Independent Film News

Actress McDormand Adds Two for Focus Features

In 1996, Frances McDormand won an Oscar for her role in Fargo. Since (and even before) then, she's been as reliable an actress as an oak is a tree. You know she'll always deliver, always be a talent on screen no matter who she's sharing it with.

Now, Variety reports that the actress is poised to take on something she's not as used to. She's signed with Focus Features to star in not one but two films for the studio. In April, she begins filming "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day." After that, she's signed up for Burn After Reading.

Pettigrew is based on a period comic novel by Winifred Watson; she's a governess in 1938 who's forced to deal with her songstress employer's indiscresions.

Only a few more details are available about Reading, perhaps because McDormand's married to one half of the directing team. Helmed by the Coen brothers, she'll co-star with George Clooney. It's "a dark comedy about the CIA," according to the industry mag.

Focus Features has been behind movies like Brokeback Mountain, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lost in Translation. Depending on how these two flicks turn out, we could likely have more McDormand talk on Oscar weekend in a couple of years.

Posted by Lisa on February 23, 2007 05:58 PM
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