Rosen, NL plan to visit 'Planet Deb'
Scribe/helmer makes debut with debutante comedy
The film, which was brought into New Line as a pitch late last year, is produced by Steven Haft ("Emma," "Dead Poets Society") and written by Michael Apostolina and Bob Sugalski.
A loose update of George Cukor's 1939 biting comedy "The Women" (which was based on Claire Boothe's stage play), "Planet Deb" follows a group of private school girls from New York's Upper East side who, spurred by their fiercely competitive natures, turn on one another as the debutante season approaches.
The girls behave in a manner best described by Joan Crawford at the end of the original: "There's a name for you ladies, but it's not used in high society outside of kennels."
The film marks the first of a blind two-pic deal Rosen inked with New Line earlier this year (Daily Variety, April 22, 1998). While that pact calls for Rosen to write and direct two projects for New Line, the helmer said "after I read this ('Planet Deb') I thought I couldn't write anything better than this -- it's such a good, funny script."
The helmer's first feature, "Dead Man's Curve," first drew attention at this year's Sundance Film Festival and later was picked up for domestic distribution by Trimark.
Rosen also is putting together financing for "Wil," an indie comedy about the young William Shakespeare, which he intends to direct from a script he wrote with Matt Roshkow.
He is represented by Ramses IsHak and Joanne Roberts Wiles of the William Morris Agency; and by managers Eric Gold and Julie Wixson of the Gold/Miller Co.
With "Planet Deb" proceeding toward a September start, it's not clear what happens to New Line's true remake of "The Women." The studio has been developing for several years the high-profile project which had Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan attached to star, and a script from Diane English. James L. Brooks also had been mentioned to direct.
"Planet Deb" is expected to shoot on location in New York and Paris.
New Line execs Lynn Harris and Donna Langley, who oversee the project, couldn't be reached for comment.
