Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix Still “Committed” to Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘The Island’

This past August, I reported that Pawel Pawlikowski was attempting to revive “The Island,” which was supposed to star Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, after bond companies refused to insure it ahead of the SAG strike. The project was then completely scrapped.

Mara has provided us with an update on “The Island,” and it’s not all doom and gloom. She hopes that the film can be made in the near future:

Me, Joaquin, and Pawel still have hope that we will make it […] We just don’t know when that will be. It doesn’t look like that will happen this year. But we’re all committed to the project.

Pawlikowski’s go-to cinematographer, Łukasz Żal had previously stated that the film was unlikely to get made: "It’s terrible, because it’s an amazing story, a beautiful script." He added that [producers] “lost a lot of money because of the strike”.

The film was going to be shot in black and white. Pawlikowski’s last two features (“Ida” and “Cold War”) were also shot in black and white. Regardless, it looks like, if this one does move forward, production would only begin next year.

Last year, Pawlikowski was told, on the eve of production start, that the movie couldn’t be insured, leading to both Phoenix and Mara returning home and the project being put on hold until further notice.

Producers tried other insurance companies but to no avail. However, based on what I had heard, there had been positive developments in reviving the project. Pawlikowski still very much wanted this to be his next movie. It does not look like he’s given up.

Described as a drama/thriller, “The Island” is loosely based on real events. Mara and Phoenix play an American couple in the 1930s who escape to their own private island and live off the land. However, a millionaire disrupts their tranquil lifestyle, as he passes by on his yacht, turning the couple into a tabloid sensation.

Pawlikowski’s last two films, “Ida” and “Cold War,” were critically-acclaimed chrome-infused sensations. There’s high expectations for this next one. Before his last two critical hits, Pawlikowski had also directed the wonderful 2004 coming-of-age romance “My Summer of Love.”