Director Lenny Abrahamson is on a bit of a roll at the moment.
Of course, there’s the fact that he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on “Room,” which was so exemplary that Brie Larson won the Best Actress gong for her performance, while the film itself was nominated for Best Picture.
His follow-up “The Little Stranger,” a gothic horror starring Domhnall Gleeson as a doctor and Ruth Wilson as the eldest daughter of the alluring family he is trying to treat, has been widely praised, too, while his previous film “Frank” was just as lauded.
In fact, all of Abrahamson’s films have received acclaim, even if his early Irish indies mostly went under the radar.
So, of course, when I spoke to the director earlier this month I was eager to know exactly what he was working on next. Luckily for me, Abrahamson was more than happy to divulge this information.
“The next film I think is going to be a film about a real guy called Emile Griffith.”
“He was a black boxer in the 1950s to the 1970s, who came from the American Virgin Islands to New York in the 1950s and had this incredible career as a boxer.”
“But he was gay and had a double life in the underground gay scene around Times Square and then in the macho boxing world. He just had the most extraordinary life.”
“We are not quite ready to cast yet. I am working on the script with a brilliant screenwriter called John Raymond. But the plan is to make the film next year. All going well.”
“We are using excellent books as source material. A pair of incredible books, one by Don McRae and one by Ron Ross, and all these articles and pieces.”
“But actually it is delving into this real life. It is great to do that, because it is a very different feeling and way of working. I am pretty sure that will be the next film.”
But while Abrahamson is hopeful this biopic will be his next film, he also has another literary adaptation in the pipeline, which is a process he underwent for both “Room” and “The Little Stranger.”
“There is another novel. There’s this brilliant novel by Laird Hunt called ‘Neverhome,’ about the American Civil War. So I am not saying bye to literary adaptations.”
You can check out Abrahamson’s most recent work behind the camera now, as “The Little Stranger” is finally in cinemas.
