THR hit the ground running at the Tribeca Film Festival, and they've been busy finding out what the stars won't be doing in the near future.
First up, Eric Bana, who is in the Big Apple to promote his latest thriller "Deadfall" won't be wearing blue suede shoes anytime, unless it's for his own sartorial reasons. Last fall, the actor was attached to play Elvis Presley in "Elvis & Nixon" opposite in Danny Huston as the President with Cary Elwes making his directorial debut. The project centers on a Dec. 21, 1970, visit that Presley paid to Nixon at the White House, which was all initiated by The King after he wrote Nixon a six-page letter requesting a visit and suggesting that he be made a "Federal Agent-at-Large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Presley brought with him family photos and a Colt 45 pistol as a personal gift to the president.
"I'm not doing that. I was attached for a while, but I'm no longer attached," Bana told the trade. No wonder yet on who will replace him or what the status of the project is at this point.
Meanwhile, Malin Akerman, in town with "The Giant Mechanical Man," has nearly given up on the Linda Lovelace biopic "Inferno." Once touted as the competitor to the Amanda Seyfried led film "Lovelace" which has already rolled in front of cameras, not much as been going on with the Matthew Wilder directed effort. Back in January a host of names including Adam Goldberg, Harold Perrineau and former porn star Sasha Grey were said to be coming on aboard the film that already had Akerman, Matt Dillon and Paz De La Huerta, all in time for an imminent shoot. But then, nothing happened.
"I don't know if that's even going to go," Akerman told THR. "Last I heard, which was just before Christmas, we were supposed to start shooting in March, and now it's April. It's been one of those doomed films that I absolutely love and totally believe in, I love the script, I think it's such a well-written script about the behind-the-scenes of a battered woman."
"It's a big one to take a chance on because it's really some heavy content," Akerman continued, which jibes with early reports of the lurid content in the opening sections of the film that includes child abuse, beatings and a car crah. "So I don't know what's been going on, I don't know why it hasn't gone yet. I would hope and love for it to go, but now this other movie is coming on that Amanda Seyfried did, and I kind of feel like, 'Shit, we should have been on that, we should have done it.' "
Akerman admits she's started preparing but has put it on hold until things are more certain. So we'll see if this gets off the ground or if "Lovelace" puts the nail in the coffin.
