But there’s still hope for fans who dreamed of seeing Streisand in a movie version of The Normal Heart. The Oscar winner says she would consider playing Brookner in Glee creator Ryan Murphy’s planned adaptation starring Mark Ruffalo, although it would be difficult for her to let go of her creative vision for the movie. “If I could direct it today, I would direct it today,” Streisand says. “Because it’s been very hard for me to find a piece that I feel as passionate about. I mean, I love this play.”Updated On: 5/7/11 at 02:44 PM
Both Kramer and Streisand are histrionic people with huge egos. It's hardly a surprise that they had trouble working together. Streisand might have done an honorable job by the play, but we'll never know. And, frankly, I'm going to take what both of them have to say here with a grain of salt.
As for Streisand playing Emma in the current film version that's in development, I don't think it's a great idea. She's 25-30 years older than Dr. Linda Laubenstein, the basis for the character, ever lived to be. Emma is described as being in her late thirties. Barkin can play younger, Streisand really can't.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I can't imagine she'll be cast. I wonder if Murphy will try to cast Gwyneth Paltrow in it given their recent collaboration (and their failed one, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS). I'm really curious to see if the movie really does happen. I wonder how much of this is true. I can so see Streisand trying to beef up her role, but as others have said Kramer is also known for his ego. Who's the star that denied Streisand's offer to play Ned? Joel Grey?
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
My guess would be Richard Dreyfuss or Martin Sheen.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I don't know that I'm interested in seeing Streisand directing but I do think she's a much more competent director than Ryan Murphy, whose films EAT PRAY LOVE and especially RUNNING WITH SCISSORS show really poor storytelling skills and a complete inability to put together something with depth, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS was particularly unwatchable. I really hope he doesn't ruin this like he did with those other two adaptations.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
When Kramer first tried to get the film made without Streisand in the mid-nineties, he was taking it to studios with Annette Bening (who would be fantastic) attached to play Emma.
Given her history working with Ryan Murphy on RUNNING WITH SCISSORS and Mark Ruffalo on THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she winds up involved again with this incarnation.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Is there any reason why they couldn't/wouldn't go back to Glenn Close, who by all accounts was oustanding in the reading (which I didn't get to see, regrettably)?
I don't see why a film version even needs to be discussed now. What's on stage at the Golden should be filmed and released theatrically. I find it hard to believe anything will come close to being as good or as powerful as that.
adamgreer, like I said, given Bening's previous history with both the project and everyone involved this time around, I think her casting is almost a certainty. That being said, I'm sure Close would be on a shortlist of candidates for any director given her involvement with the material so recently.
Personally, while I thought she was great in the reading, I find Close to lack a bit of the dynamic quality required for an ideal Emma (I had the same problem with Joanna Gleason in the revival at The Public.) I can't think of any Hollywood types fitting the role as well as Bening would.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Bening sounds like a fantastic choice and we already know she has a really interesting chemistry with Mark Ruffalo on screen. Again, my only worry is Murphy. Someone on ATC said that it's going to be a challenge for him to direct it without making it a Lifetime Movie of the Week and I kind of agree.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Ryan Murphy is one of the last people I want touching this. I'd rather it not happen at all than Murphy direct it. I think he's about two very small notches above incompetent.
If Ryan Murphy becomes involved in this project I will cry. His work has an amateur quality to it, and he doesn't know how to finish a story. Nip/Tuck went off the rails, and I'm sure Glee isn't far behind.
Glee has pretty much gone off the rails already to be honest...they've lost probably every single story thread that existed on the show previously without any of it being tied up or really fully finished.
Ryan Murphy is about the last person I would want touching something like The Normal Heart...better to not make a movie at all than to have him at the helm.
Ryan Murphy has as much ego as Babs, so my guess is that this collaboration will break down as well and the film never gets made. This is Kramer's biggest claim to fame and his only baby. He clings to it with an unobjective eye and he won't be on board for any changes Murphy proposes as well.
As far as Close and Bening, still too old. There's fine younger actresses who would do the part justice (Julianne Moore, Naomi Watts, Toni Collette...)
Ryan Murphy desttoyed RUNNING WITH SCISSORS and EAT PRAY LOVE. He has no understanding of crafting a linear narrative that is not overlong and he has no edit button.
GLEE is basically him throwing up glitter every week. It's repellant and the narratives are horrendous.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello