Grab Bag: Phil Claydon helming MISERABLE EXCUSE FOR A HERO; Weinsteins set release date for W.E.
Despite having one of the best titled films of recent memory, LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS, director Phil Claydon hasn’t had quite the success one would hope for. However, he’ll get a chance to change that with a brand new project.
Deadline is reporting that Claydon will helm MISERABLE EXCUSE FOR A HERO, for Mandate Pictures. Based on a novel of the same name from Bob Powers, the story follows a waiter who “goes on a date with a girl he kind of likes. The next day, he's awakened by a phone call from kidnappers who tell him they have his girlfriend, and will kill her if he doesn't come up with $50,000 in ransom. Considering he barely knows the girl, he's conflicted.”
While I haven’t read the novel, I do think the logline makes for quite an interesting story, and one that is rather easy to see leaping to the big screen. Claydon is now working on DAN MINTER: BADASS FOR HIRE, so with this one waiting in the wings, expect big things from this up-and-coming filmmaker.
In other news, the Weinstein Company has set a release date for Madonna’s W.E. The film will hit on December 9 in limited release, and will expand from there on out. The film stars Abbie Cornish, and has cemented itself as a late season awards player, even in the face of having a director, Madonna, who hasn’t quite proven herself behind the camera.
Here’s the synopsis:
"W.E. looks at the fabled romance between American Wallis Simpson and Britain’s King Edward VIII, who famously gave up the throne to marry the woman he loved. More than six decades later, their story enthralls a young woman named Wally Winthrop, who thinks she sees in their devotion a stark contrast to her own unhappy marriage – and an example to follow as she searches for the meaning of true love."
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