And now… the downside of work stoppages.
Were it not for the stupid charity of Sony’s Amy Pascal, we might’ve been done with Nora Ephron as a director seven years ago. And were the town behaving normally, even the stupid charity of Ms. Pascal might’ve proved insufficient to parole Ephron from Director Jail, where she was remanded after 2005’s horrendous Bewitched (this after serving a five-year stint thanks to 2000’s Lucky Numbers). But studios are starved for product, and if there’s one thing Ephron can still inexplicably do, it’s attract top-flight talent.
So steel yourself for Ephron’s big screen adaptation of Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, Julie Powell’s bestselling account of her quixotic, real-life attempt to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 over the course of one calendar year. Ephron will write (the one thing she used to do reasonably well) and direct this chick flick nonsense, and it looks like she’s landed Meryl Streep for the role of Child (in what will likely be flashback or fantasy sequences, ‘cuz the master chef, who once threw hands with Fred Rogers during the historic "Battle of the PBS Stars"*, has been dead since ’04). What’s worse, in a move that almost makes me want to see the finished film, Ephron has also snared the great Amy Adams, who may be headed for a 2007 Best Actress nomination thanks to her buzzed-about performance in Enchanted.
Damn you, Ephron. Can’t you just hang out around the house, collect Sleepless in Seattle residuals and bake bread for the next couple of years?
Ephron’s written for Streep twice before (Silkwood and one of my mom’s favorite movies, Heartburn), but those films had the distinct advantage of Mike Nichols calling action. I know the premise to this flick sounds sickeningly irresistible, but does anyone think Ephron’s going to miraculously learn how to compose a shot between now and principal photography? This will be her eighth film. Eighth! It’s over for Nora. And now is probably an inopportune time to admit that I’m listening to Carly Simon’s "Coming Around Again".
*You’re welcome.