Cherry Goes Into The Woods
On Broadway, she's a Tony Award-winning star, but in the movies, cool lesbian character actor Cherry Jones tends toward smaller supporting turns in big movies like Erin Brockovich, The Perfect Storm, and Signs. Now she's working on raising that profile by teaming up again with Signs director M. Night Shyamalan for his new movie, The Woods. No, it's not that Sondheim musical. It's the spooky story of a 19th-century village terrorized by creatures that lurk in the forest surrounding it, and Jones—as well as Hedwig and the Angry Inch's Michael Pitt—joins Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody, and William Hurt as the horrified townies. Here's hoping Jones' part is big and meaty and involves kicking some evil monster ass, like Weaver did in all those Alien movies.
Kimberly Peirce's Staggering Genius
Could it be that we're finally going to get to see a new film from director Kimberly Peirce? It's been about four years since Boys Don't Cry, and, well, our patience is wearing thin. For a while she was attached to direct a biopic about gangster John Dillinger and then a film version of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, but those projects seem to have vaporized in the development atmosphere. So keep your fingers crossed that her current 'attached' status to the film adaptation of Dave Eggers' memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, doesn't fall through. Eggers' book chronicled his experience of being orphaned at 22, leaving him to raise his 8-year-old brother alone. With Universal behind the film, Genius could propel Peirce to bigger things. And her ability to shape downbeat subject matter into a compelling, emotionally cathartic movie-going experience has already been proven. Put this woman to work!
Jack & Bobby Who?
Fans of The Broken Hearts Club yearning for another feature-length gay comedy from creator Greg Berlanti have a little (or maybe a lot) longer to wait. Berlanti is busy in TV these days, a world he knew before Hearts when he was part of the team behind Dawson's Creek. Berlanti's own small-screen baby, Everwood, is doing well in the ratings, and now he's joined up with The West Wing's Tommy Schlamme to create a WB pilot called Jack & Bobby. The teen drama about two famously named brothers—one of whom not coincidentally happens to grow up to be President of the United States—is in development right now from the recently created Berlanti/Liddell Productions. No word on what the fictional boys' last name will be, but wouldn't it be funny if the characters got involved in a love triangle with a teenage girl named Marilyn?
Kudrow's Producing Career Picks Up
After appearing in the Dan Bucatinsky-penned gay indie film All Over the Guy, Friends star Lisa Kudrow joined with Bucatinsky to form a production company called Is or Isn't Entertainment. And while a company name like that may be begging for trouble, the pair behind it isn't begging for projects. ABC Family will begin production this fall on the romantic comedy Picking Up and Dropping Off, a TV movie starring Scott Wolf and Amanda Detmer as single parents struggling to find love. It's the company's first project to see light, and Kudrow has signed on as executive producer. Meanwhile, Is or Isn't has various unspecified series pilots in the works, and if Picking Up picks up, you can be sure you'll be seeing some of them in the future, too.
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