With MGM poised to place the James Bond franchise on ice at least for the immediate future, much of the core talent that helped reinvigorate the prestigious spy series has moved on to pastures anew. That includes director Sam Mendes who, after helming both Skyfall and the rather underwhelming Spectre, recently checked in to The Voyeur’s Motel.
That’s according to Deadline, revealing that the Oscar-winning filmmaker will helm a big-screen adaptation of Gay Talese’s non-fiction novel. Though it’s still to hit store shelves, Talese’s book has garnered a fair amount of pre-release buzz for its sleazy, real-life narrative.
Revolving around one Gerald Roos, a lonesome figure that took up residence in a small motel with the sole intention of setting up a peep show – peering into neighbouring rooms and, by effect, their intimate sex lives. Here’s the synopsis of Talese’s novel:
On January 7, 1980, in the run-up to the publication of Thy Neighbor’s Wife, Gay Talese received an anonymous letter from a man in Colorado. “Since learning of your long awaited study of coast-to-coast sex in America,” the letter began, “I feel I have important information that I could contribute to its contents or to contents of a future book.” The man went on to tell Talese a remarkable, shocking secret, so compelling that Talese traveled to Colorado to verify it in person. But because the letter-writer insisted on remaining anonymous, Talese filed his reporting away, certain the story would remain untold.
Over the next thirty-five years, the man occasionally reached out to Talese to fill him in on the latest developments in his life, but he continued to insist on anonymity. Finally, after thirty-five years, he’s ready to go public.
The Voyeur’s Motel is expected to swing open its doors in early 2017. As such, look for Mendes and Spielberg to kick-start production towards the end of the year.
