'Animal Kingdom' Director David Michod Says Don't Believe 'The Wish-List' Story Hype

Aussie Filmmaker Also Says He Knew Nothing About Project 'Once Were Cops' He Was Allegedly A Frontrunner For

Exclusive: Aussie director David Michôd's "Animal Kingdom" is, if nothing else, one of the most exciting debut feature-length efforts of the year. The picture won the World Cinema Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and this intense crime family drama is loaded with slow-burning performances from several Australian up-and-comers including Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton and of course, the well known Guy Pearce.

Playlist writer Gabe Toro spoke to the filmmaker recently and had a good conversation about this striking indie drama. We'll get to that soon, but what we thought was rather amusing... If you've paid attention this year, you've probably seen us and other sites gripe about the loose-lipped wishlist stories that don't amount to much. We've bitched enough about it, but this is a pretty funny take on the whole thin, offer/wishlist story.

Anyhoo, a report started circulating at the Wrap about two weeks ago that said William Monahan, writer of “The Departed” and director of the upcoming “London Boulevard,” and Michôd were at the top of the list to helm an adaptation of a novel by Ken Bruen (who also wrote “London Boulevard”) called “Once Were Cops.” Monahan of course denied it, saying he had never even heard of the project, and that was great context to prove what a wishlist rumor really is: a disconnect from reality and a bunch of names and ideas on a piece of paper put together by producers who haven't even reached out to anyone yet. It's like fan fiction, only for movie producers. Of course, Michôd basically told us the same story as Monahan did, but it's interesting fodder and a good buyer beware of such reports.

A few weeks ago, you were one of several directors linked to a Warner Bros. project, “Tales From The Gangster Squad.” Is this a project you’ve talked about with the studio?
"I didn’t realize I was mentioned for that. Well, you know how these things work. I think I recall reading that script, but my head is swimming with this whole world of stuff, you know, all these opportunities and possibilities. I saw something all over the internet a couple of weeks ago saying the guy who wrote “The Departed,” it was between him and me for some movie called “Once Were Cops” or something. It’s a New York thing and I think they were contemplating moving it to Boston. The story was everywhere saying it was between [William Monahan] and me for the project, and I had never heard of it. And then I read the internet and saw that he had never heard of it either. So it’s kinda weird how that becomes news. It’s a wish list."

More from this interview tomorrow.