Saturday, December 27, 2008

Grey Gardens Promo

Early in the year I mistakenly assumed that the feature inspired by the classic documentary Grey Gardens was headed for movie theaters. It's going to air as an HBO film. The movie stars Jessica Lange ("Big Edie") and Drew Barrymore ("Little Edie") at their current ages as well as in old age prosthetics. Apparently the narrative structure is closer to the Broadway musical telling (albeit without the songs) which had Act 1 taking place in the mother & daughter's well-heeled past and Act II in their isolated ruins (the familiar time frame of the documentary). Here's the first promo.



We've known for some time that Jessica & Drew weren't headed for the Oscar Best Actress race this year but maybe next years EMMYs will be within their grasp. HBO tends to kill in TV awardage. [news source]

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I knew you would love this. I am the anony. that put the link.

Why did they decided to go for TV? If they release the movie in a few theaters in LA and NY it would be eligible for the oscars, or not?

BTW my name is Paulo

NATHANIEL R said...

thanks Paulo. I would have credited you with the tip but you went "anonymous" originally ;)

Anonymous said...

this so would have been an oscar contender next year not this as actress is far too crowded nice to see langes surgery calming down.

adam k. said...

Unfortunately, Lange's old-age makeup is less than believable. If only she'd let herself look old naturally...

Walter L. Hollmann said...

drew in a drama for HBO: YES! hopefully this will open some eyes, and better roles will come her way. (i love her, but how many times can she play the same role?)

The Pretentious Know it All said...

Oh wow...this is actually kind of shocking news. I think Drew Barrymore is clearly the type of actress I could see the academy embracing once she steps even a foot outside her comfort zone.

Matt Sigl said...

Seems to me they are shamelessly ripping off the structure of the stage show for this movie. No one will ever mach Ebersole as Little Edie. Ever. Notice they showed nary a second of Barrymore's performance as the iconic, uniquely attired Little Edie. Perhaps HBO doesn't like what it sees (as I feared from the start when I heard about the casting.) Still, I'm TIVO-ing that shit!

Anonymous said...

amazing story. i saw the musical about 2 weeks before it closed.

Anonymous said...

I remember when Drew Barrymore tried to do drama in Riding in Cars With Boys and she was just awful.

Anonymous said...

That looks excellent. I guess we'll never get "Grey Gardens: The Musical" on film now, but this could get some serious Emmy love for Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange.

par3182 said...

golden globe love, more likely

Anonymous said...

Jessica Lange is brilliance personified!

NATHANIEL R said...

I'm sad that the grey gardens feature isn't a musical adaptation. The casting would have to be different of course (Drew was even dubbed for that woody allen musical which wsan't about good voices) but i really liked that musical. And Ebersole was dynamite as Little Edie