Fox Searchlight has released the first photos from Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut Whip It in today’s issue of USA Today. Based on the book Derby Girl by Shauna Cross, the film stars Ellen Page as Bliss Cavendar, “an indie-rock loving misfit” who finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin Texas. More photos after the jump.
Posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
After she’s done filming the lesbian werewolf movie Jack and Diane, might Juno starlet Ellen Page slip into a pair of roller skates for Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut?
Unless another famous gal’s name rhymes with “Shmellen Shmage,” that’s what Shauna Cross, author of the novel Derby Girl and its adapted screenplay Whip It, tells Film School Rejects. Page would play Bliss, a “pretty, precocious teen full of sarcasm and wit and hijnks” growing up outside of Austin, Texas, who discovers a female roller derby. It’s Juno…on lil’ polyurethane wheels! I kid.
Anyone thinking that the film’s title is self explanatory should know that “whip it” is a roller skating term, as in, “she’s whipping the jammer.” Man, that is fun to say. Cross, a former L.A. Derby Doll named Maggie Mayhem, says that the flick will be the first to capture the sport with “multiple cameras and great editing,” playfully adding, “It’s going to be sick, yo.” She’s like Diablo Cody…on skates! And no, there’s still no word if the trailer will rock out to Devo. There is no trailer, duh. But you just know it’s gonna.
