Two days prior to the Oscars, where “The Favourite” is nominated for 10 awards, Yorgos Lanthimos’ next project has been revealed. The Greek auteur will write and direct “Pop. 1280,” reports Deadline, based on the 1964 Jim Thompson novel of the same name. The film will be produced by Imperative Entertainment, Element Pictures, Lanthimos, and Discovery Productions.
About a small-town sheriff whose corruption escalates in the lead-up to his next election, “Pop. 1280” was previously adapted as “Coup de Torchon” in 1981 by Bertrand Tavernier. Thompson also wrote “The Killer Inside Me,” which was made into a controversial film by Michael Winterbottom in 2010, among many other crime novels; though he received little recognition during his life, Thompson has come to be revered as an exemplar of the genre.
Given that the story is set in West Texas, “Pop. 1280” is likely to be Lanthimos’ fourth-consecutive English-language project after “The Lobster,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” and now “The Favourite”; it is also his fourth project with Andrew Lowe and Ed Guiney of Element Pictures. While his period piece starring Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone has received the most awards attention of any of his films, “Dogtooth” earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film and Lanthimos was up for Best Original Screenplay for “The Lobster” at the 2017 ceremony.
“The Favourite” and “Roma” lead all Oscar nominees with 10 apiece, and are in fact nominated in several of the same categories: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, and Production Design. Lanthimos was named Best Director at the British Independent Film Awards and nominated in the same category at the BAFTA Awards and Critics’ Choice Awards.