Biopic News

While director Stephen Frears struggles to get financing for his film about the making of Billy Wilder’s penultimate movie Fedora, he is also awaiting a screenplay by Stephen Beresford for a biopic about Chariots of Fire and Ghandi actor Ian Charleson, who died from AIDS. Charleson asked that the cause of his death be publicised to promote awareness and acceptance of the illness.

Brandon Flynn has been cast as James Dean in Willie and Jimmy Dean. Currently being developed by writer-director Guy Guido, the film is based on William Bast’s 2006 memoir, 'Surviving James Dean', in which the author states the two men became roommates, close friends and eventually lovers. Bast penned the screenplay for the more circumspect 1976 biopic James Dean: Portrait of a Friend.

A biopic of Joan Rivers is currently in development  at Sony’s 3000 Pictures with Natasha Lyonne set to portray the legendary comedienne. Melissa Rivers, Joan’s daughter who previously portrayed her mother in the Jennifer Lawrence movie Joy, will serve as producer. Joan Rivers was also portrayed, albeit briefly, in the Peter Cook / Dudley Moore biopic, Not Only, But Always.