When Stanley Kubrick died in 1999, he left behind an archive of of his work, including several projects he’d wanted to make but never got around to filming. More than 20 years later, one of those unmade Stanley Kubrick projects is getting the big-screen treatment at last.

The film is titled Lunatic at LargeAccording to a 2006 article on the project, Kubrick “commissioned [the treatment] in the late ’50s from the noir pulp novelist Jim Thompson, with whom he had worked on The Killing.” Shortly after the treatment was written, Kubrick got hired to direct Spartacus for Kurt Russell, changing the course of his career. Lunatic at Large faded into obscurity for decades.

Now, producers Bruce Hendricks and Galen Walker have acquired the rights to turn the treatment into a film. More, via Variety:

Plot details are under wraps, but producers described it as a film-noir thriller in keeping with other collaborations between Kubrick and his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Jim Thompson. Production is slated to begin in fall 2021.

This is not the first time a modern-day Lunatic at Large has been discussed. Just last summer, there were reports that Terry Gilliam was all set to make his own film of the concept, but the coronavirus pandemic killed the production. “I was doing a film that was originally an idea by Stanley Kubrick,” Gilliam said at the time. “There was a script and I had a cast, but the lockdown has ruined everything.” Prior to that, Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson were attached to a different Lunatic at Large project back in 2010. I guess if you’ve already waited 60 years for this thing, what’s the big deal about waiting a few more?

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