Though the territory was already covered to some extent in Almost Famous, Zooey Deschanel will star in a half-hour dramedy pilot for HBO based on I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, the memoir by famous band-aide Pamela Des Barres.
Famous for sleeping her way through a succession of rock and screen stars in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Des Barres chronicles her exploits and the frequent depression that followed when her interludes with famous dudes didn’t turn into anything meaningful. Almost Famous fictionalized the story, and it sounds like this will be based in reality. Which means, if the series is picked up, we could potentially enjoy a parade of ’stars of the week’ playing famous rockers and actors. Which would be amusing, if nothing else. [DHD]
After the break, Danny Glover fights dragons (finally!) and Christina Ricci joins Robert Pattinson. Read More »
Let’s start with the bad news. Jessica Alba is joining the cast of Little Fockers, as “an attractive pharmaceutical rep whose looks wreak havoc on male characters in the story.” The bad news isn’t Alba’s involvement, but that Little Fockers is still being made. But Universal needs a reliable earner, and this, to my great chagrin, probably fits the bill. When your parents ask who directed this comedic treasure while you’re watching it half-drunk on affordable wine after some future Thanksgiving meal, you can tell them it’s Paul Weitz, and that you read it here. [THR]
After the break, some slightly more heartening news. Read More »
When I think of actresses lucky enough to have a perfect part, one tailored and empowered with the entire spectrum of human emotion and not simply the giddy sex appeal that plagues Hollywood films, I think of Uma Thurman and Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride in Kill Bill. She should have received an Oscar nom for either volume, and won. While the following quote is in no way a slight at Tarantino, it was surprising to hear her say the following to MTV in regards to a role in Stanley Kubrick’s Wartime Lies, neither of which happened, obviously…
“It was devastating because it was an incredible part,” she confessed. “It would have been the part of my career, the best part I ever had been offered or had written for me, or anything.”
In no way am I comparing Tarantino to Kubrick right now, but it seriously caught me off guard, especially the “writing” part. Kubrick’s Wartime Lies, based on Louis Begley’s acclaimed novel, would have had Thurman play a Jewish woman who cares for her orphaned nephew as they face Nazi atrocities in Poland during the Holocaust and resort to taking the disguise of Catholics. More Uma…
“I was going to make a film with him - for a long time I was scheduled to make a film with him,” she said of “Wartime Lies,” a movie she was signed on to make with Kubrick in the early 90s. “I was contracted to do it and things happened and he shelved the film. He never made the film.”
An adaptation is currently being worked on by The Departed’s ever-busy William Monahan, but Thurman didn’t discuss whether she’s still being sought for the part. Let’s hope, because she belongs in higher-brow fare than My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Discuss: Thoughts? Â
It’s a slow Wednesday in 2008, so that must mean it’s time to grind the rumor mill yet again for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair DVD(s)! Uma Thurman teased MTV with news that Tarantino is currently working on a new anime to be included with the long-planned definitive edition of the director’s legendary magnum opus. Moreover, she says the complimentary anime segment(s) will not focus on her character Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride, leaving speculation open that the new anime will revolve around Bill.
“Right now he’s putting the two films together with an intermission with an added anime sequence he had already written,” said Thurman. “So additional stories are in there, in animation.” She adds, “his anime stuff is strong.”
Of course, Thurman played it coy and left it at that, but she’s far less prone to spouting coolness to the press for the hell of it, so maybe KB: TWBA is on the way. Personally, I await the day when QT’s Inglorious Bastards, planned for 2010, starts production, but I’m curious to see what type of gluttonous “intermission” he has in store as well. Can you make perfect films more perfect I wonder?
On March 25th, we had the opportunity to talk with most of the stars and directors of Grindhouse. We will be posting the interviews leading up until the film’s release on April 6th 2007.
We sat down with Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn) to talk about their upcoming double feature.
Read More »
On March 25th, we had the opportunity to talk with most of the stars of Grindhouse. We will be posting the interviews leading up until the film’s release on April 6th 2007.
We sat down with Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Rent, 25th Hour) to talk about her role as Abernathy in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. We talked to Rosario about her change from a tom boy to a girlie girl, Kevin Smith’s upcoming romantic comedy, her aspirations to work with Rob Zombie, Eli Roth and Catherine Hardwicke, her comic book series O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce, and the film she is producing based on the book. But for the most part Rosario hijacked the interview to tell us about her first producing effort, Descent, which will make it’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Dawson was very excited about her new film, so we let her do most of the talking.
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