We haven’t heard this name in a while.
It’s been six long years since Kathryn Bigelow released her last film, “Detroit.” It turns out the Oscar-winning filmmaker has had a project brewing since March 2022, which is when she signed on to direct “Aurora” for Netflix.
The film is an adaptation of screenwriter David Koepp’s novel of the same name. It’s been over a year since that announcement, and, after getting some intel last night, I started asking around about the status of this project. I’m being told it’s definitely happening. A production start is being eyed for “early 2024”.
Per the synopsis, the film “follows characters who are coping with the collapse of the social order, set against a catastrophic worldwide power crisis.”
The novel is set in Aurora, Illinois, where a mother and her teenage son are forced to fend for themselves in the wake of a massive power outage. The mother’s estranged brother, a Silicon Valley CEO, has a bunker in the desert, and their reunion leads to reckonings on a global and personal scale.
Bigelow is the maverick filmmaker of such films as “The Hurt Locker,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” Near Dark,” “Point Break,” and the highly underrated “Strange Days.” She was one of the hottest filmmakers in the aughts, having directed two Best Picture nominees, including a winner.
As mentioned, “Detroit” was her last film and it garnered a mixed reception when it was released back in 2017. I liked most of that film, but the last third of that movie just didn’t work for me. Nevertheless, it was unfairly maligned by critics.
Let’s hope this is indeed Bigelow’s comeback.