Post-“(500) Days of Summer,” Zooey Deschanel is the thinking indie dude’s pin-up and wide-eyed dream queen, and smartly, she’s not resting on her laurels.
David Gordon Green’s medieval stoner fantasy epic “Your Highness” is already in the can. Earlier in the year, she was attached to star in the adaptation of Pamela Des Barres’ “I’m With the Band” for HBO (or, as IMDB creepily calls it, “Untitled Groupie Project”). And She & Him, her lovingly twee pop project with M. Ward, recently released its second album, “Volume 2.” The adorable duo’s video for lead single “In the Sun” is the most effective high school-set video since “Baby One More Time” (yeah, we said it), and they head to Europe for some late-April shows following a Coachella set.
Now she’s ready to take a bite into something more cinematically weighty. Production Weekly reports Deschanel is in talks to play 19th Century English writer Ada Lovelace in Bruce Beresford’s “Enchantress of Numbers” set to go in front of cameras this fall. It’s a typically ambitious next step for a star whose previous historical role – “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” – gave her an opportunity to sing onscreen, but not do much else. Ada Lovelace, though, was one of the most unique, fascinating women of the 1800s. Dubbed the “founder of scientific computing,” she was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, and after an illness-ridden childhood met the mathematician and philosopher Charles Babbage. While her contributions are still debated, many consider her the first true computer programmer.
While the role is, indeed, killer, there’s reason to be fearful. For one, young actresses often follow major successes with a starring role in a period piece, to great failure – see Hillary Swank in “The Affair of the Necklace,” Reese Witherspoon in “Vanity Fair,” or even Nicole Kidman in “Portrait of a Lady.” And even more reason for the Zooey Nation to fret – Bruce Beresford? The man whose last bit of cinematic relevance, “Driving Miss Daisy,” was released in 1989, and wasn’t particularly strong to begin with? Who was the number two choice? Roland Joffe?
Ada Lovelace is a meaty, interesting part for Deschanel, and, best-case scenario, its greeted with modest, “Young Victoria”-style acclaim. But if it comes down to this or a She & Him tour, I’d advise our Zooey to pack the bags and hit the road with M. –Christopher Schobert