Once upon a time a movie could really send you out of the theater with a smile on your face (Don’t make me explain what a movie theater was). James L. Brooks scores here with another fine entertainment, creating yet another character for Jack Nicholson to hit out of the park. But the generosity of characterization anoints the entire cast, especially Helen Hunt, the most emotionally deserving working woman since Shirley MacLaine’s Fran Kubelik. Nicholson’s miserable curmudgeon is once again a guy who learns how to be a mensch, at least a little bit. It’s an old story but Brooks makes it new again.
As Good As It Gets
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint]
1997 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 138 min. / Street Date September 3, 2021 / Available from / 50.99
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight, Yeardley Smith, Lupe Ontiveros, Bibi Osterwald, Brian Doyle-Murray.
Cinematography: John Bailey...
As Good As It Gets
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint]
1997 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 138 min. / Street Date September 3, 2021 / Available from / 50.99
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight, Yeardley Smith, Lupe Ontiveros, Bibi Osterwald, Brian Doyle-Murray.
Cinematography: John Bailey...
- 10/2/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
NEW YORK -- Veteran producer Bridget Johnson will produce "Bumped", a modern-day version of "The Breakfast Club", with McG protege Anna Mastro attached to direct from a script by Lizzy Weiss.
"Bumped" is a comedy-drama revolving around five twentysomethings -- including a corporate go-getter, a musician and a flirt -- who normally wouldn't be friends but who get to know one another when they're bumped from a flight and wind up stranded at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.
The project marks the directorial debut for Mastro, who worked closely with director-producer McG on his "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and was an associate producer on his "Stay Alive".
Mastro also has developed and produced the CW's "Pussycat Dolls" series and, like McG, shot music videos.
The film will be financed independently and later set up at a studio; it likely won't shoot until the SAG strike situation is resolved. Johnson ("As Good as It Gets"), who was an exec at Touchstone as well as at James L. Brooks' Gracie Films, produced the upcoming Miramax release "Smart People".
John Hughes' 1985 film "The Breakfast Club" (with which "Bumped" has no formal association) was a generation-defining comedy that helped build the careers of actors like Emilio Estevez.
"Bumped" is a comedy-drama revolving around five twentysomethings -- including a corporate go-getter, a musician and a flirt -- who normally wouldn't be friends but who get to know one another when they're bumped from a flight and wind up stranded at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.
The project marks the directorial debut for Mastro, who worked closely with director-producer McG on his "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and was an associate producer on his "Stay Alive".
Mastro also has developed and produced the CW's "Pussycat Dolls" series and, like McG, shot music videos.
The film will be financed independently and later set up at a studio; it likely won't shoot until the SAG strike situation is resolved. Johnson ("As Good as It Gets"), who was an exec at Touchstone as well as at James L. Brooks' Gracie Films, produced the upcoming Miramax release "Smart People".
John Hughes' 1985 film "The Breakfast Club" (with which "Bumped" has no formal association) was a generation-defining comedy that helped build the careers of actors like Emilio Estevez.
- 2/29/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the festival screening of "Smart People".Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- With a title such as "Smart People", this satiric film revolving around academia signals that its characters may be too smart for their own good. Intelligence plus too much specialized knowledge can leave people incapable of coping with life and frustratingly disconnected from family and friends. Come to think of it, what friends? But there's always family and two debuting filmmakers, novelist Mark Jude Poirier and award-winning commercial director Noam Murro, locate their comic mischief in the very core of family life.
The smart casting of Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and "Juno's" hot young star Ellen Page in, seemingly, tailor-made roles, gives Miramax plenty of marketing hooks for its April 11 release. Reminiscent of the recent Sundance hit "The Squid and the Whale" in its depiction of a burnt-out academic and off-campus family disruptions, "Smart People" should attract similar adult audiences with the caveat that the smugness of some characters may be an initial turn-off.
For students at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Quaid) is a horror show: An acerbic widower who has lost interest in even his own specialty, Victorian literature, he is self-absorbed, demanding, arrogant, contemptuous of his students and grouchy as hell. He doesn't warm up one bit at home; nevertheless, he is a role model for his young daughter Vanessa (Page), who is already as friendless and conceited as dad. She is even a Young Republican. Older brother James (Ashton Holmes) lives in a dorm, presumably to escape the poisonous atmosphere at home and to keep his many secrets.
Into these lives come two "corrupters," characters who will undermine the pomposity of father and daughter and seduce them back to something resembling normalcy. A head trauma, the result of his own pig-headedness, sends the professor to ER where his doctor, Janet (Parker), is a former student who once had a crush on him. Naturally, he fails to remember her. Crashing the Wetherhold household without an invitation is Lawrence's financially challenged brother Chuck Church), a permanent adolescent whom Lawrence is careful to always refer to as his "adopted" brother.
The chief disappointment in Poirtier's screenplay is that while the affects these two will have on the family is wholly predictable, the writer never finds a way to trip up audience expectations. There's a hint of this in Vanessa's misreading of her uncle's seduction of her but mostly the dramatic course is too steady and true for surprises.
What exactly motivates Janet to rescue Lawrence from his self-destruction? She may have had a schoolgirl crush once, but she's a physician now, surely with more life experiences, and all the professor ever gave her was a C and a rude remark.
One would like to see what she sees him but Quaid doesn't make that easy. He's not a warm and fuzzy burn-out like Michael Douglas' character in "The Wonder Boys". That chip on his shoulder has given Lawrence a permanent slouch and the caustic manner feels like less like a facade than his real personality. Clearly though, something died within him when his wife passed. He even still hangs on to her wardrobe.
You do see why Uncle Chuck would take on the Vanessa reclamation project. She's too young to be so old. He wants to instill in her a rebellious streak and outlaw spirit before it's too late. Theirs is the more interesting relationship, which could've stood more development: It needed to go beyond smoking weed and underage drinking at a bar. And Page as an actress is too much a free spirit to be completely believable as a Young Republican.
On the other hand, Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow. His characters arrive at their epiphanies -- despite Lawrence's denial he even had one -- with intelligence and logic.
For his part, Murro allows actors plenty of leeway to develop richly idiosyncratic characters, and for a commercial maker he shows a noble resistance to selling his story with slick images and quick cuts. He paces scenes well and lets the emotions filter through with no undue emphasis or contrivance. This is a solid feature debut for Murro.
Cinematographer Toby Irwin and designer Patti Podesta make a campus film that for once feels like one. They superbly use the real locales and smartly dress sets in ways that suit the autumnal tones of the color scheme.
SMART PEOPLE
Miramax Films
Groundswell Prods.
Credits:
Director: Noam Murro
Writer: Mark Jude Poirier
Producer: Bridget Johnson, Michael Costigan, Michael London, Bruna Papandrea
Director of photography: Toby Irwin
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Music: Nuno Bettencourt
Costume designer: Amy Westcott
Editors: Robert Frazen, Yana Gorskaya
Cast:
Lawrence Wetherhold: Dennis Quaid
Janet: Sarah Jessica Parker
Chuck: Thomas Haden Church
Vanessa: Ellen Page
James: Ashton Holmes
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
PARK CITY -- With a title such as "Smart People", this satiric film revolving around academia signals that its characters may be too smart for their own good. Intelligence plus too much specialized knowledge can leave people incapable of coping with life and frustratingly disconnected from family and friends. Come to think of it, what friends? But there's always family and two debuting filmmakers, novelist Mark Jude Poirier and award-winning commercial director Noam Murro, locate their comic mischief in the very core of family life.
The smart casting of Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and "Juno's" hot young star Ellen Page in, seemingly, tailor-made roles, gives Miramax plenty of marketing hooks for its April 11 release. Reminiscent of the recent Sundance hit "The Squid and the Whale" in its depiction of a burnt-out academic and off-campus family disruptions, "Smart People" should attract similar adult audiences with the caveat that the smugness of some characters may be an initial turn-off.
For students at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Quaid) is a horror show: An acerbic widower who has lost interest in even his own specialty, Victorian literature, he is self-absorbed, demanding, arrogant, contemptuous of his students and grouchy as hell. He doesn't warm up one bit at home; nevertheless, he is a role model for his young daughter Vanessa (Page), who is already as friendless and conceited as dad. She is even a Young Republican. Older brother James (Ashton Holmes) lives in a dorm, presumably to escape the poisonous atmosphere at home and to keep his many secrets.
Into these lives come two "corrupters," characters who will undermine the pomposity of father and daughter and seduce them back to something resembling normalcy. A head trauma, the result of his own pig-headedness, sends the professor to ER where his doctor, Janet (Parker), is a former student who once had a crush on him. Naturally, he fails to remember her. Crashing the Wetherhold household without an invitation is Lawrence's financially challenged brother Chuck Church), a permanent adolescent whom Lawrence is careful to always refer to as his "adopted" brother.
The chief disappointment in Poirtier's screenplay is that while the affects these two will have on the family is wholly predictable, the writer never finds a way to trip up audience expectations. There's a hint of this in Vanessa's misreading of her uncle's seduction of her but mostly the dramatic course is too steady and true for surprises.
What exactly motivates Janet to rescue Lawrence from his self-destruction? She may have had a schoolgirl crush once, but she's a physician now, surely with more life experiences, and all the professor ever gave her was a C and a rude remark.
One would like to see what she sees him but Quaid doesn't make that easy. He's not a warm and fuzzy burn-out like Michael Douglas' character in "The Wonder Boys". That chip on his shoulder has given Lawrence a permanent slouch and the caustic manner feels like less like a facade than his real personality. Clearly though, something died within him when his wife passed. He even still hangs on to her wardrobe.
You do see why Uncle Chuck would take on the Vanessa reclamation project. She's too young to be so old. He wants to instill in her a rebellious streak and outlaw spirit before it's too late. Theirs is the more interesting relationship, which could've stood more development: It needed to go beyond smoking weed and underage drinking at a bar. And Page as an actress is too much a free spirit to be completely believable as a Young Republican.
On the other hand, Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow. His characters arrive at their epiphanies -- despite Lawrence's denial he even had one -- with intelligence and logic.
For his part, Murro allows actors plenty of leeway to develop richly idiosyncratic characters, and for a commercial maker he shows a noble resistance to selling his story with slick images and quick cuts. He paces scenes well and lets the emotions filter through with no undue emphasis or contrivance. This is a solid feature debut for Murro.
Cinematographer Toby Irwin and designer Patti Podesta make a campus film that for once feels like one. They superbly use the real locales and smartly dress sets in ways that suit the autumnal tones of the color scheme.
SMART PEOPLE
Miramax Films
Groundswell Prods.
Credits:
Director: Noam Murro
Writer: Mark Jude Poirier
Producer: Bridget Johnson, Michael Costigan, Michael London, Bruna Papandrea
Director of photography: Toby Irwin
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Music: Nuno Bettencourt
Costume designer: Amy Westcott
Editors: Robert Frazen, Yana Gorskaya
Cast:
Lawrence Wetherhold: Dennis Quaid
Janet: Sarah Jessica Parker
Chuck: Thomas Haden Church
Vanessa: Ellen Page
James: Ashton Holmes
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 1/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- With a title such as Smart People, this satiric film revolving around academia signals that its characters may be too smart for their own good. Intelligence plus too much specialized knowledge can leave people incapable of coping with life and frustratingly disconnected from family and friends. Come to think of it, what friends? But there's always family and two debuting filmmakers, novelist Mark Jude Poirier and award-winning commercial director Noam Murro, locate their comic mischief in the very core of family life.
The smart casting of Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and "Juno's" hot young star Ellen Page in, seemingly, tailor-made roles, gives Miramax plenty of marketing hooks for its April 11 release. Reminiscent of the recent Sundance hit The Squid and the Whale in its depiction of a burnt-out academic and off-campus family disruptions, Smart People should attract similar adult audiences with the caveat that the smugness of some characters may be an initial turn-off.
For students at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Quaid) is a horror show: An acerbic widower who has lost interest in even his own specialty, Victorian literature, he is self-absorbed, demanding, arrogant, contemptuous of his students and grouchy as hell. He doesn't warm up one bit at home; nevertheless, he is a role model for his young daughter Vanessa (Page), who is already as friendless and conceited as dad. She is even a Young Republican. Older brother James (Ashton Holmes) lives in a dorm, presumably to escape the poisonous atmosphere at home and to keep his many secrets.
Into these lives come two "corrupters," characters who will undermine the pomposity of father and daughter and seduce them back to something resembling normalcy. A head trauma, the result of his own pig-headedness, sends the professor to ER where his doctor, Janet (Parker), is a former student who once had a crush on him. Naturally, he fails to remember her. Crashing the Wetherhold household without an invitation is Lawrence's financially challenged brother Chuck Church), a permanent adolescent whom Lawrence is careful to always refer to as his "adopted" brother.
The chief disappointment in Poirtier's screenplay is that while the affects these two will have on the family is wholly predictable, the writer never finds a way to trip up audience expectations. There's a hint of this in Vanessa's misreading of her uncle's seduction of her but mostly the dramatic course is too steady and true for surprises.
What exactly motivates Janet to rescue Lawrence from his self-destruction? She may have had a schoolgirl crush once, but she's a physician now, surely with more life experiences, and all the professor ever gave her was a C and a rude remark.
One would like to see what she sees him but Quaid doesn't make that easy. He's not a warm and fuzzy burn-out like Michael Douglas' character in The Wonder Boys. That chip on his shoulder has given Lawrence a permanent slouch and the caustic manner feels like less like a facade than his real personality. Clearly though, something died within him when his wife passed. He even still hangs on to her wardrobe.
You do see why Uncle Chuck would take on the Vanessa reclamation project. She's too young to be so old. He wants to instill in her a rebellious streak and outlaw spirit before it's too late. Theirs is the more interesting relationship, which could've stood more development: It needed to go beyond smoking weed and underage drinking at a bar. And Page as an actress is too much a free spirit to be completely believable as a Young Republican.
On the other hand, Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow. His characters arrive at their epiphanies -- despite Lawrence's denial he even had one -- with intelligence and logic.
For his part, Murro allows actors plenty of leeway to develop richly idiosyncratic characters, and for a commercial maker he shows a noble resistance to selling his story with slick images and quick cuts. He paces scenes well and lets the emotions filter through with no undue emphasis or contrivance. This is a solid feature debut for Murro.
Cinematographer Toby Irwin and designer Patti Podesta make a campus film that for once feels like one. They superbly use the real locales and smartly dress sets in ways that suit the autumnal tones of the color scheme.
SMART PEOPLE
Miramax Films
Groundswell Prods.
Credits:
Director: Noam Murro
Writer: Mark Jude Poirier
Producer: Bridget Johnson, Michael Costigan, Michael London, Bruna Papandrea
Director of photography: Toby Irwin
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Music: Nuno Bettencourt
Costume designer: Amy Westcott
Editors: Robert Frazen, Yana Gorskaya
Cast:
Lawrence Wetherhold: Dennis Quaid
Janet: Sarah Jessica Parker
Chuck: Thomas Haden Church
Vanessa: Ellen Page
James: Ashton Holmes
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
PARK CITY -- With a title such as Smart People, this satiric film revolving around academia signals that its characters may be too smart for their own good. Intelligence plus too much specialized knowledge can leave people incapable of coping with life and frustratingly disconnected from family and friends. Come to think of it, what friends? But there's always family and two debuting filmmakers, novelist Mark Jude Poirier and award-winning commercial director Noam Murro, locate their comic mischief in the very core of family life.
The smart casting of Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and "Juno's" hot young star Ellen Page in, seemingly, tailor-made roles, gives Miramax plenty of marketing hooks for its April 11 release. Reminiscent of the recent Sundance hit The Squid and the Whale in its depiction of a burnt-out academic and off-campus family disruptions, Smart People should attract similar adult audiences with the caveat that the smugness of some characters may be an initial turn-off.
For students at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Quaid) is a horror show: An acerbic widower who has lost interest in even his own specialty, Victorian literature, he is self-absorbed, demanding, arrogant, contemptuous of his students and grouchy as hell. He doesn't warm up one bit at home; nevertheless, he is a role model for his young daughter Vanessa (Page), who is already as friendless and conceited as dad. She is even a Young Republican. Older brother James (Ashton Holmes) lives in a dorm, presumably to escape the poisonous atmosphere at home and to keep his many secrets.
Into these lives come two "corrupters," characters who will undermine the pomposity of father and daughter and seduce them back to something resembling normalcy. A head trauma, the result of his own pig-headedness, sends the professor to ER where his doctor, Janet (Parker), is a former student who once had a crush on him. Naturally, he fails to remember her. Crashing the Wetherhold household without an invitation is Lawrence's financially challenged brother Chuck Church), a permanent adolescent whom Lawrence is careful to always refer to as his "adopted" brother.
The chief disappointment in Poirtier's screenplay is that while the affects these two will have on the family is wholly predictable, the writer never finds a way to trip up audience expectations. There's a hint of this in Vanessa's misreading of her uncle's seduction of her but mostly the dramatic course is too steady and true for surprises.
What exactly motivates Janet to rescue Lawrence from his self-destruction? She may have had a schoolgirl crush once, but she's a physician now, surely with more life experiences, and all the professor ever gave her was a C and a rude remark.
One would like to see what she sees him but Quaid doesn't make that easy. He's not a warm and fuzzy burn-out like Michael Douglas' character in The Wonder Boys. That chip on his shoulder has given Lawrence a permanent slouch and the caustic manner feels like less like a facade than his real personality. Clearly though, something died within him when his wife passed. He even still hangs on to her wardrobe.
You do see why Uncle Chuck would take on the Vanessa reclamation project. She's too young to be so old. He wants to instill in her a rebellious streak and outlaw spirit before it's too late. Theirs is the more interesting relationship, which could've stood more development: It needed to go beyond smoking weed and underage drinking at a bar. And Page as an actress is too much a free spirit to be completely believable as a Young Republican.
On the other hand, Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow. His characters arrive at their epiphanies -- despite Lawrence's denial he even had one -- with intelligence and logic.
For his part, Murro allows actors plenty of leeway to develop richly idiosyncratic characters, and for a commercial maker he shows a noble resistance to selling his story with slick images and quick cuts. He paces scenes well and lets the emotions filter through with no undue emphasis or contrivance. This is a solid feature debut for Murro.
Cinematographer Toby Irwin and designer Patti Podesta make a campus film that for once feels like one. They superbly use the real locales and smartly dress sets in ways that suit the autumnal tones of the color scheme.
SMART PEOPLE
Miramax Films
Groundswell Prods.
Credits:
Director: Noam Murro
Writer: Mark Jude Poirier
Producer: Bridget Johnson, Michael Costigan, Michael London, Bruna Papandrea
Director of photography: Toby Irwin
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Music: Nuno Bettencourt
Costume designer: Amy Westcott
Editors: Robert Frazen, Yana Gorskaya
Cast:
Lawrence Wetherhold: Dennis Quaid
Janet: Sarah Jessica Parker
Chuck: Thomas Haden Church
Vanessa: Ellen Page
James: Ashton Holmes
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 1/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Miramax Films are prepping for next year's Oscar race, boarding on filmmaker Noam Murro's Smart People and buying the North American rights. This is one of the first productions from Michael London's new Groundswell Prods. London is of course the producer behind such films as Sideways and The Illusionist. Written by Mark Poirier, this sees Dennis Quaid play a professor whose wife's death has turned him into a bitter eccentric. He learns to reconnect with people after falling for a former student. This also stars Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) and Sarah Jessica Parker. Producers are Bill Block, Michael Costigan, Bridget Johnson, Bruna Papandrea and London. Murro should be boarding the remake of Strangers on a Trainand is attached to direct the novel to screen project All Families Are Psychotic....
- 1/30/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
- Quick Links > Smart People > Noam Murro > Dennis Quaid > Rachel Weisz > Thomas Haden Church > Strangers on a Train remake > All Families Are Psychotic Hours after announcing that The Station Agent’s Tom McCarthy will direct The Visitor, Michael London's Groundswell will go into co-production with Bill Block's Qed International and Grosvenor Park. The project produced by Michael Costigan, Bridget Johnson and Bruna Papandrea will be Noam Murro directorial debut with stars Dennis Quaid, Rachel Weisz and Thomas Haden Church to make their way to the city of Pittsburgh for the first week of November for shooting. Written by Mark Poirier (author of "Goats" and "Modern Ranch Living"), Smart People sees Quaid play a professor whose wife's death has turned him into a bitter eccentric. He learns to reconnect with people after falling for a former student. Murro is a commercials director (Adidas, Nike, Starbucks, Bud Light and eBay
- 9/9/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
Michael London's Groundswell Prods. will independently produce Smart People, a dramedy starring Dennis Quaid, Rachel Weisz and Thomas Haden Church, with Bill Block's QED International. Production is set to begin Nov. 6 in Pittsburgh. Following through on Groundswell's mantra to work with emerging talent, the company is giving a shot to acclaimed commercial director Noam Murro and novelist Mark Poirier. Smart, which centers on a recently widowed professor (Quaid) who must juggle a new love (Weisz), a failing career and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother (Church), marks the debut for both the director and writer. QED's Kim Fox is handling foreign sales. Grosvenor Park is producing. Michael Costigan (Brokeback Mountain) and Bridget Johnson (Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets) are producing along with Bruna Papandrea from Groundswell. Murro, the winner of the Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions awards and DGA's Director of the Year for commercials, will mark his feature debut with Smart. Poirier is the author of the novels Goats and Modern Ranch Living as well as the story collections Unsung Heroes of American Industry and Naked Pueblo. This is his first screenplay.
Michael London's Groundswell Prods. will independently produce Smart People, a dramedy starring Dennis Quaid, Rachel Weisz and Thomas Haden Church, with Bill Block's QED International. Production is set to begin Nov. 6 in Pittsburgh. Following through on Groundswell's mantra to work with emerging talent, the company is giving a shot to acclaimed commercial director Noam Murro and novelist Mark Poirier. Smart, which centers on a recently widowed professor (Quaid) who must juggle a new love (Weisz), a failing career and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother (Church), marks the debut for both the director and writer. QED's Kim Fox is handling foreign sales. Grosvenor Park is producing. Michael Costigan (Brokeback Mountain) and Bridget Johnson (Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets) are producing along with Bruna Papandrea from Groundswell. Murro, the winner of the Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions awards and DGA's Director of the Year for commercials, will mark his feature debut with Smart. Poirier is the author of the novels Goats and Modern Ranch Living as well as the story collections "Unsung Heroes of American Industry" and Naked Pueblo. This is his first screenplay.
Kim Cattrall is heading to the rink, signing on to play a former ice skating phenom in the Walt Disney Co.'s Ice Princess. The project, directed by Tim Fywell, is Cattrall's first following her Golden Globe-winning run on HBO's Sex and the City. Cattrall is taking on a role that is quite the opposite of the sexy siren Samantha she played on Sex and the City by portraying an ice skating instructor who at one time had a chance to make the Olympics but now is helping Michelle Trachtenberg's character fulfill her skating dreams. Juliana Cannarozzo, Trevor Blumas and Hayden Panettiere round out the cast. Bridget Johnson is producing the project. Writers on the project include Hadley Davis and Leslie Dixon, the latter of whom penned the most recent version. Karen Glass and Kristin Burr are overseeing the project at the studio. Cattrall is repped by ICM and by attorney Kevin Yorn. Her feature credits include Crossroads and 15 Minutes, opposite Robert De Niro and Ed Burns. Nominated for four Emmys for her performance on Sex, Cattrall took home the Globe in 2003.
Newcomer Trevor Blumas is lacing up his ice skates to star opposite Michelle Trachtenberg in Ice Princess for the Walt Disney Co. Shooting is scheduled to begin next week with Tim Fywell at the helm. Ice Princess, described as Flashdance meets Bring It On, follows a brainy ugly duckling (Trachtenberg) who realizes her dream of becoming a champion figure skater with the help of a disgraced coach and the boy (Blumas) who drives the Zamboni ice resurfacing machine. Bridget Johnson is producing the project. Hadley Davis penned the most recent draft of the screenplay. At the studio, the project is being overseen by Karen Glass and Kristin Burr. Blumas appeared on the TV series Due South and Earth: Final Conflict. He is repped by the Gersh Agency and Miles Levy of James/Levy/Jacobson.
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