Hal Horowitz/WireImage.comSydney Pollack left behind one of the great film legacies when he died Monday. He also left behind a pile of unfinished business.
The fate of the Hollywood titan's myriad projects remains uncertain, with his death following so closely that of his producing partner and fellow Oscar winner Anthony Minghella, who died of a hemorrhage following routine surgery in March.
The duo, considered two of Hollywood's most esteemed auteurs, had several high-profile productions in the pipeline at their Mirage Enterprises, including an English-language remake of 2007's Best Foreign Oscar winner, The Lives of Others, for the Weinstein Company and the upcoming HBO series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Mirage executives are now scrambling to figure out what to do with the slate.
Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter several of the pair's projects that do not have other producers attached might end up under the purview of Pollack's agents at Creative Artists Agency and his family. Alternatively, daughter Rebecca, formerly an executive at United Artists, could step in and oversee them.
"We're all flying a little blind right now," an insider close to Pollack tells the trade.
In the meantime, Mirage says it plans on moving ahead with the lineup, which includes the following:
- I Don't Know How She Does It, a feature film adaptation of Allison Pearson's novel, helmed by David Frankel (Marley & Me)
- The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, a feature adapted by Minghella from a novel by Liz Jensen
- The Silver Linings Playbook, an inspirational drama based on a forthcoming novel
- Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand, based on the children's fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud
- The Ressurectionists, a film for Miramax based on the novel by Michael Collins, which Minghella planned to direct
- Colombian Gold, a murder mystery to be directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl)
- Liberty, a thriller set in Haiti
- Turbulence, a thriller Mirage was producing for Universal