Ever since Precious, director Lee Daniels has been linked to a slew of movies. Initially it seemed Selma would be his next project, but that got delayed due to funding issues and it appeared he’d either get the money for that or make something else first, most likely The Butler. However he’s added to his growing production slate, coming aboard to develop and helm Anna in the Tropics.
THR reports that Daniels will develop the script with Nilo Cruz, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning play the project is based on. The story is set in Tampa, Florida in the 1920s and centres on a family of cigar rollers whose lives are profoundly affected by literature, particularly Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Here’s what Nilo Cruz said about the project: ‘I always saw it as a film. Even though I wrote is as a play, I just think it has endless possibilities as a film. The play itself is full of images and I want to open it up to the world film offers.’
Lee Daniels will develop Anna in the Tropics while he continues to work on Selma. However there’s no news on how this might fit in, and whether he’s still hoping to shoot Selma first, if The Butler is still on the cards (although many expect this to be his next movie), or whether Anna In The Tropics will be the next movie we see from him. With all the troubles he’s had getting the civil rights drama Selma together, despite a stellar cast including the like of Hugh Jackman, there’s a decent chance he doesn’t know either. Oh, and there have been rumours he’s also been devleoping a remake of Fellini’s Nights Of Cabiria, but it’s not certain whether that’s correct or not.