I came across an interview, with Luca Guadagnino, that’s been barely circulated yet. He shares some insights into upcoming projects, including one we haven’t had much knowledge about (via curamagazine):
“I have two more [passion projects]: one is “Aryan Papers,” Guadagnino tells the outlet. “It’s an unrealized project of Stanley Kubrick, an adaptation of Louis Begley’s first book, Wartime Lies, that I have worked on for a long time for Warner Bros. with the blessing of the Kubrick estate and the Kubrick family.”
Guadagnino goes on to add that If he “can manage to make either his adaptation of Thomas Mann’s “Buddenbrooks” or “Aryan Papers,” then he can “conclude my life very satisfied.”
If you’re a Kubrick aficionado, much like I am, then you would know all about the late filmmaker’s attempts to direct ‘Aryan Papers’ in the ‘90s.
‘Aryan Papers’ is one of Kubrick’s great unrealized projects — right up there with his ‘Napoleon.’ In 1995, Kubrick was actually in pre production and very close to shooting on the film, but decided not to due to the “depressing” subject matter and the success of Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” just two years prior.
‘Aryan Papers’ was going to be a Kubrick Holocaust movie, set to star Johannt Ter Steege and Joseph Mazzello. With authorization from the Kubrick estate, Guadagnino has confirmed having examined Kubrick's papers on the project, held at the Stanley Kubrick Archive at University of the Arts London.
It should be noted that Guadagnino would most likely be using the original screenplay, penned by Kubrick himself. This is similar to what Cary Joji Fukunaga was going to do with Kubrick’s “Napoleon,” for HBO, until the project got shelved, for a myriad of reasons.
I don’t believe ‘Aryan Papers’ is one of those Guadagnino projects that the filmmaker keeps piling on just for the sake of piling on, he actually, desperately, wants to make it happen. It’s one of his dream projects, and he might as well do it soon since he’s at that stage in his career where he can probably get such a huge project greenlit.