New Life for Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer"

By our guest blogger, Lita Robinson

Controversial director Roman Polanski--who helmed such classics as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Repulsion”--will soon have his name in lights once again. Variety reports that Polanski’s latest, “The Ghost Writer,” will be opening in limited release beginning February 19, 2010; Summit Entertainment, which recently distributed the second of the “Twilight” films, will then expand the run on March 5 and again on March 19.

Since September, Polanski has been embroiled in what has nearly become a full-blown international incident. Having fled the U.S. in 1978 to escape his trial on underage-sex charges, Polanski had enjoyed a fairly profitable exile for the past three decades—even garnering the Oscar for Best Director for “The Pianist” in 2002.

However, that all changed this fall, when a Los Angeles Judge requested Polanski’s arrest and extradition to the U.S. while he was attending a Swiss film festival to accept a lifetime achievement award. After a stint in Swiss jail, Polanski was granted bail and has remained under house arrest at his chalet in the Swiss ski-resort town of Gstaad ever since. Recently, the New York Times reported, Polanski requested that the American judge sentence him in absentia. If he is convicted, he may only receive the 90-day sentence that the original judge was considering back in 1977. Such a short sentence may not qualify him for extradition to the U.S., after all, so at this point Polanski’s immediate future remains unclear.

“The Ghost Writer” stars Ewan McGregor as, you guessed it, a ghost writer, charged with penning the memoirs of a recently retired British Prime Minister, played by Pierce Brosnan. As McGregor’s character digs into the Minister’s past, he uncovers evidence that that the British government may have been involved in the practice of rendition, taking suspected terrorists and handing them over to the CIA for torture. The film is adapted from Robert Harris’ novel “The Ghost,” and promises to engender controversy in its own right, even as Polanski’s saga continues.