It has been four years since we heard word of Sean Durkin‘s Janis Joplin biopic, Janis. About a year later, it was reported that Lee Daniels would be taking on his own biopic (talk about a change in voice!) with Amy Adams, while, on his end, there was merely silence. The Martha Marcy May Marlene helmer went on to Southcliffe and, since then, has only been “seen” in a producing capacity on BorderLine Films’ titles — but an awfully enticing bit of news would tell us the project’s still very much in sight.
So let’s just get it right out: Janis is close to acquiring Michelle Williams, who takes a role once considered for Nina Arianda. That’s about as deep as this news goes, for what’s in Variety gives us less information than was available in the previous presidential-election cycle. As we learned then, it’s a telling of her final six months (i.e. 1970) but uses flashbacks to fill in biographical gaps, all the while employing archival material — Dick Cavett appearances, personal letters, and David Dalton’s Piece of My Heart, a book written as the author followed Joplin during 1970 — and, of course, many songs.
With this sudden casting news and several production entities aboard (Peter Newman, Uncommon Productions, Seven Hills Productions, and Internal), Janis may well be on its way back. We can’t say we’re upset.
Speaking of the ’70s (that transition took all of four seconds to conjure and a much longer time to debate the use of; here we are) THR has news that Sofia Coppola‘s remake of The Beguiled will also feature the talents of Angourie Rice, a relative newcomer who left a strong impression as Ryan Gosling’s daughter in The Nice Guys. As is to be expected from anyone who knows the film’s story, she’ll play one of several Civil War-era women who fight for the heart of a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell) who finds himself in an all-female southern academy.
Its outstanding cast also includes Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, and Kirsten Dunst — lest you’d yet failed to grasp why we’re so excited about this one — and Focus have rights to the project, which seems likely to arrive in 2017.