Chris Guest News In Variety - Who Doesn't Want to See This?

Kudo craziness
Guest and company to send up season
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
Christopher Guest has decided to make a movie about the shooting of a bad movie. In the process, the man who gave us "Best in Show""Best In Show" intends to do a sendup of awards season. Warner Independent PicturesWarner Independent Pictures is targeting "For
Your Consideration," which Castle Rock Entertainment will produce, for a fall 2006 release. Ricky Gervais will join a roster of thesps who've appeared in Guest's previous pics, including Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, Eugene Levy, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael McKean and Fred Willard. The film won't be a mockumentary in the style of Guest's "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show" or "A Mighty Wind""A Mighty Wind" but instead centers on a movie-within-a-movie that will be largely improvised. Guest is directing and co-writing with Levy. Pic revolves around three actors shooting a small indie film whose lives are turned upside down when buzz starts that their performances are awards-worthy. Guest said the movie won't be about the Academy Awards, although Oscar is mentioned once. "Consideration" will end just before award nominations are announced. "We all know many people who have been through this reality, and how it changes them. This happens to be an area I know something about. It's a virus," Guest told Daily Variety. The filmmaker said he and Levy had great fun writing the script for the movie-within-a-movie, titled "Home for Purim," which takes place in the South in the mid-1940s. "Home for Purim" is an "extraordinarily poorly written movie. It's a melodrama, and it's just awful. These actors never would have imagined that this movie was going to change their lives," Guest said. Gervais will play the head of a studio's specialty division producing "Purim," while Guest will play a director who has shot 18 sitcom
pilots, none of which have gone to series. Levy will play an agent. The three actors will be played by O'Hara, Posey and Shearer. The saga begins when one of the actresses is told of an Internet rumor that she's sure to be nominated for an award. A morning talkshow co-anchor talks about awards chances with her male lead. And the pic's third thesp is engulfed in similar rumors. "They are just buffeted around by the weirdness of what happens," Guest said. The indie film biz is sure to recognize itself in "Consideration," particularly the specialty film divisions at major studios. In Guest's movie, "Home for Purim" is being produced by Sunshine Classics,
an arm of U.K.-based studio Hemisphere. In real life, Guest's movie will be distributed by such a specialty arm -- Warner Independent. In the past, Warner Bros. had distributed Guest's films,
but that was before Warner Independent was created. Guest said Warne Independent was a natural fit. Karen Murphy is producing, while Shangri-La Entertainment is financing the pic, which will film in early October in Los Angeles. Warner Independent president Mark Gill and exec Michael Andreen will supervise, while Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer will oversee for Castle Rock Entertainment.