  Ewan McGregor in Roman Polanski’s upcoming film, The Ghost. |
A scandal can be a career blessing — David Letterman’s ratings, anyone? — but even the flimsy principles of our reality-TV culture may be tested with the release of the next film from Roman Polanski.
The 76-year-old director is, in case you missed it, incarcerated in Switzerland awaiting extradition to the U.S. on charges relating to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl three decades ago. But while there’s been plenty of discussion of his past work — Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby, particularly — little has been said about the movie he is still completing.
The Ghost, which Polanski is finishing from his Swiss prison cell, stars Pierce Brosnan as a former British prime minister (think Tony Blair) and Ewan McGregor as a ghost writer who becomes entangled in a political conspiracy. It’s based on the novel by Robert Harris, who recently admitted to the BBC at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, “We will test to the upper limits the notion that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
At present, The Ghost is expected out sometime in 2010. But really, who knows?
LIFE AFTER TELEVISION: Lauren Ambrose didn’t spend much time grieving the end of Six Feet Under four years ago.
“Literally the day the show was over, I ran back to New York so I could work in the theatre again,” she says. “I try to do a play a year and I didn’t quite get to do that in Los Angeles.”
So it’s no surprise that since the HBO series about a family of morticians ended, the 31-year-old has worked mostly on stage, although she co-stars (sort of) as one of the titular beasts in Where the Wild Things Are. The movie has been years in the making, with reports of clashes between director Spike Jonze and the studio over the film’s dark tone.
“From what I gathered, Spike fought to make the movie he wanted to make and do Maurice Sendak’s book justice. And that’s what a great adaptation should be — which is taking nothing from the original work but only building on it and making it its own piece of art.”
As for future projects, Ambrose doesn’t rule out a return to the small screen, although she admits, “Six Feet Under was an idealized version of working in television, or so I’ve been told. I was spoiled.”
BACK TO THE CUSACK: Let the New Age types talk about “living in the now.”
John Cusack would rather be anywhere but — on screen, at least.
“I’ve always felt better if it’s not now, if it’s before or later,” quips Cusack, whose upcoming three projects all take place in the past or near future.
First, there’s 2012, coming out Nov. 13 — Roland Emmerich’s latest end-of-the-world disaster flick based on the dire predictions surrounding the end of the Mayan calendar.
Then there’s the Second World War-era prestige piece Shanghai, with Ken Watanabe and Chow Yun-Fat, set in the storied Chinese city in the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It’s skedded for release in April.
Finally, there’s Hot Tub Time Machine — and really, what actor could resist a title like that? — “about four losers who get stuck back in the ’80s (via the title plot device) and get a chance to make the same mistakes.” Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson (The Office) and Clark Duke play the losers.
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