Guy Ritchie to Direct 1930s Romance EMPIRE RISING
Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie is set to direct a great sounding new film for Warner Bros. called Empire Rising. It's a love story set in the 1930s around the construction of the Empire State Building.
The movie is an adaptation of the novel by Thomas Kelly, who will also be writing the script. The book was published back in 2006, and it told of "an epic love triangle set in 1930 just as construction on the iconic building begins and the Depression is beginning to take hold. On one side is the Irish immigrant Michael Briody, a steelworker on the building who is also running guns for the IRA. On the other is Johnny Farell, a bagman for Mayor Jimmy Walker and adapt at running the corrupt political system. And in the middle is a beautiful artist named Grace Masterson. Historical figures also make appearances."
Ritchie is the perfect director to take on this story. I love how he brought the past to life in his Sherlock Holmes films, and it will be great to see his vision of New York during the steel age. He's currently in pre-production on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which stars Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. I assume he'll start work on Empire Rising when he's finished with that.
Here's the official description from the book:
It is 1930, and ground has just been broken for the Empire State Building. One of the thousands of men who will come to work high above the city is Michael Briody, an Irish immigrant torn between his desire to make a new life in America and his pledge to gather money and arms for the Irish republican cause. When he meets Grace Masterson, an alluring artist who is depicting the great skyscraper's rise from her houseboat on the East River, Briody's life suddenly turns exhilarating--and dangerous--for Grace is also a paramour of Johnny Farrell, Mayor Jimmy Walker's liaison with Tammany Hall and the underworld.
Via: THR