Apichatpong Weerasethakul Secures Financing For His Next ...

... and it's got a cave man.

The annual HAF financing awards have come down at this years HK Filmart and while I don't generally pay a lot of attention to these - these seldom finance the full shot on a film and it's quite likely that less than half of the awarded films will ever actually be made - the latest from Tropical Malady director Apichatpong Weerasethakul is just to fun to ignore. It's titled Utopia and here's the official synopsis:

"In the lost world, a pre-historic man is freed in a snow-covered landscape. Everything is white and new to him. He tries to survive in a jungle where there are periodic snowstorms. He is followed by a group of fashionable old American ladies. He is also faced with a terrorizing monster who hides in the jungle. He discovers a cave where he shields himself from the outside world, and starts to hibernate. Through the course of his sleeping, the white, snow-covered world has turned into a lush tropical forest. He emerges from the cave and explores the new green territory in wonderment. The moist landscape is full of miraculous fauna and flora. "

Weerasethakul is describing at as a gentle bedtime story which is not at all hard to envision from the man. Now if only his last batch of projects would make it to DVD ...