Brian De Palma’s Next Film Is Chinese Thriller ‘Lights Out’
Brian De Palmahas been attached to quite a few promising projects over the years. Most exciting of all, the director was goingto reunitewith hisScarfaceandCarlito’s Waystar,Al Pacino, for a film about coach Joe Paterno. Whether De Palma is still involved withHappy Valleyis unknown, and the same can be said forThe Key ManandHeat. But we do know the director is now moving forward withLights Out, a thriller set in China.
Learn Outafter the jump.
As reported byThe Film Stage, the thriller will be De Palma’s next film. Written byLamont MageeandJeff W. Byrd,Lights Outis about “a blind Chinese girl unknowingly caught in a plot to expose a top-secret assassination program. Although blind, she is able to use her other heightened senses to fight back and become a hero.”
Produced by China’s Huace Pictures and Arclight Films, De Palma and his producers are currently seeking an A-list Chinese actress for the lead role. ProducerYing Yehad this to say aboutLights Out:
De Palma is a proven master of suspense; in the hands of the legendary director,Lights Outpromises to be a thriller for the ages, full of empowering messages, harrowing plot turns and great action sequences.
De Palma hasn’t made a movie for the ages in a long time, but he’s been turning out fun, gleeful films over the past couple decades or so, with the disappointing exception ofThe Black Dahlia– a pretty good movie until that disastrous third act. The director behindThe Untouchables,Blow Out, andDressed to Killhas almost always been a divisive filmmaker, with very vocal supporters and detractors.
Two of the filmmaker’s biggest fans? DirectorsNoah Baumbach(Mistress America) andJake Paltrow(The Young Ones). Baumbach and Paltrow directed a career-spanning doc on the legendary filmmaker, which will be released sometime next year by A24. Any De Palma fan should be dying to see it.
As forLights Out, the director will surely take advantage of those Chinese locations. De Palma will probably have some fun with the sound and aesthetic of the picture, painting the “heightened senses” point-of-view of the protagonist. It’s been a while since the director has made a truly suspenseful movie, so hopefully this thriller will be a return to form in that regard. He’s made plenty of enjoyable movies in the past 20 years, but nothing quite as frightening or as intense as his early work.
