Kidman is ready to be invaded
Now that’s she’s not playing Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, as I reported last week, Nicole Kidman is pursuing another option. The Oscar-winning actress in final negotiations to star in Invasion, a sci-fi thriller, directed by the German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who recently helmed the controversial Academy Award-nominated film Downfall about Adolf Hitler. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Invasion takes place after a mysterious epidemic alters the behavior of human beings, and follows a Washington psychiatrist (Kidman) who discovers that its origins are extraterrestrial. She must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping the invasion. Invasion, however, is neither a re-imagining nor a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers insists producer Joel Silver. He apparently thinks this is a fresh idea. “It’s a very insidious story about how the end of the world can come through science and disease and not through explosions,” Silver told the Reporter. Well, thank goodness for that. I do believe three movies about being replaced by pod people is quite enough.
Osment comes of age
Haley Joel Osment is 17 years old. I know, it’s hard to believe That sweet-faced, sad little boy who sees dead people is now a young man ready to show the world he isn’t a kid anymore, signing on to star in the indie coming-of-age feature Home of the Giants. Set in an Indiana town that lives for basketball, the story follows a teenager (Osment) who idolizes one of the town’s basketball stars. The teen and his best pal are befriended by the player, who ends up being anything but the hero they thought he was. Sounds appropriately serious and dramatic, just how Osment likes it.
Calling all demon children out there
Speaking of eerily mature little boys, apparently the hunt is on to find the world’s most evil child–Damien, the son of Satan. 20th Century Fox is remaking the classic 1976 horror film The Omen, aptly titled The Omen 666, and is searching for the perfect candidate. He’d better be perfect. I’m a HUGE fan of the original, and while I’m not opposed to seeing an updated version, they must find the same kind of cherub-cheeked kid who can make baboons attack, nannies hang themselves and, most importantly, give the most malevolent little smile. According to World Entertainment News Network, Harry Potter casting director Susie Figgis is on board to find a very different child to the ones she selected for the wizardry saga. Uh, like, duh. The film’s director John Moore says, “The casting process for a new Damien will be under way soon. The role is wide open to all young mothers who want their sons as the sons of Satan.” That’s a comforting thought. The movie is set to be released on June 6, 2006, to cleverly link in with Damien’s spooky 666 birthmark.
Miller gets to be Edie again
Comely actress Sienna Miller–recently rocked by scandalous tabloid fodder after her fiancé Jude Law admitted to cheating on her with his kids’ nanny–is back on board to playing Andy Warhol‘s drug-addicted muse Edie Sedgwick in the film Factory Girl. Back in May, Miller was originally tapped to play Sedgwick, who died tragically young in the 1970s of a drug overdose. But according to Miller‘s reps, she had to pass it up due to scheduling conflicts at the time. However, the London papers claimed she didn’t get the role because she wasn’t famous enough. They said the studio wanted a bigger name and even approached Katie Holmes, who was rapidly becoming an “it” girl because of her very public love affair with fiancé Tom Cruise. But then Holmes dropped out of the running. So now it’s back to Miller. Of course, the tabloids are now saying she got the role again because her personal problems with Law have put her in the limelight, but Factory Girl‘s director George Hickenlooper pooh-poohs the notion. He told Pagesix.com, “She was offered the role on July 13, long before the Jude Law story broke. As soon as Katie Holmes dropped out, we went back to Sienna. I always saw her as Edie. It was very painful when she left the project. (It’s) blatantly absurd to think that tabloid gossip had anything to do with it. We cast her the old-fashioned way, because she’s brilliantly talented.” You know what? I believe him. Not only is Miller a spitting image of the late Sedgwick, she’s proven some acting chops in Alfie and Layer Cake. She’ll be perfect.
Harden dreams the American Dreamz
Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden has joined American Dreamz, an ensemble political satire being directed by Paul Weitz (In Good Company, About A Boy). Harden will play the first lady opposite Dennis Quaid‘s president. Also joining the cast are Hugh Grant, Richard Dreyfuss and Mandy Moore. The movie is a send-up of American politics and show business, examining the role of dreams and ambitions in American culture. Sounds like fun.
Until next week…
