Perhaps unfairly for a man who has spent the better part of the last decade directing a lot of excellent TV shows, from 24 to Californication, Stephen Hopkins has a bit of a reputation for directing big, glossy, flashy action/sci-fi blockbusters, like Predator 2 (awesome!) and Lost In Space (not awesome!).
But Hopkins can work on a smaller scale, too. And he’s about to give it another go with Chasing Bohemia, a $10-15 million romantic comedy.
The movie, based on a book by Carmen Michael called Chasing Bohemia – A Year Of Living Recklessly In Rio De Janeiro, will indeed be set and shot in Rio De Janeiro, where Hopkins spends a large amount of his time these days.
In fact, he’s set the project up through his Rio-based company, GreenGo Prods. Which, if you think about it, is a relatively decent pun.
We don’t know much about the plot, but if the subtitle of Michael’s book is anything to go by, it’ll be about a foreign woman living in Rio (Michael is Australian) and having all sorts of crazy adventures. Laura Malin has written the script for the movie, which is currently seeking a female lead (the final budget will be determined depending on the size of the leading lady’s fee).
Thoughts, readers? Will this be the movie that sees Hopkins fulfil his potential? He’s always had an eye for a nice visual, but his movies have generally been two-dimensional affairs. He showed with The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers that he could handle emotional complexity… then took two steps back with histrionic horror, The Reaping. We wish him well with this one.