justin berfield Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You aren't anybody unless you're famous enough for rival biopics. I hope you all celebrated the holiday yesterday by watching both Gérard Depardieu and Georges Corraface in their respective, rival Columbus films. Coming in the future, we may also get competing movies about Harvey Milk, Philip K. Dick, Sammy Davis, Jr. and now Pablo Escobar. We've long followed news regarding Joe Carnahan's movie about the Colombian drug lord, who will be played there by Javier Bardem, but now Variety reports another Escobar pic in the works. This one will be produced by Oliver Stone, directed by Antoine Fuqua and is simply titled Escobar. It's based on the book "Mi Hermano Pablo", written by the cocaine king's brother, Roberto Escobar Gaviria, who worked as accountant and confidant to Pablo.

So, this looks like it will be more of a life-encompassing biopic. It also appears to be going into production ahead of Carnahan's film, Killing Pablo, since Carnahan is first working on White Jazz while Escobar is fully financed and ready to begin shooting in Colombia and Puerto Rico in early 2008. All that needs finishing is the script rewrite, which is being done by David McKenna, who already wrote a bit about Escobar in his screenplay for Blow (he was played by Cliff Curtis). Variety doesn't mention who Stone and Fuqua have or are casting in the title role of their film, which means it may not be secure. I'm sure some people would like to see Adrian Grenier play the part, as he does via his character Vinnie Chase on the show Entourage, but that would actually be a terrible idea. Personally, I'd like them to go back to Curtis, but for a long-term biopic they'll likely want someone younger, as well as someone more familiar to audiences.

I also wish that Stone was directing this himself -- even if he really annoyed the heck out of me recently -- because he seems to know the territory. And because he thanked "Ari Gold" (Jeremy Piven's character on Entourage) when talking to Variety about the project. But he should do just fine overseeing Fuqua's direction, a job he's sharing with former Malcolm in the Middle older brother Justin Berfield, Jason Felts and James Reach.

Hollywood seems to be in a flurry of dead and living celebrity biopics. Zooey Deschanel is going to be Janis Joplin, and on the rumor side of things, Courtney Love is looking to make a biopic about Kurt Cobain, Kirsten Dunst might be Debbie Harry and Lindsay Lohan was talked about as a possible Stevie Nicks. Now, it's time to add one more name to the pile -- Jerry Garcia. I'm surprised a film about the Grateful Dead front-man has taken this long to get off the ground; he's been dead for just about twelve years now.

The rights to Garcia's life have been secured by none other than J2 Pictures, the production company of Justin Berfield. He's Malcolm's older, destructive brother from Malcolm in the Middle. Luckily, he isn't looking to star in the movie, and is on the hunt for just the right actor to portray the legend. While no one has been officially cast yet, Berfield has someone in mind: "I've spoken with one person and he's very interested in taking on the role. I can't say too much because I'm not ready for this to become major news yet. He's a very well-known actor."

Time for the speculation. Who could it be? If I had to pick, it would be Jeremy Piven -- put a little weight on the man and give him more hair, and he could pull it off wonderfully. If not him, perhaps Philip Seymour Hoffman with a good dye job? Freddie Rodriguez with a lot of extra weight? The Jerry Garcia look isn't too popular in Hollywood, so there's not too much to choose from. Who else could possibly pull it off?

Doris Payne rules. She's 75, and has spent the last 50-odd years (at least until she ended up in the pokey) stealing jewelry in broad daylight, confusing and tricking sales people with her grace and charm. One of the detectives who worked her case even likened her to a female Cary Grant: "She has," he said "the style." Happily -- because we all clearly need to have more contact with Ms. Payne -- Variety reported this morning that a movie about her life is now in the works.

The untitled film will be the second project from J2 Pictures, a company founded by Malcolm in the Middle star Justin Berfield. Berfield will co-write the script with partner Jason Felts and Eunetta Boone, a TV-writer (who is clearly pretty cool herself -- she got her start on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) who brought the idea to J2 after visiting Payne in prison; the company just recently purchased Payne's life rights.