By Romeo San Vicente
James Franco. Photo: Featureflash
Roland Emmerich making another movie about Stonewall, also called 'Stonewall'
"Stonewall," the 1995 indie hit starring "Scandal"'s Guillermo Diaz, told the stories of a group of gay men who lived through that important historical uprising. Well, guess what? Now another movie about the Stonewall riots is on the way and it's called "Stonewall," too, because nobody has any ideas left in their heads. Or something. Acclaimed playwright/screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz ("The West Wing," "Brothers and Sisters") has penned the script and power-player Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day") has signed on to direct. There's no cast yet but we'll keep you informed as that moves along. Regarding the title, we prefer something that shouts out to the drag queens and hustlers who actually did the fighting back, but maybe this is all about that synergy thing marketers talk about. As long as nobody has to fight aliens or the apocalypse we'll be satisfied with any level of historical accuracy.
Ben Stiller's 'Magic Mike' phase
"I Am Chippendale," the film to be written and directed by Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under," "True Blood"), will tell the outlandish life story of the late Somen "Steve" Banerjee, an immigrant who came to Los Angeles, pumped gas, then ran a nightclub that would evolve into the Chippendales brand, which sparked the male strip club craze of the 1980s. Adapting the screenplay from the Rodney Sheldon book, Ball is now in talks with Ben Stiller, who may sign on to play choreographer Nick de Noia, the man Banerjee was arrested for murdering in the late '80s. More casting is in the works, so when we learn which young male actors will be taking off their clothes for this one, you'll be dutifully informed.
Madonna's on the job training
Madonna's first feature film as director, "Filth and Wisdom," was so bad that the official publicity line now is that "it never existed." Seriously, just check around the Internet for people calling 2011's "W.E." her directorial debut, as though saying it enough times will erase history. And unfortunately, though "W.E." was leaps and bounds better than "Filth," it, too, suffered a critical and commercial drubbing. Is that stopping Madonna from continuing her quest to make movies? Yeah, right, silly question. The Material Auteur will next shoot "Ade: A Love Story," based on the novel by Rebecca Walker. In it, a college student falls in love with a young Swahili man and the two prepare to live together in Kenya, only to find their plans disrupted by civil war. Producer Bruce Cohen ("American Beauty," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Milk") is in the middle of the financing stage, with a script to follow. But be sure of this: Ms. Ciccone doesn't sit around letting people tell her she's not good enough. She goes and does it. And at this rate, eventually she'll make a film that people will want to watch.
James Franco goes ex-gay
The whole Instagram thing where he may or may have hit on a 17-year-old girl? Then the whole thing of how that might have been an elaborate hoax? Those were our favorite James Franco headlines of "then." Our favorite James Franco headline of "now" is that he's back to pretending to be gay, and also ex-gay – in movies, anyway. Currently on Broadway in "Of Mice and Men," Franco's headed back to films this summer in a new feature from Gus Van Sant. The untitled project is based on the experience of Michael Glatze, a gay activist who chose to live as heterosexual after a health scare and experiencing a religious conversion. Now married to a woman and living relatively quietly in the Midwest, Glatze once worked as a gay activist and for the staff of gay youth magazine "XY." Van Sant and Franco will begin shooting this July for a 2015 release. We think it should be called "Interior. Church Pot Luck."
