Stillman was quoted on the New York Post’s ‘Page Six’ yesterday:
“I’m doing a film set in Jamaica in the early ’60s about the gospel church and the music scene from pre-reggae days, including ska,” Whitman told Webster Hall’s Baird Jones at the party for “Grace Is Gone” at Osteria Del Circo. British producer Jeremy Thomas (“The Last Emperor”) is backing Stillman, who hasn’t directed a movie in eight years. “It’s an all-black cast. I’m thinking of Danny Glover and J.J. Walker for parts,” he said.
The Philadelphia Daily News’ ‘Tattle’ column, a few days earlier, used a different quote from the same event, with Stillman talking to the same reporter:
“A screenplay I am working on,” said Stillman, “is a college-girl comedy inspired by the Kate Beckinsale character in Last Days of Disco. That character is the leader of a pack in a fictional college in Pennsylvania, a Susquehanna kind of area, not exactly Philadelphia. It will be squeaky-clean. PG-13. She is a gossip fanatic who reads the columns.
“She has a crisis and becomes very depressed, maybe one of her coterie becomes pregnant. Keep the baby is my motto. She is obsessed with the Tattle column, she is a regular reader of the Daily News and she ends up feeding important items to the Tattle column about the university president.”
As an added bonus, here’s an interview from the New York Observer with Stillman favourite, actor turned writer/director, Chris Eigeman.
Thanks to “Jeff” (in the comments of my previous post) and Heather Haebe for the tips.
Looks like Stillman was just being facetious about the second one in the Philly. I mean come on…he’s talking to the Tattle columnist about making a movie about a girl who’s obsessed with the Tattle gossip section. Me thinks Stillman is pulling a fast one, or maybe everyone already felt that way. Just a thought.
Yeah, I wasn’t entirely convinced by that, but thought it worth passing on without comment.
Is Stillman serious about the Jamaica project? Is J.J. Walker the comedian from “Good Times”?
More to the point – was Stillman serious about EITHER project?
And yes – he means that J. J. “Dy-No-Mite!” Walker.
While I don’t doubt Mr Stillman’s ability to direct someone else’s words, why? There are plenty of directors who can do that. I can’t imagine a Stillman movie without Stillman’s words. Nor do I want to try. I hope he is serious about the ” based on a Beckinsale character” movie.
The Jamaican movie could be a Buena Vista Social Club type success if Whit can find and engage some of the original ska/reggae masters. He is amazing no matter what he does.