Del Toro. Navarro. Now Guillermo Arriaga, writer of Babel and 21 Grams, is set to get behind the camera for his first feature directing gig, based on his own script The Burning Plain. Call me curious; I’d be less interested in Arriaga if he hadn’t written the amazing Amores Perros and The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada in addition to
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s latter pair of overly serious downer flicks.

Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger are starring; Basinger plays the mother of a young version of Theron’s character, who as an adult is trying to reconcile some sort of relationship with her family after a rugged upbringing. That could summarize just about anything; maybe Charlize is upset because Kim made her measure out mercury in the family thermometer factory? Or was Basinger a Thuggee cultist, and young Charlize responsible for polishing the death cage?

The best part is the last line of Variety’s plot summation: "The two narratives eventually converge." From Arriaga? Quelle surprise.