Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine Will Star in the Coprse-Centric Richard Linklater Comedy BERNIE

by     Posted 2 years, 318 days ago

jack_black_shirley_maclaine_richard_linklater_slice

Taking a look down Jack Black’s resume, School of Rock is the most critically acclaimed movie that the comic actor ever toplined.  So, in what has the makings of a savvy career move, Black will reunite with Rock director Richard Linklater for the dark comedy Bernie.  According to THR, the legendary Shirley MacLaine will likewise get top billing with a role that… heck, I’m gonna call it now: this will be her memorable performance since Terms of Endearment.  Maybe even The Apartment.  Here’s a brief plot outline:

“Bernie is set in the small town of Carthage, Texas and follows a Renaissance man-community leader-mortician Bernie (Black) who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a wealthy but very particular widow (MacLaine).  When he kills her, he goes to great lengths to maintain the illusion that she is still alive.”

Any titular/thematic relation to Weekend at Bernie’s is (unfortunately) coincidence, as the script appears to be inspired by the life of funeral home assistant Bernhardt “Bernie” Tiede, instead.  Details after the jump.

Jack Black

Bleeding Cool has unearthed the 1998 Texas Monthly piece (“Midnight in the Garden of East Texas“) that inspired Linklater to write the script with article author Skip Hollandworth.  Here’s an informative excerpt:

“This past August, however, Carthage captured the attention of the entire country when the news broke that the town’s richest and snootiest widow, 81-year-old Mrs. Marjorie Nugent, had been found in the bottom of a large freezer in her home. What made the story peculiar was that Mrs. Nugent had been dead for almost nine months before people began searching for her. What made the story truly bizarre was the way many of the townspeople rallied around the 39-year-old man who had admitted to killing her and stealing her money — the soft-spoken, chubby-cheeked Bernie Tiede, the former assistant funeral director at Hawthorn Funeral Home who had gotten close to Mrs. Nugent when he supervised her husband’s funeral.”

At a screening of Linklater’s Fast Food Nation last month, the director talked a bit about Bernie, though we had no idea how coy he was being at the time.  Via The Playlist:

“[My next project is] a film I wrote about ten years ago.  It’s set in a little town of Huntsville, East Texas, kind of a little black comedy. It’s my Fargo in East Texas, where I group up, so it’s crazy local with fifty characters. It’s about a funeral home assistant who befriends this old lady. It’s kind of a true crime story.”

Plenty of filmmakers invoke Fargo, but it sounds genuine to me after Linklater’s frequent demonstration of his Texan roots.  Plus, I think “It’s kind of a true crime story” would make a fantastic tagline.

richard_linklaterLinklater can always be counted on to put something interesting out in the world, and even at this early stage, I can’t imagine Bernie will be an exception.  Gotta love that Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine is willing to sport corpse makeup for half the movie, and we’ve already touched on the fact that Linklater seems like the filmmaker most capable of harnessing Black’s manic energy for good.

Filming is set to begin in October, so hopefully we’re looking at a short turnaround time from announcement to release.  You may recall that Linklater is currently in the middle of a thirteen-year project with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette; Black will next be seen in Fox’s 3D adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels, which opens December 22nd.

Sponsored Content



Please Like Collider on Facebook

Tags:
, , , ,

Related Links:
«
»
Comments:

  • Pingback: Comedy Video Zone » Jack Black & Shirley MacLaine Team Up for Dark Comedy ‘Bernie’ – KGET 17

  • Pingback: Comedy Video Zone » Jack Black & Shirley MacLaine Team Up for Dark Comedy ‘Bernie’ – TheInsider.com

  • Garrettjulie75

    I am from Carthage, and I knew Bernie. He actually played the piano for the musical I was in at the local college and showed up the night after he killed Ms. Nugent. No one ever knew anything had happened and he acted normally. He did use her money, but I have to say he used it for others. I don't condone what he did at all. And I can see how someone might turn the story around to make it a comedy, but it wasn't at all funny. Not when it happened 15 years ago, and not now.

  • Lori Molitor

    I'm also from Carthage and knew Bernie. I, too, hope it isn't a comedy.

  • concerned carthage citizen

    I am from Carthage Mrs. Nugent was my grandmothers cousin. The only thing that upsets me about this is the way Linklater is making it sound like no one ever looked for her or questioned Bernie about her whereabouts for 9 months. People called, stopped by and tried to get in touch with her and he would always say she's in the shower or out in the yard, etc. There were many incidents with her family getting upset about Bernie never being able to put their mother on the phone. I'm afraid this is going to make the people in this town look like heartless people that don't check on our elders and that couldn't be further from the truth.

  • Sarahcis_04

    I am also from Carthage. I was 11 when this happened and did not know Bernie or
    Ms. Nugent. But I am interested to see how he plans to make this sad story into a comedy..? Ms. Nugent was an ederly women who was taken advantage of and murdered for her money. And I'm sure she is loved and greatly missed by her family. I feel like this director is just going to use this story to make fun of our community, poke fun at our thick accents and try to make us look like uneducated idiots. But it is an interesting story and I could see this being a movie easily…but please not JACK BLACK! he is so annoying!

  • BARBARA FLOYD

    I HAPPEN TO LIVE IN EAST TEXAS NEAR CARTHAGE AND I AM SICKENED BY THE MERE THOUGHT OF THIS JERK MAKING MONEY BY TURNING SOMETHING SICK AND TWISTED AND HORRIBLY SAD INTO A MOVIE PERIOD MUCH LESS A JOKING MATTER BY PLACING IT IN THE CATEGORY OF A COMEDY. DOES THIS GUY HAVE NO HEART, NO SOUL, NO COMPASSION FOR THE PEOPLE THAT THIS CRAZY SICK ORDEAL HURT SO DEEPLY. JUST BECAUSE WE LIVE IN SMALL TOWN TEXAS DOESNT MEAN WE ARE NOT LOVING CARING PEOPLE WITH COMPASSION FOR THE HEARTACHES OF THOSE WHO SUFFER. UNLIKE THE PEOPLE MAKING AND STARRING IN THIS MOVIE, “EVERYONE” HERE DOES NOT PUT THE VALUE OF A PERSON SOLELY ON THEIR MONEY. TAKE ALL THE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTY AND YOU WILL FIND MORE PEOPLE HERE THAT DO NOT CARE IF THEY EVER HAVE A PENNY IF IT MEANS PROFITING OFF THE HEARTACHES AND TRIALS OF ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. THERE ARE ALWAYS EXCEPTIONS AS YOU HAVE ALREADY PROVEN BY GAINING ACCESS TO THE STORY, BUT THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE HERE IN PANOLA COUNTY HAVE MORE HEART AND SOUL AND KNOW MORE ABOUT WHAT IT IS LIKE TO VALUE A PERSON FOR THEIR HEART AND NOT THEIR MONEY THAN 1/4 OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN YOUR SO CALLED LIFE. YOU MUST BE GETTING HARD UP FOR JOBS TO STOOP TO SUCH AS THIS. SHIRLEY MCCLAIN, JACK BLACK AND ANYONE ELSE IN THIS MOVIE, I FEEL I SPEAK FOR THE MAJORITY OF US IN PANOLA COUNTY WHEN I SAY WE WILL “NEVER” WATCH ANOTHER MOVIE WITH ANY OF YOU IN THIS MOVIE OR HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT AGAIN.

    HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LOOK IN THE MIRROR EACH DAY? OH, YOU DONT HAVE TO, YOU HAVE PEOPLE DOING YOUR HAIR AND FACE FOR YOU. I FORGOT. YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN THE WOMAN YOU ARE WANTING TO BELIEVE WAS “THE RICHEST AND SNOOTIEST” WIDOW IN PANOLA COUNTY. YOU PEOPLE ARE MAGGOTS FEEDING OFF THE HEARTACHES OF HER FAMILY AND PROMOTING THE SICKNESS OF THE MAN WHO COMMITTED THESE CRIMES ALONG WITH ANYONE WHO HELPED HIM. I PRAY THAT GOD BE GOD IN THIS SITUATION BECAUSE IF I WERE, YOU'D ALL SUFFER.

  • RDH

    I did not know either person but, did hear all the fall out from it. I am not shocked by someone trying to make money from a tragedy it seems to happen more and more in our society today. Carthage Texas is a nice quite town where everyone cares and looks in on everyone else. I am not sure we should blame or bash the actors for what the directors are doing with this story although they have made a concious decision to star in it. If there is blame or shame it should be directed at the person who has re-written this story to a comedy. We can not change the fact that this story/movie is going forward and apparently will happen. We need to make sure that everyone who comes to this community knows that we are kind and caring people and we do not need to mistreat any visitors because of this movie. How we project this community during the making of this movie is what will tell/show people what Carthage Texas is made of. THE BEST SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS!

  • BARBARA FLOYD

    I agree totally on how we need to treat anyone coming here that has to do with the movie, as this is the only chance we have to prove that the man who re wrote the story line is very wrong about the people around here. I have lived in california and I'm here to tell ya, you are totally alone there, your neighbors do not all even “want” to know who lives next to them, much less get to know or check in on them. People here are just good, loving, caring and compassionate people for the most part, with the exceptions of those who made the story even possible by committing the acts that brought it about. It is just sad that people in the movie world find that comedic instead of finding it admirable and wanting to portray what our world could be like if there were more areas like where we live. In every place in the world there will always be some that are hypocrites or that are criminal minded, but over all it is not the majority of who we are, and compared to Hollywood I bet we still have more good people in our small county than they do. But that guy producing this says he is from east tx so he should remember that or maybe he will be reminded on his little visit back home to put down and humiliate the place and the people where he was raised. Maybe he has just forgotten how good life could be in a small town, or maybe he was one of those that didnt belong here in the first place due his attitude, either way, it is still my prayer that God be God in this whole mess and then it will all be turned around for his Glory in the end. I am wondering however, if Mrs. Nugents children had to agree to let this be made and if they are profiting from it in any way.

  • E P Wyant

    I live in North Louisiana and have been to Carthage Hayride to sing on several ocassions and all the people I have met there is very friendly. Any movie producers that come in, do their thing , and then their gone. Leaving the town to suffer from what seems to be going to be made into a “comedy” with several comedian actors!! This movie is will be very degradable to the citizens of Carthage. The town does not deserve that, and “someone” will be benefitting from the money made of that movie. That is very sad.
    Small towns like Carthage would like to be put on the map, but not like that!!!

  • Steven

    Im from carthage also. where are the casting interviews are going to be held?

  • Proudchap

    HE WAS FILMING TODAY AT WESTLAKE HIGH SCHOOL IN AUSTIN, TEXAS. GO CHAPS! (one of the scenes was set up as a morgue)

  • Pingback: Synopsis for Richard Linklater’s BERNIE Revealed

  • Proxy Twitter – Private Fast Proxiy, specifically deisgned for Twitter software, Turbocharge Twitter Promotion!

    Hey there, You have performed an incredible job. I will definitely digg it and in my opinion recommend to my friends. I am sure they’ll be benefited from this web site.

Features

Demand Media Entertainment

Click Here