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.