As Werner Herzog's "Bucking Fastard" continues to look for U.S. distribution after a string of fall festival screenings, his next film will be a documentary, "Walk of Life," about Karl Bushby, the former paratrooper who walked home to Hull from Chile over 28 years and roughly 50,000 km.
Reuters reports that Herzog filmed Bushby's homecoming in Hull on November 2. The production company that has backed Bushby for 16 years, Westward Productions, was founded by "House of Cards" creator Beau Willimon and music producer Jordan Tappis.
The doc's origins go back to 2010, when Willimon came across Bushby's book "Giant Steps" in a London bookstore. He shared it with his friend Tappis, and the pair tracked Bushby down in Mexico and convinced him to let them option the rights to his story. Westward then provided financial and logistical assistance, equipped Bushby to document his trek and archived the footage.
All this suggests Herzog will have 16 years of Bushby's own footage to work with, which would echo how he built "Grizzly Man" from Timothy Treadwell's tapes. The potential for a great documentary here is massive.
Bushby's trek was wild, to say the least. He set off from Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998, expecting the walk to take about 12 years. It took 28.
Bushby walked through jungle, scorching desert and frozen tundra. In 2006 he crossed the frozen Bering Strait with fellow adventurer Dimitry Kieffer, plunged into freezing water and nearly lost all his supplies. His reward for surviving? When the two finally reached Russia, they were thrown in jail for entering the country illegally. Then came pandemic lockdowns and conflict zones, each leaving him stuck for months. Oh, and since he refused to use any transport, he swam across the Caspian Sea and then the English Channel, the latter taking roughly 20 hours in the water over three days. By the time he knocked on his mother's door in Hull, he hadn't seen her in a decade. He also met his 12-year-old granddaughter for the first time.
If that isn't a Werner Herzog movie, I don't know what is. This is exactly the kind of material Herzog documentaries are made of, and it has the potential to be one of his best. Herzog has been making documentaries for more than 50 years, with many great ones, including "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" and "Lessons of Darkness," but "Grizzly Man" remains his crowning achievement in nonfiction.
In a video shot in Hull, Herzog said he's "finishing" the film, which means "Walk of Life" should be ready for a 2027 premiere. I bet either Cannes or Venice snatches this one up.
Karl Bushby's trek was wild, to say the least. He set off from Punta Arenas, Chile, in November 1998, expecting the walk to take about 12 years. It took 28.