Larry Clark, the controversial director of Kids and Ken Park, is hatching a new film about troubled American youth.

Wild Child is being financed and produced by Paulo Branco of Alfama Films, who announced the project in Venice this week. The $3.5m independent film will tell the story of a teenage boy in LA who runs out on an abusive family. It has been scripted by Clark and Evan Weiner and shooting is due to begin in the autumn.

Casting is expected to be confirmed shortly after the Toronto Festival. It is yet to be decided whether Branco will sell the film through Alfama or if another company will be brought on board to handle Wild Child internationally.

This is the second North American project that Branco has lined up in recent months. The prolific Portuguese producer is also working with Canadian director David Cronenberg on a screen version of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. Branco confirmed that Cronenberg has now finished his screenplay and is looking to cast the film.

Other Branco projects currently on the boil include Raul Ruiz’s The Mysteries Of Lisbon, currently in production and being made as a TV series but likely to surface at international festivals in feature film form, and Chantal Ackerman’s adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly, due to shoot shortly in the Far East.

Topics