Despite gathering momentum last year with the casting of Shia LaBeouf, Amy Adams ad Ryan Gosling, John Hillcoat’s The Promised Land has officially been abandoned.
Writing a diary entry in The Telegraph detailing his experiences bringing Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road to the big screen, the director’s apocalyptic message blames Hollywood for shutting down The Promised Land .
Here’s what he had to say:
“The joke on [ The Road ] set and in the edit suite was that we had to get this movie out before it became a reality. Ironically, the movie industry itself now faces its own apocalypse.
The perfect storm has arrived in Hollywood: a global economic downturn combined with piracy and the increase of downloading on the internet – what happened to the record companies years ago but with much higher stakes.
The reactionary first phase has kicked in – few films in development, many films put on hold or shut down.
My own new project – with a much-loved script by Nick Cave and a dream all-star cast – has fallen apart. The finance company that we began The Road with has also fallen apart, having to radically downsize to one remaining staff member.
The great divide has begun, with only very low-budget films being made or huge 3-D franchise films – the birth of brand films such as Barbie, Monopoly: The Movie – who knows what’s next, Coca-Cola: The Movie ?”
Depressing stuff, indeed.
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