At the Toronto junket for Rian Johnson’s excellent crime caper movie The Brothers Bloom, which is premiering at the annual Toronto International Film Festival next week, Rachel Weisz told ComingSoon.net that the next film she does will be the eco-drama Luna, based on Julia Butterfly Hill’s autobiography “The Legacy of Luna” about a woman who lives in the branches of a Redwood tree for two years to protect the forest from the lumber companies.
That’s not such big news because Weisz has been attached to star in the movie for over a year, but originally Canadian director Deepa Mehta, whose film Water kicked off the festival two years ago, was supposed to direct the film, but apparently one of the film’s writers, Laurie Collyer, has taken over directing the film as well, according to Weisz.
Collyer’s previous film and directorial debut was the intense indie drama SherryBaby, which featured a critically-acclaimed performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Weisz said that the film will start shooting in December or January, but that she’s spoken to Julia at length on the phone and plans to visit the Redwoods in Humboldt (where the film will presumably be shot) in November. Weisz just finished shooting Alejandro Amenábar’s historic epic Agora, set in 300 AD Alexandria, and we’ll have more with the actress before the platform release of The Brothers Bloom on December 19.