So Where Has SKY CAPTAIN’s Kerry Conran Been?

Director Kerry Conran’s debut Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow was not greeted that warmly be either critics or audiences and I thought that was a shame. I’m a sucker for 1930s, pulp-ish adventure and Conran’s film delivered that in spades. But it seemed as if audiences weren’t receptive to the way he shot his actors or green screen stages and then filled in the backgrounds with a stylized rendition of the 1930s that was ultimately more evokative of the decade than any photorealistic backgrounds would have achieved. For me it was a great combination and I was anxious to see more of what he had to offer.

And for a while, it looked as if Conran’s next project was going to be an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars when the project was still being developed at Paramount Studios. And although he worked with producer James Jacks (A Simple Plan, Dazed And Confused) and Ain’t It Cool maestro Harry Knowles on the project for awhile, it never got enough traction at the studio to get in front of the cameras. (The rights to Burroughs’s books eventually made their way to Disney and we know how that worked out.)

And although he co-directing a short film called Gumball last year, there hasn’t been word of when Conran will be returning with a new feature film. Until today, that is, as the Hollywood Reporter brings us word as to what the director has been up to. The news comes buried deep inside an article about the financial difficulties that Knowles’ website is in the process of emerging from. It mentions that Harry had been working with producer Jacks on a few other projects outside of John Carter Of Mars, one of which sees the pair working with Conran again.

[T]hey’re working again with Conran on a sci-fi project titled The True History of the World; it could become Conran’s first feature since his 2004 debut. Conran has spent years on the film’s design, and Jacks is prepping to take it out to financiers.

With knowing absolutely nothing about the film’s plot, I am still looking forward to seeing what he has come up with. But while we wait for more word on True History, check out Conran’s demo reel for John Carter Of Mars as well as his short film Gumdrop.