Some days, the news just kinda shapes up in a particular paradigm. Today, it seems to be women from acclaimed sci-fi TV shows with frustrating extended narratives trying to nurture an onscreen career. First, was Evangeline Lilly. Now, it’s Gillian Anderson. For American audiences, Anderson all but disappeared after the lengthy run of The X Files TV show and the ensuing feature film. Of course, that was a result of both her disdain for fame and her 2002 move to England, where she got remarried and is now raising a daughter. And like a lot of actors who flee the country for quieter, saner lives of lower-key work, she has no intention of going back. She is, however, going to step once again into an onscreen starring role.
Helen, in which Anderson would grab the eponymous role, is the story of a talented professor who is brought low when she comes to grips with clinical depression. The film is actually courtesy of our friends, das Krauts, rather than England. It marks the English-language debut of German writer-director Sandra Nettelbeck, who had previously done lighter flicks including the one that served as the basis for the upcoming Aaron Eckhart/Catherine Zeta-Jones flick No Reservations (Man, I felt sorry for the two of them as they forced to promote this at the uber-lame Food Network Awards last night. Still, they got the only worthwhile moment of the show as they gave a culinary institute scholarship to a truly deserving kid).
But just when you thought the globetrotting was over, the movie is actually scheduled to be shot in the US. On Bavarian cameras. With Greek craft services. Who’ll be serving French-cut green beans. Sorry.