While we like her TV performances in the title role of “Veronica Mars” and notable guest spots in “Deadwood” and “Party Down,” Kristen Bell’s big-screen career has fast become problematic. She was ok in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” but since then has gone from stinker to stinker, and with last year’s “Couples Retreat” plus this year’s triple threat of “When In Rome,” “You Again” and “Burlesque,” we were just about to give up on the actress.
But it sounds like she’s aware as anyone of the problem, as she’s just signed on to star in a dark indie comedy with an impressive pedigree. Bell will play a young, overbearing mother of an overweight would-be ballerina in “Dance of the Mirlitons,” to be written and directed by newcomer Evan Greenberg. The script has been knocking around for some time, having placed high on the 2005 Black List, alongside “Juno” and “Lars and the Real Girl,” and was picked up at the time by Warner Independent.
However, when that company was shut down, the project stalled, and Greenberg has now bought the rights back, teaming with producers Daniel Dubiecki (“Up In The Air”) and Joel Michaely (an actor best known for “The Rules of Attraction”), and Bell’s the first cast member to come on board. Location scouting and casting for the role of Bell’s daughter are underway, and it’s hoped that filming will kick off in the winter.
While Bell might seem too young to play the mother of a 12-year-old, she is actually 30, and the part should mark a move away from the bland rom-com heroines she’s been playing of late (although the currently-filming “Everybody Loves Whale” also seems like something of a step in the right direction). While we haven’t read the script (hit us up, guys!) it’s got a good reputation around town, and we’re glad to see the actress attaching herself to higher-calibre material. [The Hollywood Reporter]
