Sony Classics Grabs Polanski's 'Carnage;' His Follow-Up Could Be 'True Crime'

The past couple years have seen Roman Polanski embroiled once more in decades-old controversy, but he is continuing to do the work of making movies. His most recent project, Carnage, has just been picked up for released by Sony Pictures Classics. And now he is reportedly considering a new film called True Crime, which tells of a very unusual murder case in Poland.

First up, let's hit the deal to distribute Carnage. (Which Deadline, in its write-up, refers to as God of Carnage, which was the original title of the film, based on the play of the same name by Yasmina Reza.) SPC is finalizing a deal to distribute the film that stars Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz. No word on when the film might open, but we could well see it at Cannes, and it is a safe bet for arthouse release later this year. And with that cast playing two couples who spend an evening tearing into each other after their kids get into a playground altercation, I can't wait to see it.

And then there is True Crime, a film that Brett Ratner is producing based on a New Yorker article about a very unusual murder mystery that took place in Poland in 2000. The project is set up at Focus Features with a script by Jeremy Brock (The Last King of Scotland) and Deadline says Mr. Polanski is considering it as a next project.

True Crime sounds like perfect Polanski material. The article by David Grann is an account of the murder of Dariusz Janieszewski, who was found dead in Poland's Oder River. The case went cold until it was revived by a detective who connected calls on the victim's cell phone to Krystian Bala. The latter had written a book called Amok that featured a murder almost identical to Janiszewski's. So the detective focused his investigation on Bala, and things go from there. I won't give more details away, but you can check the original article, linked above, for the full tale. It is pretty crazy stuff, and ideal thriller material.