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By Samuel Negin

Estelle Parsons, who I interviewed last year when she was appearing in Good People at the Manhattan Theater Club, will be returning to Broadway this year. The Oscar-winner for her supporting turn in the film version of Bonnie and Clyde (a musical of which recently shuttered on Broadway) is joining Matthew Broderick, Kelli O’Hara, and the cast of the new Gershwin brothers musical Nice Work If You Can Get It. She will play the mother of Broderick’s playboy character.

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By Samuel Negin

A number of shows have been announced for the fall season of 2011 that have not materialized. Among them is Lisa D’Amour’s new play Detroit. The play was a hit at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company and was so successful that Jeffrey Richards, a New York based producer, quickly announced that he would be bringing the show to Broadway in a production to open this past fall. Clearly, that production has yet to materialize. When the New York Times inquired what was going on, Mr. Richards cited a hectic producing schedule between Chinglish, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. The problem now is that, in the hesitation, Playwrights Horizons announced three weeks ago that it would be producing an off-Broadway production of the play in the fall of 2012.

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By Samuel Negin

Not even half way through the new Broadway season and already two open-ended productions have posted closing notices. The first is Tony-nominee Frank Wildhorn‘s musical adaptation of Bonnie and Clyde starring Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan.

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By Samuel Negin

Composer Frank Wildhorn has never has never gotten much love from the critics since his Broadway debut writing additional material for the stage version of Voctor/Victoria. Since then, Mr. Wildhorn has had six more forays onto the Broadway stage, including the musical adaptations of Jekyll & Hyde and The Scarlett Pimpernell, and received a 1999 Tony nomination for The Civil War.

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• New York Press: Armond White, always the contrarian, trashes “The Social Network” — the most critically-acclaimed film of the year — for “sanctioning Harvard’s ‘masters of the universe’ mystique,” “[celebrating] moral confusion, social decline and empire building,” and “excusing Hollywood ruthlessness,” among other assorted ridiculous reasons. (Can somebody give this guy some Zoloft?)
• The Hollywood Reporter: Paul Bond reports that publicists for Disney, the studio that will be releasing “Secretariat,” have adopted the same promotional strategy employed by “The Blind Side” last year that led to huge box-office returns and Oscar nods for best picture and best actress: “going after what industry insiders like to call the ‘faith-based audience.’”
• The Playlist: Kevin Jagernauth obtains details about the soundtrack for the upcoming film “Country Strong,” which he refers to as “‘Crazy Heart’ 2.o,” and will feature songs performed by Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, and Leighton Meester. CDs will arrive in stores on October 26th, almost two months before the film goes into limited release.
• New York Times: Dave Kehr pays tribute to the director Arthur Penn, who passed on Tuesday (a day after his 88th birthday), and who “transformed the American film industry” through his film “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), as well as other classics including “The Miracle Worker” (1962), “The Chase” (1966), and “Little Big Man” (1970).
• The Odds: Steve Pond learns that Harrison Ford has been selected as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s 2011 recipient of the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, which will be presented to the actor at a black-tie gala on November 19 — one week after the film “Morning Glory,” in which Ford stars, opens in theaters. Douglas quipped, “It’s always a pleasure to honor these young actors who do so well.”
• Gold Derby: Tom O’Neil shares the full list of Academy screenings scheduled for September and October, noting that “audience reaction is closely monitored by studio reps and award consultants, who count attendees and the number of walkouts, monitor applause (sudden loud clapping when the name of a director or costume designer appears on screen as the credits roll may mean a nomination is ahead), and eavesdrop on chatter in the lobby afterward.”
• Thompson on Hollywood: Anne Thompson confirms that the Academy’s submission deadline for all foreign language and short films (live action and animated) is 5pm PST this coming Friday, October 1. Each country is invited to enter one foreign language film for consderation, and over 55 have been submitted, thus far.
• Thompson on Hollywood: Sohpia Savage offers her take on the 30 most influential indie films from the past 30 years, as selected by 27 members of the board of directors of the Independent Film & Television Alliance on the occasion of the group’s 30th anniversary. The list includes “My Left Foot” (1989), “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), “Juno” (2007), and even “Twilight” (2008), but inexplicably excludes “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006).
• USA Today: Anthony Breznican describes the plans of Lucasfilm to convert all six “Star Wars” films into 3-D (under the oversight of John Knoll, visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic) and then begin re-releasing them in theaters in 2012 (in the order in which they take place, as opposed to the order in which they were released).
• The Hollywood Reporter: Carl DiOrio explains the debate within the film industry over whether/how to respond to audiences’ demand for “on-demand” without killing off retailers. One idea: “Those paying $25-$50 to watch a movie on their cable or satellite PPV service would qualify for a coupon redeemable at disc retailers for a free DVD of the same title.”
• Vulture: Ross Kenneth Urken writes that Chris Noth, aka “Mr. Big” in the “Sex and the City” TV show and films, showed up at the premiere of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s “Jack Goes Boating” and responded to a question about “Sex and the City” from New York magazine by saying: “It’s over. The franchise is dead. The press killed it. Your magazine fucking killed it.” To which I say, “Some labels are best left in the closet!”

Photo: Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford in “Morning Glory.” Credit: Paramount.

Everyone already knows about the scene in “127 Hours” (Fox Searchlight, 11/5, trailer) in which the mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) cuts off his arm in order to save his life, as I wrote in a post yesterday afternoon and as Fox Searchlight acknowledged last night by introducing Aron Ralston to the audience before the premiere screening of the film. As you might imagine, it’s a particularly difficult one to watch — in fact, two people fainted and had to be carted away by ambulance after seeing it at Telluride last week, while two people passed out and one had a seizure after seeing it last night. Which leads to the big question: will apprehension about it keep Academy members from watching and/or voting for the film?

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