Since A.I., It’s been a quiet time for concepts that were planned as Stanley Kubrick films, only to be lost and dug up by other filmmakers. But now** Lunatic At Large**, an old treatment commissioned by the legendary director and written by Jim Thompson, has surfaced, with Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson attached as the leads.
Thompson, who worked with Kubrick on The Killing and Paths Of Glory, penned the original treatment in the late ‘50s at the director’s request, and it was considered as his follow-up to Spartacus. But it was since lost to the mists of time and the archives of Kubrick’s extensive library.
Now, according to Production Weekly’s Twitter feed (as spotted by The Playlist), it’s back on track having been discovered by Kubrick’s son-in-law/archivist Philip Hobbs.
Actually, it was dug out a few years ago, and in 2006, Stephen R Clarke fleshed out the document as a screenplay which follows ex-carnival worker Johnnie Sheppard, a man dealing with serious anger issues, who strikes up a relationship with barfly Joyce. There’s some mystery as to one of the characters being an escapee from the nearby asylum and as series of strange events as they bond.
There’s no word yet on whether Clarke’s script will be used or if Chris Palmer, who had set the film up as his directorial debut, is still attached, but it’s still a tantalising prospect to think of another Kubrick’s many lost works finally reaching the screen.