Hey guys, Jana here,
One of the genre’s I adore in film is an excellent biographical depiction. It doesn’t matter who the subject is, I love the truthful way these films are usually made and like seeing the story unfold, event at a time. What struggles they’ve gone through to become who they are, it’s the intimate details that I genuinely crave. A successful biopic depends on the character and quality of its written source material as it’s vital to the core of a project. Such will be the case with the planned Groucho Marx flick.
The project is worth reporting for two reasons, one being that it’s about time for a Groucho bio and the other is that Rob Zombie is directing. Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, horror-master Rob Zombie is branching out from the natural habitat he’s made for himself in scares, blood and gore and is giving mainstream a go.
The screenplay will get it’s legs from the 1996 book ‘Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House‘ written by Steve Stoliar. Stoliar began his relationship with Marx as a fan and ended up working for him as an in-house personal secretary in Groucho’s home in the final years before his death. The iconic funnyman wasn’t all laughs, the book attests to that, but Stoliar was front row, center for a who’s who lineup of Hollywood greats, spending time with Mae West, George Burns, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon and Steve Allen all the while dealing with Marx’s “personal manager” Erin Fleming. Fleming did a lot to revive Marx’s career later in life, one of the high points being a sold out one man show at Carnegie Hall, after his death, there were court battles which saw Fleming re-paying almost $500,000 back to his estate. She suffered mental impairments, was reportedly physically and verbally abusive to the aging comedian and was homeless before taking her life.
Scriptwriter Oren Moverman (‘The Messenger‘) has his work cut out for him in making this a full-scope story where there is so much opportunity to pinpoint details. Zombie is a decorated director and has some awesome films to his credit like ‘The Devil’s Rejects‘, ‘House of 1000 Corpses‘ and the latest reboot of Michael Myers on screen with two ‘Halloween‘ films. Zombie is joining forces with Cold Iron Pictures’ Miranda Bailey, Amanda Marshall and Andy Gould.