Gus Van Sant may go grunge with <i>Last Days</I> (11621)

Gus Van Sant is preparing to step from the high school hallways he explored in his Palme d'Or-winning Elephant to Seattle's grunge music scene with his next outing, Last Days. The out Oscar-nominated director of Good Will Hunting is close to putting together Last Days with Michael Pitt (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Dreamers) on board to star and HBO Films on board to finance, sources confirmed. Van Sant has a previous relationship with HBO after working together on the Columbine-inspired Elephant. Pitt and Van Sant are known to have been collaborating on the project for several years. It is described by sources as a film loosely inspired by events in the Northwest rock and roll scene during the mid 1990s. Lukas Haas is in talks to join Pitt in the project.

Kurt Cobain and his band, Nirvana, were at the forefront of the music scene in and around Seattle during the mid 1990s. Sources close to the project emphasized that Pitt will not be playing Cobain but the lead singer of a band whose trajectory resembles that of Cobain and Nirvana. Haas would play another member of that band. Van Sant will direct from his own script. It remains unclear whether the project will air on the network or receive a theatrical release like Elephant, which was put out through sister company Fine Line Features.