Director Neil Jordan has bought the film rights to Patrick McCabe's latest novel, Breakfast in Pluto, following the success of the screen version of The Butcher Boy. Jordan, who was promoting Friday's video release of The Butcher Boy, said he might need the author's help to adapt the latest work. "I'm writing that screenplay myself, but I might ask for Pat's help," said Jordan yesterday. "It's a much harder book to adapt."
Jordan dons his executive producer hat next week when shooting starts in Slane, Co Meath, on Deborah Warner's film of the Elizabeth Bowen novel, The Last September, starring Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Jane Birkin and Michael Gambon. "I bought the rights to the novel years ago and John Banville has written a beautiful screenplay from it," said Jordan. "There never really has been a film that examined the culture of the Anglo-Irish, which makes this particularly interesting."
Meanwhile, Jordan is busily preparing for his own next film as a writer and director, his adaptation of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair, first filmed in 1955 with Van Johnson and Deborah Kerr in the leading roles. Jordan has signed up Ralph Fiennes to play the male lead, but as yet has no idea who will co-star in the film, which starts shooting in London early in 1999.
Around the same time, Jordan's latest film, In Dreams, should be arriving in our cinemas, and word from the set is that audiences will find it terrifying. It features Annette Bening as a woman psychically connected to the mind of a madman. It stars Robert Downey jnr, Aidan Quinn and Stephen Rea. The film was shot on location in Massachusetts last year.
"It's a psychological horror movie," Jordan said. "It's not Jason or one of those shock-a-minute horrors. It's more about dread, more in the world of Repulsion and Don't Look Now. It's been a long time since there has been a film like that. I think it's time for a serious horror movie."