It’s not every director who choses to make their English-language debt by venturing into the wilds of science fiction. But that’s exactly the plan for Beau Travail/** White Material **filmmaker Claire Denis, who is developing an untitled drama set in space{
Denis is keeping most of the plot details sealed behind an airlock for now, but Screen International has been able to discover that it will take place beyond the solar system in a future time that nevertheless feels like the present.
She’s working on the project with writer Zadie Smith and her husband Nick Laird, working from an original idea conceived by Denis and regular writing partner Jean-Pol Fargeau. And there is an eclectic group also collaborating on the design and development of the new film including artist Olafur Eliasson, astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau, a specialist in black holes and cosmology, and musician Stuart Staples, who wrote tracks for White Material and another Denis project, The Intruder.
“I am delighted that Claire has been tempted to cross the channel and make a film in English,” says producer Oliver Dungey. “She is one of the greats of contemporary cinema and she’s assembled a quite extraordinary team to make exactly the kind of ambitious film that audiences cherish – completely original, genuinely pushing the boundaries of art and science and, above all, extremely entertaining.”