LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Film: |
by Joe Bilancio |
I Still See The Future, and It Still Looks Good!
"In development" is the title given to films that are in varying stages of readiness. They may not yet be completely written and may only have bits and pieces of the production phase ready. In this category is Brokeback Mountain, to be directed by Gus Van Zant. In the film two male cowboys fall in love, but their lives prevent them from being together. No cast has yet been announced. In Domestic Partners, a marketing executive trying to scam his company for health benefits, claims that his straight roommate is actually his gay longtime companion, but finds his scheme backfiring when his gay boss takes him under his wing, getting to know them...and it becomes a game to see how long two straight men can keep their sexuality a secret. No budget or director has been announced, although the screenwriter is Don Roos (Boys on the Side, The Opposite of Sex). Janis Joplin will be the subject of one independent feature as well as one big-budgeted high profile distributor film. The indie film will chronicle the life of Janis Joplin from her childhood in Texas through her rise to fame, ending with her death from a heroin overdose at age 27. The director Joel L. Freedman calls it, "a strong, gutsy, cinema-verite, music-filled motion picture about the real inner life of a great artist vs. her public personathe pain and sheer passion it takes to get to the top and stay there. Joplin will be an honest and moving tribute to Janis Joplin and her music." The film is set to star Laura Theodore, who has portrayed Joplin in two Broadway productions, and San Andrew, the founder of Big Brother and the Holding Company (where Joplin got her start). No budget has been set. Little information is known about the Paramount release Piece of My Heart, except that Rene Zellweger is rumored to star. In the category of "Ready to begin Filming" is Coming Out, produced by Catherine Zeta-Jones and with an $8 million dollar budget. The film will star Alan Cumming and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The storyline goes like this: When the venerable coach of an underdog Welsh rugby team dies, it's up to his flamboyantly gay son (Cumming), who has a career performing cabaret in London's West End, to "choreograph" the team to a flaming victory... (Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a local hairdresser and old friend of Cumming's character). Again look to early 2005 for this film. Marlowe presents Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, both playwrights who wrote during the Elizabethan period of the late 16th century. However, it was Shakespeare who eventually became so well known that "The Bard" is all that needs be said to signify his work. A question has nagged at literary historians for centuries, however... did Marlowe actually write some of the "The Bard's" most famous plays? Marlowe offers a scenario in which Marlowe has problems with both Queen Elizabeth (for whom he may have been a spy) and a jealous male admirer, a situation which lead to his plays being given to Shakespeare behind his back. This film purports to be the true story of Christopher Marlowe: atheist, spy, and literary genius. The film is to be directed by John Maybury (Love is the Devil) with a budget of $20 million. Some films currently in production that may be available as soon as 2004 include D.E.B.S., based on a short (that will be part of RBIFF 2003). Hidden within the SAT is a secret test that studies not a girl's reading or mathematics skill, but her potential to perform duties within the realm of espionage, like deception, physical combat, and if needed, murder. Those who score high enough on this secret scale are recruited to join a secret academy where they will be trained to become spies in a paramilitary group they call D.E.B.S. This film focuses on four of these plaid-skirted debutantes as they're recruited and engage in their first mission, which (if this film follows the storyline of the short) is an effort to rescue one of their cohorts who has been kidnapped by the D.E.B.S.' lesbian nemesis who calls herself Lucy in the Sky. Monster stars Christina Ricci and Charlize Theron in a narrative feature about serial killer Aileen Wurnos. Aileen Wuornos (Theron) had a difficult and cruel childhood plagued by abuse and drug use in Michigan, becoming a prostitute (and pregnant) by the age of 13. Wuornos eventually moved to Florida where she became a highway prostitute, servicing the desires of truck drivers. This movie focuses on the nine month period in 1989 and 1990 during which she had a lesbian relationship with a woman named Selby (Ricci), and during which she also began murdering any of her clientele who tried to rape her. The film may be premiered in early 2004 at the Sundance Film Festival. So if you have been paying attention to the last two articles, you should be awaiting all of the great films coming your way...but like I said....don't hold your breath as the gossip can be more interesting than the final outcomes. Joe Bilancio is Programming Director for the Rehoboth Beach Film Society. He may be reached at Joe@rehobothfilm.com. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 13, No. 13, September 19, 2003 |