Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn are set to star in Blackbird, an adaptation of David Harrow's stageplay. Benedict Andrew will direct the film about "a confrontation between a man and a woman, estranged former lovers, who clash when the woman shows up unexpectedly at the man’s office." Filming is to kick off next summer. [Variety]
Quick, name the guy who directed My Cousin Vinny. Times up. It was Jonathan Lynn, and he hasn't done much to keep your attention since. He's back now with The Hurricanes, which will have Mad Men's Christina Hendricks as its star. The story follows "Kim Ayers, who twenty years earlier was the perkiest member of a hit 80s girl-band, The Hurricanes. Today, she works as a children’s entertainer and struggles to raise her daughter alone. But things seem set to change when an iconic Hurricanes tune is sampled by top rapper MC Freak and shoots straight to number one. Kim tracks down Freak but soon discovers that a dodgy contract proves he owes her nothing. Nonetheless, struck by her fighting spirit, he offers her a lifeline. He will let her perform with him, but there’s a catch. He wants all three of the The Hurricanes. So Kim must locate estranged band-mates Nicky Bliss, last seen in rehab and Alex Moon, now an angry feminist poet, and persuade them to resurrect their once chart topping band." Did they just tell us the whole story? Whatever, maybe Lynn can do for Hendricks what he did for Marisa Tomei?
