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Dan Clowes Writing Michel Gondry's Animated Film

by Alex Billington
January 14, 2008
Source: SlashFilm

Michel Gondry is undoubtedly one of my personal favorite directors, as I'm sure I've said many, many times. I love his endless creativity and unique style and I'm always captivated by every film he directs. In a matter of days I'll be screening Gondry's Be Kind Rewind at Sundance; just last week we also mentioned Gondry's next movie, The Return of the Ice Kings. But on top of all that, Gondry is also working on an animated movie that he'll be creating with his 16-year-old son. SlashFilm talked about the film with Gondry and learned that comic book artist Dan Clowes, the screenwriter of Ghost World, will be writing the script.

The film, titled Migel Munya, is a collaboration between Michel Gondry and his son Paul Gondry. As to where the idea came from and the inspiration behind it, Gondry explains.

"It's based on [Paul's] universe. He's a sixteen year old. He's very unique, very funny and very violent in his drawing and his art, showing everything that you could think of that I should have stopped him from coming in contact with, but I failed. He grew up watching Tom & Jerry and Ren and Stimpy, Sponge Bob. If you take all that and mix it with Gangster movies with blood, you get his universe."

"We're translating our relationship into a futuristic story with a dictator and a rebel. He's the dictator in the story and it will be based on his art."

Interestingly enough, Paul Gondry is actually a published comic book author. However, it's Dan Clowes, who wrote Ghost World and Art School Confidential so far, that will be taking the screenwriting reigns on this movie.

Just hearing Gondry's ideas alone fascinate me. Take a look at the previously mentioned The Return of the Ice Kings, which is described as "a story about kids who invent a water that makes you hear music when you drink it." If you thought that was wild, then listen to the plot of Migel Munya.

"[The movie is] about a dictator who runs a crazy world where hair is the source of energy. The people there are forced to create art, and if the art is too good they are executed. So the dictator there doesn't want anyone to be better than him so he kills the inmates who make good art. They try to make rubbish art but sometimes the worse it is for them, the better it is for the dictator."

I'm not sure how to respond to this. As much as I love Gondry's work, this just sounds almost too crazy. Wait, what am I thinking - it's Gondry, he's going to whip up something awesome! Honestly, I'll just step back and let the creativity flow. This whole project sounds incredibly eclectic, but in the end will probably turn out wonderfully unique. I'm glad Michel Gondry is still far from peaking and has many more years of wonderful work in him.

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