Whoa folks, looks like Luc Besson's JOAN OF ARC is canceled. No, no production problems, just a change in interest in Luc Besson. As reports go, the following was very compelling, and when a spy at Digital Domain told me of the tests... well, that sealed it.
Besson is mounting a remake of Jean Cocteau's BELLE ET LA BETE, a classic retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. Long regarded as one of the sacred films of French Cinema, Besson is determined to make Milla Jovovich his Beauty, and Jean Reno as the voice of the Beast, as well as the live roles of Avenant and the Prince, Just as Jean Marais did in Cocteau's 1946 masterpiece.
My source at Digital Domain tells me:
You won't believe the things he wants us to do. Security is so tight around here, that I'm almost scared to tell you what I've seen. Perhaps they've bugged my house. But screw it, this security is for the birds. If you remember the 1946 version, the walls had human arms holding candlabras and other household items. Well, Besson wants us to design a completely CG interior for the Beast's mansion. Chairs will be made of living legs and arms and torsos. Not wood, but living warm flesh. They will eerily walk around. None of it will have heads. A world so much further than the labrynth in Barbarella. This will be the most erotic film ever. Stay tuned Harry, I feel eyes on me.
CAN YOU FRIGGIN IMAGINE THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!
All the furniture and interior trappings digitally created out of the human form! Wow. That's a vision. Leave it to ol Besson and his brilliant imagination. Damn, that's cool. Can't you just hear that Eric Serra music? Ohhhhhhh. This really pushes all that research DD has been doing with HARD and FACE, but this is sure to be our first step into the world of Daliesque filmmaking. Just imagine where all of this leads. The mind boggles. Once again, Mr Besson, we geeks are humbled. Wow!!!