“I Play Rocky” hasn’t even hit theaters yet, and the town is jonesing for the next throwback Hollywood story.
It turns out one potential project is hitting the market Friday about the life and career of Elia Kazan, the legendary director who intersected with the gods of Hollywood’s Golden era, including Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and Jimmy Dean. (Sorry, Madonna’s Vogue just got in my head!)
Barry Levinson, another legend who took home the best director Oscar for 1988’s “Rain Man,” is attached to direct “A Life,” based on the late Kazan’s 1988 memoir. Levinson wrote the screenplay with newcomer Jina Umakanthan.
Here’s where it gets meta. Gene Kirkwood, who produced the original “Rocky” and is featured as a character in “I Play Rocky” (played by Damian Conrad-Davis, best known for portraying James Caan in “The Offer”), is producing the Kazan pic.
The project traces Kazan’s extraordinary life, from Greek immigrant destined for a career in the rug business to the pinnacle of old Hollywood glamour and depicts a who’s-who of Tinseltown stars who collaborated with Kazan on the stage and screen including Vivien Leigh, Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty. (Before Scooter Braun can do it, may we float Sydney Sweeney, whose breakout came via Barry’s son Sam’s “Euphoria,” to play Monroe!)
As the helmer of some of the greatest film classics — from “On the Waterfront” to “A Face in the Crowd” and “East of Eden” — Kazan sits in the pantheon of cinematic masters. But his career wasn’t without controversy. In 1952, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of the Hollywood blacklist.
Once we caught wind of the Kazan project, we called Levinson — the elder and not his wunderkind offspring — and asked about what appealed to him about tackling the complicated genius.
“There’s nobody that can rival him,” says Levinson, whose own films — such as “The Natural” and “Diner” — drew inspiration from Kazan. “There was something he was always dealing with, the complexity of man in some ways. The imperfect nature of man.”
He says he has not spoken to Kazan’s granddaughter Zoe Kazan, whose own take on “East of Eden” just debuted this month. But he’s not opposed to it either.
Levinson met Elia once, perhaps in the late ’90s or early aughts at some industry gathering.
“We’re sitting across from one another at the dinner table. I was so in awe of him. I really couldn’t talk. I was just so intimidated, to be honest,” Levinson recalls. “At one point, he looked at me and he said, ‘You look like a director.’”
Frozen, Levinson just nodded silently.
