Kidron Is Keeping Up with Jones
Beeban Kidron, director of such gay faves as To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, is taking on the subject of a smoking, drinking British slut in her next film—and no, I’m not talking about Graham Norton. Kidron will direct Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the follow-up to the smash 2001 hit Bridget Jones’s Diary, about the romantic misadventures of one neurotic Englishwoman looking for love. The lovely Renee Zellweger and even lovelier Hugh Grant will reprise their roles in the sequel, which picks up just weeks after Bridget lands the man of her dreams. The plucky bird begins to realize that he’s not perfect and that wacky, sexy, funny things still happen to you when you’re in love. The next Bridget rolls into production this fall.
Madonna Takes Viagra
Madonna’s Maverick Films recently snapped up the script for a movie called Something in the Air. The story is based on a real-life situation in the little town of Ringaskiddy, Ireland, where fumes from a Viagra plant escaped and were breathed in by the residents, turning the village into the country’s love capital. Humorless pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which manufactures Viagra, has denied the story, so the drug in the film will most likely be renamed (Priapus is one fictitious name being considered). Also up in the air is the location, which may become American, as well as cast, with names like Irish hottie Colin Farrell being tossed around. But don’t hold your breath.
Cumming Says Goodbye
Queer actor Alan Cumming is giving a warm hello to a TV remake of the 1977 Neil Simon romantic comedy, The Goodbye Girl. The new version retells the story of a single mother (Everybody Loves Raymond Emmy winner Patricia Heaton) and her precocious daughter, who are forced to share a cramped New York City apartment with an intense actor (Jeff Daniels).
Cumming plays Mark Bodine, an off-Broadway director who casts Daniels’ character in an inadvertently funny production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Cumming is stepping into some big comedic shoes, since the role was originated by Paul Benedict, better known as Mr. Bentley on the classic ’70s sitcom The Jeffersons. The Goodbye Girl premieres on TNT in January, but Cumming fans can check out his latest picture, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, when it hits multiplexes later this month. Latifah on a Roll with Taxi
Dana Owens is everywhere these days, although she’s better known as Queen Latifah. Hot off her $100-million-grossing Bringing Down the House, Latifah is set to star in an American remake of director Luc Besson’s hit French comedy Taxi. The original was about a cop who recruits the fast and furious driving skills of a pizza delivery boy to help catch some bank robbers. Latifah’s Oscar nomination for Chicago and box-office clout helped make the gender shift to delivery girl go down easily, and an autumn shooting date with Barbershop director Tim Story looks likely. Her cop co-star has yet to be cast, but it probably wouldn’t hurt ticket sales if Steve Martin rode shotgun again.