Anna Paquin a lifesaver in "Sendler Story" for CBS
By Kimberly Nordyke
Tue Oct 14, 8:15 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Oscar winner Anna Paquin will play a Holocaust heroine in "The Irena Sendler Story," a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for CBS.

Sendler, a Polish woman credited with saving the lives of thousands of Jewish children during World War II, died in May at age 98.

The film goes into production next month in Latvia, for an April premiere. It is based on the book "Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story," by Anna Mieszkowska.

Paquin co-stars on HBO's vampire drama "True Blood," which was recently picked up for a second season. She won an Oscar for her supporting role in "The Piano."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

February 26, 2007

Paquin finds 'True' calling for Ball, HBO
By Nellie Andreeva

Feb 26, 2007

Oscar winner Anna Paquin is making her first foray into series television as the lead in "True Blood," Alan Ball's drama pilot for HBO.

Ryan Kwanten and Sam Trammell have also been cast in the project, which Ball wrote and is set to direct and executive produce.

Based on the "Southern Vampire" book series by Charlaine Harris, "True Blood" takes place in a world in which vampires can buy Japanese-made synthetic blood. Their integration into a small Louisiana town causes quite a stir, and a love story ensues between a vampire and Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin), an innocent waitress who can read people's minds.

Kwanten will play the waitress' brother. Trammell will play the owner of the restaurant where she works.

Paquin's upcoming credits include the films "Margaret" and "Blue State" as well as HBO's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." She also has appeared in the "X-Men" film trilogy, "The Squid and the Whale," "Almost Famous" and "The Piano," the latter of which earned her a supporting actress Oscar in 1994.

Paquin is repped by WMA and Brillstein-Grey Entertainment.

Kwanten, who co-starred on WB Network's "Summerland," next appears in the film "Dead Silence." Other recent credits include the film "Flicka."

Trammell next appears in the Lifetime original movie "What If God Were the Sun?"

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

January 10, 2007

Stan Lee and Anna Paquin, together again in 'Mosaic'
Posted by Rob M. Worley
On Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Anna Paquin of X-Men brings another of Stan Lee's fantastic characters to life in the animated feature film Stan Lee: Presents Mosaic.

The new release, from Anchor Bay Entertainment, is now stores

Maggie Nelson (voiced by Academy Award® winner Anna Paquin of THE PIANO and X-MEN fame) is a student at the High School Of Dramatic Arts and a rising star of the New York stage. But when she is caught between a freak electrical storm and a mysterious rune stone, Maggie discovers that she has the uncanny ability to shape-shift like a chameleon. Now Maggie must stop the plot of an alchemic madman from an ancient race that walk hidden among us. Why has her Interpol agent father been abducted? What can a sexy teenage actress dare to do with the powers of DNA replication? And will the world’s most unlikely new superhero save the day without flunking her midterms? Kirby Morrow (STARGATE: ATLANTIS) co-stars as the voice of Maggie’s secret mentor in this all-new superhero phenomenon written by SSccott LLobdell (award-winning writer of Marvel’s X-MEN) from a spectacular story by Executive Producer and comic book legend Stan Lee!

http://www.comics2film.com/StoryFrame.php?f_id=23976

September 8, 2006

Oscar winner Anna Paquin is set to star opposite Aidan Quinn in the HBO movie "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," which chronicles how American Indians were displaced as the U.S. expanded westward during the latter half of the 19th century, said the Hollywood Reporter.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/449972p-378737c.html

April 6, 2006

Anna Paquin moves to "Blue State"
POSTED ON 04/05/06 AT 9:00 A.M.
BY ETHAN AAMES

Variety reports that Anna Paquin will star in the romantic comedy "Blue State" along with Breckin Meyer. Marshall Lewy will direct the independent film based on his own script. Anna will executive produce while her brother, Andrew Paquin, will produce under their Paquin Films production company.

The movie will tell of a young, idealistic Democrat who follows through on a promise to move to Canada if George W. Bush is re-elected.

http://www.cinecon.com/news.php?id=0604055

August 23, 2005

Damon & Paquin Find "Margaret"
Posted: Tuesday August 23rd, 2005 4:03pm
Source: Variety
Author: Garth Franklin

Fox Searchlight and Camelot Pictures are co-financing "Margaret," a Kenneth Lonergan-directed drama that begins filming next month in New York. Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron and Jeannie Berlin are all currently firming up deals to star according to Variety.

The drama revolves around a teen, her actress mother and the girl who tries to make amends for her complicity in a terrible traffic accident. Lonergan wrote the script for "Margaret" and has worked for two years with the producers to pull it together.

Scott Rudin and Sydney Pollack will produce, Anthony Minghella and Dan Halsted will executive produce and Fox Searchlight will distribute. Its not sure how the filming will fit into Paquin & Damon's schedules with them currently filming "X3" and "The Good Shepherd" respectively.

Thanks to 'Nick'.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/050823b.php

November 29, 2004

Helmer, cast join 'Ashley'

Mon Nov 29, 3:18 PM ET Theater News - Variety

Robert Hofler, STAFF

(Variety) - Terry Kinney will direct Anna Paquin, Kieran Culkin and Tim Hopper in "After Ashley" at the Vineyard Theater.

Gina Gionfriddo's black comedy looks at the media exploitation of one family's tragedy. The play has been much touted since its preem earlier this year at the Humana Festival in Louisville, Ky. It will open in February.

October 29, 2004

U.S. to get THE DARK for Christmas

Just the other day (i.e. here), we told you that Jaume Balaguerós THE DARK (a.k.a. DARKNESS) had seen its U.S. trailer posted on-line (and you can see it here), but a release date was unclear. Now Variety reports that Dimension has slotted the long-delayed chiller for nationwide release Saturday, December 25, 2004. No doubt the studio is hoping to repeat the success of SCREAM, which became a sleeper smash when it opened around Christmastime 1996, but THE DARK (which was originally supposed to open this past June) faces competition from five other wide releases debuting that weekend, including Joel Schumacher's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. We'll let you know if anything changes (again). --Michael Gingold

http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=3029

March 17, 2004

Academy Award winner Anna Paquin ("The Piano"), currently playing Off-Broadway in Roulette, and original London cast member Mark Webber, lead the cast of the upcoming MCC Theatre staging of Neil LaBute's The Distance From Here.

Michael Greif (Rent, Never Gonna Dance) directs the American premiere of the work set to begin at The Duke on 42nd Street, April 14 and open May 6.

Amelia Alvarez (The Laramie Project), Ian Brennan (Juvenilia), Josh Charles ("Dead Poets Society," "Sports Night"), Melissa Leo ("21 Grams"), Logan Marshall-Green (The Rainmaker) and Alison Pill ("Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen") will also star in the work.

LaBute's The Distance From Here, which had its world premiere at London's Almeida, centers on a teen-aged slacker and his struggle with the discord in his family life: a mother who doesn't remember his childhood, a stepsister who wants to become sexually involved with him, and the boyfriend of his mother who is sleeping with his stepsister.

Distance was scheduled for last season but was replaced by the more timely The Mercy Seat as part of MCC's 2002-2003 season. MCC also recently presented Autobahn ?a one-night benefit of five one-acts by LaBute.

Greif's other credits include Machinal, A Bright Room Called Day, Casanova, Marisol, Pericles, Dogeaters and Fuckin' A ?all at the Public Theatre. The former La Jolla Playhouse artistic director also helmed Bright Lights Big City (NYTW), Monster (Classic Stage Company), A Few Stout Individuals (Signature Theatre), Betty Rules (Zipper Theatre) and Cavedweller (NYTW).

Playwright LaBute is known for his gritty dramas, which include The Shape of Things, bash: latter-day plays and his film work including "In the Company of Men," "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "Nurse Betty."

The design team for Distance features Louisa Thompson (sets), Angela Wendt (costumes), James Vermuelen (lights) and Robert Kaplowitz (sound) ?who also provides additional music. Rick Sordelet handles fight direction.

Tickets to The Distance From Here at The Duke, 229 West 42nd Street, go on sale March 22 through (212) 239-6200. For more information on MCC, visit www.mcctheater.com.

June 16, 2003

Anna Paquin Reads Drug Buddy for MTC's 6@6 Series June 16
By Kenneth Jones
16 Jun 2003

Anna Paquin is featured in the June 16 Manhattan Theatre Club reading of Drug Buddy, by David Folwell, as part of MTC's 6@6 series of rehearsed readings.

Will Frears directs the Academy Award-winning actress, who snagged her Oscar for The Piano. She also appeared in the two X-Men pictures and starred Off-Broadway in Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living.

The play is billed this way: "On a long Texas night, awaking from what seems like a nightmare, dropout Wade ponders cliff diving, parents and the future."

The Drug Buddy reading cast also includes Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Shane McRae and Matthew Stadelmann.

Each reading of the open-to-the-public series takes place on a Monday night at 6 PM on the 8th floor of Manhattan Theatre Club's Creative Center, 311 W. 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.

To RSVP, please call (212) 399-3000 ext. 163.

June 11, 2003

Anna Paquin Cast in Cape Cod Reading of Manuscript
By Robert Simonson
11 Jun 2003

Oscar winner Anna Paquin will star in the first 2003 offering of The Cape Cod Theatre Project, the nine-year-old summer theatre festival which quickly and briefly offers three polished readings of new works each July.

She will star with Jeffrey Carlson (The Goat on Broadway) and Rick Wasserman in Manuscript by Paul Grellong. Paquin, who will play a precocious Ivy-League Freshman in the drama, won her Oscar for The Piano. She starred Off-Broadway in the New York premiere of Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living.

CCTP is stationed in Falmouth in the southwest corner of Cape Cod, and performs out of The Falmouth Academy, a private school, and the nearby Woods Hole Community Hall, an old Cape Cod-style shingled construction just off the water. Though the company never stages full productions and makes no bones about its plays being in a state of development, the season has become quite popular with the local populace.

The season is as follows:

Manuscript by Paul Grellong
Directed by Ethan McSweeny
July 10, 11, 12
The Falmouth Academy

Bay Windows and Shades by Joe Hortua
Directed by Marshall Mason
July 17, 18, 19
The Woods Hole Community Hall

While We Were Bowling by Carter Lewis
Directed by Gavin Cameron-Webb
July 24, 25, 26
The Falmouth Academy

Performances are at 8 PM. Call (508) 457-4242.

*

CCTP was founded by artistic director Andrew Polk and Jim Bracchiatta. CCTP workshops which went on to full productions include Vogel's The Mineola Twins (at the Roundabout Theatre Company), Ben Bettenbender's Vick's Boy (at Off Broadway's Rattlestick Theatre Company) and David Schulner's The Infinite Ache (at Long Wharf Theatre).

May 20

Kayden, Paquin, Pitre, Bohon Land Theatre World Awards
Mon May 20, 5:20 PM ET
Andrew Ku, Playbill On-Line

Theatre World, the annual publication edited by John Willis, announced the winners of its self-titled awards honoring performers who have graced the New York stage for the first time during the 2001-2002 season. The awards will be presented on June 3 at Studio 54.

The selection committee for the awards was comprised of Peter Filichia (The Newark Star-Ledger), Clive Barnes (The New York Post), Harry Haun (Playbill), Frank Scheck (The Hollywood Reporter), Michael Sommers (The Newark Star-Ledger), Doug Watt (The New York Daily News) and Linda Winer (New York Newsday).

The winners are:

Emma Fielding - Private Lives
Spencer Kayden - Urinetown
Gretchen Mol - The Shape of Things
Anna Paquin - The Glory of Living
Louise Pitre - Mamma Mia!
Rachel Weisz, The Shape of Things
Justin Bohon - Oklahoma!
Simon Callow - The Mystery of Charles Dickens
Mos Def - Topdog/Underdog
Adam Godley - Private Lives
Martin Jarvis - By Jeeves
David Warner - Major Barbara

May 7

Paquin clocks in late for Dis' 'Hour'
May 07, 2002

Anna Paquin has joined the cast of the Spike Lee-directed drama The 25th Hour for the Walt Disney Co., only a week before the film is scheduled to start shooting. An Industry Entertainment production, Hour depicts the last day of freedom for a young man (Edward Norton) before he begins serving a seven-year jail term for dealing drugs. In addition to Paquin (who will play teenager Mary D'Annunzio) and Norton, the cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosario Dawson, Barry Pepper and Brian Cox. Best known for her work in such films as X-Men and Almost Famous, Paquin also will be seen in Fox's upcoming X-Men sequel X2, the Dimension Films horror pic Darkness and the Miramax historical drama Buffalo Soldiers. The actress, who won an Oscar for her supporting turn in 1993's The Piano, is repped by WMA and Artists Management Group. (Josh Spector)

HollyWood Reporter

Jan 22

NEW YORK (Variety) - Jake Gyllenhaal, Hayden Christensen and Anna Paquin have been set to star on the London stage in This Is Our Youth, a revival of a play by Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me).

The trio will be in previews beginning late February for a play that will run eight weeks in the West End. Gyllenhaal and Christensen play rich kids who spend a decadent weekend stealing, dealing and consuming drugs.

Lonergan's play, which focuses on the spoiled slacker generation of the 1980s, was first performed in 1996 by the New Group.

Laurence Boswell is directing. Phil Cameron and Out of the Blue Prods. are producing. It is unclear whether the play will be brought to the U.S. given the thesps' busy movie schedules.

Christensen, who was Golden Globe-nominated for his role in Life as a House, will next be seen playing the role of a young adult Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars -- Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Gyllenhaal, who was first noticed for the Joe Johnston-directed October Sky, received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Donnie Darko and stars with Jennifer Aniston in the Sundance Festival film The Good Girl, just acquired by Fox Searchlight. He recently wrapped the Brad Silberling-directed Goodbye Hello, opposite Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon, for Disney. Paquin, meanwhile, will be off to reprise her role in Fox's X-Men sequel.

Reuters/Variety

Sep 28

September 28, 2001
New York Times

The heroines of Rebecca Gilman's plays are an unlucky and complicated lot, prone to be stalked (as in last spring's Boy Gets Girl) or enmeshing themselves in tricky issues of race and prejudice (as in Spinning Into Butter).

The lead character in her early play The Glory of Living is no exception: a neglected teenager who helps abduct a hitchhiker.

It is, in short, just the kind of character made for the precociously talented Anna Paquin, 19. Beginning on Tuesday, Ms. Paquin will be in rehearsals for The Glory of Living, which begins performances on Oct. 30, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, who recently appeared in The Seagull in Central Park, directing it for the MCC Theater on West 28th Street.

It is Ms. Paquin's first go at stage acting. "I'm casting myself into the deep end," she said. "I hope I'll be as quick a study for this as most things I've tried to do in my life."

Those things include, of course, her Academy Award-winning role in the 1993 film The Piano, playing a nymphlike child, and a dozen films since, often playing the touched and troubled.

She says that's no reflection on her.

"I don't think it's anything in my own life," she said. "Maybe it's a fascination of getting into the head of someone who is so completely different from myself."

Click here for more info.

Apr 14

"Darkness" falls on Paquin

Young actress Anna Paquin has agreed to star in Spanish studio Filmax's drama, The Darkness. Dimension Films will distribute the film in the United States and other English-speaking territories.

Paquin, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her turn in Jane Campion's The Piano, will play a young woman who moves with her family to a remote house in the countryside, only to see her family ripped apart by the house's horrifying past.

She recently co-starred in last year's summer blockbuster X-Men and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous.

Click here for more info.

Oct 16

Monday October 16 03:10 AM EDT

FilmFour/Odeon recruits Paquin for Soldiers

By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Anna Paquin is in negotiations to star in FilmFour/Odeon Film's dark comedy Buffalo Soldiers for screenwriter-director Gregor Jordan. She would join Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Harris in the $15 million-budgeted film, which is slated to begin shooting Nov. 3 in Germany.

Based on Robert O'Connor's cult novel of the same name, the story deals with a criminal subculture among a group of young U.S. soldiers in West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The film version centers on an Army clerk (Phoenix) who uses his street smarts to swing deals and manipulate the system to create a relaxed atmosphere in which to spend his two-year military stint. Unbeknownst to him, Army investigators operating through his enemy, Sgt. Lee, are zeroing on him. Meanwhile, the clerk is falling in love with Lee's daughter (Paquin). Harris will play the role of Col. Berman, while the role of Lee has yet to be cast.

FilmFour, the stand-alone film company of U.K. broadcaster Channel 4, is co-financing the project with German production, distribution and financing company Odeon Film.

Germany's Gorilla Entertainment, headed by Rainer Grupe, will co-produce the film with Odeon Film chairman Reinhard Kloos and New York-based Good Machine's James Schamus.

Paquin, repped by WMA and Artists Management Group, won a best supporting Oscar for her role in The Piano. She starred in 20th Century Fox's summer hit X-Men and is onscreen in DreamWorks' Almost Famous.

Hollywood Reporter Online

Oct 4

Tuesday October 3 3:51 AM ET

Tom Green's being wooed to star in ``Manchild,'' a comedy in which a 35-year-old midget poses as a 12-year-old, and New Line's eyeing a greenlight for ``Zig Zag,'' a pic David Goyer wrote and will direct about a 15-year-old retarded boy who steals $9,000 from his boss, to give to his abusive father. Neighborhood types try to help him get the money back before the boss notices. Wesley Snipes is being sought to play the abusive father, with John Leguizamo and Anna Paquin courted for key roles.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

April 26

Hallo hallo,

What a beautiful Anna Paquin site you have !

Name is Sjon and I've a good friend who's cousins with an up-and-coming actor called Alan Tudyk, who I've come to have a rather fine time being a fan of. And I just recently found a wee piece on him from Jam!Showbiz which makes mention of his next film, which is said will feature Anna Paquin.

"Tudyk is off to Romania to film Knight Tale with Anna Paquin, a comedy set in the 14th century."

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistsT/tudyk_alan.html

The film, written and directed by Brian Helgeland, is actually titled A Knight's Tale, according to Tudyk himself, and info on the cast has been terribly hard to come by, but I would love for this to be true that Tudyk should be in a film with Paquin !

So I searched many a Paquin site for to see if there might be any mention of this film, set to begin shooting on 08 March in either (or both ?) the Czech Republic or Romania, but found none. I did however find your lovely site and thought I'd write to both congratulate you on a fine site and mention this new info which I'm hoping will prove true.

I'll keep an eye on your site for incase you find any further info on this piece, and I'll keep you posted on any info I might find if you would like.

For now, good day :)
Sjon

March 17

Friday March 17 5:21 AM ET

Academy Award Winners Find 'Forrester' Roles

By Dan Cox

NEW YORK (Variety) - Seventeen-year-old Piano prodigy Anna Paquin has joined fellow Oscar winners Sean Connery and F. Murray Abraham in Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester.

Paquin will play the inter-racial love interest of a black high school basketball star/boy genius (Robert Brown). The Columbia Pictures project is about Brown's prep school relationship with Paquin and an older J.D. Salinger-type writer (Connery) who has never written a follow-up to his acclaimed first novel.

Paquin is appearing in X-Men in July and the upcoming untitled Cameron Crowe film. She won a supporting actress Oscar at age 11 for her role opposite Holly Hunter in 1993's The Piano Connery won his for The Untouchables and Abraham his for Amadeus.

November 12

From Coming Attractions:

November 10, 1999... Cameron Crowe's been keeping a low profile, working hard on assembling everything he's shot to edit together a working version of his still-untitled movie. Earlier reports said Crowe was favoring naming his latest picture, a semi-autobiographical tale about a young, wide-eyed rock-and-roll reporter doing a story about a 70s rock group, after the fictional band seen in the movie (Stillwater.)

Our latest scooper has arrived to not only say Crowe isn't thinking of calling his movie 'Stillwater' but that they've actually seen a working print of Crowe's top secret film! The good news for Crowe's fans is that our reader loved what they saw...

"Tonight I had the opportunity to see a very early copy of the long version of Untitled Cameron Crowe which according to my source is NOT called Stillwater. They are still awaiting the director to deliver the title, but the trailer people are working on the trailer for the Christmas season. It is a good time for movies, if they are finiancing movies like this and Magnolia which I also saw and is also amazing. The movie is very funny, very emotional, and jam-packed with performances that will make stars out of (in this order) Kate Hudson (who has the juiciest part as a groupie), Billy Crudup (who plays the guitarist in Stillwater), the kid who plays Crowe as a boy journalist, and Jimmy Fallon from SNL who just about steals every scene he is in. There is a scene that takes place at a party in Topeka, where Billy Crudup takes acid, and it will make him a star. Jason Lee is excellent as the band's lead singer. Bravo to Crowe who did not cast famous actors, and gets them all to be real and fresh.

"The movie is set in 1973, and there are many jokes where people predict the future and their predictions are hilarious considering what happened later. Crowe is obviously a fan of Led Zeppelin because the thing is filled with Zep (and Pink Floyd). I hope they use this music in the finished movie. Great movie."

['Studio 57' was somewhere on DreamWorks' lot recently.]

October 19

Swain Signs To Top 'Tart'

Reuters Photo

By Vanessa Torres

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Teen-ager Dominique Swain, who starred in the 1997 remake of ``Lolita,'' is set to play a precocious denizen of New York's 1980s club scene in the dark coming-of-age drama Tart.

She replaces Anna Paquin, who backed out to play a high schooler with psychic powers in Bryan Singer's X-Men.

Bijou Phillips (Sugar Town), Brad Renfro (Apt Pupil) and Mischa Barton (Lawn Dogs) will play the private school girl's tony pals; Melanie Griffith, whose company is producing, will make a cameo appearance. Alberta Watson (Spanking the Monkey) is also in talks to join the cast.

Rookie director Christina Wayne is shooting from her own script. Filming is set to begin mid-November in New York and Toronto.

Swain's feature credits include Face/Off, Girl and the upcoming Happy Campers with Renfro.

June 21

Anna Paquin Suits Up For 'X-Men'

By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - Anna Paquin, the Oscar-winning child star of The Piano, has joined the cast of X-Men, the Bryan Singer-directed feature adaptation of the best-selling Marvel Comics franchise.

Paquin will play Rogue, a high school girl with psychic powers who is recruited by the X-Men to help fight their archenemy, Magneto. Among Rogue's attributes is the ability to absorb the powers of anyone she has contact with.

Paquin joins Dougray Scott, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the 20th Century Fox film, which was scripted by Ed Solomon and Chris McQuarrie; shooting begins in September.

Paquin is currently at work on Cameron Crowe's untitled music film for DreamWorks, and will next appear opposite Giovanni Ribisi in All the Rage. Paquin was just seen in the Tony Goldwyn-directed A Walk on the Moon, starring Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen.

April 22

Mr Showbiz News - Oscar winner Anna Paquin will star in Tart, to be produced by Melanie Griffith and hubby Antonio Banderas. The plot focuses on Paquin, a rich girl from New York's Upper East Side who discovers the world of night clubs, sex, and drugs in the 1980s, The Hollywood Reporter says. Griffith will also join the cast.

February 17

From Greg:

I saw the preview to A Walk on the Moon three times over the weekend when I went to see Tango. Anna's age is more that of her Fly Away Home character then of those of the new films. It appears curiously out of date because she is so young looking. Of further note, she narrated the entire preview.

Also, this preview is circulating in front of a lot of the Miramax movies here in the US. I'm thinking right now of Playing By Heart and Shakespere in Love.

February 12

PITT, PAQUIN TALK TURKEY WITH CROWE

By Chris Petrikin and Andrew Hindes

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - With dates now in sync, Brad Pitt is in talks to join director Cameron Crowe's untitled '70s period piece at DreamWorks.

Anna Paquin, fresh off raves for her recent roles in Hurlyburly and She's All That, has come aboard to play Polexia in the project, which is now set for a late April start.

Sarah Polley (The Sweet Hereafter), who was at one time set for a key role, dropped out of the project when a scheduling conflict arose after the production was postponed. Sources said that Natalie Portman, who co-stars in Fox's upcoming Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace, has been mentioned as the filmmakers' top choice to replace Polley.

The filmmakers pushed the production back a month in order to fine-tune the script and leave time for a lengthy rehearsal period for the ensemble piece.

Crowe's quasi-autobiographical picture is told from the point of view of an as-yet uncast highschooler, who is given the chance to write a story about an up-and-coming rock band, whose frontman would be played by Pitt.

With Pitt's inclusion closer to reality, Crowe now is said to be eyeing Meryl Streep for the role of the schoolboy journo's mother.

Pitt, whose recent credits include Meet Joe Black and Seven Years in Tibet, is understood to be circling Warner Bros.' rock 'n' roll project Metal God, which is based on a true story about a traveling salesman from Ohio who triumphed over his lowly status by playing in a Judas Priest cover band.

Reuters/Variety

February 01

A Walk on The Moon opens April 2 in Los Angeles and New York.

January 01

From Matt Periolat:

Over the Moon is going to be screened at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival in Jan. Also, it's on it's THIRD title. Now called A Walk on The Moon.

October 22

SCRIBE AT THE HELM:

Practical Magic's co-scripter Robin Swicord has written a number of scripts for women and kid audiences, including Little Women and Matilda(the Roald Dahl novel she adapted with husband Nick Kazan). Now, Swicord's ready to make her feature directing debut on Thing of Beauty.

The pic was originally set up at Paramount, but Swicord's got it back and is working with producer Gene Kirkwood to finalize financing. "It's geared for the female audience and takes a hard look at the contemporary modeling business and what it is to be literally seen as an object," said Swicord, who has Anna Paquin ready to play one of the young models.

"Two teen models struggle to make it and form a friendship, and it's all about the sacrifices and what it is to lose your soul to success. I was in New York, following models who were 12 and 13 year old, dressed up like women and going on meetings themselves. As a parent, it makes you gasp." Swicord has brought in veteran casting director Bonnie Timmerman to ready the choices for the other lead roles.

While she waits for that pic's financing to crystallize, Swicord has several scripts pending. They include Benjamin Button, about a man born old who ages backward, which she's writing for Ron Howard, possibly as a John Travolta vehicle. Swicord's also collaborating with hubby Kazan on another Dahl adaptation, The BFG. That book, a classic tale about giants, is for producer Kathleen Kennedy, with the hope that Robin Williams will play the title character, the big friendly giant.

Variety