Macy Persuades Hayek To Keep Coming Back
The lovely, the talented Mr William H. Macy is finally set to make his directorial debut this year, with Keep Coming Back, and the news today is that he’s cast Salma Hayek in a lead role. The film is a coming-of-age drama about a teenage boy with a weak heart who finds his sheltered life opening up when he becomes infatuated with an alcoholic ex-stripper. Hayek will be playing the stripper (Boys! Please try to remain calm!) and Mos Def, Steve Buscemi and Macy himself (that must have been a tough audition) are already onboard.
Saw Team Head For Repo!
The blokes who brought you Saw are planning a new way to scare you, with a rock opera. Yup, Darren Lynn Bousman, director of **Saws II **and III, is planning to make Repo! The Genetic Opera, a rock opera set in a near future. The story concerns a world where organ failure is endemic, and a biotech giant has come up with organ payment plans for replacements – which is fine, until the repo men appear. Bousman directed the first theatre run of the play, written by Terrance Zdunich and Darren Smith, in 2002, and it’s played since in LA and New York. Expect lots of Saw-like blood and guts – or rather livers and kidneys – but with more singing. Yikes!
Cusack And Duff in Children of Men 2?
Well, sort of. John Cusack and Hilary Duff are to star in Talking To Dog, set in a post-apocalyptic future wherein “man has suffered the wrath of global warming” (Global warming has feelings?) and women can’t have children. It’s set to be directed by Mark Roper, who handled the TV shows “Nature Unleashed: Volcano” and “Nature Unleashed: Avalanche”, so we guess he knows what he’s doing with the global warming side of things. But John Cusack, what are you doing working with Hilary Duff? Surely there’s got to be a better option than something described as “Mad Max meets Blue Velvet” (eh?).
Fireflies Attract Roberts
Julia Roberts has signed on to star in Fireflies in the Garden, an ensemble family drama about “the complexities of love and commitment in a family torn apart by an unexpected tragedy”. Carrie-Anne Moss, Ryan Reynolds and Emily Watson are also set to star, with newcomer Dennis Lee writing and directing a semi-autobiographical story. Um. Nothing amusing to say about that really. Let’s hope it’s good.