Local Political Non-Thrillers Now All the Rage in Hollywood
The idea of making a feature film out of Grant Cogswell's failed 2001 bid for Seattle City Council sounds about as exciting as...a movie about a guy running for local office. That hasn't deterred Stephen Gyllenhall, Jake and Maggie's dad, from snapping up the rights to Phil Campbell's memoir about Cogswell's bid (Campbell was his campaign manager) and aspiring to turn it into a Hollywood film.
Gyllenhall's leap of political faith is hardly an aberration -- SW has learned that there are several local political non-thrillers in the Tinseltown production pipeline. Here are but a few:
- Steven Spielberg is developing an $89 million blockbuster about the hotly-contested 1998 Sewer Commission elections in Yuma, Arizona.
- Gus Van Sant is in talks with New Line to direct a picture about the gripping 2002 legislative debate over raisin tariffs in Oregon.
- Ang Lee is in pre-production on a Elijah Wood vehicle about the 2001 Student Council President race at Modesto (Calif.) Senior High School, in which Wood's character, Eli Granderson, takes on a stud quarterback who gets all the chicks.
- George Lucas has received financing to helm a film about the Utah Liquor Board's 1997 decision to authorize the sale of 3.2 beer to the general public.
- Terrence Malick is in post-production on a film about City Water Board Commissioner Will Huppert's successful push to have a public drinking fountain installed at the corner of 4th & Broad in Toledo, Ohio. Huppert will be played by Mt. Vernon, Wash. native Jim Caviezel.
- And finally, David Lynch is on board to direct a dramatization of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico's decision to require that garter snakes be caught and released, rather than consumed as a popular local appetizer.
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