Kubrick Family wants Director’s Final Film Realized

Although he lived a relatively long and full life, it often feels as though Stanley Kubrick was taken from us before his time. Kubrick died at the age of 70 on March 7, 1999 having made a total of 13 feature films including 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and FULL METAL JACKET. His final film, EYES WIDE SHUT, released after his death in July 1999.

Currently on display at an Edinburgh Festival exhibition are the late cinematic master’s research sources for what was to be his next film after EYES WIDE SHUT called THE ARYAN PAPERS. The Kubrick family now wants for his final film to be realized for the world to see, even if only influenced by Kubrick’s vision and finished screenplay. Kubrick’s brother-in-law and occasional executive producer Jan Harlan says Ang Lee is a possible candidate to helm the project.

This film was to be based on the novel ‘Wartime’ by Louis Begley. The story follows a Jewish woman and her nephew fleeing Poland. The film was originally set to begin production in the 90’s but was pushed back as not to interrupt Spielberg’s Oscar run for SCHINDLER’S LIST.

Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick were good friends and Kubrick was a sort of mentor to Spielberg. One of Kubrick’s projects, A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, was shelved by the filmmaker as he wasn’t confident the state of FX technology was yet where it needed to be for him to realize his vision. He later encouraged Spielberg to pick up the project and run with it in 2001 instead.

In addition to THE ARYAN PAPERS possibly seeing the light of day under surrogate direction, there is one other project being developed from Kubrick’s vision. LUNATIC AT LARGE is a script being developed by writer Stephen Clarke with Chris Palmer attached to direct. Based on a story by Stanley Kubrick and Jim Thompson, the film would be set in 1956 New York and…

“…tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, an ex-carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up in a Hopperesque tavern scene. There’s a newsboy who flashes a portentous headline, a car chase over a railroad crossing with a train bearing down, and a romantic interlude in a spooky, deserted mountain lodge.” — IMDB

Source: Empire