Robin Williams, Liv Tyler and Freddie Highmore are in negotiations to play the leading roles in August Rush, Irish writer-director Kirsten Sheridan's second feature film after Disco Pigs.
At Cannes, Warner Bros announced that it has snapped up the North American rights to the movie and will take the lead as producing partner on the project. The film, set to start shooting in New York in August, has already been acquired for distribution in Japan, South Korea, Italy, the UK and Ireland.
Highmore, the young star of Finding Neverland, has been offered the pivotal role of a boy tragically separated from his mother, the role Tyler is likely to play, with Williams in discussions to take the part of a mysterious and dangerous benefactor known as Wizard.
O'Mochain in the closet
Having made The Book That Wrote Itself on a shoestring or two, Liam O'Mochain is in Cannes meeting with sales agents regarding his recently completed Irish feature, WC, in which he once again fulfils the multiple functions of writer, producer, director and leading actor. Shot in 15 days last month, the movie follows a day in the life of two Dublin toilet attendants - a recently released Irish convict (O'Mochain) and a young Russian woman (Julia Wakeham). WC is now in post-production.
Stone lets fly
In a press release widely circulated at Cannes, Oliver Stone put the record straight on rumours spread over the internet - "the echo effect, which goes on and on," as he puts it. No, he hasn't fled the US for France. He did not apologise to Turkey for Midnight Express (for which his screenplay won him his first Oscar). He never denounced his recent Alexander. (And it's taken over $170 million in international release - so there!) And no, he has no plans whatsoever to make a biopic of Margaret Thatcher starring Meryl Streep or anyone else (that stemmed from a joke he made at some Alexander press conference). So now you know.
Great Scott doc
David Bowie will act as executive producer on the feature-length documentary, 30 Century Man: The Music of Scott Walker, which will explore the life and work of one of the greatest and most enigmatic performers in 20th-century music. A half-hour promo reel was screened in Cannes during the week, and the film will feature contributions from many acts influenced by Walker, among them Radiohead, Goldfrapp, Johnny Marr and, of course, Bowie himself.
Super slice me
How do you follow a documentary in which you eat fast food for a month? Morgan Spurlock, the director and principal character of Super Size Me, risks getting typecast. It was announced in Cannes that he has been signed for a teen horror picture, Drive-Thru, now shooting in the US. Spurlock plays the manager of fast food outlet Hella-Burger, where he meets an untimely demise at the hands of the company's homicidal mascot, Horny the Clown.
Pauly's all-star show
How about this for an eclectic - or eccentric - cast? Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee, Tommy Chong, Vince Vaughn, Ellen DeGeneres, Snoop Dogg, Fred Durst, Heidi Fleiss, Adam Sandler, Michael Madsen, Chris Rock, Charlie Sheen, Bill Maher, Jerry Springer, Tom Sizemore and Britney Spears. The bad news is that the irritatingly inane Pauly Shore is in it, too, and that it's titled Pauly Shore Is Dead.
Shown in the market at Cannes this week with the slogan, "Hollywood will never be the same", it carries an endorsement from Harry Knowles of the Ain't It Cool News website that "This is a great flick!" We'll see.
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