I feel the need to channel Juice Newton: Just call me angel of the morning, Angel! (Sidenote: The song was written by the brother of Jon Voight.) I just can't get this song out of my head with this latest news bit, and luckily it's a satire, so it's not completely inappropriate. Variety has reported that there's a new indie on the way called Son of Mourning, and it's pulling together a pretty tasty cast thus far. Joseph Cross, the kid who ran with scissors as Augusten Burroughs, Felicity Shagwell -aka- Heather Graham, Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey, and the Transsexual King Arthur Tim Curry are set to star.

This will be the feature directorial debut for Yaniv Raz, who has two short films under his belt -- Portishead - Cowboys and Things Fall Apart, plus some brief acting stints in shows like The District. Written by Raz as well, the film is set "amid an international climate crisis, [and] centers on a dissatisfied ad copywriter (Cross) who returns home to a resort town in Florida to meditate on his parents' divorce. While there, he is mistaken for the Messiah and must decide whether to use his newfound celebrity to indulge his own selfish desires, or to do some good in the world." I imagine Curry and Hershey will play the parents, but I'm not sure what Graham's character will be. Maybe she'll get back to her early roots and play a woman who lives/lived at a convent (like her Twin Peaks character, Annie Blackburn). Production will gear up in early 2008 in the Sunshine State.

Chew on this:

• The last time I mentioned Margot Kidder, LiLo was in talks to take a role in her Dante Tomaselli horror film, The Ocean. Now the ex-Lois Lane is going to star in a thriller called The Box Collector. The project is being helmed by John Daly, who last directed The Aryan Couple, but is better-known for his role as executive producer on huge films like Platoon and The Terminator. The movie is about "a brooding young artist who falls for a flirtatious young divorcee, despite his overprotective mother's increasingly crazed efforts to halt any relationship." Pesky mothers, but I have to say, this sounds more like a romcom than a thriller. I imagine Kidder is the crazy mom, and perhaps co-star Noah Segan (Brick) is the kid and Michael Bowen (Kill Bill: Vol. 1) is the dad? The last two on the docket are European, which probably means this is the girl in question -- Belgium newcomer Lyne Renee, with Dutch actor Victor Low playing her ex. The movie will start shooting next week in Manitoba, Canada.
• There's a fun little interview over at TOMB with one of the flamboyant players of John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus -- Justin Bond, who played the mistress of the "salon for the gifted and challenged." Besides the stint on the infamous orgy film, Bond's cabaret duo, Kiki and Herb, got a Tony nod this year. He speaks of the nomination, and of course, his time as the mistress and just what that orgy scene was like: "I could have joined in the scene, like John did, but I didn't really feel like it. And after you're in the room with all those bodies for a couple of hours under the lights, the smell isn't really that appealing." Hours of sweaty, smelly orgies -- some people are so dedicated to their work. Or they just really, really like each other -- Bond says that the Shortbus crew became a close group and play wiffleball in the park on Sundays. Will this be part 2 -- Wifflebus?
• The latest duo to hit the indie scene -- Barbara Hershey and Ron Perlman. Variety has reported that both are starring in Vacuuming the Cat, which is, and I quote, the story of "a young man who, after suffering the death of his wife, goes tot he desert to build a porch for his aunt and meets a retired ex-cop who guides him through his grief toward acceptance." I assume the porch will be attached to a house, and not be of the Scrubs variety. Then again, this is a dramedy, so who knows? Kenny Golde is directing the script by Ted Henning, and Daniel Gillies, Irma P. Hall and Pat Crawford Brown are also on the cast list. Note: this is the second film both Hershey and Perlman share -- the first was Frogs for Snakes, a comedy thriller from the 90's.