The Burning Plain

Guillermo Arriaga

Guillermo Arriaga is the celebrated screenwriter of the trilogy directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu -- "Amores Perros", "21 Grams", and "Babel". He also received the 2005 Cannes Film Festival Best Screenplay Award for "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". However, his collaboration with Alejandro Gonzalez drew an end after a fall-out just before the 2006 Cannes screening of Babel. This fall-out had even led to Iñarritu banning Arriaga from attending the screening.

Now Guillermo Arriaga is coming back with his directorial debut on a script obviously written by none other than himself. It's named ‘The Burning Plain’. According to the lastest industry buzz, Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron have signed on to star in the film.

The script weaves together two storylines taking place in the past and present (instead of 3 that were in all three scripts of the Alejandro Gonzalez trilogy). Basinger will play Gina, the mother of Charlize Theron's character, while Theron will play Sylvia, who tries to find common ground with her parents after a turbulent childhood. The two narratives eventually converge.

Theron, 32, won an Oscar in 2003 for her portrayal of a serial killer in "Monster," while Basinger, 53, scooped a best supporting actress Academy Award in 1997 for "LA Confidential."

The shooting begins in early November in New Mexico and the film will be released in 2009. It'll be interesting to see how a great script-writer transforms himself to take control of the whole process of film-making and how he flourishes coming out of the shadow of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

Martin Scorsese's Next Move

If things go smoothly, the next directional venture of Martin Scorsese would be based on the book "The Wolf of Wall Street" released last week by Bantam Books. This is the autobiography of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort who was sent to jail for securities fraud and money laundering in the '90s.

The storyline will be adapted by Emmy-winning "Sopranos" writer-producer Terence Winter and Scorsese once again will find himself directing his "Aviator" and "Departed" star Leonardo DiCaprio in the leading role.

The movie's immediate future is, however, caught in a quagmire of tussle between Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. over a suitable co-production arrangement.

Currently, Scorsese has four features in development at Paramount and two other proposed projects at Warner Bros. In the meantime, Paramount is releasing his Rolling Stones documentary, "Shine a Light", sometime next year. In the midst of all these, Scorsese announced that he's also going to make a documentary about George Harrison over the next couple of years. Harrison's widow Olivia, 59, will be a producer on the film alongside him. The film will cover the guitarist, songwriter and singer's time as one of the Fab Four, his move into the film world and his exploration of Eastern spiritual pursuits. It follows Scorsese's documentary about another musical legend, Bob Dylan.