Gyllenhaal, Witherspoon Give Their Own Rendition
Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon are in final negotiations to star in Rendition, directed by Gavin Hood, who gave us the Oscar-winning South African feature Tsotsi. The story revolves around a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) based in Cairo whose world spins out of control after he witnesses the interrogation of a foreign national by the Egyptian secret police. Witherspoon will play the pregnant American wife of the national. With an intense movie like this, Gyllenhaal and Witherspoon will need a good director to make them seem credible. But no pressure, Gavin, we swear!
Blanchett Gets Cancer
Cate Blanchett is attached to star in Cancer Vixen: A True Story, based on an upcoming memoir of the same name by Marisa Acocella Marchetto, a cartoonist fashionista for Glamour and the New Yorker. Marchetto’s autobiography, which has been generating buzz ahead of its release by Knopf on Tuesday, according to the Hollywood Reporter, describes how she fell in love with a celebrity restaurateur and was planning their wedding when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and realized that she had let her health insurance lapse. Her friends–stylists, gossip columnists, designers–rallied around her as she wore killer shoes to chemo sessions and strove to get married on time. And Cate Blanchett wants to do this? Hmmm. My only hope is with talent like hers, she’ll turn this into something more than a glorified Lifetime movie of the week.
Johansson Likes Wearing Corsets
Either that or Scarlett Johansson likes to play doomed women named Mary. The actress has signed up to play Queen Mary of Scotland in a redo of Mary Queen of Scots. This comes after the news she’ll play Anne Boleyn’s sister, also named Mary, in The Other Boleyn Girl, which takes places several years before the Mary Queen of Scotland story but is roughly about the same thing. In Boleyn Girl, the sisters battle for the King Henry VIII’s (Eric Bana) affections, but Anne (Natalie Portman) wins and eventually gives birth to Elizabeth. Unfortunately, Anne is beheaded shortly thereafter because she can’t produce a male heir, but Elizabeth grows up to become one of England’s greatest monarchs. Queen Elizabeth I, in turn, has an antagonistic relationship with her half-sister Queen Mary, Henry VIII’s first born from first wife Catherine, and eventually has Mary beheaded. That’s sisterly love for ya, eh?
Schreiber, Bardem Get Cholera
Liev Schreiber has joined Javier Bardem in the cast of Love in the Time of Cholera. Based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the story follows a romantic man named Florentino (Bardem) who loses the girl of his dreams (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) to a wealthier suitor and spends the next 50 years building his life and reputation so that one day he might have her. Schreiber will play Lotario Thugut, a telegram operator who befriends Florentino and teaches him the ways of women. British filmmaker Mike Newell is directing. This is the first time anyone has tried to adapt Marquez’s dense novel, and the talent behind it could push it into an Oscar contender.
Tyler Joins Bacon in Death; Bradford Is Sassy
Actress Aisha Tyler will star opposite Kevin Bacon in the vigilante drama Death Sentence. The project centers on a father (Bacon) out for revenge after his family is attacked in a heinous gang-initiation crime. The father acts on his own sense of justice by going after each person involved in the crime. Tyler plays a homicide detective who aids Bacon‘s character despite her growing suspicions that he might have committed murder. Ah, Death Wish revisited. Meanwhile, Jesse Bradford (upcoming Flags of Our Fathers) has signed on to star in My Sassy Girl, a remake of a hit South Korean romantic comedy. It tells the story of a small-town guy from the Midwest who thought he had his entire life mapped out until he falls for a reckless, brazen girl who turns his life upside down. Elisha Cuthbert already has been cast as the sassy girl. Well, of course she has.
Cohen Goes to Prison
Stealth director Rob Cohen is set to direct the thriller Scared Straight. The film centers on a governor’s teenage son who is sent to prison as part of the eponymous crime-prevention program that locks up juvenile delinquents for a short period in the hopes of deterring them from a life of crime. While he is there, a riot breaks out and the prisoners take him hostage. He teams with other street kids and a con to stop the riot. “After the success of (Fox drama) Prison Break there is revival of interest in the genre,” Cohen told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “It’s going to be a genre movie with depth, and the depth will come from the character. It’s the fight for the soul of this young kid who is on the verge.” OK, whatever, it’s still a prison movie. By the way, remember the documentary Scared Straight about juvenile deliquents who are, well, scared straight by getting yelled at by cursing ex-cons? I think that’s the real genesis of this movie.
And Now For Something Completely Different…
I have to report this for the great title alone. Commercials veteran Ruben Fleischer will make his feature directing debut on Psycho Funky Chimp, a comedy about a Pez dispenser. That’s correct. The little candy dispenser that can come in a variety of styles. The project follows a 26-year-old who buys the rarest of Pez dispensers, the Psycho Funky Chimp, a purchase that attracts vultures, thieves and fanboys and makes him question whether he really is ready to grow up. I just get so excited when something really original pops up.
Until next week…
