It’s been a while since we saw Brittany Murphy, the Clueless star who surpassed all expectations and became a bigger box office draw than Alicia Silverstone. We last heard her in Happy Feet, and she’s apparently brilliant in The Dead Girl, a movie that still shows no signs of opening in the UK.
Otherwise, though, it’s been pretty quiet since the days when she was assaulting the box office in the likes of Just Married and Sin City. But now she’s back back back, with one project about to start filming and another tentatively set to fit into her schedule.
The movie about to start filming is Across The Hall, an indie thriller about a brutal stand-off between Murphy, her fiancé (Cloverfield’s Mike Vogel) and his best friend, Danny Pino.
Alex Merkin will direct the movie, which has been expanded from his award-winning 2005 short movie, which starred Entourage’s Adrien Grenier.
And the movie under consideration is Poor Things, in which Murphy would replace Lindsay Lohan, who’s dropped out to, y’know, like, do stuff and stuff.
However, if we were Murphy, we’d be considering this one very carefully. Oh, sure, on the surface it sounds alright – a dark comedy about two con women who befriend and then murder homeless people so they can claim the insurance, think of it as a female Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with the dirt turned up to 11.
And it’s got a cracking cast, too, with Shirley Maclaine – who also produces – Olympia Dukakis, Rosario Dawson and Channing Tatum already on board.
But original director Ash Baron-Cohen has left the project, citing creative differences, to be replaced by Scott Marshall, and that’s set the alarm bells ringing so much. To lose a director is almost never good news – we keep hearing the words, ‘Rumour Has It, Rumour Has It’ – but to also lose a star just compounds the blow. Is Poor Things salvageable?
Well, Murphy would certainly be a good choice – a versatile actress, she’s got fine comedic timing and dramatic chops to boot, as well as being almost indefinably cute. But let’s stress that right now she’s in negotiations and hasn’t yet signed on.