Passenger News

[nasturtium-leas.livejournal.com]

This link http://www.projectgenome.net/?p=4331 says referring to it's being listed on the Hollywood Stock Exchange:

"IPOed at $8.00 on 7/31/07: Per HSX:

Elijah Wood will portray legendary rocker Iggy Pop in the biopic The Passenger. The film covers Pop’s early years when he was part of the Stooges. Nick Gomez will direct with a script from Eric Schmid.

Priced at $8.00 on 7/31/07, Roger More writes:
The movie is budgeted at $6 to $8 million dollars and seems destined for limited release. Filming will take place sometime in the last six months of 2007 and release is scheduled for midsummer 2008."

And here is The Passenger page on the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

http://movies.hsx.com/servlet/SecurityDetail?symbol=PASNG

So I guess this is positive news that the film is a go?

Comments

[bellewood.livejournal.com]

I just got this too...It does sound promising! I hadn't seen that Australian interview plus 'I'm Bored' track before.. I can just see our Lij prancing like that, can't you..lol!

[chickenlegs-11.livejournal.com]

Ah yes! That Australian interview of Iggy on Countdown with "Molly" Meldrum is legendary here. Whenever I imagine Elijah playing Iggy that interview always comes to mind.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Nope. Nothing is ever positive about the making of a film, not even after the cameras start rolling. Lots of great films go into turnaround, or get derailed by bad luck, or end up on a shelf after they've been finished. Just ask Terry Gilliam; he'll spend five hours regaling you about the whys and wherefores of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

This is especially true of low-budget films. A producer I worked for once told me that if you walk into a meeting and ask for $3 million to make a film, you'll get a "No". But if you ask for $65 million, you'll get a "Maybe". Odd, isn't it?

The budget is low, the star is not a guaranteed draw, and the subject matter is dodgy at best. As interesting as this project sounds, I'll believe it when I see it.

[chickenlegs-11.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of what you say is true. I've been meaning to watch The Man Who Killed Don Quixote but haven't gotten around to it yet. One doco I have seen which examines the same issues is "Killing Priscilla" which looks at the story behind director Stephan Elliot's filming of "Eye of the Beholder" starring Ewan McGregor. It really makes you wonder how any writer/director ever gets a project off the ground, much less get it to the screen in tact.

As for The Passenger - not only is the star not a guaranteed draw as you say, but I would guess that the general feeling would be disbelief that Elijah could pull it off, which would also work against the project ever taking off. Not sure I understand what you mean by the subject matter being dodgy though.

I would love to see Elijah give this a go and see what he does with it, so I still have my fingers crossed.

[ms-banazira.livejournal.com]

Crossing all available appendages!

[bunniewabbit.livejournal.com]

This sounds a lot like a regurgitation of the Variety announcement from a couple of months ago. I don't suppose it means that things are really moving forward, yet.

Limited release. Bah.