Naomi Watts. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures________
Kidman and Watts Need Ryan Murphy
Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts have been best pals since their early years in Australia, and now they're teaming up with gay writer-director Ryan Murphy for Need, a suspenseful drama about a psychiatrist ( Watts ) who discovers that her husband is having an affair with one of her patients ( Kidman ) . Nip/Tuck creator Murphy seems to be catnip for leading ladies—he's gotten stars like Catherine Deneuve and Kathleen Turner on his hit FX series, while landing Annette Bening and Gwyneth Paltrow for Running with Scissors, and Meryl Streep for Dirty Tricks, his upcoming movie about Watergate player Martha Mitchell. At this point, the latter film and Need are both set to shoot this fall, but no word as to which will win out on Murphy's busy schedule.
Justice League Has a Flash of Neil Patrick Harris
How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris drew acclaim in the gay community when he stepped out of the closet, but he's no stranger to playing the hero. He voiced the title character in MTV's 2003 Spider-Man cartoon, and now he's doing the talking for the fleet-footed Flash in Justice League: The New Frontier. Based on Darwyn Cooke's acclaimed DC Comics miniseries, the straight-to-DVD feature film will explore the early days of the Flash, Green Lantern, and other superheroes who came of age in the Cold War era. The original graphic novel has a very retro Right Stuff feel, with test pilots and experimental rocket ships and crew cuts for days. Here's hoping it's as cool as the other recent Justice League cartoons when it hits shelves in 2008.
Doug Wright Goes 'Under the Sea'
Gay writer Doug Wright has had a successful run with true stories—he wrote the acclaimed play and film Quills, about the Marquis de Sade, followed by his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, I Am My Own Wife, about East German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Most recently, the Tony Award winner penned Grey Gardens, a musical based on the popular 1970s documentary about Edith Beale and her daughter "Little" Edie. But Wright is leaving reality far, far behind with his latest project, the book for a new stage musical based on Disney's The Little Mermaid. The latest Mouse-to-Broadway adaptation will feature songs from the beloved 1989 animated classic along with some new ones, also written by composer Alan Menken. And it's coming very soon—the play will debut in Denver in August before its official Broadway debut on Dec. 6.
Can't Stop the Music: The Musical?
If Saturday Night Fever, Urban Cowboy, Footloose, and Xanadu could all make it to Broadway, why not Can't Stop the Music, the deliciously inane 1980 fiasco that tells a not-exactly-gay version of how the Village People—the gayest vocal group ever—came to be? New Yorkers may soon be shimmying in the aisles to Y.M.C.A. and Macho Man, since plans are indeed afoot to turn Music into a Broadway musical. The original movie completely heterosexualized the band that sang songs about Fire Island and San Francisco and released an album called Live and Sleazy, but maybe a contemporary stage version could acknowledge how very, very gay the Village People actually were. If nothing else, maybe it will make straight people think twice about singing Y.M.C.A. at weddings and sporting events.
Romeo San Vicente has seen Can't Stop the Music more times than he has seen Citizen Kane, and he won't apologize for it. DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com
