Spanish arthouse director sets Salome in Abu Ghraib

Variety reports that Luis Minarro, a prolific arthouse producer (his credits include the Nativity-themed Birdsong and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), is going to direct a new version of Salome that sets the story in Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison that became infamous for the way American soldiers abused prisoners there eleven years ago. It is not clear whether Minarro’s film will be based on an existing adaptation of the story, such as Oscar Wilde’s play, or directly on the biblical story itself. “Salome can be filmed everywhere, I only need a desert land and seven-to-eight actors, in a bunkhouse. It is going to be a very symbolic film,” says Minarro. Despite these minimal requirements, Minarro doesn’t plan to actually start shooting the film until 2016, at least another year and a half from now. With any luck, maybe Al Pacino’s movie treatments of Wilde’s play will be out on home video by then, for comparison’s sake.