jack and diane Tagged Articles at Cinematical

These days, Ellen Page seems to be taking the Nicole Kidman cinematic route -- signing up for a lot of interesting gigs, then backing out of them before they come to fruition. It's not exactly new news that Ellen Page has left the lesbian werewolf movie Jack and Diane -- Kim Voynar discovered her removal from the film's info last summer. But now it's official, with a new actress slipped in. As Arrow in the Head reports: Alison Pill has taken over the sexy saddle.

The film follows two teen girls who start snogging in New York City. But when Jack learns that Diane is leaving the country, she tries to cool things off. But Diane wants to keep things going -- while also having to keep it secret that these sexy shenanigans are turning her into a werewolf. There's no word on who will play who, but Pill will be one while Olivia Thirlby will play the other.

Well, this is a bit of a bummer. I've been waiting, it seems like forever, to see when Jack and Diane, Bradley Rust Gray's endlessly gestating "lesbian werewolf" movie that Ellen Page was supposed to star in, would finally go into production. As I wrote waaaaaaay back in September, the film is supposed to be about:

"Jack and Diane, two teenage lesbians, meet in New York City and spend the night kissing ferociously. Diane's charming innocence quickly begins to open Jack's tough skinned heart. But, when Jack discovers that Diane is leaving the country in a week she tries to push her away. Diane must struggle to keep their love alive while hiding the secret that her newly awakened sexual desire occasionally turns her into a werewolf."

If you read these pages with any regularity, you already know that I'm quite a fan of Ellen Page. Her work thus far, in Hard Candy, An American Crime, and, most recently, in the lovable, fabulous Juno, has been superb. I noted a while back that Page has several films warming up in the bullpen, and one of them is Jack and Diane, in which she's set to costar opposite Olivia Thirlby, who plays her best friend in Juno.

Now let me tell you about Jack and Diane (oh, you knew I had to go there, c'mon). According to its website, the film, which is supposed to be directed by Bradley Rust Gray (Salt), is about: "Jack and Diane, two teenage lesbians, meet in New York City and spend the night kissing ferociously. Diane's charming innocence quickly begins to open Jack's tough skinned heart. But, when Jack discovers that Diane is leaving the country in a week she tries to push her away. Diane must struggle to keep their love alive while hiding the secret that her newly awakened sexual desire occasionally turns her into a werewolf."

Lesbian teenage werewolves? Holy jeepers, what's the world coming to? This excerpt from the director's statement gives a better idea of what Gray has in mind: "I see JACK & DIANE as an investigation of love. It's unapologetically romantic. Love is the most instinctive way for us to understand other people regardless of cultural background, race, or sexuality. Everyone has the same desire to love and to be loved." (You can read a lot more about the film at its official website.)

When I saw Hard Candy, I was blown away by Ellen Page's carefully controlled performance as a young girl who embarks on a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a man who trolls the internet for 14-year-old girls. I knew when I saw her in that film that she had a good career ahead of her, if she'd make some good choices around future scripts. Looks like she's done just that (I'm generously overlooking her role as Kitty Pryde in X-Men -- she was underused there), because she has no fewer than six films lined up.

Page is making some really smart decisions with her scripts -- she's mixing it up enough not to get herself boxed into one type of role, she's got a Sundance film, a mainstream film, and some decidedly edgier fare all upcoming. Page is one of the actresses I'll be watching with the most interest in 2007; here's what she has upcoming, so you can get her on your radar (if she's not there already):

First up for Page is An American Crime (pictured above), which debuts at Sundance. Film is based on a true story from 1965 Indiana about a housewife who kept a teenage girl, Sylvia Likens, locked in her basement. Page was reportedly the only choice to play Likens, and she co-stars with Catherine Keener, who plays Gertrude Baniszewski, the 37-year-old woman who led a pack of teenagers and children as young as 11 and 12 (some her own kids, and others just kids in the neighborhood) in the escalating beating, torture and eventual death of the 16-year-old, in one of the worst torture-murder cases in American history. In an interesting bit of casting, typically "nice boy" Jeremy Sumpter, who was fantastic in the title role in 2003's Peter Pan, takes on the role of Coy Hubbard, the 16-year-old boyfriend of Stephanie Baniszewski, who was one of the worst of Syliva's abusers, repeatedly practicing Judo on her by throwing her into walls.