Christina Ricci, star of such gloomy fare as “Sleepy Hollow” and “Buffalo ’66,” will put her experiences to work in her latest project.
Daily Variety says the indie siren has agreed to grapple with depression as the star and co-producer of a big-screen version of “Prozac Nation.”
The movie adapts Elizabeth Wurtzel’s 1994 autobiographical account of her lifelong bout with the disease. The New York writer graduated from Harvard and became a well-known journalist, but her crippling feelings once caused her to attempt suicide. Prozac, she said, was the lifesaver that helped her reshape her life.
Ricci‘s interest in the book sparked the development of the project. The film’s set to begin shooting May 15 with “Insomnia’s” Erik Skjoldbjaerg at the helm.
BOOB TUBE REDUX: Ex-“Roseanne” star John Goodman can’t resist a return to sitcoms — especially when Fox and the producers at Carsey-Werner Co. (his old “Roseanne” home) offered him $4.4 million for 22 episodes’ worth of work. According to Variety, the actor has signed on to star as one-half of an “Odd Couple”-like pair of single fathers living together with their teenagers. (“My Two Dads” with more kids?)
LONG LIVE ‘KINGS’: In the grand tradition of such respectable concert films as Eddie Murphy‘s “Raw,” Spike Lee has signed on to document the popular “Kings of Comedy” tour. The show, which has played to sell-out crowds at Madison Square Garden and the Great Western Forum, features entertainers Steve Harvey, D. L. Hughley, Cedric “The Entertainer” and Bernie Mac.
The film will combine outtakes from the show along with backstage activities and music. The movie’s in development at Paramount-based MTV Films, with the network planning a soundtrack that combines the channel’s top hip-hop and R&B acts.
MTV Prods. Senior VP David Gale tells Variety promises that the movie “will be pretty racy, but not offensive.”
MAN IN BLACK: He’s a music legend and an American icon. Next, dark horse Johnny Cash will be the subject of a big-screen movie. Variety says Columbia Pictures has signed filmmaker James Mangold (“Girl, Interrupted“) to co-write and direct “Cash,” a biopic about the musician’s “tumultuous life and profound effect on American music.”
Mangold will team with scripter Gill Dennis on the screenplay. James Keach (brother of Stacy, husband to Jane Seymour) is a producer, and a close friend of the legend. Also producing is Sony-based filmmaker Cathy Konrad.
