Acclaimed Music Video Director Chris Milk To Helm 'Bitterroot' Produced By Gore Verbinski

by Kevin Jagernauth
October 28, 2011 1:17 AM
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Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures To Finance

It seems acclaimed music video director Chris Milk has found a new best bud in everyone's favorite young, billionaire movie producer/financier Megan Ellison. Earlier in the month it was announced the pair were teaming on an ambitious film adaptation of the album Rome, a record that teamed Gnarls Barkley/Beck producer Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi on an album of spaghetti Western homages. But it looks like he's going to get something a bit less high concept for his first crack at a feature film.

Originally developed as a directorial vehicle for Gore Verbinski, he'll instead take on producer duties with Ellison set to finance "Bitterroot," with Milk at the helm. Penned by Michael Gilio, the Black List script (originally titled "Black Hole") tells the story of an aging rancher in Montana who gets his life savings taken from him in a phone solicitation bank scam. With no one stepping up to take responsibility, he gets on his horse, grabs his guns and heads for the titular town where he will mete out some justice against the 1%. We don't think we need to explain the contemporary parallels here.

It's certainly an intriguing premise and it will be interesting to see what the visually stylish Milk -- known for his videos for Kanye West, U2, Green Day and Modest Mouse as well as the recent Google Chrome enabled "We Used To Wait" for Arcade Fire -- brings to a tale that seems to play as a modern western. But if anything, Ellison seems eager to back adventurous helmers, so we'll be curious to see this all come together. No word yet on what this means for the movie of Rome but we'd presume that's on the backburner for now. A post-apocalyptic film based on a niche album always seemed like a risky venture, even for someone like Ellison.