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Ask AfterEllen.com (Jan. 6, 2009)

Taking a page from our friends at AfterElton.com, who have a weekly entertainment column called “Ask the Flying Monkey,” we’re introducing a weekly column to answer your entertainment-related questions.

Want to know the status of a particular movie, TV show, or band? Wondering what a certain actress is up to these days? Want to know if someone is openly gay? (We won’t out anyone, but we’ll let you know what they’ve said publicly.)

Send your questions to [email protected] – with your first name, city and country – and Karman Kregloe and I will try to hunt down the answers for you (we’ll trade off writing this column each week). Not all questions will be answered, and it may take a few weeks to answer some of them, but we’ll try to get to as many as we can.

Note: this isn’t a personal advice column – please post your dating/coming-out questions in the advice section of our forum.

Question: Has [director] Angela Robinson announced plans to make a sequel to the movie D.E.B.S.?

Sarah, Olathe, Kansas Answer: I sent your question to Angela this weekend, and here’s what she emailed back:

Plans for D.E.B.S. 2 are on the back burner for now due to lack of financing.

I outlined a sequel which continues the adventures of the D.E.B.S. – the D.E.B.S. Academy is attacked by Lucy Diamond’s former gang, led by her ex-girlfriend from Australia, and the D.E.B.S. need to go track down Lucy and Amy to help them fight this greater evil – and also a prequel – How Lucy Diamond came to be Lucy Diamond, her first romance, etc. If you or your readers happen to know any rich lesbians/D.E.B.S. fans who have a few million dollars sitting around that did not disappear in the financial meltdown, I’d be happy to make it.

I’ve been so inspired by the Buffy Season 8 comic books, I’m looking into doing the sequel as a comic.

So it looks like you’re more likely to see a D.E.B.S. sequel – or prequel – in a comic book store, before a theater.

Q: What’s the deal with the L Word spin-off? It was originally announced that it was going to run online, but now I’m hearing that’s it’s going to be on TV. Which is it?

Tanya, Cleveland, Ohio

A: The original plan was to debut the spin-off (starring Leisha Hailey and tentatively titled The Farm) on the internet, with the option to run it on TV if it was successful online.

But since that announcement, the strategy has changed. The Farm is now being produced as a pilot that Showtime will run on air as a TV movie, then decide whether to pick up and turn into a full series.

Although the majority of pilots ordered by a network don’t become series, The Farm would seem to have a leg-up on the competition due to its built-in fan base from The L Word.

Whether that fan base will transfer to such a radically different premise (women in prison) remains to be seen; how well the plot twist of the The L Word‘s final season goes over with fans may give us a hint.

For the latest casting news and rumors about The Farm, read this blog post.

NEXT PAGE: Not Easily Broken, Push, Watchmen, and more 2009 movies

Q: What movies can we look forward to in 2009?

Mel, Vancouver B.C., Canada

A: Movies with actual lesbian/bi characters appear to be few and far between this year, at least theatrically. In fact, theatrical releases don’t appear to offer much by way of great roles for women this year – for a change.

Much of the 2009 theatrical release schedule is dominated by high-concept male-lead pictures which relegate women to small supporting roles, like Defiance, Taken, The Pink Panther 2, and The International; or movies about guys acting juvenile or trying to get laid, like Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Fanboys, Youth in Revolt, and Fired Up.

The few big-budget films coming up with strong female leads are stereotypical movies about women, like Bride Wars, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and He’s Just Not That Into You. The latter is based on the self-help book of the same name and has a great ensemble cast which includes Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, and Ginnifer Goodwin – but I’m not sure whether that’s encouraging, or depressing. There are a few films being theatrically released in the first quarter of the year that look intriguing.

Not Easily Broken (Jan. 9) stars Taraji P. Henson and Morris Chestnut as a married couple whose relationships is tested after a car accident (Maeve Quinlan also stars). Great cast, interesting plot.

Push (Feb. 6) is a sci-fi thriller about a group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities, with a cast that includes Camilla Bell and Dakota Fanning. Yes, it sounds like a Heroes rip-off, but the trailer looks promising, and it’s interesting to see Fanning in a more grown-up role:  

Then there’s the much-blogged-about B-movie spoof Bitch Slap (Feb. 15), which looks funny and actually has some lesbian content.

If you’re into horror movies (which admittedly, I’m not), you might want to check out The Unborn (Jan. 9), which stars Odette Yustman (Cloverfield), Megan Good (D.E.B.S.), and Carla Gugino (Sin City); and The Uninvited (Jan. 30), which stars Elizabeth Banks (W., Definitely, Maybe) and Emily Browning (Lemony Snicket).

Finally, graphic novel fans are anxiously awaiting the cinematic adaptation of Watchmen (tentatively scheduled for March 6, although there’s an ongoing legal battle between studios that may delay its release), about a vigilante investigation into the murder of an ex-superhero. Unfortunately, only one of the superheroes is a woman – played by Malin Akerman (27 Dresses) – but she can cause a lot of trouble all on her own! There are also the formulaic romantic comedies New in Town and All About Steve (March 6), starring Renee Zellwegger and Sandra Bullock, respectively, which look amusing but predictable.

NEXT PAGE: The best new TV shows debuting this year

Q: What are the best new TV shows debuting this year?

– Cygnia, New York, NY

A: Over the holiday break, I finally had time to watch screeners of some of the upcoming series, and there are two shows that stood out for me.

First is The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, co-produced by the BBC and HBO and debuting in America on HBO as a 13-episode series in March.

Grammy-winning neo-soul singer Jill Scott (Why Did I Get Married?) is mesmerizing as the lead, and Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls) is delightful as her quirky secretary. The acting, writing, and Botswana setting work together seamlessly to create a drama that is serious but playful, and altogether a joy to watch. This is so unique – a series revolving around a black woman? who isn’t super-thin? set in Africa? – that I can’t quite believe it’s actually going to be airing in America.

Speaking of shows that might be too good to be on U.S. television – my second favorite upcoming show is Better Off Ted, the ABC workplace comedy that has yet to be scheduled, but is slated for sometime in the Spring.

A whimsical comedy about an ethically challenged American company that makes everything from weaponized pumpkins to edible steel, it feels like Pushing Daisies-meets-The Office, with an extra dose of black humor.

I didn’t expect to like this comedy based on the title alone, but I laughed several times watching the pilot, and had to watch it more than once to catch all the clever lines. Jay Harrington (Coupling) is good as in the title role; throw in Portia de Rossi as the boss, and Andrea Anders (The Class) as a creamer-stealing QA chief, and I’m hooked!

One show that doesn’t look so good? The Joss Whedon/Eliza Dushku drama Dollhouse (Fox), which I suspect won’t even last a full season. Good idea, bad execution. Such a waste.

Q: I was wondering if you had anything about Shiri Appleby’s To Love and Die movie/series. I just saw the pilot/TV movie on USA, but found nothing of substance about it on the web, even on the official website. The movie was entertaining and has potential … It has a character called Eddie, portrayed by Christine Adams as a sort of James Bond’s “Q” with gadgets (I know, stereotypical name and profession, but she is gorgeous and has a killer accent).

– AG, Houston, Texas A: I DVR’d one of USA’s middle-of-the-night showings of this TV movie/pilot episode after getting your email, and found it – and Christine Adams’s bi character – as enjoyable as you did.

USA Networks announced in 2007 that they had ordered 12 episodes of this series about a woman (Roswell‘s Shiri Appleby) who discovers the father she never knew is an assassin, and decides to join the family trade. Shortly after the episodes began filming, the writer’s strike happened and production was halted.

USA subsequently turned the pilot for To Love and Die into a TV movie, and aired it on Dec. 30 with almost no advance promotion. That doesn’t bode well, and neither does the fact that the show’s official page is listed in the “movies” section on USA’s site, and doesn’t mention anything about subsequent episodes. Requests to USA Network’s PR department by various press outlets (including this one) have gone unanswered.

So unfortunately, it seems unlikely we’ll see the rest of the episodes anytime soon, but I’ll keep an eye out and let you know if anything changes. (If any readers know more about the show’s fate, let us know via email or in the comments!)

NEXT PAGE: The Dusty Springfield movie, and Ashley Judd

Q: Any update on the Dusty Springfield movie Kristin Chenoweth is starring in besides what Kristin said about it in her interview last month?

– Sinclair, Amsterdam

A: According to industry sources, the film (which we first reported on in 2005) is very much on the fast track, and out writer/director Jessica Sharzer has just turned in a polish of her screenplay.

But Viacom and CBS reportedly have a competing project in the works produced by CSI star Jorja Fox and based on the live stage show Stay Forever: The Life and Music, written by and starring Kirsten Holly Smith. (Fox produced the stage show at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s Renberg Theater.)

Q: I saw Ashley Judd’s name on the list of people attending Obama’s inauguration ceremony, and it got me wondering what she’s doing these days. Is she still acting?

Tracy, London, England A: Although she starred in the recent horror flick Bug, Ashley’s been spending more time as an activist than an actor in the last few years.

Judd is a prominent women’s right activist, serving as a global ambassador for YouthAIDS, a board member of Population Services International, and a global ambassador for its Five & Alive initiative, which aims to improve the health of children under five.

She garnered a flurry of press attention in September for saying that women voting for the McCain-Plain ticket were like “chickens voting for Colonel Sanders” (referring to McCain’s record on reproductive health issues).

But the plight of poor children in Africa is the cause Judd appears to be most passionate about. Her online diary about her experiences in Rwanda and Congo got a lot of pick-up, and Newsweek‘s Christopher Dickey wrote after interviewing her in late October, “I’ve talked to any number of stars who’ve adopted causes, but she was the first I’d interviewed since Audrey Hepburn back in 1992 whose descriptions of what she saw made me see the suffering for myself.” She has not left acting behind, though – Ashley appears in three films slated to debut in 2009.

The first and most promising is the indie drama Helen, written and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck, in which Judd stars as a talented music professor, wife (Goran Visnjic plays her husband), and mother whose struggle with clinical depression is helped by friendship with a female student, played by Lauren Lee Smithaka Lara the Soup Chef from The L Word. (Although the two women share a kiss in the trailer, don’t get too excited – it isn’t that kind of friendship.) The movie debuts at Sundance later this month. (Random trivia: Gillian Anderson was originally cast as the lead, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.)

Next is Crossing Over, a serious and controversial drama about illegal immigration. The film co-stars Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, and Sean Pean and is currently set to debut on Feb. 27. (Watch the trailer here.)

Finally, she has a small role in the upcoming film Tooth Fairy (November 2009), as the girlfriend of the main character played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a minor-league hockey player who is sentenced to serve a week as a real-life tooth fairy. (Yes, someone seriously pitched that plot, and a studio actually bought it. Oy.)

Judd is also trying her hand at screenwriting, adapting Robin Morgan’s novel The Burning Time about an Irish priestess who refuses to take orders from the Catholic Church during the time of the Inquisition. But no word on when or if that screenplay will make it to production.

For more photos and news about Ashley, check out the fan site ashley-judd.com.

NEXT PAGE: an update on Y: The Last Man movie

Q: What’s the latest on the movie version of the Y: The Last Man graphic novel series? I know Brian K. Vaughan is working on it, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed…

Shelby, Billings, Montana

A: You’re in luck! ComingSoon.com just asked director D.J. Caruso about the status of the project just last week.

First, a quick rundown of the comic/movie for those of you not familiar with it: Y: The Last Man is about a mysterious plague that has killed every man on earth except Yorick Brown (and his monkey Ampersand), and his attempts to outrun a tribe man-hating Amazons and find his girlfriend Beth in Australia, while figuring out (with the help of a female bio-engineer) who/what caused the “gendercide,” why he survived, and how to repopulate the planet. The Israeli army is also a factor in the story (they’re now most organized group on the planet, since they were the most gender-integrated military group before the plague). There are lesbian characters in the series, including in the first five issues (which the movie version is based on), but their sexual orientation isn’t revealed until later in the series, which means there’s a good chance this information won’t make it into the movie, either.

Shia LaBeouf (Transformers, Disturbia) has reportedly been cast in the lead role. No other casting news has been announced, but one of the producers is eyeing Alicia Keys for the prominent role of Agent 355, a who is Yorick’s protector and guide. Here’s what Caruso told ComingSoon about the status of the film, which has yet to start production:

I think it’s one of those that the source material is fantastic stuff, it’s great, but it’s a tough one to lick into getting into a screenplay. I’ve tried to feel like it’s a trilogy of movies and I think everyone sort of agrees, but at the same time, just getting the first movie right and getting the right beats and knowing what to put in, it’s been really tough … I know it’s a slow process, but I think eventually we’ll get it. We’re going to get it and we’ll get it right, but we had a pretty good breakthrough a couple weeks ago in the final act, and hopefully we’ll get there…I think we’ll probably do [another movie first] if we don’t get the [Y] script going soon, but we’ll see. I have not found a movie that’s there yet. I just think if we turn in Y after the holiday and it came in and got going quick then it would be up for sure. I’m open to it, but I need to eventually make a living.
In other words, don’t look for it in a theater near you anytime soon.

In September, Carus told FirstShowing.net a little about his plans for adapting the storyline:

Initially [the movie will] open very similar to what you know in the opening book basically, with Yorick and Beth. And ultimately when it all goes down, we jump to 6 or 8 weeks later, and sort of take that world there. In the montage of when it’s all happening, we do see what happens in China, we do have little vignettes of things that are happening all over the world. And then from that point on, in the first movie, it then stays in Yorick’s journey to get to – with 355 as they try get across – and find the doctor and losing Ampersand… It’s global in that you see what happens, but it doesn’t go out and further.
I finally got around to reading several issues of Y: The Last Man over the holidays, and I can see why Caruso’s having trouble. It’s a great series, but it will be very tricky to condense the storyline into a movie without losing its complexity, and without making many of the characters one-dimensional.

I’m especially concerned about how the graphic novel’s “band of Amazons” are going to be portrayed on the big screen, since they are already pretty close to being caricatures of man-hating feminists in the comic. This could easily turn into a movie about a man, his monkey, and his sexy sidekick on the run from killer feminists.

But Brian K. Vaughan (who co-created the comic series with Pia Guerra) is helping with the script, and he usually includes good female characters in his stories, as well as gay and lesbian characters and storylines. So I’ll remain cautiously optimistic – for now.

Have a question for us? Email it to [email protected], and look for a new edition of “Ask AfterEllen.com” next Tuesday.

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