Best/Favorite/Future Biopics

Started by MacGuffin, October 31, 2004, 09:33:15 PM

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SHAFTR

"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

MacGuffin

Springfield biopic nabs Chenoweth
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Kristin Chenoweth is attached to star as Dusty Springfield for a Universal Pictures biopic of the soul singer. Jessica Sharzer will write and direct the movie, which is being produced by studio-based Marc Platt along with Chenoweth and Untitled Entertainment's Danielle Thomas.

Born in Britain as Mary O'Brien in 1939, Springfield became the finest white soul singer of her era, with such hits as "I Only Want to Be With You" and "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself," embodying the 1960s with her beehive hairdo and panda-eye black mascara. In 1969, Springfield released what is widely considered her masterpiece, "Dusty in Memphis," an album that yielded the classic "Son of a Preacher Man" but was a commercial failure.

The singer battled substance abuse and a decline in artistic fortunes that ended only when she dueted with the Pet Shop Boys for 1990's "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" She died in 1999 at age 59 after a long battle with cancer.

The movie will focus primarily on Springfield's life in the '60s, culminating with the making of "Dusty in Memphis."

Vicki Wickham, Springfield's longtime manger, will be a consultant on the project.

Chenoweth starred in Broadway's "Wicked," which earned her a best actress Tony award. On the feature side, she will appear in "Bewitched" and "The Pink Panther" this year and has a recurring role on NBC's "The West Wing." She is in production on "Running With Scissors" and "Stranger Than Fiction" and shoots "R.V." next month.

Sharzer, who won a student Academy Award in 2002, wrote and directed "Speak," starring Kristen Stewart.

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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pete

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

life_boy

I've always had a soft spot for Bugsy (1991, Barry Levinson).  It was one of the movies I wanted to see when I was a kid but my parents wouldn't let me.  And then when it came on TV I recorded it and was so stoked and thought it was the best movie ever because Warren Beatty wore those cool clothes and Bugsy was a cool name for a gangster.  I haven't seen it in a while.  I hope the movie still holds up.


"Twenty dwarves...took turns...doing handstands...on the carpet."

MacGuffin

Notorious B.I.G. coming to big screen

The life of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. is getting the big-screen treatment.

Fox Searchlight has hired journalist Cheo Hodari Coker, the last person to interview B.I.G. before his death, to write the script. Director Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") is in negotiations to take the helm.

Born Christopher Wallace, then taking the moniker Biggie Smalls because of his more than 6-foot, 400-pound frame before settling on alias Notorious B.I.G., the rapper went from a Brooklyn crack dealer to East Coast hip-hop sensation. He helped establish Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy label as a hip-hop presence and aided artists like Lil' Kim and wife Faith Evans.

B.I.G. was involved in a feud with West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down in a Las Vegas drive-by in late 1996. In March 1997, B.I.G. was shot as he was leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

B.I.G.'s murder has never been solved. In 2002, Evans and Wallace filed a civil suit against the LAPD and the City of Los Angeles, alleging that police were involved. A mistrial was declared earlier this month, and a new trial is expected.

The film will be produced by B.I.G.'s mother, Voletta Wallace, and his former managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts. Barrow said the trio had been trying to get a film off the ground for the last five years.

"People wanted to give us check and do a film that they wanted to do, but Searchlight gave us the opportunity to really be able to come in and tell the story the way it was supposed to be told," Barrow said. "It's not just a hip-hop film, it's a film of life and a film of love. We didn't want to sell our souls to the devil, so to speak, just to get a check. The story is too important, not just to us but to hip-hop."

Barrow said he hoped to be in production early next year, and the most challenging aspect of the film will be casting.

"The most important element to casting B.I.G. is what we consider the swagger," Barrow said. "They have to have the element of the man and be able to capture the essence of who he was and his maneuvering, his relishings of life. You can't instill this in an individual, you just have to have it."

Coker has written for Vibe, the Los Angeles Times and Premiere. He is the author of "Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G." The biopic will not be based on the book, and Coker will work closely with the Wallace family to write the screenplay.

Coker also did a rewrite on a Bob Marley biopic at Warners and is working on an untitled thriller for Fuqua.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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polkablues

Somewhere, the fat guy from 8 Mile's phone is ringing.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Pubrick

that kid from the Sky's The Limit video should be the proper age right about now, 8 years later.

..if he hasn't had a heart attack.
under the paving stones.

grand theft sparrow

I'll only see this if they cast Nick Cannon as P Diddy.

MacGuffin

Elijah Lands Iggy Pop Role

The Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood has landed the role of a young Iggy Pop in a new movie but he's terrified of the prospect of portraying the outrageous punk icon. Wood will start shooting the top-secret film in 2006 and he admits he's getting more nervous as the start date approaches. He says, "I'm scared to death of doing it, because I love him (Iggy Pop) so much and I respect the music so much. I don't want to be the person responsible for screwing that up."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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polkablues

Quote from: MacGuffin"I don't want to be the person responsible for screwing that up."

He doesn't need to worry.  The person responsible for screwing it up would be the one who cast Elijah Wood as Iggy Pop.
My house, my rules, my coffee

GoneSavage

Quote from: MacGuffinElijah Lands Iggy Pop Role
It's things like this that make me sure there is no god.

MacGuffin

Pullman likes Dick
Source: Moviehole

The always versatile Bill Pullman ("Independence Day", "Casper", "Zero Effect") will play legendary author Philip K.Dick ("Minority Report", "Bladerunner") in the film "Panasonic", says Production Weekly.

The Matthew 'Break My Stride' Wilder directed film will be quite exceptional, by the sounds. It'll fix on how the lines between reality and perception blur in the mind of the infamous Sci-Fi writer – who's constantly determined there are conspiracies plotting against him and experiences drug-fueled interdimensional shifts.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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squints

This sounds no good. It really sounds like it'll piss RK off
"The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts" – Friedrich Nietzsche

RegularKarate

Quote from: squints on August 01, 2006, 05:00:43 PM
This sounds no good. It really sounds like it'll piss RK off
yeah...
Matthew Wilder?  the musician?

Seems like if they wanted to make a movie about PKD, they'd just just give Valis to Kaufman to adapt... and Bill Pullman?  Why not just get fuckin Keanu again would probably be just as weak.

also... I didn't HATE Scanner

MacGuffin

INXS lead Hutchence due for biopic

Former INXS frontman Michael Hutchence is getting the biopic treatment.

Music video director Nick Egan has teamed with writers Chester Hastings and Dean McCreary for "Slide Away," which will be produced by Clark Westerman.

Hutchence was the lead singer of "INXS," the Australian band that gained international success in the 1980s. He also released a solo album, "Max Q." Hutchence was known for his string of love affairs that included Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen and Paula Yates. He died in 1997 at age 37.

The project's name comes from a posthumous duet that paired Hutchence with U2's Bono.

Westerman had been talking to Egan for about five years to do a film, but Egan, who had directed many INXS videos, was reluctant to do something on his deceased friend. After "Rock Star: INXS" left Westerman unimpressed with the way Hutchence's legacy was being treated, he approached Egan again.

"I said, 'Somebody else is going to do it, and they are not going to do it as well as you would because you knew him so well,' Westerman said. This time Egan said yes.

Although many in the U.S. might know Hutchence from the way he died -- he was found in his hotel room, with evidence of his cause of death pointing to either suicide or accidental death via autoerotic asphyxiation -- Westerman said "that is not the memory of what we are after, and that's not the story of who the man is. What we are aiming for is the journey through a person's life via their head."

The deal was a complicated yearlong affair, with the filmmakers acquiring the cooperation and participation of Hutchence's trust and the cooperation of his brother, Rhett. The filmmakers are now sifting through Hutchence's catalog.

Westerman is producing the upcoming "Pretty, Baby, Machine" and the adaptation of the best-selling book "I, Lucifer" with Films De La Suane/Gaumont.

Egan has directed music videos for Motley Crue, Oasis, Alanis Morissette, Mick Jagger, Duran Duran and Minogue. He came out of the production company Propaganda/Satellite, which served as a launchpad for such directors as David Fincher and Spike Jonze.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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