Is it something about Annette Bening suddenly having lots of motherly instincts or the dearth of roles for women over a certain age? Whatever it is, the actress has found a new niche playing mothers in indie movies. She was Naomi Watts‘ regretful Mom in “Mother & Child,” the lesbian Mom in “The Kids Are All Right” and she’s Paul Dano‘s artsy Mom in Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris‘ forthcoming “He Loves Me” and now Deadline reports she will be Kristin Wiig‘s gambling addict Mom in “Imogene.”
So despite our kinda snarky headline, here’s the thing — Bening is foremost a great actress and secondly, these aren’t faceless roles, these are great characters who just happen to be Moms as well and if she’s able to line up such a great array of films, who can really blame her? The film, which has been gestating since the spring of 2010, is set to be directed by “American Splendor” helmers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini based on a script from Michelle Morgan, and it’s pretty great story.
“It’s basically about a girl who kind of pretends to kill herself,” Wiig told us exclusively in March, “Starting off really funny, isn’t it? She does it to get her recently ex-boyfriend’s attention. She ends up having to go live with her mom, whom she hasn’t seen in years. It’s kind of about going back home, so she finds her life again and gets reintroduced to her family, kind of a coming home story.”
While we wondered what was going on with Wiig as she seemed to be left behind in the post-“Bridesmaids” buzz, it looks like our concerns were for naught. A move to indie film with some strong talent behind the camera is a great change of pace and will hopefully allow Wiig to spread her wings a little a bit. After the long development period, “Imogene” is expected to get rolling later this summer.
Oh yeah, Mike Fleming also says Bening will likely take a role in her husband Warren Beatty‘s gestating Howard Hughes movie, which is totally no surprise and no-brainer obvious.
