Penélope Cruz, Yohana Cobo in Volver
Two of the best film news of late:
- Spanish Academy Goya winner and Academy Award nominee Penélope Cruz will star in Woody Allen's next film, to be shot in Barcelona during the summer.
- Spanish Academy Goya winner and Academy Award nominee Penélope Cruz will star in Pedro Almodóvar's next film, La Piel que habito ("The Skin I Live In").
Important detail: Almodóvar is not 100% sure that his next project will be La Piel que habito. He will, however, make up his mind in the next few weeks.
The inspiration for La Piel que habito is French author Thierry Jonquet's 1995 noir novel Mygale, which traces several seemingly disparate stories that eventually converge into a tale about a plastic surgeon bent on revenge against the man who raped his daughter, leaving her mentally unstable. (Jonquet, a former occupational therapist and soap salesman, says the inspiration for his tale comes from "the barbarity of the world we live in.")
Several years ago, Antonio Banderas' name was mentioned in conjunction with the project, but he seems to be out of the running at this point.
Now, I assume that either the plastic surgeon will become a "she," or that Cruz's casting in the film has something to do with the novel's "gender-bending ending," as referred to in a review from the St. Petersburg Times. Almodóvar has said that his "immensely tough and complicated" film adaptation will be quite different from the novel — and that may be a major understatement. According to a Variety report, only one scene found in the book should be left intact in the final screenplay.
The director, whose Volver has just won five Goyas, including best film, best direction, and best actress (Cruz), says that Mygale will be "the kind of film that's discomfiting and doesn't tend to win many awards."
The French word "mygale" ("tarantula") is derived from the Greek word for "shrew." Those large, furry tropical spiders only go out at night, they devour their prey slowly, and only need to eat every month or two.
Jonquet quote: City Lights
Almodóvar quotes: Variety