August 11, 2009
Not so long ago Johnny Cash got to Walk The Line. Now its Hank Williams' turn for a newfangled countrified biopic via the Nashville-based 821 Entertainment Group and Strike Entertainment. Strike's partner Marc Abraham will pen the script. Williams's estate is cooperating -- which means they'll get use of recordings -- and 821's optioned the rights to Colin Escott's Hank Williams: The Biography. Escott will work as associate producer. So, yes, they're clearly making this one official, which means it might be the contemporary go-to cinematic take on Williams short life from poor Alabama childhood to country star to death at 29 from alcohol/morphine/etc. abuse. As Abraham puts it:
He was the first real star who went down as the result of his lifestyle, succeeded by Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain ... He destroyed himself, but for six years leading to his death, Hank had six songs each year in the top 10.
He thinks they'll use original recordings in the film, so whomever gets the role doesn't necessarily need to know how to sing. Ideas? We have one:
Continue reading Casting Couch: Hank Williams...
Posted at 10:58 AM by brandon in
Tags: Hanks Williams
latest by Baron Lane
May 22, 2009
Twilight Star Cast As Count Grishnackh • Varg Vikernes killed his Mayhem bandmate Euronymous in the early '90s. That someone's making a movie about that Norwegian black metal scene based on Lords Of Chaos is intriguing. That teen hunk Jackson Rathbone is donning corpsepaint to play Varg? Blasphemy!
March 9, 2009
N.W.A. Get A Biopic • New Line is developing Straight Outta Compton, a movie about controversial rap group N.W.A. EW reports that the film's producers (among them Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E's widow Tomica Wright) are "actively searching for a director along the lines of Curtis Hanson (8 Mile)." Which is exciting news, but whatever happened to Welcome Back, Biatch?! (Thanks Gideon for the tip!)
March 6, 2009
Dakota Fanning Cast As Lead Runaway • The Runaways biopic that's already cast vampire freak Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett has officially tapped the precocious Fanning to play Cheri Currie. Dakota's 15, so was Cherie when she started in the band, so there is some added reality to accompany Fanning being creepily talented anyway. Details at The Playlist.
latest by starrynights
December 3, 2008
When first we made the casting call for The Runaways biopic, your suggestions were all great: Kristen Bell, Kirsten Dunst, Don Cheadle, etc. Nobody realized our commenters are all casting directors. But that was a year and a half ago, before teen vampire flick Twilight raked in $120MM and made Kristen Stewart the sulking star that she is today. The resemblance is remarkable, right down to the way they clutch their hips in contempt of your adoration:
Continue reading Kristen Stewart To Play Joan Jett...
Posted at 11:24 AM by amrit in
Tags: Joan Jett | Kristen Stewart | The Runaways
latest by betty
November 13, 2008
Hollywood has finally decided it's time to turn on its lovelight and let it shine on Jerry (requisite lyric-biting intro sentence). According to reports, producers Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, and Eric Eisner have signed on to a biopic that'll explore the pie-eyed piper's roots, meaning no sad concluding chapter on the (extreme) burn-out, singing-from-a-teleprompter years. Via Hollywood Reporter:
The untitled project will focus primarily on Garcia's early life in the Bay Area before he joined the band that would become the Grateful Dead -- a period that includes a stint in the military, a life-changing car accident and his first creative encounters with members of the Northern California music scene including future Dead bassist Phil Lesh.
The movie will pull from Robert Greenfield's book Dark Star, already has a screenwriter (Topper Lilien) ... now it just needs a Jerry. Which is where we come in. Remember it's young Garcia we're casting. This won't be a throwaway project -- producers Berger and Yexa count Election and Little Miss Sunshine among their credits -- so in casting actors, aim high. Jerry would want it that way.
[Photo via coopercharged.com]
Posted at 12:02 PM by amrit in
Tags: Grateful Dead | Jerry Garcia
latest by Retrosonic
January 14, 2008
A year ago this past Saturday, we asked who you thought would play Kurt Cobain in Courtney Love's planned Kurt Cobain biopic. And the consensus was: there was no consensus. But in hindsight, it seems commenter cherries knew a little something the rest of us didn't:
itll be leonardo or ryan gosling, ive heard alot abou tthis project and its not some little movie , its now at a major studio the biggest one, and is recieiving a list attention from the ceo and cfo of the studio- it snot some scramble- its already fasttracked and greenlit.
That was 1/12/07. On 1/12/08, the
Mirror ran an item quoting a C. Love friend, who says Court has indeed "lined up Oscar-nominated Ryan Gosling to play husband Kurt," along with citing Love's not-at-all-vain belief that she should be portrayed by Scarlett Johansson. Which is all good as long as Scarlett doesn't pick up Courtney's method-acting habits; it's been 21 years since
Sid And Nancy and
still she's acting like Nancy Spungen's junkie friend. That's dedication to craft.
Of course none of this is confirmed until pen is put to paper, although the Courtney-friend says a contract is already in the mail to Johansson). So for now, you may fairly consider this an opportunity for us to run these pictures of the pretty people.
Looking at that picture of Scarlett, all we can think is "golden globes." On somewhat that note, congrats EdVed, Liz Lemon, female-version-of-Dylan, animated-rat-version-of-Patton-Oswalt. Don't know how you did it, Duchovny. Guess we should be watching Mad Men?
Posted at 10:17 AM in
Tags: Courtney Love | Kurt Cobain | Nirvana | Ryan Gosling | Scarlett Johansson
latest by SubPoop
August 21, 2007
Fox Searchlight Pictures is set to bring the dramatic life and times of Christopher Wallace aka the Notorious B.I.G. to the silver screen, calling the biopic Notorious and enlisting B.I.G.'s mom Voletta Wallace as producer. And director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food, Men Of Honor) is looking for a few good men (or women, why not) to audition for the yet-to-be-cast title role. That could be you! If you've got the stature 'n' flow, submit your audition tapes at biggiecasting.com, and size up the competition thus far at foxsearchlight.com/RUBIG. (Apparently freestyling is part of the audition process -- and apparently, most candidates so far are very not good at freestyling.)
As always, and even though they're looking for an unknown, we figured we'd conduct the informal casting process here and allow Fox Searchlight to cherry pick at their pleasure. Think we have just the person...
Continue reading Casting Couch: The Notorious B.I.G....
Posted at 5:12 PM in
Tags: The Notorious B.I.G.
latest by mobetta
