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Alan Ball
, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of American Beauty and the Emmy-winning Six Feet Under, will finally make his much anticipated big screen directorial debut with Towelhead, based on the novel by Alicia Erian. Officially its an untitled project, but the script, which has been shelved since being optioned in 2004 while Ball wrapped up Six Feet Under, has found financing in the guise of Steven M. Rales, who will produce with Ball and Ted Hope. Scott Rudin, Peggy Rajski, and Anne Carey are the executive producers.
The film, about a young Arab-American girl named Jasira who struggles with sexual obsession in Texas during the Gulf War, will feature Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine), and Maria Bello (A History of Violence). In the lead role, Summer Bishil will make her film debut as the confused Jesira, with Six Feet Under vet Peter Macdissi playing the father role.
The script will be the long-awaited feature film follow-up to American Beauty, which won 5 Oscars in 1999, which is a major feat, considering that 1999 may have been one of the greatest years in American cinematic history (American Beauty, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, Election, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, etc etc etc.) Since then, Ball has concentrated his efforts toward the small screen with his highly acclaimed, recently departed HBO series, and another failed comedy series called “Oh, Grow Up.” It will be interesting to see if Ball can reclaim the heights of his previous screenplay, or if he’ll suffer the same fate of American Beauty director Sam Mendes, who won the Best Director Oscar in his debut, only to go on and make the mediocre Road to Perdition and Jarhead.
