A few months ago, I reported that Jerzy Skolimowski’s next film would be “Angel of Death.”
The project, which had quietly been developing over the past year, looked promising: a bold new collaboration between the legendary Polish auteur and Shia LaBeouf, who was said to have penned the screenplay.
However, according to a well-placed industry source, the Polish film community is now buzzing with whispers that “Angel of Death” might already be dead on arrival. Despite securing an impressive $1.5 million in public funding, a substantial sum by Polish cinema standards, the project appears to have hit a wall.
The culprit? A creative clash. Rumors point to a rift between the American coproducers and Skolimowski himself. The director, who is coming off the international acclaim of “EO,” is known for guarding his artistic independence. “Angel of Death,” from what I’ve gathered, was designed as a co-production with American money attached, but it now seems Skolimowski may have balked at the compromises demanded.
LaBeouf’s involvement has been another point of uncertainty. He wrote the script, but whether he was meant to star has always been murky. His script, which he’s been shopping around for almost a decade, is set during World War II and centers on Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Jewish pathologist imprisoned in Auschwitz, who is forced to assist the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele in his horrific medical experiments.
For now, all signs point to “Angel of Death” stalling out right before its shoot was supposed to kick-off. If true, it’s another example of how fragile international co-productions can be, especially when auteurs collide with commercial expectations. Skolimowski, at 87, hardly seems like the type to bend.
Whether the film gets resurrected remains to be seen. But for now, the Polish industry seems to be treating Angel of Death as a ghost project—one that may never materialize.