Paris-based Tu Vas Voir developing adaptation of Sacco’s graphic novel on 1956 Gaza massacre; company also confirms new Walter Salles film to start shooting at end of 2012.
Incendies director Denis Villeneuve is set to direct an adaptation of Joe Sacco’s graphic novel Footnotes in Gaza, Paris-based production company Tu Va Voir, which is developing the project, has announced.
“It took a long time for us to convince Joe Sacco that we were the right people to adapt the work,” says Tu Vas Voir producer Amiel Tenenbaum, who started bidding for adaptation rights shortly after the work’s publication at the end of 2009.
Footnotes in Gaza is based on Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist Sacco’s own research in the Gaza Strip into the shooting dead by Israeli soldiers of 111 Palestinians in the town of Rafah in 1956.
Sacco first achieved international fame with his 1996 book Palestine. Other works include Area Gorazde and The Fixer, both capturing the Bosnian War.
“Joe was always adamant that it was important for him to have confidence in the director… from the beginning we’d had Denis in mind,” continues Tenenbaum.
After talks with Villeneuve’s agent Claude Girard at the Cannes Film Festival, Tu Vas Voir set up a meeting between the director and Sacco in New York at the end of last year.
“Joe came out saying I think you’ve found the right person,” recounts Tenenbaum.
Tu Vas Voir plans to adapt the work as a feature-length animation, taking inspiration from Sacco’s original black and white illustrations. more
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