Kidman Goes to Monte Carlo
Gay writer-director Thomas Bezucha (Big Eden) successfully made the transition from indie sensation to major-studio player with The Family Stone, the dysfunctional family Christmas flick starring Sarah Jessica Parker. He’s clearly got a gift for signing major actresses, since Nicole Kidman and possibly Julia Roberts are slated to star in his upcoming comedy, Monte Carlo. Based on the novel by Jules Bass, the film follows three schoolteachers from the Midwest whose Parisian holiday goes bust. They make the most of the opportunity by heading to the titular playground of the rich and famous, passing themselves off as three wealthy women of leisure. Sounds like a delicious spin on How To Marry a Millionaire, but we’ll have to wait until 2010 to see if this trio breaks the bank.
Jolie Rides the Rails
One of the meatiest female roles in American literature that hasn’t yet made it to the big screen would have to be Dagny Taggart, the railroad executive who keeps the trains going even as society crumbles around her in Ayn Rand’s objectivist fantasia Atlas Shrugged. But now it looks like Dagny’s ready for her close-up, courtesy of Angelina Jolie. She’s working with director Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) to make the long-awaited film version of Atlas, and it looks like they’ll manage to pull it off before threatened guild strikes shut down Hollywood sometime next summer. Given Jolie’s rather vocal lefty politics, it will be interesting to see how Rand’s right-wing fans respond to the film when it shrugs its way to screens in 2008.
Roland Emmerich Takes a Fantastic Voyage
He shot Will Smith into outer space to take out the bad guys in Independence Day, but now gay director Roland Emmerich plans to explore inner space with a remake of the sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage. The original —perhaps best remembered for Raquel Welch’s tight white wetsuit—had five scientists getting shrunk down to microscopic size and injected into a dying diplomat’s bloodstream to perform a life-saving maneuver that no surgeon could successfully attempt. While the 1967 original won Oscars for its visual effects and art direction—and sending a tiny submarine into a human heart was indeed pretty cool—this is definitely one of those movies that could benefit from contemporary effects magic. Get ready to dodge white blood cells when this Voyage launches in 2010.
Griffin + Cho = Gay Nirvana
How do you ensure that gay audiences will flock en masse to a new comedy about two drag queens trying to save their nightclub from evil real estate developers? Well, if you’re the makers of the upcoming Dixie’s, you load your cast with gay men’s favorite divas. The film, slotted for release in fall 2008, will feature comedy goddesses Kathy Griffin and Margaret Cho in supporting roles, which is sort of the equivalent of casting Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the same movie. Add to that mix supermodel vamp Janice Dickinson—as well as Andy Dick playing ‘Penelope’—and queer moviegoers just won’ be able to stay away. Schedule permitting, look for Dixie’s to hit the gay film festival circuit next summer before opening in theaters.
Romeo San Vicente went as Lorna Luft one Halloween, but all photographic evidence has been destroyed. He can be reached care of this publication, or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com.