Rabbit Hole the Movie?

I'm going to one of the press previews of SHREK. I'll ask David Lindsay-Abaire, assuming he's in the audience.

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Yeah Kidman bought the rights and was going to produce it through her own production company for her to star in.
Sucks since I would have loved to see Cynthia Nixon star in an HBO made-for-TV film.

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I agree that Nixon is brilliant, but how can you call an actor who has two Emmys and a Tony underrated?

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Hahahaha^

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I'm sick of Kidman's clunkers, but actually think she's very right for this, and will probably act the hell out of it. The problem with the film -- it's a very talky affaire, sort of a throwback to the old Playhouse 90 style. Not much to put on screen that's visual, and how many harrowing flashbacks of a dead little boy can you insert?

Remember the novel DEEP END OF THE OCEAN? Everyone thought that domestic drama would make a terrific vehicle for Michelle Pfeiffer, and it was a soapy Lifetime movie that strained credibility at every turn. I fear RABBIT HOLE could end up too much like that if care isn't taken.

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While I think Nicole Kidman is all wrong for Becca (her icy air of cool composure robs the character of the innate vulnerability that makes her so crucially relatable,) her involvement is probably the sole reason the film would ever get made.

Keep in mind that while she has certainly gained significant notoriety from SEX AND THE CITY, in the eyes of Hollywood studios, Cynthia Nixon is nowhere near enough of a proven box office draw to anchor a movie (her feature film work is extremely limited, with her credits coming mostly from theater and television.)

And even if a studio was willing to greenlight her involvement, I imagine that David Lindsay-Abaire would consciously not want to use Nixon anyway in order to create a purposeful divide between the stage version and the film adaptation, much the same reason John Patrick Shanley did not want to include Cherry Jones in the DOUBT film.

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You're missing the point of the comparison, ColorTheHours048.

Cherry Jones wasn't not cast in the DOUBT film because of her lack of celebrity. John Patrick Shanley hand picked all of the leads himself and could have cast her if he wanted to, since he worked casting approval into his contract with the studio.

Instead, he made the deliberate decision not to use anyone from the stage version of the show because all of those actors were cast by Doug Hughes. The only way for him to successfully direct a film adaptation, he believed, was to cast actors he himself chose (all of which he explained in a letter to Jones just before Streep's involvement was announced.)

I imagine that Lindsay-Abaire would have similar feelings (though he isn't directing the film version of RABBIT HOLE, he too has casting approval.)

Even so, I think you're giving Nixon a lot more credit in terms of notoriety than her resume allots. Miranda Hobbs being famous and Cynthia Nixon being famous are two very different things. She's certainly not a shrinking violet, but Nixon has hardly "made enough of a name for herself" to be a bankable film lead, as you suggested earlier.

Besides a hand full of independent movies and some plumb guest appearances in several popular television series outside of SEX AND THE CITY, she is still (by choice) very much a stage actress.

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Updated On: 12/1/08 at 03:33 PM

Regardless, I don't think I would see the movie if Nicole is Becca. Which is a tragedy since it's one of my favorite plays.