They say only about 10 percent of working actors become movie stars, and the studio execs coming up with the major movies roles don’t have a creative bone among them. When you combine these two facts, you get my weekly Role Call. Here’s the skinny on who’s doing what–in all its good, bad and very ugly glory.
Austin Powers’ back, baby, yeah!
What fun! The power players behind the Austin Powers movie franchise are racing to shoot a fourth film to coincide with the 2006 release of the new James Bond movie Casino Royale. The new project would focus on the young Powers and the young Dr. Evil. A prequel of sorts, I like that. “There is hope!” Austin Powers star Mike Myers told Entertainment Weekly. “We’re all circling and talking to each other. I miss doing the characters.” Seth Green is in talks to perhaps play the young Eeeevil. Meanwhile, Myers is in negotiations to play Keith Moon in a new biopic about the famed Who drummer. Myers usually likes to write and produce all his own stuff, but this time the funny guy would only be acting. The chance to play the famously over-the-top sticksman, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 1978, was too good to pass up. But Myers, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Moon, remains mum on plot specifics, “With biopics, there’s this thing called the ‘flashback,’ so all [time periods] are possible,” he told EW. The Who’s lead singer, Roger Daltrey, will be producing, and Myers says everyone is “jazzed, charged and chugging forward. Both [Roger and I] had working class English parents, are huge Peter Sellers fans, and love English chocolate. On top of that, I’m a drummer–and that’s the important thing.” It certainly is.
Pitt and Norton go explorin’
Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are teaming up to exec produce a new HBO mini-series about famed U.S. explorers Lewis and Clark, to be co-produced by National Geographic. But the Fight Club pals will not actually play Lewis and Clark in the 10-part HBO television adaptation of Stephen Ambrose’s book. That’s a shame because they’d be perfect as the famed explorers. The series will focus on the 19th century journey of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who trekked across the American continent in 1803. The three-year journey, across the uncharted North American wilderness, paved the way for the westward expansion of the United States. “Lewis and Clark’s expedition is as great a story as you could ever hope to tell, and like so many people, Brad and I have both been drawn to it for years,” Norton told Variety. “We both always agreed that compressing that story into a feature-length film ruined the spirit of it…so we sat down and said, ‘How can we really do this justice?’ ” said the actor who was mesmerized by the book Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. Honestly, you guys need to reconsider about not starring in this. Think about all the fun you’ll have with nature, growing beards and getting all grizzled and stinky. It’s every man’s dream!
Clooney takes on the Network
George Clooney is a roll these days, taking on the American news media. Having just released his critically acclaimed Oscar contender Good Night, and Good Luck–a film about famed CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and his fight against Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s–Clooney is now setting his sights on doing a live TV update of screenwriters Paddy Chayefsky‘s 1976 Oscar-winning film Network. Clooney, who five years ago was executive producer and co-star of a live TV version of the 1964 Cold War drama Fail Safe, told The Associated Press that CBS chief Leslie Moonves approached him about doing the same thing with Network. The film, directed by Sidney Lumet, stars the late Peter Finch in his Oscar-winning role as anchorman Howard Beale, who’s fired and threatens an on-air suicide. Beale famously rants on the air “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” A cynical network executive (Faye Dunaway) thinks his descent into madness will make for great television, while the network news president (William Holden) has a difficult time exploiting Beale’s anguish. Clooney was briefly mystified when he screened it for a group of young people and none of them saw it as a dark satire. “I couldn’t understand it, (then) I realized that everything Chayefsky wrote about happened. And so, suddenly, the idea that the anchor is more important that the news story, and that you’d be doing sort of reality-based shows with heads of gangs and Sybil the Soothsayer all happened. And when you have that great speech with Ned Beatty sitting there going ‘There is no U.S.A. and Soviet Union, there is only Xerox and IBM,’ you realize all of those things were true, or came true,” the actor told AP. Oh, this is gonna be gooood.
Cassel plays French Public Enemy
Vincent Cassel (Ocean’s Twelve) is set to play France’s former Public Enemy No. 1 in a two-part project set to begin shooting next summer. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the two French-language films, titled Death Instinct and Public Enemy Number One, are based on the true story of Jacques Mesrine, a criminal known for his clever disguises, womanizing and audacious bank robberies and jail-breaks. Born to a prosperous family in 1937, Mesrine became a legend in his lifetime, reportedly wearing designer clothes and displaying impeccable courtesy to those he robbed, even as he performed the most daring heists in France and Canada throughout the 1970s. His death, at the hands of the French police in 1979, remains shrouded in controversy. Jean-Francois Richet, who recently completed a remake of John Carpenter‘s 1976 cop thriller, Assault on Precinct 13, will direct both films. Yes, I know, it’s French. But it sounds intriguing, no?
Speaking of the French…
Acclaimed French revolutionary musical Les Miserables is set to be turned into a blockbuster movie. Based on Victor Hugo’s immortal novel and adapted by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubil, the musical revolves around Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who’s pursued all his life by an evil police inspector trying to discredit him. The show producer Cameron Mackintosh is refusing to sell out to Hollywood and is instead searching for a filmmaker who appreciates the musical genre. He told World Entertainment News Network, “In the last six to nine months there has been renewed interest in the idea of a film adaptation and several big players want to be involved. That doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to hand the project over to a big name director. We want someone who has a vision for the show that will put the show’s original team, including me, back to work. We don’t just want an adaptation. We want a film audiences will find as fresh as the actual show.” According to WENN, the theatrical production, was voted the U.K.’s favorite musical earlier this year and movie insiders are already predicting the film version will be a huge box-office success. Yeah, well, the story’s already been told in various feature film incarnations and just because it’s a musical doesn’t mean it’s box office gold.
Phifer to play Al Green
Inspired by Jamie Foxx‘s Oscar-winning portrayal of Ray Charles, actor Mekhi Phifer (8 Mile) is set to star in and direct a new movie about soul great Al Green. The actor told MTV News, “I’ve already met with Al Green… I’ve always been an avid, avid fan of Al Green, his music, his legacy, and I just really wanted to portray it to the world. Al has full confidence, and he’s like, ‘Just do me right.’ We’re just creating the story that we’re going to show to the public, because obviously he’s still alive. So it’s just finding the right story that has the most impact.” The film is expected to feature on Green’s rise to acclaim in the 1970s and his decision to turn his back on the business and become a minister. Phifer insists he’ll follow Foxx‘s example in Ray and lip-sync to classic Green hits like “Let’s Stay Together”: “I’ll be lipsyncing; I’ll be acting like I sing.”
Until next week…
