Werner Herzog Directing Death Row Prison Documentary

Apparently director Werner Herzog isn’t ready to sit down and wait for financing for his upcoming film, Queen Of The Desert, before jumping back into the director’s chair.

Screen Daily has revealed (via The Playlist), that Herzog is at work on a new documentary (to follow up his yet-to-be-distributed Cave Of Forgotten Dreams), that will focus on death row inmates.

Titled Death Row, the film has been in the works for some time, as he had previously  discussed it last year when he mentioned that he was working on a film based in a Texas maximum security prison.   In speaking with Screen Daily, he reveals that the film will focus on ‘death row inmates who are waiting for execution’¦Of course, it fascinates me to look into deep abysses of the human soul.   Left and right, wherever you look, there is an abyss.’

Throughout his career, Herzog has been infatuated with groups of people on some sort of fringe (those living in Antartica in  Encounters At The End Of The World  for example), so this sounds like an immensely interesting project.   I really hope this one gets made relatively quick, as the film does truly sound like it could be a haunting masterpiece from a director who continues to prove that there may not be a better name in documentary filmmaking.

What do you think? Could this one day become a Criterion release? It sure sounds like it has all the makings of just that.

Source: Screen Daily / The Playlist