He’s directed rom-coms and dog-coms, films about birders and movies about fashion fiends. But now David Frankel appears ready to take on the sci-fi genre, albeit blending in a little romance for good measure, with **Departure{
Captain Phillips’ Billy Ray wrote the script, which draws on a real-life mid-air mystery. The film will be set in Miami in 1973 and finds a genius investigating how a 727 disappeared into thin air, only to reappear in the exact same spot ten minutes later. As the phenomenon spreads to other planes in the sky, our hero’s world is thrown into chaos and he’s given extra drive when someone he loves is on one of the craft affected.
The screenplay is partly inspired by Martin Caidin’s book Ghosts Of The Air, which contains real accounts from pilots who have been through such strange anomalies. Production company Good Universe is backing this one, and will be looking for a distributor now the movie has a director in place.
Frankel last made Paul Potts drama One Chance and is developing a number of projects including a TV movie adaptation of Douglas Coupland’s novel Girlfriend In A Coma.