Ibid
Deadline‘s tube reporter Nellie Andreva has posted an official “yup, it’s really happening” story about Diane Keaton and Ellen Page being set to star in HBO’s Tilda, a forthcoming half-hour series about a female Hollywood blogger modelled on Nikki Finke. I reported the Keaton-Page castings as a straight fact on 4.29.
Last month an HBO spokesperson told Hollywood Reporter columnist Matthew Belloni that ‘”the Tilda script is a fictional composite and not based on any one person,” I mentioned in the same piece. “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit,” came the response. “The Tilda Watski character is Finke, Finke, Finke all the way.”
Page’s Carolyn character, who wasn’t all that filled out in the first-episode script I read last month, is described by Andreva as “a morally conflicted creative assistant caught between following the corporate culture of the studio she works for and following Tilda, who has taken a keen interest in her.” She could, in other words, turn to the dark side and wind up slightly scheming against Tilda in a kind of Anne Baxter-in- All About Eve sort of way. Maybe.
Isn’t it a bit too soon for Ellen Page to be doing television?
“it isn’t television…it’s HBO”
Well, she does satellite TV commercials now, no? Yet another young performer with no understand of The Cruise Law of Career Longevity: Once you’re established, never work backwards, always work with A-list directors. Only and always go BY DIRECTOR. Not role, not size of role, not meatiness of role, not script (certainly not), and not even really by costar (when Cruise selected one movie because the costar was on a roll critically and commercially, he ended up in LOSIN’ IT with Jackie Earle Haley.)
And for God’s sake, don’t do TV once you’re in big movies as a young actor. There’s time enough for that when you’re 40 and wanna hit the CBS circuit so you can work 9-5.
LEX THE ACTING EXPERT always points out that Cruise went Becker to Brickman to Scott to Levinson to Stone, etc, always working with geniuses.
Charlie Sheen STARTED OUT WITH STONE, then inexplicably started doing shit like Three For the Road and No Man’s Land.
Never work backwards. Considering she just made a movie with Christopher Nolan, she should REFUSE to work with anyone short of the biggest auteurs in the world.
And she should definitely listen to me…
After all, I did some Shakespeare, a couple student films, a couple years of open mics, and I spot-script pornography.
From Vegas: Over/under on number of HE posters banned for suggesting an “inappropriate” actor to play Jeffrey Wells character – 9.
Ellen Page is never going to be a conventional leading lady, so it makes sense for her to dabble in HBO. It’s no disgrace to do TV now.
It’s like Jason Schwartzman doing Bored to Death. He’s not going to be asked to be a superhero any time soon, so instead of having to play the wacky science friend of said superhero, he gets his own show on HBO.
Danny McBride: instead of simply supporting bigger stars in Hollywood comedies, he gets his own series.
Jason Schartzman wasn’t nominated in a lead category for a box-office success. Ellen Page has been building a reputable film career, that saw its zenith with “Juno”. She has “Inception” coming up this year, which is bound to be a big film for her.
I don’t understand the need to be on a television series, when her career in film is at its height. To me, television is the place where film actors go, when their careers aren’t as major as they used to be.
100% agree with Eloi Wrath.
Darien: The problem is, the middle-ground movies that Page would be able to star in just don’t exist anymore. She might get some wacky indies in which she plays a variation of her Juno role, or the occasional blockbuster support like Inception, but the majority of intelligent writing (something that an actress like Page needs to shine) is on TV these days. She’d end up being Katherine Heigl’s quirky workplace friend if she stuck exclusively to movies.
Agree with Eloi. Plus, cable shows are only 12 weeks per year so she’ll have plenty of time to do movies as well.
Why would anyone believe that Ellen Page will have the career that Seth Green doesn’t have?
If there, by chance, was a Wells character on this show, I don’t see why there couldn’t be an HE talkbacker character or two. How about Brendan Fraser removes his hairplugs to play LexG?
LexG, your advice is great for an A-lister but Ellen Page is no A-lister.
I’m glad she’s taking the part. Says to me it must be good.
I would also assume there would be a lot of appeal to get to work with Diane Keaton day-in and day-out.
Meant to say:
I would also assume there would be a lot of appeal FOR A YOUNG ACTRESS to get to work with Diane Keaton day-in and day-out.
Ellen Page should have the career of Holly Hunter, who moved across all mediums. Granted she did mini-series/movies on TV (until later on TNT), but she continued to do great film work mixed with high-profile TV work.
I thought it was weird enough when Ellen Page started appearing in those commercials. Can’t remember the product but there’s the one where she sees her car on the security camera…
Wasn’t there a similar concept in development that was going to star Kathleen Turner?
Her Best Actress nomination wasn’t that long ago, but maybe lead offers dried up after Whip It flopped. Peacock keeps getting pushed back; she’s only the second female lead in Inception. it does seem too soon for her to go to TV, even HBO.
Julia Stiles landing on Showtime’s Dexter right about now makes more sense.
No, wait, Peacock just went straight to DVD.
Still seems like she should have Winona Ryder’s pre-shoplifting career.
If Lance Henriksen doesn’t play Wells, I’m not watching.
Christopher Walken as Jeff Wells. They are practically twins.
Jared Leto needs to gain a whole bunch of weight again and pretend he’s playing Mark David Chapman, slip on a skull cap, and then he could play LexG.
“From Vegas: Over/under on number of HE posters banned for suggesting an “inappropriate” actor to play Jeffrey Wells character – 9.”
We have to start a “Lex should play Wells” petition.
Michael Shannon is also taking a supporting role on HBO.
I don’t think it’s a step down for Page because her Oscar nomination was kind of a fluke. She was great in the movie, and she’s great in ‘Whip It’ and fine in ‘X-Men’, but she’s not taking the sorts of roles that get Oscar nominations. Even ‘Juno’ normally wouldn’t have. Like I say, kind of a fluke.
She seems like she just likes to work.
I’m sort of impressed with her for the commercials and this HBO series. Seems to have a great sense of self. Maybe she knows that she is Jodie Foster in a Tween Disney star’s body and a lot of the great roles for her acting style won’t pop up in movies until/if she looks like a woman and not a really cute/asexual 14 yr old tomboy. She exudes almost no sexuality for a twentysomething actress and finding consistent work would be difficult. Basically she has indies or cool supporting roles in blockbuster fare, so why not take the co-lead in a high-profile, Hollywood based HBO show starring one of the biggest quirky female movie stars of all time. She will continue to work, improve as an actress and stay relevant because of the HBO cache factor.
These HBO/Showtime shows as noted above are what 12 half hours at most, a time commitment of 3-4 months tops. All the mediums are beginning to blur now, things are still changing rapidly, being a movie star doesn’t mean what it used to. Its not like she is taking a fourth lead in a CSI franchise. Sam Worthington had the lead in 3 consecutive 100+ million dollar grossers and he still can’t open a movie based specifically around his name above the marquee, I can’t think of a star under 35 who can(not named Leo.)
Robert Evans as Jeff Wells.
But yeah, seriously, though — doing a 13-episode-or-so HBO or Showtime series is by no means a life-suck for the serious actor who still tries to fit in a couple of big features each year.
Even folks like Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Kline (older, and who don’t make as many as they used to, for whatever reasons) are now signing on the line which is dotted. But it doesn’t hurt to have David Milch writing and Michael Mann directing your pilot, either.
I think it’s a fantastic idea and, as others have pointed out, it’s only 12-13 episodes. It’s not like she’s on a 23-24 episode run of some shitty sitcom. At least what she’s doing looks to be top-level stuff. She’ll have PLENTY of time to make movies outside of this. And, again, as others have said, it’s not like she’s likely getting non-stop offers to star in amazing projects, based on her quirkiness. When you’re talented and like to work on quality projects, you take them where you can.
What about a Parnassus-esque casting of Wells as Robert Evans (confident, knowledgeable), Walken (quirky, funny), AND Henrikson (surly, cranky) depending on his “mood pocket” in any given scene.
That could be a seriously brilliant touch.
Love Ellen Page, nice face.
Jane