Well, the film is still happening just without Lansbury apparently. Here’s the news on new director:
'Elegy' Director Boards Fantasy Romance 'Age of Adaline' (Exclusive)
Lakeshore Entertainment, Sydney Kimmel Entertainment and Anonymous Content are behind the project, which was once a Katherine Heigl vehicle.
Spanish director Isabel Coixet has signed on to direct The Age of Adaline, a fantasy romance being made by Lakeshore Entertainment, Sydney Kimmel Entertainment and Anonymous Content.
Written by Mills Goodloe and Sal Paskowitz, the film centers on a young woman, born at the turn of 20th century, who is rendered ageless after an accident. After years of a solitary life, she meets a man who might be worth losing her immortality.
The project was at one point a vehicle for Katherine Heigl but the actress is no longer attached. Gabrielle Muccino was also attached to direct.
Coixet is known for her pensive romantic dramas such as 2003’s My Life Without Me, which starred Sarah Polley and Mark Ruffalo, 2005’s Secret Life of Words, with Polley and Tim Robbins, and 2008’s Elegy, which starred Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley.
She also directed The Map Sounds of Tokyo, a thriller featuring a mostly Japanese cast which was not released in the U.S.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elegy-director-Isabel-Coixet-age-of-adaline-324102 Now watch Judi Dench or Shirley MacLaine being cast and getting another Oscar nomination for it. Could have been a really great role for Lansbury, not to mention that it’s quite ironic that after all those years of playing mother to actors her age and wives and mistresses to actors twice her age she would’ve been given a chance to play a daughter to a 30something actress.
I know that she never stopped working (fortunately for us, God bless her), but it’s really surprising that for someone who had such a huge film career (50 films to date) she only made 2 live action films in 27 years (Nanny McPhee (2005), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2012)). Not that it has anything to do with Lansbury, but Judi Dench made 7 films in 2011 alone.
Even though she obviously can afford being choosy it’s not that Lansbury doesn’t want to make films anymore (although she did say that she’ll never do another series) on the contrary, in practically every interview Lansbury expressed desire to play at least one great film role, but I guess she simply not getting any offers. At least on the Broadway she’s the queen, where every produced would love to see her in his show (she was offered the part of Mother Superior in Sister Act, but when she declined they went with 50something Victoria Clark instead of looking for another B’way legend in her 70’s or 80’s).
Lansbury had a chance of returning to the big screen when she was cast in the lead role in Franco Zeffirelli’s Tea with Mussolini (1999), but due to her husband’s illness had to drop out and was replaced by her Taste of Honey co-star Joan Plowright. For that reason she also had to withdraw from TV film David Copperfield, 1999 (replaced by Maggie Smith) and musical The Visit that was supposed to be her Broadway return and was specifically developed for her (Chita Rivera was eventually cast in Lansbury’s role, but it never made to Broadway as intended).
Well, hopefully something will come along before it’s too late. She deserves great roles whether it films, stage, or television.
