Depp goes heroin chic
Johnny Depp is attached to star in Shantaram, a fact-based tale about the adventures of a heroin addict on the run. Well, that makes sense. He’s probably tired of playing PG-characters, like the weird Willy Wonka or Peter Pan playwright James Barrie. And this new project sounds like just the ticket. The Warner Bros. project is based on the novel by Gregory David Roberts and according to the Hollywood Reporter, is loosely based on Roberts’ life. Set in the 1980s, the story centers on an Australian heroin addict convicted of robbery who escapes to India, where he reinvents himself as a doctor. When he gets involved in smuggling and gunrunning, his adventurous life leads him to Afghanistan and battles with Russians. Wow, that’s some life.
De Niro channels Hollywood
Robert De Niro is really stretching it to play a real-life Hollywood producer in What Just Happened, an independent film expected to include cameos from Sean Penn and other stars. Oh, I’m kidding. This is a perfect part for an actor to play. Remember what Dustin Hoffman did in Wag the Dog, channeling Robert Evans (which coincidentally also co-starred De Niro)? Good stuff. De Niro will play a desperate movie producer hanging on to the tattered threads of his career as he tries to maintain his dignity while surviving the mounting humiliations of Hollywood. According to the Reporter, his character is based on Art Linson, whose credits include Heat, Fight Club and the upcoming The Black Dahlia. Linson, De Niro, and the actor’s Tribeca Prods. partner, Jane Rosenthal will produce, with Wag the Dog director Barry Levinson at the helm. Too bad David Mamet isn’t writing the script. Then it’d be a real Wag the Dog reunion.
First Rocky, then Rambo
Sylvester Stallone must be feeling nostalgic for the old days. After announcing last week he was doing another Rocky, the actor is now returning to his Rambo ways. He’s attached to star in Rambo IV, the first film about the one-man killing machine since 1988. It centers on former Vietnam vet John Rambo, who is living a reclusive life back home in the U.S. But when a girl goes missing, he is forced to abandon his quiet lifestyle and take justice into his own hands. No director is attached, and the screenplay is in the early stages. Let’s hope the screenplay gets a LOT better than they way its sounding now. Oh who are we kidding–it’s a Rambo movie, for heaven’s sakes.
Lohan joins Bobby’s crew
Lindsay Lohan is joining the cast of Bobby, an indie film about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, which Emilio Estevez wrote and is directing. Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Nick Cannon and Freddy Rodriguez already are cast in the film, which is set to go into production next week in Los Angeles. I reported a few weeks ago about this film–an ensemble that mixes fact and fiction and chronicles the intertwining lives of a grand cast of characters present at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel in the hours leading up to Kennedy’s 1968 assassination. Lohan will play a woman who marries her boyfriend’s brother (Wood) to keep him from going to Vietnam, only to fall in love with him. Shia LaBeouf (The Greatest Game Ever Played) is also joining the cast, playing a Kennedy campaign volunteer who decides to spend the day dropping acid. Bobby is Lohan‘s second indie film in a row, following Robert Altman‘s A Prairie Home Companion, co-starring the likes of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. Finally, Lohan’s moving away from the Disney, bubble gum fare and digging in. We’ll get to see if she’s got any acting chops or not.
Reynolds, Mortimer in Chaos
British actress Emily Mortimer (Dear Frankie) is in negotiations to star opposite Ryan Reynolds in the romantic comedy Chaos Theory. The story centers on a compulsive organizer (Reynolds) who decides to live his life without planning and in the process discovers love with Mortimer’s character. Reynolds is just hotter than hot these days, isn’t he? After showing he can play not only comedy in films like Waiting, he also showed he can add something to the horror genre as well, propelling the Amityville Horror remake to the top of the heap. He’s also starring in the upcoming comedy Just Friends, with Amy Smart. He plays a guy whose lost a lot of weight since high school and tries to get his high school crush, who once rejected him, to fall in love with him. Hmmm, Reynolds better be careful not to pigeonhole himself in these cutesy comedies.
Dr. Kevorkian gets big-screen time
An unpublished biography of Dr. Jack Kevorkian–the physician who assisted terminally ill patients commit suicide and is now incarcerated for his deeds–is being turned into a movie by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, U.S.A.). According to the Hollywood Reporter, You Don’t Know Jack will be based on the book of the same name, written by Kevorkian’s assistant of 25 years, Neal Nicol, and the doctor’s neighbor and lifelong friend, Harry Wylie. The project marks the first time the 77-year-old physician, nicknamed Dr. Death, has fully authorized anyone to tell his story. “The film will examine the fascinating life of man who is a household name, yet no one knows his actual story,” the film’s producer, Steve Jones, told the Reporter. “It’s not a film about euthanasia but instead a look at a passionate man who spent his entire life fighting for rights he believes that every human should have.” Kevorkian is serving the seventh year of a 15- to 25-year prison sentence. Should be interesting.
Until next week…
