CITY OF ANGELS: Ashley Avis to Helm ‘Wings of Desire’ Remake

Ashley Avis to write and direct Wim Wenders’ ‘Wings of Desire’ remake

Black Beauty director Ashley Avis will helm City of Angels, the second remake of Wim Wenders’ classic.

Writing and directing the remake of City of Angels is mighty undertaking, to be sure. Wenders’ original source material has layers of abstraction atop the plot, to start with. Check it out: earthbound angels guarding reality by inspiring, invisible and unheard, the mortal inhabitants of Berlin. Wenders created the ethereal ambiance of the divided city, somehow managing to avoid dragging the pace while creating heartfelt intimacy.

Considering the cultural incentives that brought Wings of Desire to fruition, it may be fair to call it a crossroads of European artistic sensibilities, in terms of ‘standing on the shoulders of giants,’ anyway. For example, Wenders gives substantial credit to the poems of Rilke for his inspiration.

Then in 1998, Hollywood produced a very respectable, grounded remake with a change of location, Los Angeles — hence the new title — with an emphasis on its romantic spin between Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. In the original, however, while the main protagonist, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) does fall in love with a trapeze artist, this is a parallel plot of no greater importance than other broad reaching social themes, especially the controversial notion of removing the Wall.

For this second remake, Ms. Avis has opted to keep the American title, and judging from the available logline, she intends to keep much of the focus on the romance. Instead of Ryan’s portrayal of a surgeon, this time a musician is the Angel’s object of affections, denoting a more celestial connection. Since Ms. Avis will also be writing the script, it piques our interest to see if she will bring more themes to the table, and there is good reason for this speculation.

From the beginning, Ms. Avis has shown a special kind of courage when achieving her goals in filmmaking, apparently never shying away from a challenge and taking responsibility to get the job done. It bears mentioning that with her directorial debut, Deserted, she was cited for her innovations in directing, later confirmed with her most noted work, Black Beauty. As a competitive equestrian, this project and the issue of animal abuse is clearly very close to her heart. This last opus led to production of her acclaimed documentary, Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West.

Those at the production company Atlas Entertainment evidently share the director’s conviction. They include Rebecca Steel Roven, daughter of Dawn Roven, who produced the 1998 version and her widower and veteran producer Charles Roven (American Hustle), as well as Paul Perez (Dune).

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This news was brought to our attention by Deadline.