Trailerama: Me and Orson Welles

Tackling Orson gives School of Rock director Richard Linklater another chance to observe a larger-than-life character put on a show. That being said, the trailer makes the film look a little Zac-centric. Nice switch from comedy to uplift at the 1:47 minute mark, too. Welles is essayed by Christian Mckay, who Linklater approached after seeing his one man play, Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles.

The Slate: Pattinson Remembers, Diaz Swings, Elephants Don’t Forget

• It’s quite a day for humpy men of a certain age. Following news of Zac Efron’s growing dance card, Robert Pattinson is circling Memoirs. The pitch–lovers whose relationship is threatened by mutual family tragedy–doesn’t sound very thrilling, but the good news is that Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married) is rewriting Will Fetters’ original script. Like Pattinson himself, we have nothing interesting to add. (Variety)
• Cameron Diaz and “meh” romantic comedies go together like Cameron Diaz and dancing around in your underwear. Which is why Cameron Diaz’s people are talking to the people making Swingles, a rom-com about a bachelor who uses a shrew to attract single women. Will Diaz play the shrew? The single woman? The bachelor? Will it be “meh”? Why does all this seem really familiar? (Variety)
• HBO’s The Special Relationship, the scary story of the Bill Clinton-Tony Blair friendship as told by the pen of Frost/Nixon‘s Peter Morgan, has announced a very special cast. Frost’s muse Michael Sheen will essay the Blair smarm for the third time (that was him grovelling in The Queen). The Clintons will be played by Dennis Quaid and Julianne Moore. Morgan plans on directing. Will Quaid finally unfreeze his face? For that matter, will Moore? (Hollywood Reporter)
• Everyone loves a good wedding comedy and Liv Tyler is no exception. She’s signed on to The Romantics, the story of a group of Yalies who reunite for a marriage. But the groom has some ancient history with both the bride and her room-mate/maid-of-honor. Galt Niederhoffer will direct her own novel, which Publishers Weekly called “wan” and filled with “thin stereotypes.” Hey, they paid to see Bride Wars … (Variety)
• There hasn’t been this much fuss about animal husbandry since Gorillas in the Mist. [Truth in bad blogging dept.: We actually initially typed “Guerillas in tha Mist.” Fo’ shizzle!] The story of Kenyan elephant lover Daphne Sheldrick will be told in the family film Peaceable Kingdom by Nick Cassavetes, a director who oscillates between mush like The Notebook and twinkfest Alpha Dog. A pal of the Born Free crowd, Sheldrick rehabbed animals at Kenya’s Tsavo National Park from 1955 to 1976 (it sez here). Can you feel the trunk tonight? (Variety)

Zac Efron: Let’s Not Hear It for the Boy

Zac Efron is having a bit of a crisis.

First, he’s sick of singing and dancing. That’s a shame, as his cooking sucks. A Footloose production staffer says that Efron dropped out of the remake because “he did not want to do another musical at this point in his career.” Entertainment Weekly confirmed that Efron had “ankled” the production. It takes a helluva man to fill Ren McCormack’s pants, but the High School Musical star may also have balked at the prospect of growing out his hair to resemble Kevin Bacon.

But Efron, it would seem, is happy to dip his toe back into the 17 Again waters. Today comes word that the big man on the East Side High campus wants to get back together with Burr Steers, the director of his Disney-like rejuvenation comedy, for The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud. The story centers on a cemetery caretaker who communes with the spirit of his dead brother. The role calls for Efron’s best guilty grimace, as he thinks he’s responsible for his sib’s death. It’s a little like the end of Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel. Only, we suspect, a bit shittier different.

It’s evident that the 21-year-old wants to move on with his career, but is a script based on a book by a Good Morning America executive producer really the way to do it? Does he have what it takes to get out of his dancing togs and into something more serious? And who is going to take over that Footloose remake? Feel free to share your thoughts.

Zach Efron Talks Orson Welles With Gus Van Sant

Yes, we could link to a magazine article which includes pictures of Zac Efron rolling around in the mud. And in fact, that is exactly what we aredoing. But it’s because Efron chats to director Gus Van Sant about, among other things, his first serious role in Richard Linklater‘s Me and Orson Welles. The drama looks at Welles‘ 1937 production of Julius Caesar(the one where he updated the action to fascist Italy) through the eyes of Efron’s teenage thesp. Welles is played by Christian McKay and Eddie Marsan plays his partner-in-crime John Houseman. We’re anticipating egos, ballerinas, and lots of eating.

VAN SANT: I wanted to ask you about this Richard Linklater film. Is it Orson and Me?
EFRON: Me and Orson Welles.
VAN SANT: Where did you shoot that?
EFRON: Rick was brilliant, because he found this great theater on the Isle of Man, which, after a little bit of work, looked a whole lot like the Mercury Theatre did in 1937. We took a beautiful theater and made it look rusty and old and dusty, and, once we filled it with extras dressed in 1930s attire, the place was very believable. It even smelled like an old theater. It was pretty neat because we were basically stuck there—you know, we couldn’t leave. There was nowhere to go on the Isle of Man. So we lived in that theater for several weeks. It was fun and exciting, but it was also kind of maddening. I went a little bit insane.