Costner wants to guard Simpson
And can you blame the guy? According to World Entertainment News Network, Kevin Costner has written a sequel to 1992 movie The Bodyguard and would very much like Jessica Simpson to star in it with him. We all remember the first Bodyguard, in which Costner stars as a former Secret Service agent who ends up guarding–and falling in love–with Whitney Houston. Costner‘s been working on the sequel idea for awhile, originally wanting to cast Diana, Princess of Wales in the sequel, before her death in 1997, WENN reports. But now he has rewritten the screenplay and is chasing Simpson–who just made her big-screen debut in The Dukes of Hazzard. Costner told WENN, “Ideally it would be great to get someone like Jessica Simpson on board to take the story to the next level. That’s where we’re at with the film at present…finding a leading lady.” I think Simpson would be perfect. But let’s just hope the whole “love” thing doesn’t factor into it. That would just be too derivative.
Streep gets political again
Hot off playing a corrupt senator in the searing The Manchurian Candidate, Meryl Streep is ready to tackle Washington again. She is set to star in Dirty Tricks, a film based on John Jeter’s play about Watergate, to be written and directed by Nip/Tuck‘s creator and exec producer Ryan Murphy, Variety reports. Joining a powerhouse female cast, Streep will play Martha Mitchell, the whistle-blowing wife of Nixon’s attorney general John Mitchell. Annette Bening is set to play White House correspondent Helen Thomas, the recipient of many of Mitchell’s leaks. Gwyneth Paltrow will star as the demure Maureen Dean, the wife of Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean who, unlike Mitchell, stood squarely behind her man as the administration went down in scandal. And finally, Jill Clayburgh, will play Pat Nixon, who grew to loathe Mitchell for destabilizing the presidency. Murphy told Variety he’d been looking for a project for Streep and knew he’d found it when he saw Jeter’s play at the Public Theater last fall. The story basically focuses on the high price paid by the peculiar Mrs. Mitchell, particularly after the Republicans resorted to dirty tricks to silence her. “She was viewed as eccentric, and the Republicans realized the only way to shut her up was to discredit her,” Murphy continued. “She paid a high price for her candor in speaking out against injustice. [John] Mitchell divorced her and took the kids.” I can just smell the Oscars now.
Jackson channels his manga
Honestly, is there anything Samuel L. Jackson isn’t willing to do? The talented actor has signed to star in and co-produce Afrosamurai, a live-action feature film based on a Japanese “manga” comic. If you aren’t familiar with manga comics, think Sin City but with a very twisted Japanese sensibility. Yeah, they’re weird and wild. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the story centers on No. 2, the Afro Samurai, who travels the road looking for revenge on those who murdered his father in front of him when he was just a boy. Really? I haven’t heard that scenario before. His nemesis is No. 1, a three-armed gunman who is the lord of the dark swordsman’s road. Whatever that’s suppose to mean. An animated TV version of Afrosamurai is also scheduled to air on Spike TV next year before being reverse imported to Japan, where it will air with Japanese subtitles. Jackson also will lend his voice to the series. After Coach Carter, Revenge of the Sith and XXX: State of the Union, Jackson is one busy guy. Maybe too busy. We love ya, but take a break, Sam! And bring Morgan Freeman with you, you guys deserve an extended vacation.
Kerouac’s Road gets big-screen treatment
It took awhile, but Hollywood has finally gotten its hooks into Jack Kerouac’s influential opus On the Road, courtesy of Francis Ford Coppola and the Brazilian director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries). On the Road was published in 1957 and played a role in giving rise to the Beat movement. Snap, snap. It is narrated by Kerouac’s thinly veiled alter ego Sal Paradise, who gets inspired to hit the road and see America. The story follows his ups and downs as he hitchhikes, hops trains, meets other travelers, struggles for meals and explores the themes of freedom and longing. According to Coppola, whose American Zoetrope production company has owned the film rights to the novel since 1979, the novel has had many suitors over the years. Coppola, who would executive produce the film, told the Hollywood Reporter, “The book is inherently difficult to adapt to the screen [you think?], and we’ve never quite found the right combination of director and writer to do it justice until now.” Apparently, the “right combination” is director Salles and screenwriter Jose Rivera, who previously collaborated on The Motorcycle Diaries, the 2004 film recounting the political awakening of Latin American guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara. “On the Road is a seminal book that gave voice to a whole generation–capturing its hunger for experience, unwillingness to accept imposed truths and dissatisfaction with the status quo,” Salles said. “It is as modern today as it was four decades ago.” Yes, but however poignant the novel is to read, a movie about it sounds incredibly boring. I guess we’ll just have to see who they cast.
The Hoax cast grows
Julie Delpy and Hope Davis are joining the ensemble cast of director Lasse Hallstrom‘s drama Hoax. Richard Gere will star in the Disney biopic about Clifford Irving, the man who wrote and sold a bogus biography of Howard Hughes to McGraw-Hill. Delpy will play Irving’s mistress. Davis will play Andrea Tate, an employee at McGraw-Hill. Alfred Molina and Marcia Gay Harden are also co-starring. Intriguing, especially in the hands of Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules).
And speaking of Richard Gere…
The actor has signed to play a federal agent in The Flock, a $35 million indie thriller that marks the English-language debut of Hong Kong director Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs). Flock follows a hyper-vigilant agent (Gere) who, while training his young female replacement, must track down a missing girl who may be linked to a paroled sex offender he is investigating. Oh, please, this is like every third movie made these days. Can’t we get more creative?
Weaver, Gruffudd are on the Set
Sigourney Weaver and Ioan Gruffudd (the guy from Fantastic Four–and don’t ask how to pronounce his name) have signed on to join David Duchovny in the indie satire The TV Set. According to the Reporter, the story follows the making of a television pilot, with Duchovny playing the pilot’s beleaguered showrunner. Weaver–whose father, Sylvester “Pat” Weaver, was a top executive at NBC in the 1940s and ’50s–will play the head of a network, and Gruffudd will play a BBC exec who joins the network. Lucy Davis and Judy Greer are in advanced negotiations to join the film for screenwriter-director Jake Kasdan. Cool, an inside look into the television industry. That’s certainly different for a feature film.
