I wrote last April about my enthusiasm for Alan Ball‘s Nothing is Private, or for his script rather — a nicely honed, richly drawn adaptation of Alicia Erian‘s “Towelhead,” which is an early ’90s period piece about ethnic provocations among some Houston neighbors, and particularly about a young girl’s coming of age. Then I got all jazzed in July about the film going to the Toronto Film Festival, and so I put it in the Oscar Balloon for possible Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay heat. Okay, maybe a little precipitant. Possibly.
Then today a publicist noted that this Scott Rudin film is still without a distributor, and that it will be difficult to get lined up for a strategic release and a possible award campaign before 12.31.07, and that it seems much more likely to be an ’08 release.
Maybe. The word on this film has been nonexistent, but maybe Rudin wants it this way in order to maximize the impact when it plays at Toronto. I can only once again direct attention to this AICN review from a guy named “Rocksalt” that ran four or five months ago. Obviously not much to go on, but between this and the script I’m still very intrigued.
The film costars Summer Bishil, Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Peter Macdissi, Toni Collette and Eugene Jones. It’s basically about a 13 year-old half-Arab, half-Irish girl named Jasira (Bishil) getting sexually involved with two older guys while living with her strict Lebanese father.