Now here’s a great story that might spur a few of you to ‘stick to your guns’ and not give up…
Remember Madeleine Stowe? She was the lass Kevin Kline banged in “The January Man” and later, Aidan Quinn drooled over in “Blink”? Well, in the 90s she’d written a script for a film called “Unbound Captives” – about a frontiersman who helps out a young woman whose children have been kidnapped by Comanche’s; the same Comanche's that have murdered her husband.
Apparently the script was shit-hot, so much so that Fox offered Stowe (who you'll also remember from "Stakeout") millions of dollars to buy the script from her. Thing is, Stowe wanted to play the female lead, and as far as this deal was concerned, there’d no nothing written into the contract to say the scribe was attached to act in it too. Even after Fox came back to Stowe and said they had Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott interested in the film, she still insisted the script wasn’t for sale.
Today, it was announced that Gil Netter and Grant Hill, together with Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment, had agreed to take the film on. Stowe will direct.
The actress, currently filming the telemovie "The Christmas Hope", now believes she did the right thing in turning down all that money all those years ago.
"There was never a moment's hesitation on my part, but it felt unreal, and I can remember my husband [actor Brian Benben] putting a finger across his neck to signal not to take the offer," Stowe told Variety. "There are moments in life where you need to follow your heart. The script remained my singular focus, but directing it myself wasn't something I ever dreamed of."
Stowe ended up passing the female lead to Rachel Weisz. She’s also managed to coax Hugh Jackman and “Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson into the movie.
"I saw three actresses, and knew after meeting with Rachel that she was the person I wanted to hand this role to," she said. "Robert said yes last fall, before everything broke with 'Twilight.' Hugh said yes a couple of weeks ago."
John Toll, who shot epics "Braveheart" and "The Last Samurai”, will be Stowe’s cinematographer on the movie.
Hold onto the dream folks!
