Roger Donaldson Takes Umbra(ge)

They should have called the movie “Umbrage” instead of the bleh sounding “Umbra”. Why? Cause that would make it so much easier to come up with bad puns for headlines of our coverage of Roger Donaldson’s latest paranoid thriller. And who doesn’t want to make our lives easier? But I digress. So what’s “Umbra” about? Weren’t you listening? It’s a “paranoid thriller”. Apparently that’s all anyone knows about the movie, which Donaldson (”The Recruit”, “Thirteen Days”) is set to direct for Relativity Media.

Variety says “Umbra” will be based on an original screenplay by newcomer Steven Karczynski, and plot details for the movie are under wraps. I guess it’s either really cool or high-concept, and they’re afraid people might steal it and have the whole thing end up one of those “it-never-ends-well” dueling projects. In any case, Websters say umbra means:

1: a shaded area

2 a: a conical shadow excluding all light from a given source ; specifically : the conical part of the shadow of a celestial body excluding all light from the primary source b: the central dark part of a sunspot

Shady. Paranoid thriller. Gotcha.

Roger Donaldson has a very eclectic filmography. His last movie was the Jason Statham caper movie “The Bank Job”, and before that he directed Anthony Hopkins in the 2005 true-life drama “The World’s Fastest Indian”, which, curiously, didn’t have a whole lot of Native Americans in it.

Below: Let’s see an Indian try to outrun that.