Studio:
Unknown.
Production Company:
Icon Productions.
Project Phase: In Development.
Who's In It:
Bono; Mel Gibson; Jeremy Davies; Milla Jovovich.
Who's Making It:
Wim Wenders (Director); Wim Wenders, Nicholas Klein, Bono (Screenwriters).
Premise: A federal agent who investigates the death of a billionaire's son at a seedy hotel.
Release Date: 1999.
Comments: None.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page draft submitted by hotel occupant 'Widgett'.]
January 9, 1998... A project that had been in the script stage for two years, based on a story idea by U2's Bono, was inspired by all the fun Bono and The Edge had owning the Clarence Hotel in Dublin. Three words mentioned while discussing said fun were "horrific," "money," and "pit." Wenders states that the project was on hold waiting for the right cast, but with that in place and with his interim project, The End of Violence, completed, Hotel is underway once more. Other reports tell us the project stalled due to lack of fundage.
Bono is said to have a small role in the film. Sean Penn committed to the lead role of the mentally-challenged Tonto in September '97. Set in Los Angeles, fifty years in the future, it is said to be a vision which is more liveable, not as Wenders called it, "...another grim Blade Runner-style society." Penn's mentally-challenged character lives in the hotel, which acts as a sort of halfway house for mental outpatients with nowhere else left to go. The picture also chronicles the story of the hotel up to the year 2030, and is described as a "black comedy."
The project originally was titled The Million Dollar Hotel, but according to Wenders they changed it due to "inflation." [Scoops provided by Mike Smith and 'Widgett'.]
October 7, 1998... Mel Gibson has climbed onboard this project. His production company Icon is producing the pic. Shooting will begin in January. Mel might shave his head for the role [Scoop provided by 'masque']
December 27, 1998... As the project gears up to start filming in January, we received this summary of what its all about: "Hotel is about the death of a billionaire's on in a flophouse an event that leads a federal agent to upturn the resident's lives to find out if the demise was suicide or murder. The picture was written by Bono, the lead singer of the rock band U2, with Wenders and Nicholas Klien, who co-wrote with Wenders the director's previous film, The End of Violence." [Contributed by 'Cone'.]