7/22/2011
Sure Shots: Annette Bening; He Loves Me; live-action Voltron back on track
* I'm loving the career resurgence for Annette Bening. It's nice to see that she's breaking through Hollywood's penchant for shutting out actresses who reach a certain age. She's played wise, tough moms in her last couple of flicks(Mother and Child, The Kids Are All Right), and now she's set to do it again. She's joined the cast of Imogene, the indie film and passion project of Kristen Wiig, starring as a troubled woman who pretends to kill herself and winds up having to move back home with her mom. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini(American Splendor) are directing. [Deadline]
* Speaking of Annette Bening, another indie film she's playing the matriarch in has had an addition to it's cast. Toni Trucks(The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) has joined the cast of He Loves Me, the sophomore directing effort from Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton(Little Miss Sunshine). The story feaures Paul Dano as a once successful writer now experiencing a writer's block. In an effort to break through it, he begins writing letters to the woman he thinks will love him, and ends up willing her into existence. Zoe Kazan, Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan, Deborah Ann Woll, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina, and Aasif Mandvi also star, based on Kazan's own script. Trucks will play Dano's sister in law, married to Messina's character. Glad to see Trucks moving up, as I really liked her on the Barbershop TV series. Yes, there was a TV series. [Variety]
* Putting together a Voltron movie has turned out to be more complicated than forming the giant robotic defender of the universe. Last year, plans for a big screen adaptation of the classic anime series were declared dead, then instantly restarted by producers Richard Suckle and Ted Koplar. A plan was put in place for a film to be released by 2013, and now with Relativity taking over the rights, it appears to actually be happening. The not so impressive writing duo of Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer(A Sound of Thunder) will draft the script, but no director is currently in place. Whether or not the 2013 release date still stands is anybody's guess. Maybe the film will be good enough to scrub my brain free of the horrible Voltron Force 'toon currently infecting Nickelodeon networks. Again I ask, when will they give the "Car" Voltron the same care and attention as the Lion one? [Superhero Hype]