Three pics slated for Pacino
'Simone,' 'People,' 'Betsy' on tap
New Line Cinema's comedy "Simone" features Pacino as Viktor Taransky, a harried, out-of-work film director whose fateful meeting with a misunderstood computer whiz produces the first virtual actor, who goes on to capture the public's fascination. The popularity of the title character, plus the mystery surrounding "her" identity and the intensity of the paparazzi hunt for her causes Viktor to go to ingenious lengths to make it seem that Simone exists off-screen as well.
Written, directed and produced by Andrew Niccol, who was Oscar nominated for the screenplay of "The Truman Show," "Simone" also stars Catherine Keener, Evan Rachel Wood, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jay Mohr, Stanley Anderson and Jason Schwartzman.
New Line hasn't yet scheduled the film's release and won't talk about the character Simone, who isn't played by any of the above.
"Simone is Simone," is all a studio spokesman will say.
Production is imminent on "People I Know," which casts Pacino as a New York publicist on the skids who gets embroiled in a mystery involving New York politics and celebrity.
The character has been likened to the legendary Bobby Zarem, creator of the "I Love New York" ad campaign; although Pacino's publicist shares several traits with the man (a Southern background, a Yale education, frequent visits to Elaine's), Zarem has told Variety that the movie is not based on him.
The Gotham-set film, produced by Southfork Pictures, a division of Robert Redford's Wildwood Enterprises, was written by Jon Robin Baitz and will be directed by Dan Algrant ("Naked in New York"). Wildwood/Southfork execs Michael Nozik, Leslie Urdang and Karen Tenkhoff are producing.
The Napoleon picture, "Betsy and the Emperor," which has been announced by Storyopolis Prods., would be a fictionalized account of the French leader's relationship with the daughter of his jailer during the years he was living in exile on St. Helena after his 1815 defeat at Waterloo.
Pacino's possible involvement in "Betsy" was announced last year, but a spokesperson for the actor says that it's too early to tell what will happen.
Set to direct is Patrice Chereau ("Queen Margot") from the adaptation by Jean-Claude Carriere ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being") of an unpublished manuscript by author Staton Rabin. Producers on the film are Howard Rosenman ("Family Man"), Storyopolis prexy Fonda Snyder, actress-producer Colleen Camp and Charles Gassot.
