Marc Foster, who just directed World War Z, is next set to direct the first film in a planned trilogy based on Stanley Kubrick’s unproduced 1956 screenplay The Downslope. The project is set during the Civil War, a period Kubrick never captured in any of his completed films.
Forster is set to at least direct the first film and will be producing the last two parts. Co-producers include Lauren Selig,m Barry LEvine and Renee Wolfe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was Selig who contacted the script’s rights holders, Phil Hobbs and Steve Lanning. In addition, the team of producers got the support of the Kubrick family.
Kubrick penned The Downslope after completing his first feature film, 1953’s Fear and Desire. As Deadline notes, the anti-war plot focuses on the battles between Union Gen. George Armstrong Custer and Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby. Mosby often outsmarted Custer and the two plotted revenge against one another.
Kubrick was fascinated by war and its effect on human nature. He touched on war in Paths of Glory, Full Metal Jacket, Spartacus, Barry Lyndon and - in a very different context - Dr. Strangelove. Aside from The Downslope, Kubrick’s most famous unproduced screenplay is also about war. Steven Spielberg has been talking about bringing Napoleon to life as a miniseries for years, but nothing has come of it.
Although the Downslope script was only for one film, the subsequent movies in the series will expand on Kubrick’s themes and other American ideas from the 1800s, including the Manifest Destiny.
Forster is currently working on All I See Is You with Blake Lively and Jason Clarke. In addition to WWZ, he has also directed Monster’s Ball and Finding Neverland.
image of Marc Forster courtesy of Zak Hussein/INFphoto.com