Australian filmmaker Peter Weir is regarded as one of the most solid directors in both his native country and in Hollywood. Multiple academy award nominee Weir is now attached to helm contemporary Gothic thriller The Keep, adapting Jennifer Egan’s 2006 best-seller.
The cineaste, who gave us The Truman Show and Dead Poets Society, upcoming film revolves around two American cousin who set out to renovate a European medieval castle as an alternative resort.
Weir will direct from his own screenplay and has described the project as, ‘Basically, … a studio-shoot movie.’
Shooting on the French/Australian co-production kicks off next spring in Europe with post set to be completed in Australia.
Here’s the description from the novel for Weir’s The Way Back follow-up:
Two cousins, irreversibly damaged by a childhood prank whose devastating consequences changed both their lives, reunite twenty years later to renovate a medieval castle in Eastern Europe, a castle steeped in blood lore and family pride. Built over a secret system of caves and tunnels, the castle and its violent history invoke and subvert all the elements of a Gothic past: twins, a pool, an old baroness, a fearsome tower. In an environment of extreme paranoia, cut off from the outside world, the men reenact the signal event of their youth, with even more catastrophic results. And as the full horror of their predicament unfolds, a prisoner, in jail for an unnamed crime, recounts an unforgettable story — a story about two cousins who unite to renovate a castle — that brings the crimes of the past and present into piercing relation.”The Keep, which is in its early stages is described as The Ring meets Inception, so look for more soon.
