The word “biopic” has always sounded to me a little like a muscle group (as in, “This exercise will really develop your biopics”), so perhaps it’s appropriate that California’s own Muscleman in Chief, Ahh-nold, is the subject of a TV movie, now casting, about his meteoric rise from a steroid-popping Austrian bodybuilder to a box-office brand name and political spoiler.

 

The project slipped modestly into the Breakdowns this week under the imaginative title “Arnold Schwarzenegger,” with the designation “1 Hour Special for Basic Cable.” Casting director Kim Orchen Cooper, confirmed, however, that it’s a biopic. She’s casting a young Arnold (“early 20s to 30”) and an older one (“late 40s to 50”), though with Maria Shriver she’s splitting the difference (“mid 30s to play 20s to 40s”). There are also parts for Gustav, Arnold’s father, described as “an Austrian Chief of Police,” for various Shrivers, for Rose Kennedy, even for Jesse Ventura. (In fact, there are three Arnold roles: presumably the role of a 10-year-old Austrian Arnold will not require a “ripped” physique.)

 

Most interesting is a character called “Antreb,” described as “a constant source of strength for Arnold… savvy, eternally optimistic, and uncompromising in his belief that Arnold can do anything he sets his mind to do.” Is this a stand-in for Schwarzenegger’s agent or manager? For an influential bodybuilding coach? Neither. It sounds like screenwriter Jed Elinoff (The Michael Richards Show, Boston Common) borrowed a page from A Beautiful Mind: “We ultimately learn that Antreb is not an actual person, but Arnold's inner drive, moral compass, an unyielding spirit that he found as a young boy in Austria, and has never lost sight of.”

 

Cooper said the submissions she’s received so far have been “not so interesting. I think I’m going to have to resubmit.” Was the poor response due to the pay rate—SAG low-budget scale? Not necessarily. Cooper said it might have something to do with her withholding the name of the cable network; if she submits another Breakdown, she said she’ll lobby to include the net’s name.

 

For the lead role she’s not dead-set on a German- or Austrian-born actor, though it would be helpful. The most important criterion, of course, is that the lead be “a very good actor who’s also a bodybuilder, or can play that.” In fact, she needs more bodybuilders period.

 

I had to ask, muckraking journalist that I am: Would this biopic, which is exec-produced by Melissa Cobb (Ever After, Warning: Parental Advisory) and J. Paul Higgins (Legalese, Truth or Consequences, N.M.), touch on some of the more controversial episodes of Arnold’s life—his father’s Nazi affiliation, wild tales of group sex and recreational drug use, more recent, campaign-timed allegations of on-set sexual harassment?

 

“It’s a one-hour biopic,” she stressed. “It’s meant to be kind of lighthearted. It’s based on real events, but it’s not a transcript.” She indicated, however, that the film wouldn’t shy away from using actual footage of the real Arnold, both documentary and fictional—his body of work, if you will. This means that, while the producers aren’t interested in mere look-alikes, the actors’ resemblance to Schwarzenegger will likely need to be strong. As will the actors themselves.

Tanner’s Homecoming

 

L.A.-based playwright Justin Tanner, who staged at least a dozen definitive hit comedies at Hollywood’s Cast Theatre in a golden period between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s, was often accused by envious peers of simply writing sitcoms for the stage. The rap was unfair—plays like Zombie Attack!, Pot Mom, Bitter Women, and Heartbreak Help had a lot more going for them than the average half-hour laffer—and it was a bit ironic, because while Tanner did land his share of TV writing work, he couldn’t sell a sitcom or get a steady sitcom writing job.

 

That changed last year, when he worked for a season on the writing staff of the one-hour comedy The Gilmore Girls. Though he wasn’t asked back, lately it looks like he’s on a roll anyway: Last fall he turned in a pilot for a series of Pot Mom—a favorite of fan and ally Laurie Metcalf—to Showtime, and just going through network testing this week is Silver Lake, a one-hour comedy/drama about a youngish used-record-store owner who sees dead people when he goes off his “meds.” (We offer the producers this extra-cheesy Hollywood log line, free of charge: It’s High Fidelity meets Sixth Sense, with a dose of Prozac Nation thrown in!) There’s a strong buzz about the script—one insider who’s followed Tanner’s work calls it “the best thing he’s written for television”—and some name interest. Judith Holstra is casting for Spelling Television; the network is UPN.

 

“Judith’s having a blast reading people,” said her casting assistant, Beth Soike. Soike couldn’t confirm whether or not any of Tanner’s longtime unofficial repertory company of theatre actors—Laurel Green, Dana Schwartz, Ellen Ratner, Jon Palmer, Thea Constantine, Jon Amirkhan, and Andy Daley, among others—were being considered for any of the parts. But another colleague said the producers were at least listening to Tanner’s casting suggestions.

 

I particularly liked the Breakdown’s note: “THIS IS A DRAMEDY. ACTORS MUST HAVE HUMOR.”

A note about the neighborhood setting: Though he now lives in Highland Park, and though he didn’t set all his plays in the Silver Lake area, in many ways Tanner is the Bard of East Hollywood. The neighborhood, which I’ve lived in or around for more than a dozen years, has become trendy almost beyond recognition—and I remember with relish a line in Tanner’s otherwise minor play Coyote Woman, which actually delivered a piece of news to me about the ’hood’s encroaching gentrification. It was a piece of throwaway dialogue, in which a character said something like: “Oh, Silver Lake is over. You know that place next to the dry cleaner on Glendale? Starbuck’s.” Sure enough, months later, on the corner of Glendale and Fletcher near the Astro coffee shop, the area’s first Starbuck’s set up shop.

 

I don’t expect Silver Lake, if it’s picked up, to deliver frontline news from the street—after all, it’s partly set in a “used record shop” co-owned by handsome youngsters, and anyone who’s been to the beloved Rockaway Records knows that’s a stretch. Still, it’s gratifying to see both Tanner and the ’hood hit the mainstream. Better late than never, I say.

 

The New Guy, Again

 

I got the news about Silver Lake from Mara Casey, who with Jami Rudofsky casts the WB’s Gilmore Girls—and who actually appeared in small roles in plays by Tanner (Hot Property and the serial The Strip, at the Evidence Room in 2002 and 2003). She said that she and Rudofsky lobbied strongly for the Silver Lake casting assignment, but to no avail. Things are winding down on the Gilmore season, and there are no pilots in the offing for the pair.

 

Instead, the CDs’ time is occupied looking for a “New Guy,” as a Breakdown this week put it. He’s intended as a college-age love interest for young Rory (Alexis Bledel), but the Breakdown included this caveat: “This role is not written yet.”

 

“Our parts are never written,” said Casey. “The scripts come out so late that when a role like this comes along, we’ll often bring [creator/producer Amy Sherman-Palladino] some choices, and see if it sparks something; she’ll often see the actors and write around their vibe.”

 

This happened previously with Rory’s key rival love interests, played by the very distinct Milo Ventimiglia and Jared Padalecki. Indeed, each season’s end brings this kind of request, Casey said: “We’re often asked to be on the lookout for someone new and fancy for next season.”

 

For this particular “new guy,” Casey said they have a few actors in mind, including a young Canadian they’ve been “trying to get a job for. We’re hoping he shines when we bring him in.”

 

Love interests for the show’s two female leads are typically recurring roles, and while Sherman-Palladino mostly has the network’s implicit trust, Casey confirmed that there are many “higher-ups” to please with these casting decisions. “The guy has to be good-looking to a lot of different people,” said Casey. “Amy usually gets her way, but it involves many other people giving the green light.”

 

American Gothic

 

Every once in a while, a Breakdown will include a note that’s at least as intriguing, if not moreso, than the project itself. Monika Mikkelsen’s note last week on The Devil’s Rejects, a sequel to rocker Rob Zombie’s schlocky horror film House of 1,000 Corpses, caught my eye. It read: “SEEKING GREAT CHARACTER ACTORS THAT LOVE THE SOUTH, THE 1970S, AND REMIND US OF THE 1970S.”

 

My mind started racing with associations: Badlands, Deliverance, Nashville, The Last Picture Show. For some reason, I immediately saw Paul Dooley’s face, with Ned Beatty close behind.

 

But then I stopped myself: I wasn’t reading Mikkelsen’s note quite correctly. It went on: “SEEKING THE ACTORS THAT UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS GENRE OF FILM NEEDS AND WILL GET.”

 

Ah, yes, genre—this is, after all, a bloody horror film. Mikkelsen’s assistant, Dominica Posseren, essentially confirmed that the point of reference is less Robert Altman, more Tobe Hooper. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was likely to be on the filmmakers’ minds more than, say, Goin’ South.

 

“We’re talking about charactery-looking people, not beautiful movie-star people,” she said. “It’s sort of like an artsy horror movie, and a little campy. We want people with the most interesting faces, not the most beautiful faces.”

 

I glanced at the Breakdown’s character names: Bubba, Roy, Snapper, Sheriff Wydell. A pair of characters with the last name “Banjo,” another with the last name “Cracker.” Randall Tex Cobb, call your agent.

 

“Island” Off and Running

 

Two changes worth noting on the Hawaii-set Fox pilot formerly known as Big Island: It’s now called Oahu, and the casting directors are now Dylann Brander and Alyson Silverberg. No reason to assume that previous CDs Joy Dickson and Nicole Arbusto were voted off “Island”: They cast the pilot’s regulars, and it looks like Brander and Silverberg (who until recently worked as Patrick Rush’s associate on The O.C. and Everwood) were brought in to fill guest roles.

 

Oahu began shooting on location this past Monday. Given that the series is about a harried hotel concierge (not to be confused with NBC’s cop pilot Hawaii Blue), “guest spots” look they’ll mostly consist of white tourists rather than Hawaiian parts. One imagines, thought, that day players and extras for the pilot will be cast in Hawaii. The silver lining for Stateside thesps: If the show is picked up, it may shoot in San Diego.

 

Queer Eyes on Film

 

When gay folks used to lament that they weren’t portrayed sympathetically, if at all, in mainstream TV and film, they were talking mainly about fictional characters. Representation was the key issue; whether the actors portraying these characters were gay themselves, let alone “out,” was a whole separate battle.

 

Well, while there’s certainly no shortage of gay characters in films and television, who could have predicted that gay-themed programming would converge with the reality TV craze? The result is that actual gay people, not actors playing gay, are the new darlings of America’s living rooms—and hence are being sought by casting directors. Recent reality TV notices have stressed being “out” as a key qualification.

 

The latest example is the pilot for Showtime’s Movies for Guys Who Like Guys (we hope that’s just a working title), described in the Breakdown as “a community gay night out at the movies.” Casting director Andy Strauser is seeking five gay men from different walks of life to tape segment breaks between showings of films on the cable net. These won’t just be interstitial “bumps,” Strauser said; a two-hour show may have 90 minutes of the film and about a half hour of dish and discussion among the hosts/stars.

 

“It won’t just be typically gay films,” said Strauser, putting to rest the notion that films starring Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, or Divine would be the show’s mainstays. “I mean, it could be Yentl one time, but it could also be The Color Purple or Mission Impossible.” (Tom Cruise’s lawyers may want to tune in for that.)

 

And lest this sound like a Mystery Science Theatre-style peanut gallery, Strauser said, “They won’t be making fun of the movie, and it’s not a criticism show. It will be like if you had friends over to watch a movie, and you might take a break and start gossiping and dishing about it, and about the actors.”

 

The planned timeslot is after the Showtime hit Queer as Folk, and the net will want keep that show’s viewers tuned in, so the demographic breakdown of the five men will probably be, said Strauser, “a couple of young hotties, and a few older guys. Ideally, we’d like actors or writers or athletes who are out gay men, and preferably young and hip ones.”

 

No word yet on whether married couples will be welcome.