Roman Polanski's recent arrest in Switzerland has left his latest film on the shelf, with several months of work before the political thriller is ready for theatrical release.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Polanski's agent, ICM chief Jeff Berg, said Polanski had completed much of the editing on "The Ghost." But other postproduction work, including music scoring and sound mixing, has yet to be done.
Based on the novel by Robert Harris, "The Ghost" stars Pierce Brosnan as fictional former British leader Adam Lang and Ewan McGregor as a ghostwriter hired to help complete his memoirs. The cast includes Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson, Olivia Williams and James Belushi.
The novel caused a controversy in Britain for Lang's resemblance to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Like Blair, the Lang character is a once-popular leader brought down by his allegiance with the U.S. in the war on terror.
While the film does not yet have a U.S. deal, it has distribution in many overseas territories, among them Germany, where it was shot early this year, and France, where Polanski lives. He fled America in 1978 after pleading guilty to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles.
Polanski was arrested over the weekend in Zurich, where he had traveled to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival. His lawyer said Polanski will fight U.S. attempts to have him returned to the U.S.
"The Ghost" is the first Polanski movie with a U.S. setting since 1974's "Chinatown." Locations in Germany had to stand in for the story's New England settings.
Polanski's films also include 1965’s "Repulsion," 1968’s "Rosemary's Baby," 1979’s "Tess," and the Holocaust film "The Pianist," which earned him the 2002 Academy Award for best director. The film was based on Polanksi’s own experiences as a Holocaust survivor who successfully escaped the Kraków Ghetto in 1943.
In 1969, his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson Family.
With Polanski jailed, it's unknown when work might resume on "The Ghost."
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