Another Musician Bites the Dust
An all-star cast–including Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Ed Harris and Kevin Spacey–are lining up to support songstress Norah Jones as she stars in her first feature film, My Blueberry Nights, a romantic comedy that will also be the first English-language feature directed by Wong Kar Wai (2046). Jones, the Grammy Award-winning singer, plays a young woman who travels across America to find the true meaning of love, encountering offbeat characters along the way. I just bet she’ll also have a guitar slung over her shoulder–in case, you know, she has to start playing a song here and there. [Rolling my eyes]. Still, Jones does have a very photographic face, and she may not have to do much acting if she’s got all those other talented people around her. So maybe this will work.
P.S. Swank Loves You; Johansson Is Brilliant
Hilary Swank is set to star in P.S. I Love You for Alcon Entertainment with Richard LaGravenese set to direct. LaGravenese and Steve Rodgers adapted the bestselling Cecilia Ahern novel, about a widow whose life is rejuvenated when letters left by her husband send her on a series of adventures. Hmm, what kind of adventures? Meanwhile, sexy siren Scarlett Johansson will topline helmer Barry Levinson‘s heist pic Brilliant. The story follows Johansson as a jewel thief who teams up with a conman to pull off the biggest heist in history. However, the duo’s relationship is fraught with twists and turns. Well, of course it is. What relationship isn’t?
Bob Dylan: Biopic Material?
Sort of. Writer/director Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine) is helming I’m Not There, a re-enactment of the life of the musician, with multiple actors embodying different stages in the singer’s life. On board are Brokeback Mountain’s Heath Ledger, who is replacing Colin Farrell, and his real-life lady love, Michelle Williams, who will play Coco Rivington, a model with whom an androgynous folk star–played by Cate Blanchett–is taken. Also cast are Christian Bale, Julianne Moore and Richard Gere. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Haynes and producer Christine Vachon persuaded Dylan to assign them the rights to his life story and music two years ago. This would be the first biographical screenplay about Dylan. OK, color me intrigued.
Hatcher Gets Animated
Teri Hatcher will voice a dual role opposite Dakota Fanning in Coraline, an animated film based on Neil Gaiman’s 2002 international best-seller. Hatcher plays both the mother of the title character (voiced by Fanning) and her other mother in a parallel universe. The young Coraline steps into a world that appears to be a much better version of her own reality, but when her artificial parents attempt to keep her there forever, she must escape the dangerous situation and take a brave journey to get back home. I think I might like this a little better if it weren’t animated, but it does sound very Stephen King-meets-Lewis Carroll. An interesting combination.
Kinnear, Freeman In Love
No, no, nothing like that. Greg Kinnear will reunite with Morgan Freeman in The Feast of Love, about a guy who has bad luck in love, with Oscar-winning director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer) signed on to direct. Based on a Charles Baxter novel, the drama revolves around a community of friends in Oregon, and is described as an exploration of the magical, mysterious and sometimes painful incarnations of love. Kinnear‘s character, Bradley Thomas, owns a coffee shop and paints on the side, but he loses his first wife to a lesbian and a second wife to another man. The guy just can’t catch a break, eh? His character shares a unique bond with Freeman‘s character, philosophy professor Harry Scott. Wait, maybe there will be a Brokeback moment.
Getting All Sexed Up
Frankie Muniz, Harvey Keitel and Amber Valletta star in the coming-of-age comedy-drama, My Sexiest Year. The story centers on a young man (Muniz) and his never-to-be-forgotten romantic encounter with a top international model (Valletta). Yeah, like THAT would happen. Keitel plays his estranged father. The cast also includes Haylie Duff (Napoleon Dynamite), while pop star Ryan Cabrera and Victoria’s Secret model Karolina Kurkova are making their acting debuts in the film. What’s with Muniz these days? This is the second sex-related movie he’s signed on to do in the last few months. A couple of weeks ago, I reported he was starring in a teen-sex romp Parental Guidance Suggested, playing a guy who loses his virginity and finds out his girlfriend is a little wilder in bed than he thought. Guess the 20 year-old is pretty tired of being thought of as the geeky Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. Good luck with that, Frankie. Or should we call you Frank?
Union’s The Girl
Gabrielle Union will star in Tyler Perry‘s latest film, Daddy’s Little Girl, a reverse-Cinderella tale. Union will play a successful attorney who falls in love with a janitor who is a single father of three children. This relationship causes a rift between the woman and her father, as he hoped she would marry wealthy. Perry’s the guy who brought us Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea’s Family Reunion, so you get a pretty good idea how this latest one will go. At least, its starring the lovely Union.
Malkovich’s Found a Buck
John Malkovich has signed on to play the title role in the comedy The Great Buck Howard. The story follows a luckless magician (Malkovich) and his assistant (Colin Hanks) as they struggle to reinvigorate his career. Colin’ father, Tom Hanks, will play the assistant’s disapproving father, and will also produce the film. I find this kind of funny. While promoting his film Orange County in 2002, Colin Hanks told me this about acting with his father, “If I did that, the suspension of disbelief would totally be thrown out the window, in my opinion. It would be the kind of thing where people would say ‘Oh, they’re father and son in real life but are playing uncle and nephew or complete strangers.’ I just think that would take people out of the movie. It’s not like I don’t think it would be fun. It would be a blast. It’s just not something I really want to do right now. Maybe farther down along the line.” I guess the time has come.
Until next week…
