By Romeo San Vicente
Kristen Stewart's 'Personal' approach
Kristen Stewart is having an interesting post-"Twilight" moment. Sadly, her latest film, the weird stoner action-comedy "American Ultra," was ignored at the box office, but it's not slowing her down at all. Her recent interview that amounted to, "Whatever, dude, I'm dating a woman now," was Millennial for, "I'm coming out." And her acting career is moving in a very interesting direction, as she avoids mega-franchises in favor of the arthouse. She's already gotten the best reviews of her career for this spring's "Clouds of Sils Maria," and now she'll reteam with that film's director, Olivier Assayas, for the upcoming "Personal Shopper." She's also currently making the next, as-yet-untitled Woody Allen movie with co-stars Blake Lively, Jesse Eisenberg, Bruce Willis, Corey Stoll, Parker Posey and Judy Davis. You may have to work a little harder to see these upcoming projects – they're more or less destined for less-than-wide release, but it's going to be worth the effort.
Tom Ford gathers up his cast
As we mentioned before, all Tom Ford had to do was waltz into the Cannes Film Festival, announce that he had decided to make another movie, and producers would make it rain to the tune of $20 million, which they did. That means "Nocturnal Animals" is a go, and the cast has expanded from the original announcement of Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal to include Armie Hammer, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor Johnson, and now Kim Basinger. Adams will play a woman who receives a book manuscript in the mail, one that instigates her own journey, and Basinger will play Adams' mother, a wealthy Texas socialite. The rest remains shrouded in rightful secrecy, a rare thing in these times of leaked footage, trailers and superhero plot details.
'Just Kids' comes to Showtime
When rock legend Patti Smith wrote her memoir, "Just Kids," about the early '70s in New York when she was joined at the hip with gay artist Robert Mapplethorpe, she might not have known it was going to win the National Book Award. She had to know it was going to be special, though. Now, it's going to be a television special, one she'll co-create with writer John Logan ("Penny Dreadful"). The pair is developing the project as a limited series for Showtime with no specified air date as of yet. There's also no cast, but this ought to be a project that sees all of Young Hollywood scrambling to text their agents. And frankly, we're almost as excited about this as we are about Showtime reviving "Twin Peaks." HBO better watch its back.
Dianna Agron's 'Hollow' choices
After co-starring on "Glee," which may have been the single gayest television series in broadcast history, what's an actor to do? If you're Dianna Agron, who played heterosexual cheerleader princess Quinn, you dig into indie lesbian roles. She's already appeared in the sexy, queer film-fest-favorite "Bare," and now she's taken a role in the debut feature from filmmaker Scooter Corkle, "Hollow in The Land." The low-budget drama sees Agron playing a butch young lesbian who works at a pulp mill. Her father has been imprisoned for murder, which is bad enough, but life takes a turn for the worse when her brother goes missing. That's when she turns detective to find him. Shooting gets underway soon, so look for this one sometime in 2016, most likely, wherever you find independent cinema.
