Forster will direct and produced unmade Kubrick Civil War drama, The Downslope.
NewsStanley Kubrick has been gone now for over 16 years, but the legendary filmmaker’s work will be heading to the screen once again.
Variety reports that director Marc Forster (World War Z, Finding Neverland, Quantum of Solace) will direct and produce The Downslope, a Civil War drama and original screenplay penned by Kubrick in 1956. Forster is aiming to make the project a trilogy and will produce subsequent installments.
The Downslope, developed by Kubrick with Civil War historian Shelby Foote, is about a chain of battles between Union General George Armstrong Custer and Confederate Colonel John Singleton “Gray Ghost” Mosby in the Shenandoah Valley. The elusive colonel led his Mosby’s Raiders on a series of raids that continually hurt and embarrassed Custer’s much larger army, creating a dangerous back-and-forth between the two forces.
The film falls in line with one of the major themes of Kubrick’s work: the absurdity of war. The Downslope was written in between the release of the allegorical war film, Fear and Desire, and the WWI anti-war story, Paths of Glory.
The original screenplay takes place towards the end of the Civil War, and subsequent sequels will take place post-war, as Americans begin settling west.
The Kubrick family is completely behind the development of this unproduced screenplay. There is currently no word on when production on The Downslope will begin.
