James Franco May Join Kate Hudson In Linda Lovelace Biopic

He’s just received an Oscar nod for playing an intrepid wilderness lover in 127 Hours, and now James Franco could be playing another real-life character on the big screen – infamous “adult entertainment” filmmaker Chuck Traynor in Lovelace, an adaptation of the novel titled The Complete Linda Lovelace.

Franco’s Howl directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman already have Kate Hudson onboard to star in Lovelace as Traynor’s wife, Linda Boreman – a woman whose life was inalterably changed after she appeared in her husband’s 1972 X-Rated blockbuster, Deep Throat.

Deadline says that Epstein and Friedman have been attempting to get their Linda Lovelace pic off the ground since Howl – which starred Franco as beat poet Allen Ginsberg – premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. It will be difficult for the filmmakers to reunite with the increasingly-busy Franco, who is starring in this summer’s Rise of the Apes; will join Nicole Kidman in the Broadway production Sweet Bird this fall; and aspires to helm adaptations of two literary masterpieces sometime in the near future as well.

Lovelace isn’t the only biopic in the works about the titular actress, who essentially suffered a public meltdown in the wake of the controversy about her appearance in Deep Throat – which eventually led her to divorce Traynor and accuse him of coercing her into committing acts of prostitution onscreen. Malin Akerman (a.k.a. Silk Spectre II in Watchmen) will offer her own version of Lovelace in the Black Listed Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story from writer/director Matthew Wilder.

Actress Linda Lovelace.

Epstein and Friedman are no strangers to tackling taboo or controversial material, having addressed the subject of Hollywood’s historical portrayal of homosexuality in the acclaimed documentary The Celluloid Closet and examined the life of San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official in their Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk. The life of Miss Lovelace is a horse of a different color, though, one riddled with scandals and of course the adult entertainment industry. Still, hers was a fascinating existence that could make for quite the engaging cinematic biopic, regardless of who stars in it.

Neither Inferno nor Lovelace have managed to secure proper funding or studio backing at this point, which means that it could be a while before filming on either dramatization gets underway. It’s entirely possible that by the time Epstein and Friedman are ready to roll with their project, Franco’s schedule might not be quite so full.

We’ll keep you updated on the development of Lovelace as more information is released.

Source: Deadline

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New ‘J. Edgar’ Title for Eastwood’s Hoover Biopic; Casting Rumors

Armie Hammer pulled off a tricky double-act when he played the Winklevoss twins in David Fincher’s The Social Network. He may follow that performance by taking on a role in another real-life project from a high-profile filmmaker – namely, Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar Hoover biopic.

Hoover has been officially retitled J. Edgar and will star Leonardo DiCaprio as the controversial FBI founder. The well-respected leading man could be joined by both Hammer and Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, who is in talks to play Hoover’s longtime secretary.

EW has the scoop on the title change and the news that Hammer is in negotiations to play Clyde Tolson, a lawyer-turned FBI official – and loyal confidante to Hoover himself. Tolson has historically been rumored as having also been Hoover’s secret lover, an issue which will surely be addressed in Eastwood’s biopic – though, as the director himself put it, “[Hoover] was a very complex person. The [closet] homosexual aspect is just one of many. I would say that’s the least of his problems.”

Word of Theron joining J. Edgar comes from Vulture, who is reporting that the actress is up for the part of Justice Department file clerk Helen Gandy, a woman that ended up working for Hoover for over 54 years. Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black’s screenplay will likely pick up several years after Gandy and Hoover first met, since the former was 21 when the FBI head hired her, and (as lovely as they both are) neither DiCaprio nor Theron look like people in their early 20s any more.

DiCaprio will play Hoover in Eastwood's 'J. Edgar'.

Hoover was a fascinating individual who developed quite the intimidating reputation over the course of running the FBI for half a century (there’s a reason Bill Murray makes a crack about him destroying New York in the original Ghostbusters). Few would argue that DiCaprio won’t make for a more handsome Hoover than his real-life counterpart, but the actor should also be able to communicate the complex, and conflicted, nature of a man who will likely always remain a bit of a mystery.

Black crafted a solid script for Gus Van Sant’s acclaimed Harvey Milk biopic that examined a variety of aspects in the fellow’s personal life – while addressing his influence and behavior as a public figure. He’ll likely take a similar approach in his J. Edgar screenplay as well.

Filming on J. Edgar is scheduled to begin in early 2011 and the film could potentially arrive in theaters by the end of next year.

Source: EW, Vulture

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