Casting Madness: Gerwig In ARTHUR, Stewart ON THE ROAD, And Wiig Is A CLOWN GIRL

A lot of casting info today but I figured I’d use this one post for these three lovely ladies, 1 Greta and 2 Kristens, 1 remake and 2 adaptations…

• According to Deadline, Greta Gerwig (Greenberg) is to play the female lead in ARTHUR remake starring Russell Brand and Helen Mirren.

Gerwig will be Russell’s love interest, the role played by Liza Minelli in the original.

Jason Winer who directed 10 episodes of Modern Family and won DGA for his work on the pilot  will direct WB’s ARTHUR Remake.
The screenplay was written by Peter Baynham
Russell Brand would star in ARTHUR, playing the character made famous by the late great Dudley Moore. The original movie plot centers around Arthurs who is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she will make something of him the family expects. Arthur proposes but then meets a girl with no money who he could easily fall in love with.

BUT… the remake will be slightly different
In the original, John Gielgud in his Oscar winning performance, played Arthur’s valet,
In the remake, Gielgud’s role has been modified.. so it’s now a nanny played by Helen Mirren
Shooting starts this July in New York City..

• Next stop, Kristen Stewart (Twilight) told USA Today that she will co-star in the adaptation ON THE ROAD based on the 1957 book by author Jack Kerouac.

Here’s the synopsis of the book..
“On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac’s years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, “a sideburned hero of the snowy West.” As “Sal Paradise” and “Dean Moriarty,” the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.
Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “Beat” and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than forty years ago.”

To be directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries)
Star of the upcoming TRON LEGACY, Garrett Hedlund has signed on to play Dean Moriarty
Sam Riley will play his traveling pal, Sal.
Kristen Stewart will play Moriarty’s young wife, Marylou
Filming starts this summer.

• Last but not least, everybody’s favorite SNL star already got her eyes on another project. She badly wants to stay on the big screen. Kristen Wiig is still working on bringing us her untitled Wedding comedy housed at Universal, soon enough she’ll be busy promoting MACGRUBER this summer but Deadline said she recently used her own money to option CLOWN GIRL, based on the 2007 novel by author Monica Drake. Wiig will write the script and she’ll also star as the heroine Nita.

Here’s the official synopsis of the book…
“Nita, otherwise known as Sniffles the Clown, is tying balloon animals for a horde of greedy, sticky children at a fair. Suffering what may be a cardiac event, she’s rushed to the hospital-after trying to get help from a clown fetishist, who simply drops his phone number on top of her prone form. Welcome to wacky, stressful Baloneytown, where clown prostitution, stoned dogs and fire juggling-cum-arson are the norm. Nita struggles to make enough money clowning to keep herself in oversized shoes and squirting daisies, while also saving for Clown College tuition for her boyfriend, handsome clown Rex Galore. But Rex is mostly MIA, and Nita’s longing for him settles on local cop Jerrod. While not much happens, the pace of the narrative is methamphetamine-frantic, as Drake drills down past the face paint and into Nita’s core, often using Nita’s relations with men as the bit.”