Paul Schrader is planning to start shooting his next “Master Gardener”

Celebrated American screenwriter, director and film critic  Paul Schrader received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival last week. Schrader is now planning to start shooting the thriller “Master Gardener” in February, with Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver. The film is about a horticulturist torn between two women.

To the audience in attendance, he said that the third role is to be played by a young woman of color. Zendaya was his first choice, but it didn’t materialise because of the fee matters.

At Zurich, Schrader screened his American crime drama “The Card Counter,” which is about a former torturer at Abu Ghraib turned gambler. The film features Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, and Tye Sheridan in lead roles. The film is getting rave reviews.

At the event, Schrader also responded to questions about writing an autobiography, casting among many other things.

Schrader was in news recently for critiquing Clint Eastwood’s latest film Cry Macho. The senior screenwriter often writes frank reviews of films on social media. On his Facebook page, Schrader wrote;

“I can appreciate the inclination to give Clint Eastwood a pass but has an important American director made a film as bad as ‘Cry Macho’ since Howard Hawks’ ‘Man’s Favorite Spot’?” Schrader said on his Facebook page.

He went on to say,  “It fails in every area: screenwriting, lighting, locations, sets, props, wardrobe, and casting. When, early on, Eastwood employs an under the car shot of a boot hitting the ground I thought, ‘Great, he’s going to riff on the stylizations of macho westerns’ — but that was the last interesting composition in the film.”

He is known for films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Light Sleeper, First Reformed. He received an Oscar nomination for First Reformed.

Also read: Clint Eastwood is back with his upcoming film “Cry Macho”

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