John Cameron Mitchell, the director behind Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus, is gathering plenty of awards buzz for his latest, the Nicole Kidman/Aaron Eckhart drama Rabbit Hole. But while he’s clearly enjoying the recognition for the film, Mitchell also has his eye set on future projects. And one is particularly exciting for anyone who loves Neil Gaiman’s writing, since the director says he’s at work on an adaptation of Gaiman’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties.
Talking with the team over at The Playlist, Mitchell announced the project, saying, “It’s a sort of British, punk-era story that involves an alien girl on her spring break. I’m going to supervise an adaptation with a British writer and eventually direct.”
Usually everyone else involved stays fairly silent at this point, since it’s still being worked on. But Gaiman took to his blog on Friday to offer up his take: “I've not said anything up until now, but I think the deals are all pretty much done, and seeing he's talked about it, I'm happy to confirm it. I'm not going to be writing the script, but I've been sent treatments and outlines, and watched it start to look like a movie. I love his work (I think I learned about him from my daughter Holly, who loved Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and think he's one of the nicest, smartest people I've met in the film world.”
Sounds like a good mix of filmmaker and material to us, though we’ll have to wait and see if Mitchell does end up making it his next job. If you're interested in reading (or hearing) it, Gaiman has the whole story up on his site.
At the same time, he’s also collaborating with indie comic writer/artist Dash Shaw, whose work appears in Rabbit Hole. Mitchell is planning to produce an animated film from Shaw’s work, called The Ruined Cast. It’s going to be 2D. It’s going to be weird, surreal… I keep comparing it to Philip K Dick meets The Simpsons. And it’s brilliant.” The pair is planning to drum up investment early next year, most likely at the Sundance Film Festival…