Hillcoat’s THE PROMISED LAND Not So Promised After All

I end the year appropriately – gazing into the apocalypse of my own industry.

That is how writer/director John Hillcoat ended his years-long diary he kept while production on THE ROAD was taking place.   He submitted his entries to The Telegraph, and it is with his final entry that the first, worst movie news of the year hits us.   Evidently, Hillcoat’s passion project, THE PROMISED LAND, is no longer moving forward, as the financing for the film has fallen into oblivion.

Here is the exact diary entry where Hillcoat explains the situation and give his general consensus on the film industry as a whole:

The joke on set and in the edit suite was that we had to get this movie out before it became a reality. Ironically, the movie industry itself now faces its own apocalypse. The perfect storm has arrived in Hollywood: a global economic downturn combined with piracy and the increase of downloading on the internet – what happened to the record companies years ago but with much higher stakes. The reactionary first phase has kicked in – few films in development, many films put on hold or shut down.

My own new project – with a much-loved script by Nick Cave and a dream all-star cast – has fallen apart. The finance company that we began The Road with has also fallen apart, having to radically downsize to one remaining staff member. The great divide has begun, with only very low-budget films being made or huge 3-D franchise films – the birth of brand films such as Barbie, Monopoly: The Movie – who knows what’s next, Coca-Cola: The Movie?

I end the year appropriately – gazing into the apocalypse of my own industry.

This is very unfortunate, as the adaptation of Matt Bondurant’s novel THE WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD that was to be THE PROMISED LAND was written by Nick Cave and had already attracted Ryan Gosling and Shia LaBeouf to star.

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time for these middle-of-the-road passion projects, and Hillcoat’s words in his diary are more true now than they ever have been.   With films like AVATAR making a billion dollars worldwide, more and more money is going to get pumped into big budget outings that studios can present under the 3-D canopy.   Extremely independent films, the true independents, as some would call them, will always be around, because there will always be film makers who find a way to get their stories out with minimal funding.

This isn’t to say we’ve seen the last of Hillcoat or even THE PROMISED LAND, though.   Hillcoat has many projects in the pipeline including THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO based on the Nick Cave novel, MOB COPS starring Benicio Del Toro,   and he was also in talks to remake the 1973 French heist film, LA BONNE ANNEE.   And, who knows, some funders may come out of the woodworks to get THE PROMISED LAND off the ground.   Nothing is ever completely dead.   Just ask Terry Gilliam.   Until then, we all should keep our fingers crossed for John Hillcoat, THE PROMISED LAND, and the general state of the struggling, middle-of-the-road Hollywood players.