A script that Robin Swicord (Practical Magic) wrote nine years ago – The Curious Case of
Benjamin Buttons, based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a man who is born old and ages
backward to infancy – is now in development with Ron Howard, and Swicord is also working
on a modern-day film version of the ‘60s TV show I Dream of Jeannie. “When [Jeannie] came
out, it was a snapshot of where women were, coming out of their bottles, still here to serve –
and this is going to be a snapshot of where women are now.” Meanwhile, the screenwriter is
about to get her feature directing debut, Thing of Beauty – about a young girl trying to break
into modeling – off the ground. “I’ve been wanting to get to that next stage for quite a while,
but writing work intervenes,” she says. “I hope I can make it all come true.”
When Michelle Pfeiffer starred in Twelfth Night in New York’s Central Park in 1989, she recalls,
“On the way to work every day, I prayed that I would get hit by a taxi so I wouldn’t have to
go onstage.” No such anxieties this time around, as she plays Titania, queen of the fairies, in
the film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, costarring Kevin Kline, Rupert Everett, and
Ally McBeal’s Calista Flockhart, and directed by Michael Hoffman (Soapdish). “It wasn’t
easy by any means, but I enjoyed it more,” says the actress, who had a coach from Julliard to
help with Shakespeare’s language and poetry….The Sweet Hereafter’s Sarah Polley plays a
college grad who falls for a world-weary photographer (Stephen Rea) roughly 30 years her
senior in Guinevere, the directorial debut of screenwriter Audrey Wells (The Truth About Cats
and Dogs). “It’s an older man – younger woman story like you’ve never seen before,”
promises Wells.