Hair-Raising Likeness
In the 2000s, an extraordinary murder investigation was conducted in Poland by a detective named Jacek Wróblewski. One of the key clues was a Polish novel published in 2003, which the detective discovered after he started digging into the case. Entitled Amok / Frenzy, it led Wróblewski to suspect its author of committing the crime. In this unpleasant book the writer in question, a man called Krystian Bala, described a character named Chris whose story was remarkably similar to the novelist’s. Like Krystian, Chris had gone bankrupt and been left by his wife. The character commits a murder with eerie similarities to the crime Wróblewski was investigating. The detective noticed this hair-raising likeness and therefore put the author under scrutiny. Thanks to Wróblewski’s analytical skills the writer was eventually found guilty and put behind bars.
Opus Film
Krystian Bala’ shocking story has drawn a lot of attention from people in Poland and abroad. Consequently, a lengthy article about the case appeared in the New Yorker, which in turn prompted the creation of a film script about Wróblewski’s investigation; a film based on this screenplay is being made in Poland. It is entitled True Crimes and will star Jim Carrey and feature, amongst others, Polish actor Zbigniew Zamachowski and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The cast will include Polish actress Agata Kulesza, who starred in the Polish film Ida, winner of this year’s Oscar for best foreign language film. The Łódź studio Opus Film, which worked on Ida, is co-producing the thriller based on the New Yorker article. Their production partners in the True Crimes project are the American Brett Ratner, who has worked on such films as Red Dragon and Horrible Bosses and Canadian-born David Gerson, the production executive on the Oscar-winning Milk from 2008. The Polish side of the co-production is being overlooked Ewa Puszczyńska, one of the producers of Ida. The film’s star, Jim Carrey, is a globally-recognised Canadian actor with a slew of both of popular and critical hits in his filmography, such as The Mask and The Truman Show.
The shooting of True Crimes started on 7th October in Kraków and is scheduled to end in the second half of December. The film’s premiere date has not been announced yet.
A New Interest
After Ida won an Academy Award there was some talk in Poland that this success could be the beginning of a new interest in Polish cinema across the world. Now this notion seems to be being proven correct given the fact that only months after the 2015 Oscar ceremony the Polish studio best-known for its work on this film is already involved in the making of a serious transnational co-production featuring internationally-recognized actors. It’s also worth mentioning that True Crimes isn’t the only interesting upcoming film co-produced by Polish and foreign parties. For instance, Agnus Dei will also have its premiere in 2016. This movie, directed by France’s Anne Fontaine, who worked for instance on Coco Before Chanel, tells the post-World War II tale of a Polish convent.