Jayne Mansfield’s Car

BEL-AMI Starring Robert Pattinson and Steven Soderbergh’s HAYWIRE to Screen at Berlin Film Festival

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 20th, 2012 at 9:49 am

The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival has added a few new films to its program. Declan Donnellan and Nick Omerod’s adaptation of the 1885 Guy de Maupassant novel Bel-Ami will finally premiere out of competition at the festival. The film stars Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, and Kristin Scott Thomas and has been lingering without a U.S. release date for some time now. It’s set to open in the U.K. in March, and hopefully with this Berlin premiere the drama will pick up some steam and head towards a domestic release.

Additionally, Steven Soderbergh’s action spy-thriller Haywire has also been selected to screen out of competition at the fest. Featuring MMA fighter Gina Carano surrounded by an all-star cast of Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Fassbender, the pic opens today here in the U.S. Also poised to screen at the festival is Billy Bob Thornton’s Jayne Mansfield’s Car, the drama Shadow Dancer starring Clive Owen, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, Robert Patrick and Ray Stevenson Join Billy Bob Thornton’s JAYNE MANSFIELD’S CAR

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: June 14th, 2011 at 4:05 pm

Billy Bob Thornton hasn’t directed a feature film since 2001’s Daddy and Them. Well, last November Thornton broke the news to us that he was once again stepping back into the director’s chair on a film he co-wrote with his writing partner Tom Epperson called Jayne Mansfield’s Car. Now it looks like Thornton is ready to start shooting on the project, as he’s secured funding and has filled out his cast with John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, Robert Patrick, Ray Stevenson (Thor) and John Patrick Amedori (The Butterfly Effect) joining previously announced Robert Duvall.

Deadline reports that AR Films is funding the project, which is set to start shooting on June 22^nd in Georgia. The story revolves around a guy whose wife leaves him for an Englishman and moves away to England. 20 or 30 years later, in 1969, the wife dies but wishes to be returned to Alabama where she grew up, so the English family meets—and clashes with—the original family that she abandoned. While Thornton’s All the Pretty Horses left much to be desired, Sling Blade was a bit of a masterwork. Hopefully he can recapture that magic with this southern tale.

Casting News: Robert Duvall to Star in Billy Bob Thorton’s JAYNE MANSFIELD’S CAR; Mark Duplass Joins WELCOME TO PEOPLE

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 17th, 2011 at 5:30 pm

We have a couple of casting stories for you this evening. We previously broke the news that Billy Bob Thorton was heading back to the director’s chair with a script he co-wrote with Tom Epperson called Jayne Mansfield’s Car, and now it looks like the project has found its star. Robert Duvall has signed on to headline the indie project, which Duvall describes as “another Southern tale.” He elaborated on the plot in a conversation with EW

“It’s about a guy in between WWI and WWII who raises a family after his wife left him for an Englishman and moved to England. When the wife dies, she asks to be brought back to Alabama to be buried, and at that point the character hasn’t seen her in 20 or 30 years. The two families — her original family she abandoned and her English family — meet and then things get really interesting.”

Thorton will reportedly star in the film as well, in addition to writing and directing it. Production is scheduled to begin this summer. We recently told you that Michelle Pfieffer would be joining Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and Olivia Wilde in Alex Kurtzman’s directorial debut Welcome to People, and now it looks like Mark Duplass (Greenberg, co-writer/co-director of Cyrus) has signed on as well. Variety reports that Duplass is set to play a neighbor who shows an interest in Banks’ character. The film tells the story of an estranged son (Pine) who returns home for his father’s funeral and begins to uncover his secret life.  Welcome to People is set to be released sometime in 2012.

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