By Romeo San Vicente
Nicole Kidman will executive-produce the project "American Darlings" in the near future. © 2001 20th Century Fox.
Kidman and Lopez are 'Darlings'
Nicole Kidman knows what she likes, and she gets what she wants. So when the A-list actor decided to executive-produce a musical, she wanted "Chicago"'s Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, as well as pop-diva/actor Jennifer Lopez along for the ride. The project at hand is "American Darlings," a World War II-era music-filled drama, to be produced by Zadan and Meron and to star Kidman and Lopez as swing-band musicians in a time when women weren't exactly welcome in the band. Think "A League of Their Own" with saxophones and prettier outfits. No screenwriter or director on board yet, but it's understood thatKidman and Lopez will sing in the film.
'Hairspray' build-up
It turns out that you really can't stop the beat. Just like "The Producers," John Waters' "Hairspray" was a movie with music first, then a Broadway musical, and will now return to the big screen in its new all-singing, all-dancing incarnation. Everyone involved in creating the Tony-winning smash will be involved in the film, from composer Marc Shaiman to the play's book writers, Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell. The film is even being produced at New Line the company responsible for the original film 16 yearsago – but it will very likely not be directed by John Waters. Now all Romeo needs to hear is that Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur will reprise their mother/daughter stage roles as Edna and Tracy Turnblad.
Streisand: Mother Focker?
OK, fans, you can exhale. Barbra Streisand is in final negotiations to return to the big screen. The project? "Meet the Fockers," the sequel to"Meet the Parents." Streisand will star with Dustin Hoffman as the parents of Ben Stiller, the hapless fiance/victim of the hit 2000 comedy. In this installment, with the wedding of their children drawing near, Streisand and Hoffman play the free-spirited opposites (and opponents) of "Parents"' uptight future in-laws, Robert DeNiro and Blythe Danner. This will be Streisand's first film in eight years; it's been even longer (1987's disastrous "Nuts") since she's starred in a movie without directing it. No word on whether or not she'll get to sing the theme song or crimp her hair. Either way, if she can channel the energy she harnessed in the hilarious "What's Up Doc," it may revive her status as a genuinely funny actor.
Grunge for Gus
Now that the Seattle grunge scene is ancient history (by rock-'n'-roll standards, at least), the time is right for Hollywood to figure out how to present it fictionally. Enter Gus Van Sant, a Pacific Northwesterner himself, and actor Michael Pitt, star of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," as well as this year's sexually provocative Bernardo Bertolucci film, "The Dreamers." The pair will collaborate on "Last Days," a film set during the rainy region's early 1990's punk-rock-meets-Black-Sabbath musical movement,with all the flannel shirts and heroin addiction that era connotes. HBO Films is financing the project, with Pitt set to star and actor Lukas Haasin talks to join the cast. Romeo just wants to know who'll portray Courtney Love.
