While most directors tend to line up their projects even before the one they are directing is done, Peter Weir (‘The Way Back,’ ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,’ ‘The Truman Show’) seems to be someone who seems to choose his projects carefully. Because of this, it’s exciting to hear that he’s announced his next directorial venture.
According to Variety, Weir has signed on to adapt and helm the Jennifer Egan novel, ‘The Keep.’ Described as ‘The Ring’ meets ‘Inception,’ ‘The Keep’ is a contemporary gothic thriller that follows two estranged American cousins as they reunite to set up an alternative resort in Central Europe, stirring childhood traumas and phobias in a haunted castle. Published in 2006, ‘The Keep’ earned a place as a National Best Seller as well as a New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book.
The movie has been in development for some time with Niels Arden Opley (‘The Girl with the Draon Tatoo,’) originally attached to direct from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger (‘The Ring,’ ‘Transformers,’ ‘Scream 3 & 4’). Weir will now take over and it’s said he’ll be reworking the script himself. At this time, it’s not known it Weir will do rewrites or write a whole new script.
Filming is slated to start sometime next spring with a budget of $30million. Here’s a synopsis of the book courtesy of Amazon:
Two cousins, irreversibly damaged by a childhood prank whose devastating consequences changed both their lives, reunite twenty years later to renovate a medieval castle in Eastern Europe, a castle steeped in blood lore and family pride. Built over a secret system of caves and tunnels, the castle and its violent history invoke and subvert all the elements of a gothic past: twins, a pool, an old baroness, a fearsome tower. In an environment of extreme paranoia, cut off from the outside world, the men reenact the signal event of their youth, with even more catastrophic results. And as the full horror of their predicament unfolds, a prisoner, in jail for an unnamed crime, recounts an unforgettable story—a story about two cousins who unite to renovate a castle—that brings the crimes of the past and present into piercing relation.
