The Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto has landed her first post-Oscars role in Julian Schnabel's (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) Miral, the trade magazine Variety reports. The film tells the story of Hind Husseini, a Jerusalem socialite and Palestinian activist who founded an orphanage in Jerusalem in 1948, after the partition of Palestine and Israel. Pinto will play a Palestinian woman in the film with Hiam Abbass (Amreeka) starring as Husseini. Miral is based on the novel of the same name by the Italian-Palestinian author Rula Jebreal.
Husseini founded the orphanage after discovering a group of Palestinian children who had been pulled from the rubble after their families were shot dead in front of them. The film will shoot next month. After completing Miral, Pinto will join Woody Allen's next feature. Still untitled, the film is an ensemble piece set in London, featuring Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts and Anthony Hopkins.
It seems like yesterday that Drew Barrymore, 34, was playing that cute little girl in Steven Spielberg's ET: The Extra Terrestrial. Now she's not only starring in but also directing and producing her own films. Her directorial debut, Whip It!, starring Juno's Ellen Page, recently wrapped, and the latest film she executive produced (and starred in), He's Just Not That Into You, has grossed more than US$145 million (Dh533m) worldwide.
Now Barrymore gets to take a back seat on the directing and producing front with her next film, Going the Distance. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Barrymore is to appear in the new romantic comedy with Justin Long, her co-star from He's Just Not That Into You. Distance will be directed by Nanette Burstein (American Teen) and produced by Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot. Written by Geoff LaTulippe, the film follows a young couple trying to survive a long-distance relationship. Barrymore's upcoming roles also include Grey Gardens, an HBO television movie, which adapts the cult 1975 documentary of the same name, about the eccentric aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jessica Lange co-stars.
The acclaimed Indian director Satyajit Ray, who died in 1992, is to be the subject of a retrospective in New York. Hosted by the Film Society at the Lincoln Center from April 15-30, the programme features six of Ray's films, which are all appearing in new prints. This includes The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha, The Music Room and The Expedition. The filmmakers Mira Nair and Ray's son, Sandip Ray, will give talks on the director as part of an extended programme of events.
In a major week for female leads, Anne Hathaway has been cast as Judy Garland in a stage and film biography of The Wizard of Oz star. The productions are based on Gerald Clarke's biography Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland and will be produced by the Weinstein Company, which has yet to decide which of the two productions will come first, according to Variety.
Garland was the subject of an Emmy-winning 2001 television film from Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and was a character in the Broadway production The Boy From Oz. The singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright also performed a popular one-night re-creation of a famous Garland concert from Carnegie Hall. Get Happy is the second project for Hathaway to be announced this year. The Devil Wears Prada star will also appear in Twelfth Night as part of New York's Shakespeare in the Park series, which brings the Bard's productions to Central Park each summer.
The Weinstein Company is working on a large number of stage adaptations of its feature films, including Finding Neverland, Chocolat, Cinema Paradiso and Shakespeare in Love.
Maguire puts the pedal to the metal Tobey Maguire is getting into race-car driving with Columbia Pictures having acquired the rights to Michael Cannell's upcoming book, The Limit, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It is the story of the real-life friends and rivals Phil Hill (Maguire) and Wolfgang von Trips, two Grand Prix drivers on the Ferrari team who are pitted against each other during the 1961 Drivers Championship. Maguire and Jenno Topping will produce for Maguire Entertainment. * Liza Foreman