Billy Zane.
Photo: Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Netflix
Billy Zane is set to play Marlon Brando in his post-Streetcar/pre-Godfather glory. Waltzing with Brando is based on the book by architect Bernard Judge, who tried to turn a Tahitian atoll into an eco-paradise at Brando’s behest. Brando bought the atoll of Tetiaroa with the goal of preserving it as a pre-Industrial paradise. Brando wanted a place to escape his woes, but he also wanted to preserve the reef and make it habitable “without screwing it up.†The story of how that didn’t happen is in Judge’s book. The film will show Brando and Judge’s efforts from 1969 to 1974, when legal woes and family tragedy finally tore Brando away from the project. Tapeheads’ Bill Fishman will write and direct.