“Westworld” co-creator Lisa Joy is taking on another sci-fi story for her feature directorial debut. She’ll helm “Reminiscence,” a co-production between Kilter Films, Michael De Luca Productions, and FilmNation Entertainment. Deadline reports that Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson are finalizing deals to star in the pic, which will be shopped to major studios at the European Film Market next week.
Penned by Joy, the script, which made the Black List, tells the story of “a private eye [Jackman] who deals in recapturing vivid cherished memories for clients. He becomes vexed by one of those clients (Ferguson). It is set slightly in the future in a Miami that has been changed by global warming, with much of the city submerged underwater,” the source summarizes.
“It has been a labor of love and also vision,” Joy told Deadline. “I know exactly what I want this to be, including all of the action set pieces, and turning Miami into a sunken world. Working on ‘Westworld’ has been an incredible experience in learning to make something with the scope of a feature on a TV timeline with a budget nowhere near what you would expect for a feature film equivalent.”
The writer-director explained that she spends a lot of time thinking about “the ideas of tropes in femininity and masculinity” while working on “Westworld” and when she was conceiving “Reminiscence.” “Film has this way of being able to say, push closer. Look at this person, fully. Don’t just look at who they should be, or who society thinks they should be. Try to embrace all of them. For me that’s really important for the women and the male characters,” she emphasized. “A lot of time in thrillers and any kind of major genre films, the women are either the good girl, a little bit passive and waiting around for love. Or they’re the bad girl, that comes with sexuality and all sorts of things that are thought of as more risqué. And the truth is, that’s complete nonsense. Women have just as many multitudes as men. And men have more dimension to them than we are usually allowed in film. This odyssey in love is seeing characters, fully. Both the women and the men.”
Based on the 1972 film from Michael Crichton, “Westworld” is set in a high-tech, Western theme park where civilians can pay five figures to interact with robots who are programmed to acquiesce to any human desire. Season 3 has been confirmed, but a release date hasn’t been announced yet. Joy directed “The Riddle of the Sphinx,” a 2018 episode of the sci-fi Western. “Burn Notice” and “Pushing Daisies” are among her previous writing credits.
Other women-directed sci-fi features on the way include Eliza Hooper’s “Wellwood,” a story involving an extraterrestrial discovery that may cure a terminal illness, and Rebecca Thomas’ “Intelligent Life,” about a UN worker who surveils outer space.
