February 29, 2008

News from the Week

  • Cate Blanchett is one busy woman. About to give birth to her third child, and running the Sydney Theatre Company with her husband she has agreed to chair a culture think tank, Towards a Creative Australia. Blanchett to Chair Culture Forum
  • Uma Thurman is producing her second film The Accidental Husband written by three women. She thinks things are getting better for women in Hollywood.
“I think female writers and directors have been getting more work in recent years,” she continues, her slender fingers fiddling with the fine blonde hair scraped back from her face. “The slow move towards Hollywood accepting women in the employer and leadership positions is getting better. I think we’re all growing up more and more. There is some positive movement, and that makes me happy.”
Yet she bought the rights to the film cause she couldn't get a part.
I bought the rights and developed the story because nobody at the time was letting me do comedy,” explains the 37-year-old New Yorker, a hint of frustration creeping into her otherwise sanguine tone as she recalls the earlier stages of her career.
Uma Thurman, Producer
  • ABC will bring back the Women's Murder Club in April with a new showrunner. Gotta say I'm kind of pissed since I thought the show was fine. The good news is that Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft were quickly hired by Joss Whedon to work on his new show Dollhouse.
  • Lipstick Jungle seems to have survived. NBC ordered six more scripts.
  • Overture Films will release Sunshine Cleaning, Christina Jeffs drama starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Deal is for around $2 m, that's $5 m less than it cost them to make the film. Amy Adams was in the highest grossing film starring a woman in 2007.
  • The Business of Being Born continues its run opening in Seattle this weekend. Here is another interview with Executive Producer, Ricki Lake: The Business of Being Born