The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Actresses Line Up To Play Carly Simon & Carole King In 'Girls Like Us' With Taylor Swift As Joni Mitchell

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 22, 2012 8:59 AM
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13 Comments

News

How many women does it take to greenlight a movie about folk legends Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King? Well, more than one at any rate as the developing biopic "Girls Like Us" continues moving at Sony. Back in the spring Taylor Swift and Alison Pill were contending for the parts of Mitchell and King, and while the former seems to have gone through, the latter is facing some competition, as more actresses line up to play Simon. And it's a pretty strong list of talent in the mix.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 20, 2012 3:42 PM
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10 Comments

News

Casting anybody in the roles of the legendary Joni Mitchell and Carole King was always going to be a difficult task, but these choices -- well, one in particular -- will be sure to draw some interesting scrutiny and controversy.

By Mark Zhuravsky
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August 15, 2011 10:58 AM
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5 Comments

Talks Demise Of The HBO Satchmo Miniseries, 'Girls Like Us,' And MoreJohn Sayles is a busy man, a prolific screenwriter and icon of the American independent film movement. Having made his name directing films such “Eight Men Out,” “Matewan,” “The Return of the Secaucus Seven,” "Lone Star," "Sunshine State," and a variety of small but frequently warmly received films, Sayles also made his mark as an occasional Hollywood scribe, most recently co-writing "The Spiderwick Chronicles". With his latest, "Amigo" (our reviewer at TIFF '10 called it "a complex and organically built work that coaxes meaning out of the situations it builds rather than putting the politics first and constructing a story around it"), a look at the Philippine–American War of early 1900s, opening this week, we had an opportunity to talk with the writer/director and had a chance to ask him about the wide variety of projects he has on his slate and here's what he had to tell us.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 22, 2011 3:58 AM
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5 Comments

Katie Jacobs To Make Feature Directorial DebutThough talk quieted since last August when Sony announced they would be adapting Sheila Weller’s “Girls Like Us,” a book about the careers of musical artists Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and Carole King, for the big screen, the project is heating back up. THR reports that John Sayles, Oscar-nominated writer of “Passion Fish” and “Lone Star,” has been hired to pen the adaptation. Additionally, first-time feature director Katie Jacobs, a producer and director on the hit Fox show “House,” will helm and produce the project, along with producers Lorenzo DiBonaventura, Amy Pascal and Elizabeth Cantillon, all bigwigs of Sony Pictures.