When we put together our "where are they now" list of directors who'd gone years without making a film, one of the ones who didn't quite make the cut, but came very close, was Steven Shainberg. The filmmaker's second film "Secretary" was one of the more enduring indie cult classics of the first half of the '00s, but his follow-up, "Fur," with Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr., wasn't embraced by either critics or audiences, and seven years have passed since that film.
Much of that time has been spent trying to make the comedy-drama "The Big Shoe," about a foot-fetishist who's also a gifted shoe designer trying to get away from his overbearing family. A few years ago, the film was attracting the attention of Joaquin Phoenix and Mia Wasikowska, but never quite came together. Fortunately, it got a new lease on life last year as Jim Sturgess took the lead role. And now two more high-profile cast members have joined, as Deadline reports that Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks have come on board the film.
Banks will play a psychotherapist hired by Sturgess' character's family, while Stewart will play his muse, Delphi. Interestingly, there's no mention of Susan Sarandon, who last year was mentioned as playing Sturgess' mother — presumably she's fallen off the film. The film's being shopped at the European Film Market in Berlin this week, and hopefully financing will come together fairly quickly; it sounds like a fitting successor to "Secretary," and with a pretty promising cast.