I keep on meaning to write about the total clusterfuck surrounding Weinstein Co’s Factory Girl, the George Hickenlooper biopic about Edie Sedgewick. I touched on it briefly a couple of weeks ago when Bob Dylan’s lawyers threatened to sue the fuck out of the movie for possibly claiming that Edie died due to negligence by The Bob. Then this week a gossip item showed up saying Edie was pregnant with Bob’s child at one point – and it was aborted because she was locked up in a mental institution and on so many drugs that the baby would have been a chromosomal disaster. This sort of rumor doesn’t spontaneously generate – the Weinsteins are trying to build buzz for their movie, which has been shooting literally up to the week of release. Harvey supposedly is quite gung ho to get Sienna Miller, who is playing Edie, an Oscar nom.
Now the Weinstein Co has bought Todd Haynes’ not-exactly-a-biopic Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There. Unlike Factory Girl, which foolishly casts Hayden Christensen as a Dylan manqué, Haynes has cast a number of oddball choices to portray the concept of Dylan through different phases of his life. Actors including Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and even Cate Blanchett play Bob at different points.
I guess Haynes was happy with the miserable job Miramax did with his fantastic Velvet Goldmine – you can’t even get a decent fucking DVD of the thing – as opposed to Focus, who treated his Far From Heaven like a precious jewel. Or maybe Focus didn’t want I’m Not There; I’m not privy to the insider maneuvers of buying films. But I do know that the Weinstein Co has been unable to establish itself well, and if Hickenlooper’s rumored experiences are true, Harvey continues to earn his nickname “Harvey Scissorhands.” I don’t want to see this movie fucked with.
I’m Not There will be released along with a soundtrack of artists like Willie Nelson and Yo La Tengo covering Dylan songs. I’m Not There will be out later in 2007 – no specific date is set.