'Cordless' rings McDowell

Tyro helmer calls up trio of thesps

By DAVID ROONEY

McDowell

Malcolm McDowell has committed to star in screenwriter Oren Moverman's directing debut "Cordless," with Steve Buscemi and Fisher Stevens also signing on for appearances in the dark comedy, which has set a late-March start date in New York City.

Project marks the first entry into active film production from SoHo-based online content company Nerve.com, which is producing with Louie Anderson's 33 Prods. Producers are Peter Bisanz, Abraham Geisness and Alisa Volkman, with Ann Ruark as co-producer.

Pic is a tale of spiritual rebirth in contempo New York, following the struggle of a Manhattan couple attempting to conceive a child in a building in which voyeurism and neighborly love are spinning out of control.

McDowell, in theaters in Robert Altman's "The Company," will play aging, charismatic Gotham gadfly Ezra, who holds sexual sway over everyone around him.

Buscemi and his brother Michael Buscemi will play tenement landlords, while Stevens will cameo as a strip-club habitue. Other leads are still to be cast.

Moverman previously adapted "Jesus' Son" for director Alison Maclean. He scripted the Nicholas Ray biopic "Interrupted" for helmer Larry Clark, and adapted William S. Burroughs' "Queer," which Steve Buscemi is attached to direct.