WoW Insider is getting ready for BlizzCon!

Tommy Lee Jones Plans to Direct 'Islands in the Stream'

No, it won't be a movie based on the duet between Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It will be a movie version of the Ernest Hemingway novel, posthumously published in 1970, about an American painter who lives the quiet life in the Bahamas and ends up getting entangled in some naval activities-adventures at the tail end of World War II. The book has already been filmed once, in 1977, with George C. Scott in the pivotal role but that version wasn't well-received. Tommy Lee Jones tells The Telegraph in a new interview that this project is likely to be his directing follow-up to 2005's very well-received The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Jones says of the project "In the 1970s it was made into a bad movie. I reckon there's a good movie in that book and that's the one I want to make." The actor-director is currently at work on a script for the film, but offered no other details about how far along in the process he is.

The interview also contains some other interesting tidbits, such as Jones' assertion that his character in In the Valley of Elah is intensely dislikeable. "I was really interested in the more disgusting aspects of the man," Jones says. "Old Hank is the kind of character that I, personally, would dismiss. He's certainly ethnocentric and blindly, unquestioningly patriotic. I looked upon him as typical of the sort of person who can be led by the nose by jingoistic headlines into a fraudulent war." He also gets into the subject of No Country for Old Men and how he approaches acting and working with directors -- all in all it's a pretty interesting read.

Related Headlines

Reader Comments

(Page 1)
NEWS
Awards (991)
Box Office (723)
Casting (4453)
Celebrities and Controversy (2201)
Columns (323)
Contests (272)
Deals (3681)
Distribution (1225)
DIY/Filmmaking (2087)
Executive shifts (104)
Exhibition (807)
Fandom (6298)
Home Entertainment (1581)
Images (1055)
Lists (480)
Moviefone Feedback (6)
Movie Marketing (2867)
New Releases (2261)
Newsstand (5191)
NSFW (105)
Obits (334)
Oscar Watch (612)
Politics (896)
Polls (85)
Posters (293)
RumorMonger (2701)
Scripts (1941)
Site Announcements (293)
Stars in Rewind (96)
Tech Stuff (442)
Trailers and Clips (1350)
BOLDFACE NAMES
James Bond (239)
George Clooney (163)
Daniel Craig (99)
Tom Cruise (252)
Johnny Depp (184)
Peter Jackson (149)
Angelina Jolie (178)
Nicole Kidman (62)
George Lucas (211)
Michael Moore (74)
Brad Pitt (189)
Harry Potter (201)
Steven Spielberg (325)
Quentin Tarantino (181)
FEATURES
Movies We're Thankful For (5)
12 Days of Cinematicalmas (60)
400 Screens, 400 Blows (152)
After Image (40)
Best/Worst (38)
Bondcast (8)
Box Office Predictions (129)
Celebrities Gone Wild! (26)
Cinematical Indie (4316)
Cinematical Indie Chat (4)
Cinematical Seven (363)
Cinematical's SmartGossip! (49)
Coming Distractions (13)
Critical Thought (352)
DVD Reviews (246)
Eat My Shorts! (16)
Fan Made (32)
Fan Rant (117)
Festival Reports (1072)
Film Blog Group Hug (58)
Film Clips (41)
Friday Night Double Feature (40)
From Page to Screen (26)
From the Editor's Desk (69)
Geek Report (85)
Girls on Film (7)
Guilty Pleasures (29)
Holiday Movie Junk (23)
Hold the 'Fone (430)
Indie Seen (7)
Indie Spotlight (26)
Insert Caption (169)
Interviews (398)
Killer B's on DVD (80)
Monday Morning Poll (58)
Movie Games (4)
New in Theaters (347)
New on DVD (346)
Podcasts (134)
Retro Cinema (81)
Review Roundup (47)
The Scary Bits (17)
Scene Stealers (14)
Scenes We Love (75)
Seven Days of 007 (25)
Summer Movies (157)
Sundance Reviews 2009 (29)
The Geek Beat (80)
The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar (39)
The Rocchi Review: Online Film Community Podcast (41)
The Write Stuff (26)
Theatrical Reviews (1953)
Trailer Trash (507)
Unscripted (41)
Vintage Image of the Day (140)
GENRES
Action (6109)
Animation (1202)
Classics (1154)
Comedy (5609)
Comic/Superhero/Geek (3148)
Documentary (1566)
Drama (6626)
Family Films (1384)
Foreign Language (1703)
Games and Game Movies (342)
Gay & Lesbian (258)
Horror (2699)
Independent (3570)
Music & Musicals (1054)
Noir (239)
Mystery & Suspense (1057)
Religious (132)
Remakes and Sequels (4473)
Romance (1479)
Sci-Fi & Fantasy (3879)
Shorts (302)
Sports (318)
Thrillers (2187)
War (383)
Western (113)
FESTIVALS
Oxford Film Festival (5)
AFI Dallas (48)
Austin (25)
Berlin (91)
Cannes (357)
Chicago (18)
CineVegas (21)
ComicCon (144)
Fantastic Fest (94)
Gen Art (14)
Los Angeles Film Festival (11)
New York (57)
Other Festivals (313)
Philadelphia Film Festival (13)
San Francisco International Film Festival (34)
Seattle (67)
ShoWest (6)
Slamdance (25)
Sundance (708)
SXSW (353)
Telluride (81)
Toronto International Film Festival (442)
Tribeca (289)
Venice Film Festival (15)
WonderCon (2)
Friday Night Double Feature (1)
DISTRIBUTORS
Roadside Attractions (8)
20th Century Fox (772)
Artisan (2)
Disney (663)
Dreamworks (341)
Fine Line (4)
Focus Features (174)
Fox Atomic (21)
Fox Searchlight (205)
HBO Films (36)
IFC (144)
Lionsgate Films (472)
Magnolia (142)
Miramax (92)
MGM (218)
New Line (417)
Newmarket (17)
New Yorker (6)
Picturehouse (16)
Paramount (716)
Paramount Vantage (51)
Paramount Vantage (16)
Paramount Classics (49)
Samuel Goldwyn Films (16)
Sony (634)
Sony Classics (174)
ThinkFilm (117)
United Artists (44)
Universal (804)
Warner Brothers (1225)
Warner Independent Pictures (98)
The Weinstein Co. (516)
Wellspring (6)

RESOURCES

RSS NEWSFEEDS

  • RSS News Feed
Powered by Blogsmith

Sponsored Links

Most Commented On (60 days)

Recent Comments

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: