Tag Archives: Kevin Kline

Selena Gomez Starring as Linda Ronstadt in Biopic Based on the Singer’s “Simple Dreams” Memoir

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Selena Gomez is heading to the Blue Bayou…

The 31-year-old Mexican American actress/singer will portray Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic based on the superstar singer’s 2013 memoir Simple Dreams.

Selena GomezGomez, who stars in and executive produces Hulu’s The Only Murders In The Building, gave credence to the months-old internet rumors about the project by posting a photo of the memoir as an Instagram Story. Rolling Stone later confirmed the casting.

In pre-production, the film is being co-produced by James Keach and Ronstadt’s longtime manager John Boylan.

Additional casting and release date have not been announced.

An unconfirmed report of Gomez’s involvement in the biopic surfaced last July, but the IG Story today moved the possibility into the definite.

Keach directed the 2020 film Linda and the Mockingbirds, a documentary chronicling a road trip undertaken by Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and a group of younger musicians to the Mexican town of Banámichi in the state of Sonora, the birthplace of Ronstadt’s grandfather.

Linda Ronstadt Heart Like a WheelLike Gomez, who has had a successful music and acting career, Ronstadt is of Mexican descent. Ronstadt wrote at length about her heritage in the 2013 memoir. The singer returned to the subject in the 2022 book Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands.

Despite her 2012 retirement following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease – the diagnosis was revised seven years later to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s that has left Ronstadt unable to sing – Ronstadt and her music have returned to the spotlight in recent months. Last year her 1970 recording of “Long Long Time” was featured prominently in an episode of The Last of Us, and trailers for Ryan Murphy’s upcoming FX series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans make heavy use of Ronstadt’s smash 1974 hit “You’re No Good.”

The 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, offered an in-depth retrospective of her life and career, featuring on-screen appearances by and interviews with Ronstadt and her many musical friends and colleagues, including Browne, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Don Henley, Kevin Kline, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt and J.D. Souther.

If even a fraction of the many rockers and celebrities who’ve crossed paths with Ronstadt over the years make it into the biopic as characters, Hollywood will be very busy in coming months with actors vying for plum roles.

Alfonso Cuarón to Adapt Renee Knight’s Novel “Disclaimer” as an Apple TV+ Series 

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Alfonso Cuarón is releasing a disclaimer…

The 60-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning filmmaker will adapt Renee Knight’s novel Disclaimer as a series for Apple TV+ with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline starring.

Alfonso CuarónThe project marks the first series from the Roma filmmaker since he signed an overall deal with the streamer in 2019. It also marks a series debut for Sophie’s Choice and A Fish Called Wanda star Kline.

Cuarón will write, direct and executive produce all episodes of the series, marking the first time that he has written and directed all episodes of an original series. Blanchett will also executive produce.

Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower, played by Kline, appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past. A story that reveals her darkest secret. A secret she thought was hers alone.

Disclaimer is produced by Cuarón’s Esperanto Filmoj and Anonymous Content. Academy Award-winner Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity) and Academy Award nominee Bruno Delbonnel (The Tragedy of Macbeth) will serve as directors of photography on the project. Cuarón serves as executive producer alongside Esperanto Filmoj’s Gabriela Rodriguez and Anonymous Content’s David Levine, Dawn Olmstead and the late Steve Golin. Renee Knight serves as co-executive producer.

Morena Baccarin to Star in the Feature “The Good House”

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Morena Baccarin is ready to play House…

The 40-year-old Brazilian actress has been cast in Amblin Partners’ Sigourney Weaver–Kevin Kline feature reteam The Good House.

Morena Baccarin

Baccarin joins a list of recent cast additions that includes Rob Delaney, Beverly D’Angelo, David Rasche, Rebecca Hendersonand Molly Brown.

The film, already shooting in Canada, is directed by Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, based on a script they co-wrote adapted from the Ann Learynovel. 

The Good House follows Hildy Good (Weaver), a wry New England realtor and descendant of the Salem witches who loves her wine and loves her secrets. Her compartmentalized life starts to unravel as she rekindles an old romance and becomes dangerously entwined in one person’s reckless behavior.

Baccarin will play Rebecca McAllister, a beautiful, luminous woman in an unhappy marriage. She’s distractible, emotional, with an air of danger around her. 

Baccarin just wrapped back to back films Waldo opposite Charlie Hunnam and Greenland opposite Gerard Butler. 

She’s starred in such television series as V, Gotham and Homeland, the latter on which earned her a best supporting actress Emmy nomination. 

de la Huerta to Star in Modern-Day Film Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

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Paz de la Huerta is living the Dream…

The 31-year-old half-Spanish American actress will star in a modern-day film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, according to Variety.

Paz de la Huerta

de la Huerta will star alongside Rachel Leigh Cook, Hamish Linklater, Avan Jogia, Fran Kranz, Charity Wakefield, Lily Rabe, Ted Levine and Finn Whitrock in the film, which completed production on Dec. 18.

Producers announced the project Saturday to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

The new version takes place in present-day Hollywood where fantasy and reality collide. It’s set in a world where glamorous stars, commanding moguls, starving artists and vaulting pretenders all vie to get ahead.

Casey Wilder Mott wrote and directed the feature, marking his directorial debut.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream will feature original music by Mia Doi Todd and Saul Williams, both of whom also appear in the film.

de la Huerta starred in Boardwalk Empire for two seasons. Her other credits include The Cider House Rules, Riding in Cars with Boys and A Walk to Remember.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been adapted into movies numerous times, most recently in the 1999 Fox Searchlight film, which included Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart and Christian Bale.

Machado Starring in Lifetime Film’s “The Last of Robin Hood”

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Justina Machado hasn’t heard the last of Robin Hood…

The 41-year-old Puerto Rican actress has a role in Lifetime Film’s The Last of Robin Hood, which was recently acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films for U.S. distribution.

Justina Machado

The Kevin Kline-starrer was co-written and co-directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.

The biopic focuses on the final years of Errol Flynn’s life (Kline), as well as his May-December romance with starlet Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning), and the role of Aadland’s mother (Susan Sarandon) had in encouraging the relationship.

“The Last Of Robin Hood captures a very unique aspect of Hollywood and celebrity,” Samuel Goldwyn Films SVP Peter Goldwyn said in announcing the pickup.

“The film takes place in 1959, but it might as well be 2014. You have an aging superstar struggling to maintain his fame, a starlet chasing her big break, a manipulative ‘stage’ mother, and the public’s timeless curiosity, almost obsession with, ‘celebrity.’ The non-stop, sensational tabloid coverage of Errol Flynn’s life and relationship mirrors exactly the kind of coverage this story would receive in Hollywood 55 years later.”

The Last of Robin Hood also stars Bryan Batt, Max Casella, Jason Davis, Matt Kane, Patrick St. Esprit and Ric Reitz.

Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning a fall theatrical release for the biopic.

Lifetime network-affiliated Lifetime Films was launched as a division of A+E Studios in June 2013 and develops, produces and acquires female-focused indie movies. Robin Hood was its first project. It since has partnered with Viola Davis, Julius Tennon’s JuVee Prods. and Sara Risher’s ChickFlicks to produce Lila And Eve, starring Davis and Jennifer Lopez.

Machado’s previous credts include Welcome to the Family, The Fosters, Private Practice, Switched at Birth and Desperate Housewives.