Any Tea Leoni fans in the house? News for you: the steady drip that’s been Leoni’s output since ’91 will remain remarkably consistent. The wife of Mulder has been cast with Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear in prolific writer and Spielberg go-to-guy David Koepp’s upcoming directorial effort, Ghost Town.
Ghost Town (as described here in less detail in our coverage of Kinnear casting) is being described as rom-com, with Gervais playing a grumpy and hateful dentist (sure to be executed with relish) who, while being sodomized by a colonoscopy, takes a dirt nap for seven minutes. When he comes back, he’s received the sixth sense and can see ghosts everywhere. The inevitable "com" arrives as one ghost in particular (Kinnear) starts to get all hands on and micro-managey in trying to stop his living wife (the just cast Leoni) from acquiring a new ball and chain.
I’ll repeat myself and say I’m not entirely down on this project (though rom-com was a bad start). Say what you want about Koepp, but he’s had a pretty solid career in writing films and his limited directorial efforts have been decently reviewed (save for the lukewarm Secret Window). I’m not looking forward to this by any means, but despite an inherent desire to write it off, I can’t do that either. Well, maybe a little.
In the mean time, if you need your Tea fix, she’ll be appearing with Sir Ben Kingsley and Luke Wilson in June 22’s gangster noir comedy You Kill Me.
Filming for Ghost Town is still planned to start in New York City this October with a theatrical release scheduled for way off in 2009.