another who films unusual experimental movies like 9 Songs and the third who delves into serious issues, usually revolving around major conflicts (and sometimes he’s all three at once).
It seems it’s the serious-issues Winterbottom who’s signed up to Promised Land, which recounts the events that led up to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel. With Winterbottom on board, it’s perhaps not surprising that the film will be a rather complex dissection of the situation at the time, with many already expecting controversy over the depiction of extremist Jewish militant groups who launched terror attacks against the British forces and Arabs during their campaign for statehood.
Variety reports that Jim Sturgess has also signed up for the film, as a British officer hunting down the extremists.
Winterbottom seems to be fascinated by the politics of conflict, and has dealt with the subject in everything from Welcome To Sarajevo and The Road To Guantanamo, to A Mighty Heart and In This World. While anything to do with the Middle East tends to be controversial, Winterbottom has a good track record with this sort of thing and should make an interesting movie.