(Please) Try, Just a Little Bit Harder

I typically don't choose to write about movies that aren't made yet for the obvious reason that one really doesn't know anything what will happen.  Also because so many times, the movies themselves don't even get made in the end.  But after doing light online reading, something came up interesting-- the long-gestating biography film of Janis Joplin.  Movieline does a fine job revisiting various projects and the seemingly endless casting choices, which range from the interesting like Melissa Etheridge. Lily Taylor and Pink, to the maudlin like Renee Zellweger, to the absurb, like Vanessa Hudgens.  The newest member to that list, which according to producers Wyck Godfrey (The Twilight Saga), will get made under the direction of Fernando Mierelles, is Amy Adams.

I'm not particularly a biopic lover by any stretch of the imagination (I like the eventive ones for sure like Kinsey and I'm Not There, and a few of the reverent ones, like Milk, but the greatest hits of life story typically don't satisfy- tangent), but I'm kind of psyched about this, if it gets made at all.  Mierelles is a superbly capable filmmaker, wonderful at setting mood and tone (as evident in City of God and The Constant Gardener), and as long as his visual palette doesn't go into overload (Blindness), it might just work.  He's never made a bad movie (though many think Blindness is a dud, I think it's a misjudged misfire), and seems very good with actors-- Rachel Weisz did win the Oscar for Gardener.

The question of Adams is a bit trickier but I think it could work, especially if the she can let go of her adorable cuteness.  Enchanted proved she can carry a tune; I don't know if that translates into rock, but could you imagine Zellweger.  I'll be willing to bet if she pulls it off she'll win the Oscar.  Think about-- pretty girl de-glamed, biopic, singing, drugs, death-- on top of the fact that the Academy already has an affinity for her, as evident by nominations from Junebug and Doubt; if the performance is there, slam dunk!

I'm getting ahead of myself, but as a fan of Joplin, I hope this works.  The great raspy, throaty singer deserves it.