Posts Tagged ‘Rumors’

Trigiani Closes The Gap

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

VPA members at last night’s Annual Meeting and Election got the 411 from VFO’s Film Commissioner Rita McClenny on movies slated to film in Virginia this year. High on her list was Adriana Trigiani’s screenplay adapted from her novel Big Stone Gap.

Cover of Novel

Cover of Novel

The Author’s website offered this Q-n-A on the film’s progress:

Can you tell us about the BIG STONE GAP movie?

We’re hard at work on casting the movie, and we plan to film it later this summer and
during early fall in BIG STONE GAP. It’s a very exciting time. We are pulling together a
stellar cast, and my dear friend and brilliant artist, Rosanne Cash is composing the
score – her first. We’ll keep you up to date with the details on the movie.

Songstress RoseAnne Cash had this to say about working on her first soundtrack for Trigiani’s movie

Book: my dear friend, Adriana Trigiani, who is a one-woman empire, a force of nature, a
Venus Genius, wrote this great series of books. The first was ‘Big Stone Gap’, several years ago, and the latest is “Home To Big Stone Gap”, which I just finished. I loved it. I love Adri’s natural way of writing and her feel for her characters. You can tell she loves them, and it makes you love them, too. I hated to leave Ave Maria Mulligan McChesney, but she’ll be on the big screen soon as Adri has written the screenplay and is already in pre-production. I told you she was an empire.

Author Adriana Trigiani

Author Adriana Trigiani

With lucrative production incentives coming on-line July 1st, Trigiani’s long-birthing project and other maj0r mot1on pictures could start cameras cranking in the Commonwealth soon.

‘Wettest County’ in Virginia?

Friday, January 29th, 2010

“The Wettest County in the World”, a film based on Matt Bondurant’s novel about Depression era bootleggers in Franklin county began as a studio project for director John Hillcoat. Last year Columbia put the film in turnaround, so the Virginia story is seeking independent financing.

The Hollywood Reporter’s blog Risky Business reports that “the next generation of Hollywood A-listers” are interested in portraying the three brothers and the newsman the movie revolves around. Shia LeBeouf, Ryan Gosling, and Paul Dano are mentioned.

In an online article from the Roanoke Times, Virginia Film Office official Mary Nelson points out how important incentives are for attracting big budget productions like this to the State. With Hillcoat fresh off the success of his adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road”, a strong incentive package from Virginia would go a long way towards landing this story of Western Virginia outlaws for filming in the New River Valley.

Liam Neeson on Lincoln

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Parade.com posted an interview with actor Liam NeesonLiam Neeson promoting his action film from Spring 2009 under the headline:
Liam Neeson Says ‘Yes’ to Spielberg’s Lincoln Project”
Neeson says he would play the lead role under Spielberg’s direction,

“He asked me four years ago if would I do it and I said, ‘Let me think about it.’ Well, I’ve thought about it and the answer is ‘yes.’ So we’ll see.”

In the mean time, you can hear about Liam’s latest project, Chloe and catch up on news from the Neeson family.

Further South, Robert Redford has finished filming for his Lincoln project, The Conspirator, in Savannah Georgia. The film, produced by The American Film Company, is expected in 2010.