I can report that Darius Khondji (“Uncut Gems”) is set to lens James Gray’s upcoming “Armageddon Time.” An immense addition to Gray’s film as Khondji is one of the very best cinematographers working today.
This Tehran-born camera genius has worked with some of the greatest directors in the world. He was discovered when shooting a famous Nike ad with David Fincher, which landed him a job as cinematographer of “Seven,” a film that some say shaped the way drama would be shot in the 21st century.
Khondji used simple camera approaches for the film and was highly influenced by — of all things — the TV show “COPS,” which inspired him to use tricks like a camera peering over a shoulder from the backseat. As seen in “Seven,” Khondji is known for using composition to create a sense of tension and dread.
One can also not forget Khondji’s colorfully whimsical genius in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movies and Woody Allen’s European love letters, especially in “Midnight in Paris,” where his use of warm colors and limited camera movements gave the film its infectious glow.
As for “Armageddon Time,” it comes after Gray’s long-delayed “Ad Astra” finally hit theaters two Septembers ago to positive reviews. This new project will bring Gray back to New York. If you remember, Gray’s first 5 movies ( “Little Odessa,” “The Yards,” “We Own the Night,” “Two Lovers,” and “The Immigrant”) were all set in the Big Apple.
Gray will write and direct “Armageddon Time,” which stars Cate Blanchett, Oscar Isaac, Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro in “an autobiographical drama about growing up in mid-1980s Queens, New York.” More intriguingly it seems as though Donald Trump and his late father Fred will be one of the characters involved in the story. We all know who Donald is, but his less-famous father Fred was a Queens-based real estate developer who mentored Donald into the eventual real estate mogul that he would become.
The film is set to start filming this coming October in the Bronx, New Jersey and Manhattan.
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