There are some partnerships that seem so unlikey, yet work so well: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin, PB&J, but no one had any idea that Hollywood's King of Blockbusters would ever team up with the art house circuit's reigning duke of darkness. It's official, though: James Cameron is producing Gaspar Noe's next film: The Entertainment.
"James Cameron called me up out of the blue one day, and raved that Enter The Void was one of the most breathtaking things he's ever seen in terms of cinema technology. I have to admit, that's very flattering coming from one of popular entertainment's top players. Right away, he offered to fund any project I had a desire to make with carte blanche of his toolbox."
So what did Noe suggest?
"I told him I'm a huge fan of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, and right away he stopped me and said, 'Well, let me retract just a little bit. It's a powerful book, but I don't think it was made to be on the big screen'. I then explained that I didn't want to adapt the whole novel, but that I wanted to take the maguffin of the book[a movie within Infinite Jest called "The Entertainment" which is so powerful that it renders any viewer into a catatonic vegetable, and is sought after by a terrorist group so they can weaponize it], and turn THAT into a bona fide film, when most adaptation attemps would do the 'less is more' or make The Entertainment into some viral marketing approach. When I explained my plan and vision to fully adapt and realize The Entertainment, Cameron then gave me a fist pound and said 'Now we're talking tight pussy'".
Noe has said that Cameron has already given him a blank check, and production has started at a rapidly fierce pace, and Noe is even confident enough to have a concrete release date already lined up*.
"Because Cameron has given me his entire sandbox to make The Entertainment, I have already made significant progress with the project; whereas it took me YEARS to complete Enter The Void after Irreversible. All the tedium of finding funds to perfect my vision is a thing of the past, and with my extreme gratitude towards James Cameron, I can give the audience a truly out of body experience all thanks to the power of cinema. I have already shown Cameron some dallies, and his reaction is just absolutely enthusiastic."
When reached for comment about the footage already shot and processed, Cameron had this to say: "Didda chuck, didda chum!" and then the phone was taken away by a woman who said, "Okay, Baby Jimmy, you're slobbering all over yourself again. Time to put your big boy bib on. C'mon!"
Before the interview was over, Noe exclaimed with solid confidence that The Entertainment "is not going to just change the game of cinema, but will forever change the game of humanity."
*The Entertainment is set for a worldwide release simultaneously in theatres, Blu-Ray/DVD, and VOD on December 12, 2012.
