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Who would you cast?


Sweet Jane 61

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Ok kids, time to do some thinking. You have been given the chance to make a movie about an artist/group that you like. Who would you cast? Would you cast someone who could sing, or go with someone that can't and use orginal recordings? Who would you pick as a director? This is a major production, pull out all the stops and go for a box office hit! Oh yeah, you can't cast anyone from the group or the artist, this is their story being told.

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Sam Cooke deserves some sort of story-telling. For what he accomplished and the way he died. I don't know who could be cast, though. That guy from Law & Order (Jessie Martin) would be good, but he's already doing the Marvin Gaye movie.

Jeff Buckley would be cool, on a personal level, but he's not big enough. James Franco looks a lot like him, but I don't know how good he'd do. Supposedly Brad Pitt really wanted to play him, but the thought of that makes me vomit.

I'd rather have the actors sing. I mean, they're acting, right? It's a movie. As much as I love Ray Charles I'd have rather heard Jamie Foxx sing - it would make the scenes flow better. As much as he wants to Jamie sounds nothing like Ray, but it was weird to have the singing and speaking voices completely different.

I would also rather have relative unknowns. It's hard for an audience to buy a mega-famous actor playing an icon. That's why Jamie Foxx and Joaquin Phoenix worked - they're famous, but they're not George Clooney.

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my brother and i are always on the lookout for an actor who could play jeff! johnny depp can play guiter, james franco looks a little like him, ethan hawke can look like him sometimes too but he's too old now. i would love a movie to be made about his life but i just haven't seen anyone beautiful enough to play him. and it would be nigh on impossible to find someone who could do tht singing!

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Sam Cooke deserves some sort of story-telling. For what he accomplished and the way he died. I don't know who could be cast, though. That guy from Law & Order (Jessie Martin) would be good, but he's already doing the Marvin Gaye movie.

Right on, Das. It's a shame that Martin's committed to the Gaye movie. I can more easily see him as Cooke. I'll have to give some thought to who else could play him and sing him (shame Steve Perry's white and not an actor, LOL).

More intrigueing is why this movie hasn't already been made. It's quite a story with a great rise to stardom, sex, murder and drama. We may have to find an unknown to play him.

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For me it would be a movie about Janis. Her story, nothing like The Rose, which I liked, but it was not her life. I would cast Lili Taylor who at one time was being considered for the part of Janis, but the movie never got made. Lili resembles Janis quite a bit. She is petite like Janis and is not a raving beauty. Janis was beautiful in her own way. Lili Taylor has been in quite a few movies, but I think that she relatively unkown to most and would be an excellent choice, and her singing voice is close to Janis'. She would need a very good dialect coach to talk like Janis. Janis had that Texas twang with a sassy bite to it and a little bit of cackle in her voice. As for a director, I would go with Cameron Crowe. I feel he would make a film that would show the true Janis. And he would do great with the musical ascpect of the film. And let his wife Nancy Wilson help with the soundtrack. I would want the film to go from the time that Janis started playing in Texas to the last day of her life. The loves she had, both men and women, the ups and downs, and really get into her soul.

lili.jpg

Lili Taylor

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Jane, several months ago one of the studios announced it had signed Rene Zelweiger (sp?) to play Janis in her biopic. It was supposed to start shooting early this year as I recall. Wonder if it's still on track.

Another studio had also announced plans for a Janis biopic (perhaps the one with Lili Taylor) with the same time frame.

If you learn of anything please get back to us.

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Oh I will Joe, believe me. And as for Renee to play Janis, were they high or what?? Please...no way, no how! I like the idea of Lili, and I even heard rumors of Melissa Etheridge, but nothing ever came of that movie. A movie about Janis is long overdue, just as you and Das pointed out about Sam Cooke. If these producers would just come and talk to us, we would help them make box office hits!

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I found this article from 2004...have found nothing yet that is updated....

04.02.2004 7:48 PM EST

Pink To Play Janis Joplin In Movie About Her Life

'Gospel According to Janis' will be directed by Penelope Spheeris.

On "Unwind" from Pink's Try This, she sings, "I've only been here for 27 years/ But already my life is over."

Pink, who is 24, wrote the first-person song from the perspective of Janis Joplin, the legendary rocker who died in 1970 at 27.

Consider it a preview of her next project. Pink has signed on the play Joplin in a biopic scheduled to shoot this summer, according a spokesperson for director Penelope Spheeris, who has been developing the movie for 15 years.

Spheeris, whose résumé includes "Wayne's World" and "Black Sheep," also co-wrote the script, tentatively titled "The Gospel According to Janis."

The movie is one of two Joplin biopics in development in Hollywood. It's been widely reported that the other, titled "Piece of My Heart," will star Renée Zellweger, although a spokesperson for Paramount Pictures said it was too early to confirm casting.

Pink landed the role in Spheeris' movie, which has the endorsement from the Joplin estate, after screen-testing two scenes and singing two Joplin songs. The director described the audition to Daily Variety as "the most gratifying moment in my film career."

Clive Davis, who signed Joplin to her first major record contract, has also worked with Pink and will spearhead the soundtrack.

Although her solo career lasted only a few years, the raspy-voiced Joplin is considered one of the greatest female singers in rock history. Before dying of a heroin overdose, she scored hits with "Piece of My Heart," "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Mercedes Benz."

Pink, who is touring Europe and making noise as a political activist (see "Pink Disappointed That More People Don't Protest"), made her big-screen debut with a bit part in last summer's "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle."

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