After City of God and The Constant Gardner, Fernando Mereilles suddenly whiffed it with Blindness in 2008, and he’s been pretty much out of it since then. A couple of projects have been pending, and there’s been producing, but as a director the South American has been quiet.
That could be over, as he may have found his next project, which would team him with noted playwright Peter Morgan, and it’s going to be a grown up movie. 360 is the title and it’s not about the new slimline Xbox; rather 360 is a tale of sex and social class. Here’s Deadline’s synopsis:
360 examines sexual morals within and between social classes, using various pairs of characters who have sexual encounters in and outside of their social classes. Morgan’s inspiration is Reigen, the play by Austrian author/playwright Arthur Schnitzler. Originally published in 1900, the play was scandalous when first made public. It has since been turned into several films that include the 1950 French language drama La Ronde. Dor Film is also producing 360, a contemporized version of Schnitzler’s work.
So it looks like Mereilles is going ultra-arthouse on this one, since social class and sexuality don’t really spell blockbuster, even in the indie world. Expect him to score some pretty great talent, them to do sex scenes, the film to play festivals and NY and LA, and then the sex scenes to end up on the internet and be the most exposure the majority of the population has to 360.