Director Robert Altman may have made a few mistakes in his career (Dr. T and the Women, anyone?) but with his delightful sing-along hit A Prairie Home Companion, all is forgiven and forgotten. As a change of pace for the 81-year-old workaholic, his next movie will deal with endurance contests and automobiles.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Altman is developing a script based on the events featured in S.R. Bindler’s 1997 documentary Hands on a Hard Body: The Documentary. The film explored an endurance contest several years ago in Texas, demonstrating the great lengths people will go for a new set of wheels (and a free one, no less). The challenge? People circled around a Nissan Hardbody truck with one hand placed on it, and the last person standing got to take it home.
Altman has been eyeing this project for years, and is excited to collaborate with writer Stephen Harrigan. He is hoping to make the film on a $10 million budget, with Picturehouse as his distributor of choice. Production is set to kick-off in January.
