My t-shirts often get comments from the talent at press days (Kurt Russell loved this one), but today one may have gotten me a scoop. When I sat down to have a one on one interview with the legendary director William Friedkin to talk about his creepy and excellent new film, Bug, he took notice of my Woody Allen shirt. That prompted him to tell me about the project he and Woody Allen were working on next year… an opera.
Friedkin said that they would put on Puccini’s Il Trittico, which consists of three short operas. ‘They were written together but they’re not often played together,’ Friedkin, who has recently been spending more and more time directing operas, told me. ‘One is called Il Tabarro, one is called Suor Angelica and the third is a hilarious comedy, Gianni Schicchi. I directed Gianni Schicchi in Washington and Los Angeles with other operas, but not Il Trittico. The LA Opera has been trying to get Woody to do an opera, and he says, "I’ll only do a small opera." They finally convinced him to do Gianni Schicchi, and in the same evening I’ll do Il Tabarro and Suor Angelico. I’ve done Schicchi and had a wonderful response to it, and I’m delighted to see what he does with it.’
The plan, Friedkin told me, is to open Il Trittico next September at the Los Angeles Opera. Maybe if these guys like working together (or on the same stage anyway) they can do the next Grindhouse together – how much would you pay to see a new Woody Allen sex comedy AND a new Friedkin cop movie, side by side? Michael Cimino and The Ghost of Hal Ashby could do the fake trailers.
Look for the full Friedkin interview soon.