By Romeo San Vicente
Gus Van Sant to 'Boss' around Kelsey Grammer
Gus Van Sant's career can be divided into high-profile successes like "Milk" and "Good Will Hunting" on one side and arthouse hits like "Elephant" and "Paranoid Park" on the other. And his new project will tip the scale to the seriously mainstream side: a TV series starring Kelsey Grammer for Starz and Lionsgate Television. Van Sant will direct the pilot for "Boss," penned by "Apocalypto" co-writer Farhad Safinia and already picked up for eight episodes. It will feature Grammer as a Chicago mayor (great casting, too – who's got a more authoritarian politician's voice?) with a secret degenerative mental illness. The "King Lear"-like story of power and politics will be Grammer's first time on a cable series, not counting those promo spots for the fizzling Tea Party cable channel RightNetwork he did earlier this year while simultaneously starring on Broadway in "La Cage Aux Folles." We can just pretend that never happened.
'Tarnation' director's long-awaited new (untitled) movie
Indie film audiences who still remember being blown away by Jonathan Cauoette's 2003 debut "Tarnation"- that audacious, zero-budget, intimately moving portrait of his struggle growing up with a mentally ill mother – have been waiting patiently for the day when he'd get behind the camera again. He has, of course, by taking on cool-director duties for the "All Tomorrow's Parties" concert film and debuting a new short at the New York Film Festival (a weird little piece that juxtaposed footage of his grandfather and Chloe Sevigny). But his next feature, one he describes as a collection of interconnected short films, is underway and still in production. The movie will return to the subject of his mother but will also feature fictional elements, possibly placing both her and Cauoette in imaginary circumstances. Eager fans of this talented man, keep the faith. These things take time.
Daniel Day-Lewis drinks Lincoln's milkshake
Maybe you heard somewhere – OK, yes, you heard it here – that Liam Neeson was the man stepping into Abraham Lincoln's tall hat and odd, mustache-less beard for Steven Spielberg's agonizingly slow-moving "Lincoln." But things change. People move on. They have creative differences. Their schedules get too busy. They want to star in "Taken 2" instead. Whatever. And that's when you have to go find a new actor. Taking Neeson's place in the film, already written by gay Pulitzer/Tony Award-winning playwright Tony Kushner, will be equally tall actor Daniel Day-Lewis. And now finally American moviegoers will learn who Abe Lincoln was. If you think that was a joke, just go to any mall and ask a random stranger to explain the man's job and what he did in history. It'll make you sad for the rest of the day. They say this movie is coming Christmas of 2012. We'll see.
The Reichen movie wants you. Meaning Chace Crawford.
As a veteran Air Force pilot, author, Lance Bass dater, winner of "The Amazing Race" and current most-recognized face of Logo's hit trainwreck "The A List: New York," Reichen Lehmkuhl finally realized that his calling in life is not to star in off-off-Broadway productions of "My Big Gay Wedding" (nor is it recording pop songs, as "A List" viewers can attest). It's fighting against Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And what better way to light another flame that holds the culture's feet to the fire than with a movie version of his 2006 memoir "Here's What We'll Say: Growing Up, Coming out and The U.S. Air Force." There's already a screenplay and a producer, now the project needs a director and star. Lehmkuhl has expressed a desire to see Taylor Lautner or Chace Crawford take on the role, and either of those young men would give it the A-list face it needs. But whatever happens, make sure that if a theme song needs singing, give that job to anybody but Reichen. Please.
