Kimberly Peirce
to Freeze Charlize
Based on its title, The Ice at the Bottom of the World might sound like a sequel to The Day After Tomorrow. But the quiet novel by Mark Richard is actually about working-class Southerners, their loves and losses. Now that book is headed to the big screen, starring Oscar winner Charlize Theron and directed by Boys Don't Cry helmer Kimberly Peirce.
The announcement came as Theron was in Cannes promoting her next feature, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Newmarket Films, the company behind Theron's Monster, will distribute Ice, but don't hold your breath for a release date just yet. Peirce is busy working on a film about notorious 1960s Israeli spy Eli Cohen, and Theron's slate is already packed with woman-centric projects: Aeon Flux for Girlfight director Karyn Kusama, and Class Action with Whale Rider director Niki Caro. Ice won't get started until autumn of 2005.
Gay Love Makes History in Proteus
Canadian filmmaker John Greyson is more than just a director who happens to be gay. He makes movies that explore the lives of queer characters from all angles and never met a challenging story he didn't aim a camera at. (His Urinal was about public restroom sex, and Zero Patience was an AIDS musical. Get the picture?)
Greyson's latest, Proteus, hits American theater screens later this year and concerns an 18th-century interracial gay relationship. In 1725 in a prison in Cape Town, South Africa, two inmates from different cultures begin a secret affair. Complicating matters is a Scottish botanist who knows the score but, for personal reasons, doesn't tell authorities. Strand Releasing will handle distribution. Expect it to be lovely, even if it probably will end unhappily. They don't call them the bad old days for nothing.
Happiness Is a Sad Nomi Song
Sorry, bad movie fans, the Nomi of the forthcoming film The Nomi Song has nothing to do with Elizabeth Berkeley's character in Showgirls. However, fans of the late queer avant-garde vocalist Klaus Nomi, who died of AIDS in 1983, ought to be delighted. Director Andrew Horn's documentary about the German singer—whose onstage persona consisted of sharp-angled costumes, white face makeup, and a spine-tingling operatically trained voice that he used in the service of his own strange songs—will sing for its supper later this year as it travels from one American art-house theater to the next. The film features archival footage of Nomi's performances (he sang backup for David Bowie in the late '70s) and interviews with scene-makers of the time, like actress/musician Ann Magnuson—making for a fitting tribute to the cult figure's contributions to music's underground.
The L Word Lassoes Lesbian Lensers
Showtime has gathered a who's who of acclaimed indie film directors to take on episodes of the second season of its critically praised series The L Word. In what appears to be a bid for some of the Emmy-winning artistic cred of shows like Six Feet Under and The Sopranos, the roster of filmmakers who'll follow the lives of the Los Angeles ladies includes lesbian directors Rose Troche (The Safety of Objects) and Laurel Canyon's Lisa Cholodenko. Gay director Jeremy Podeswa (The Five Senses) has likewise signed on to a list that also boasts Neil LaBute (Possession), Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down), Ernest Dickerson (Never Die Alone), Daniel Minahan (Series 7: The Contenders), Lynn Stopkewich (Kissed), Alison Maclean (Jesus' Son), and Tricia Brock (Killer Diller). Here's looking forward to a buzz-worthy second round.
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