The company behind hits like Bridget Jones' Diary, Four Weddings
and a Funeral, The Big Lebowski and Notting Hill is producing a major
film about the 1996 Everest disaster described in Jon Krakauer's best
seller, into thin air.
Director Stephen Daldry - think Billy Elliot - has just visited
the mountain on a reconnaisance trip climbing as high as the Khumbu
Ice Fall, which he reportedly found incredibly hard. In an article in
the Telegraph, he's quoted as saying that ""I was astonished how hard
it was and my admiration for those who climb has deepened
immeasurably."
Friends apparently describe him as an 'Everest Nut' and he felt
that visiting the mountain was the only way of getting an idea of
what things were like on Everest. He's no climber however, and the
lack of oxygen and scale of the mountain astonished him.
Daldry directed Billy Elliot and The Hours as well as numerous
stage plays, but is concentrating on the new Everest project. Working
with him are American mountaineers David Breashears and Ed Viesturs
who were filming the IMAX Everest movie in 1996 when the disaster,
which killed eight people happened.
The pair are currently filming background images for the film on
the mountain and, according to the Telegraph, are planning to film
dawn from the summit. While Daldry acknowledges that the actors cast
for the film will have to be 'super-fit', there's no chance of them
actually filming on Everest itself. Instead it seems likely that the
production will follow the lead of other mountaineering films, such
as Touching The Void (the Alps) or Vertical Limit (Andes) and use
more accessible mountain locations.
The Universal
Pictures film's due to be released in 2006 and has a colossal
£56 million budget. More detail on the Telegraph
web site. See also the incredibly irritating Working
Title web site and this
story on the Outside web site.
