Sam Mendes Goes To NETHERLAND And Says PREACHER Is Closer

This past summer, Sam Mendes’ production company Neal Street Productions signed a two-year first-look deal with Focus Features which now holds worldwide rights to any features that Neal Street produces. Mendes previously helmed AWAY WE GO for Focus Features.
According to Variety, Focus Features, Neal Street and Oprah Winfrey‘s Harpo Prods. have all joined forces together for an adaptation for NETHERLAND based on a book by author Joseph O’Neill. Harpo bought the rights when it was published last year

Scribe Christopher Hampton who was nominated for ATONEMENT which was also a Focus Features pride and joy, will write the script and Sam Mendes is attached to direct.
I’m looking forward to this project because it’s going to be more or less an immigrant movie (check out my favorite 7 movies about immigrants)

Now, regarding Mendes’ other adaptation that’s long been in the works, PREACHER, via Aceshowbiz, the Oscar winning director said John August has finished the script and the movie is getting closer to being made.

“It’s getting closer.”
“I’ve seen a script and it’s very good. We’re a little further down the road than when I last spoke to you.”

Here’s the synopsis of the book NETHERLAND
“In a New York City made phantasmagorical by the events of 9/11, and left alone after his English wife and son return to London, Hans van den Broek stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. As the two men share their vastly different experiences of contemporary immigrant life in America, an unforgettable portrait emerges of an “other” New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality.”