Oranges has television director Julian Farino attached to helm and now, three actors known for their work on the tele might be joining the dark comedy as well. Hugh Laurie might be taking on his first leading role in film - as the patriarch/adulterer in an American Beauty-esque role and might possibly star alongside either or both Mila Kunis and Leighton Meester. L.A Times reports that the trio of actors are attached to the 2008 Blacklist favorite (it was the runner-up to first place The Beaver, currently in post). If this goes into production anytime soon, this should be a hot title for buyers in Cannes.
TIFF's co-directors Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling have got us salivating with the smorgasbord list of world premiere offerings for next September. Opening film comes as a surprise, as we've haven't heard much about it, but seeing that doc filmmaker Davis Guggenheim has a great relationship with the festival, From The Sky Down a doc about U2 (20 or so years after Phil Joanou's U2: Rattle & Hum) will take centre stage. Doc-programmer guru Thom Powers makes sure that the fest will be a rocking good edition by also adding Pearl Jam Twenty from fanboy Cameron Crowe.
Today co-directors Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling of the Toronto International Film Festival announce the first batch of titles that are the make-up of the 36th edition. Today's the pair will read off mostly Gala screening mentions (our Blake Williams will be LIVE tweeting), which in turn give us a strong indication as to what will be shown in Venice and what Telluride, NYFF and BFI London Film Festivals might salvage/lasso as their own.
Somewhat of a rarity that all three top vote-getters were put into production fairly quickly - and that 2011 will also be the year of release on the top trio of 2008. If there are any correlations to make it's that they're all comedies, relatively easier to mount and produce and grab an ensemble cast for short spurts. Will a comedy be the best ranked Black List item for 2010? We'll find out next week.