Thompson on Hollywood has found an interview Roman Polanski gave with French newspaper Le Figaro back in October. Polanski was promoting his adaptation of Yasmina Reza's French play, “God of Carnage” (re-titled “Carnage” for the film) at the time. The director’s legal problems were “off the table,” but he talked about other things, like his proposed “Tintin” adaptation: “I quickly abandoned the idea: actors and natural settings could not work as well as comics,” Polanski said. “Steven Spielberg is perfect for it, because the technology has allowed him to transform human beings into cartoon characters embedded in settings that reflect the real world.”
Polanski pointed out that there was an alarming number of special effects shots in "Carnage" (“…400 digital effects, including everything you see through the windows”) and he’d like to next make a pre-WWII film about aging: “It would follow the stages in the life of a woman who would not have at her disposal the resources of today like cosmetic surgery, creams and pills.” The subject seems to be a popular one — sort of — lately, with David Fincher reversing the process in "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" and Michael Haneke tackling it head on in his upcoming film "Love." And with time, comes nostaglia and Polanski pines for the days of old.
In the interview, the legally exiled Polanski also mentions how he misses Hollywood. “I do miss my friends from there. I see them every two or three years when they visit Paris. Like Harrison Ford. Jack Nicholson I see less often than before. But I saw Adrien Brody, not long ago…I miss it.”
Here’s hoping Polanski gets to work on his aging film. He’s certainly controversial, but he’s one of the best, and he’s not getting any younger himself, at 78-years-old. "Carnage" hits theaters on December 16th.
