Biopic movie on the cards

2006-01-10 11:29

Los Angeles - The Right Stuff filmmaker Philip Kaufman is to make a biopic about the life of one of Hollywood's legendary sons, Rebel Without a Cause director Nicholas Ray, the entertainment press said on Monday.

Kaufman has signed on to direct I Was Interrupted, a movie based on Ray's memoir of the same name, according to industry bible Daily Variety.

The film will focus on the last 10 years of the rebellious director's turbulent life, notably on his relationship with teenager Susan Schwartz, who eventually became his wife.

No start date for production has been set and no actors have yet been cast to star in the movie that tells of Ray's battles with drugs, alcohol and the Hollywood establishment, Variety said.

"It's really about how a legendary figure in America reinvents himself," said Danny Fisher, one of the co-producers of the film.

After making Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean and Natalie Wood, Ray, a bisexual and heavy user of drugs and alcohol, found himself shut out of mainstream Hollywood in the early 1960s.

Kaufman last directed Twisted with Ashley Judd and was also the man behind the 2000 drama Quills, starring Geoffrey Rush and Kate Winslet and the 1988 classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being, based on the novel by Milan Kundera.

- AFP