Despite his career as a director, when David Mamet's stage work is converted to the big screen (such as with Glengarry Glen Ross), he's usually content to hand off the megaphone chores to someone else. Such is the case with the adaptation of his much-performed play Speed-the-Plow, which now has 90 Minutes In Heaven director Michael Polish ready to call the shots.
Mamet is still involved, however: he wrote the script for the film, which will bring to screens the story of newly minted movie studio production chief Bobby Gould. Feeling the pressure from his boss to deliver a big hit with his first greenlight, he's handed a plum opportunity by longtime colleague Charlie Fox, who offers a script that would land them a big star normally found working for their competition. But their plans start to unravel thanks to a book, their egos and the competition to see who can woo an attractive temp secretary working for Gould, who has her own angle.
The play premiered on Broadway in 1988 with Ron Silver as Fox, Joe Mantegna as Gould and Madonna as Karen, the secretary, and has since been performed and revived several times, most recently in London with Nigel Lindsay, Richard Schiff and Lindsay Lohan in the lead roles. There's no word yet on casting for the film version.