When Demetri Martin joined the cast of Taking Woodstock, it was set to begin production in late August. In a nice change of pace, the movie is still on schedule, and will begin shooting at the end of the month, SAG strike be damned. But that isn't the only reason to anticipate Ang Lee's project. Variety reports the ensemble cast has been set, and it's insanely good. Get ready for a film that includes the likes of Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Eugene Levy, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Dan Fogler, Mamie Gummer, Henry Goodman, and Jonathan Groff.

Martin stars in the memoir adaptation as Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay man and aspiring interior designer who gives up his Big Apple dreams to run the family business in a Catskills motel. In 1969, he offered the hotel as home base for Woodstock organizers while his neighbor Max Yasgur (Levy) offered his farm. Staunton and Goodman play Tiber's parents, Groff will be festival organizer Michael Lang, Hirsch will play a Vietnam vet just back on American soil, Schreiber is in talks to play a transvestite named Vilma, Morgan will be a closeted married man having an affair with Tiber, Dano and Kazan play a hippy couple going to the concert, Fogler will be the head of a local theater troupe, and Gummer will take on the role of Lang's assistant.

I have a feeling this will be so very, very good.

With Ang Lee behind the camera, there are many possibilities for the upcoming adaptation of Elliot Tiber's memoir, Taking Woodstock, which Eugene blogged about recently. One of them is impending comedy. Variety reports that comedian Demetri Martin is currently in negotiations to star in the film as Tiber. The piece focuses on Tiber's life as a closeted gay artist who has given up his ambitions in the city to move upstate and help his old-world Jewish family run their Catskills motel. He becomes head of the Chamber of Commerce, and when he gets wind of the upcoming Woodstock, he does his part to make it happen.

The memoir details planning for the epic concert, as well as "side chapters" on Tiber, which include meeting artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Mark Rothko, and getting through his closeted life to stand up to cops during a raid at a gay bar. It sounds like pretty meaty, yet potentially fun, material to me, and I'm curious to see why Martin was tapped for this part. He's got his Jon Stewart gig and some smaller acting bits under his belt, but this is a whole different sort of role. I'm also curious to see how this story all fits together without seeming too scattered. At the very least, it should have one very sweet soundtrack.

James Schamus is currently adapting the memoir, and Focus is looking to get it into production in late August.

It looks like Ang Lee isn't heading back into big-budget Hollywood waters any time soon. Variety reports that the Brokeback Mountain director will instead take on another gay-themed project: an adaptation of a book called Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life. It's the autobiography of Elliot Tiber, an unassuming Catskills hotel manager and interior designer who wound up playing a pivotal role in making the Woodstock festival a reality. The point, I take it, is that Tiber's role in one of the greatest events in rock and roll history served as redemption for giving up his own artistic ambitions and living most of his life in the closet.

As readers of this blog have probably guessed, I'd watch a cheese sandwich if Ang Lee directed it. This project seems lighter than anything the filmmaker has done since at least Eat Drink Man Woman, and I wonder how (if at all) it will jive with the deliberate, supremely controlled style he's been nursing in his past few movies. It'll be interesting if Lee takes this opportunity to return to the much looser vibe of his early comedies.

Lee's longtime producing partner James Schamus is also on board for Taking Woodstock, and the fact that Schamus is the CEO of Focus Features conveniently takes care of distribution.