Megan Ellison is the 25-year-old daughter of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. (Go here for the tenuous explanation of why I refer to her as a bisexual, but the short answer is “PAGEVIEW$, SON!) She’s got money to burn, and as we learned recently with Paul Thomas Anderson’s Scientology movie, she’s trying her hand at movie producing. But being that she’s independently wealthy and didn’t come to her position through years of telling Jerry Bruckheimer what a genius he is for coming up with Kangaroo Jack, she actually has decent taste. So when the studios bailed on PTA in favor of safer bets like movies based on board games and remakes of gum wrappers, Ellison stepped up and put her money where her bisexual mouth is. (*cough*) LESBIANS! (*cough*)
Her latest move, according to Deadline, is financing a picture for Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, who are awesome at movies, despite probably smelling really bad.
Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures is negotiating to acquire an untitled satire that will re-team screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, the tandem behind the mind-benders Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. The project was pitched recently to financiers, and I’m told it’s a satire about how world leaders gather to figure out all the seismic events that will take place in the worlds, from oil prices to wars that will be waged.
But does it have name recognition? How can we license it for toys? How many quadrants is its tentpole, AND WHAT OF THE FOCUS GROUPS, DEVIL WOMAN?!?! Putting up money for a movie because you think it sounds good? Jeez, this bitch has a lot to learn.
It’s not the only Kaufman project in the mix. I’m told he’s looking to direct his script Frank Or Francis. The film chronicles a volatile back and forth between a film director (Frank) and an online blogger (Francis), who takes delight in berating his cinematic talent. The project’s at Sony Pictures for the moment, and names like Adaptation’s Meryl Streep being talked about for roles.
An online blogger, you say? (*studies pocket watch*) Well I do declare, son, that sounds mighty timely. A lot of people don’t know this, but before he became famous for his website, Perez Hilton was an infamous off-line blogger who’d roam the neighborhood, carving poorly-spelled screeds into trees and drawing cum stains on the faces of passersby in chalk.