I’ve always thought of William Friedkin as one of the more important, and underrated, US auteurs of the ‘70s. Friedkin has always been a cinematic provocateur, but the sheer amount of voluminous cinematic achievements he’s given us cannot be underestimated.
At 87 years of age, the very-selective Friedkin is now, finally, embarking on his first film in over 10 years. Friedkin will be adapting “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” a 50-year-old script play written by Herman Wouk from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Kiefer Sutherland is set to star.
“I’ve looked at a lot of scripts in the last 10 years, and I haven’t seen anything I really wanted to do, but I think about it a lot, and it occurred to me that could be a very timely and important piece, as well as being great drama. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is one of the best court-martial dramas ever written.”
With his three ‘70s classics (“Sorcerer,” “The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) Friedkin changed Hollywood. In the ‘80s, he also gave us an expertly crafted police procedural (“To Live and Die In L.A”) which has aged very well over time. Let us also not forget that the filmmaker had a mini-comeback, of sorts, during the aughts with 2006’s “Bug”and 2011’s brilliantly deranged “Killer Joe.”
It's been 11 years since "Killer Joe”. I was hoping that those back-to-back films would be a career rejuvenation of sorts for the director but, alas, it never came to be. The fact that both those movies were all, but ignored is a real shame. Now we have this new project to look forward to.
“The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” is eyeing a January shoot in California.
At the top, it's John Malkovich's to lose. He is a lock for Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine.” This would be his first lead nod. A late-career Malkovich comeback in a McDonagh movie? I'm all for it.