The Dallas Movie Gets Their Lucy
And I was starting to get worried they wouldn’t be able to. But those casting geniuses for the new Dallas feature film have tapped young starlet Katie Cassidy(Click) as the rebellious teen Lucy Ewing. The 19-year-old daughter of former teen idol David Cassidy, has apparently beaten out the likes of Jessica Simpson and Kristin Cavallari to win the coveted role. A source tells Us Weekly, “Producers wanted to steer clear of the drama and also thought Katie was simply better for the role.” Charlene Tilton, who played original Lucy on the hit television series, favored Lindsay Lohan over Jessica Simpson for the role saying, “Jessica is beautiful, but too old. I had just turned 17 when we started filming. It’s more exciting if Lucy is doing all of these things… out of high school. (Lindsay Lohan) is a great choice.” Charlene, don’t you know Lindsay has moved on from such trifle? She’s a serious actress now.
Nicholson, Freeman Kick the Bucket
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are committed to star in The Bucket List, with Rob Reiner set to direct. Apparently, the title refers to a wish list that two terminally ill men try to fulfill before each kicks the bucket. After they break out of a cancer ward, they head off on a road trip with an itinerary that includes racing cars, eating giant plates of caviar and slinging poker chips in Monte Carlo. Oh boy. This could be either be one of those sappy movies the Oscar people go bananas over or it could just be depressing to see Nicholson and Freeman cavorting around together in a shameless attempt to pull the heartstrings. I’m sort of leaning towards the later.
DiCaprio Turns On, Drops Out
Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way production company have tapped Obie-winning playwright Craig Lucas and Timothy Leary archivist Michael Horowitz to develop a biopic on the counterculture icon as a possible starring vehicle for DiCaprio. According to Hollywood Reporter, DiCaprio, who knew Leary before his death in 1996, has been aiming to develop a film on the LSD advocate for several years. The film will focus on Leary’s life between his enrollment at West Point in the early 1940s and his escape from prison in 1970. DiCaprio playing another strange but influential man makes sense, especially after he successfully embodied the wacko Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Lucas could also bring an interesting element to the whole thing. The unconventional writer-director, who made his helming debut last year with the critically acclaimed indie The Dying Gaul, penned such films as The Secret Lives of Dentists and Prelude to a Kiss, which was adapted from a play of his.
Miller, Sarsgaard Head to Pittsburgh
Sienna Miller is in final negotiations and Peter Sarsgaard is in talks to star in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, based on Michael Chabon’s 1988 debut novel. Rawson Marshall Thurber, who most recently directed Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, is on board to direct. The story, which marked the literary launch of Chabon (Wonder Boys), chronicles the last summer of Art Bechstein’s youth and revolves around his eccentric circle of friends, including Jane (Miller) and Cleveland (Sarsgaard). The lead role of Art has yet to be cast, contrary to reports that Max Minghella (Art School Confidential) will star in Pittsburgh. Minghella is enrolled as an undergraduate at Columbia University, and production dates conflict with his fall semester, sources told Variety. These indies about quirky people and their peculiar habits are starting to all run together, aren’t they? Although Wonder Boys is an excellent movie, there’s just nothing that screams “creatively different” about this one. Where’s Charlie Kaufman when you need him?
More Chinese High Drama
International stars Chow Yun-Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha) soon will be returning to American shores. Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North American and Latin American rights to House of Flying Daggers director Zhang Yimou‘s martial-arts romantic drama Curse of the Golden Flower. The feature, shooting in China, follows the medieval saga of a dysfunctional royal family led by a king (Chow) and queen (Gong) engaged in power struggles with their three sons and each other. Oh, so it’s the Chinese version of The Lion in Winter–the Oscar-winning classic with Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn as the 12th century king and queen England battling it out. But Golden Flower is bound to be filled with loads of cool flying stunts and sword play. That’ll be worth the ticket.
Butler Chases Comic-Book Vampires; Watchmen Finally Gets Big-Screen Treatment
Scottish-born actor Gerard Butler (The Phantom of the Opera) is in negotiations to star in Priest. Andrew Douglas, who cut his teeth on last year’s remake of The Amityville Horror, has signed on to direct. The story is a post-apocalyptic horror western based on a comic book by Min-Woo Hyung and centers on a warrior priest (Butler) who disobeys church law by teaming with a young sheriff and a priestess to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped the priest’s niece. Meanwhile, Zack Snyder, who made his feature filmmaking debut with 2004’s Dawn of the Dead, has come aboard to develop and direct Watchmen, based on the seminal DC Comics saga of a vigilante superhero. Set in an alternate America, Watchmen follows the costumed hero Rorschach, who is living a vigilante lifestyle because most masked crime-fighters have retired or been outlawed. While investigating a murder, he learns that a former masked-hero colleague has been killed, prompting him to begin investigating a possible conspiracy. Yeah, well, I’m actually starting to get tired of all these comic-book and graphic novel-turned-movies, too, vampires and vigilantes aside. I know it’s blasphemous to say that, but there it is.
Eastwood Hits the Rails
Alison Eastwood, the winsome daughter of Clint Eastwood, is poised to make her directorial debut with Rails and Ties for Warner Independent Pictures. The film is based on an original screenplay by Micky Levy and revolves around two families and their physical, emotional and psychological collision. The story begins on a beautiful stretch of the California coastline, where a suicidal mother parks her car on a railroad crossing and awaits the arrival of a speeding train with her 9-year-old son in the car. Good lord, just slit my wrists right now. What’s with the crop of films this week? Its all doom and gloom and tired material.
Until next week (and let’s hope it’s better)…
