Cruz joins erotic adventure

Jackson

Lots of production news this week… Tasha Smith (You, Me And Dupree) has booked a lead role in Tyler Perry’s
Why Did I Get Married? for Lionsgate. Janet Jackson and Malik Yoba also star in the flick, which began lensing last week in Vancouver before moving to Atlanta.

Last Friday, Jamie King, Terry Chen and Cheng Peipei joined the cast of Brightlight Pictures’ supernatural thriller They Wait, which began shooting Monday in Vancouver. Ernie Barbarash is directing the feature, about two people unexpectedly thrown together to discover long-held secrets in Victoria, B.C.’s Chinatown district. The film is one of several projects in recent memory that continues to elevate the popularity of the Capital Regional District as a filming destination.

Aaron Harris/canadian press

Penelope Cruz will star in Elegy, based on Philip Roth’s 2001 novel The Dying Animal.

Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz will topline the feature Elegy, based on Philip Roth’s 2001 novel The Dying Animal, an erotic adventure that evolves over eight years into a story of grim loss. Spanish director Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life Of Words) is scheduled to begin six weeks of principal photography in Vancouver on April 24. Kingsley will play David Kepesh, an eminent TV culture critic and star lecturer at a New York college, who meets Consuela Castillo (Cruz), a decorous, well-mannered Cuban student of 24, who quickly puts Kepesh’s life into erotic disorder. Director Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn) penned the script, having previously adapted Roth’s The Human Stain for Lakeshore Entertainment.

Shepherd

Meanwhile, television production soldiers on in Vancouver. Showtime has ordered a fifth season of the Vancouver-shot series The L Word, with twelve new episodes slated to begin filming in town this summer, along with guest appearances by veteran actors Cybill Shepherd and Marlee Matlin; while popular favorites The 4400 and Stargate Atlantis both began filming their fourth seasons this month.

Finally, the Vancouver-shot Sci Fi Channel series Painkiller Jane, in production until July 13, has finally received a Canadian airdate. The series — about genetic mutants who face off in battle against undercover agents — starring Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3, BloodRayne) will debut on the Global-owned CH channels on Saturday, April 21.

Robert Falconer is a Senior Editor at HollywoodNorthReport.com