Possible Casting: ‘Playboy Club’ Star Naturi Naughton In ‘The Wolverine’, Kevin James In Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Frank Or Francis’
A couple of bits of interesting but as-yet-unconfirmed casting news have cropped up this weekend. One concernsNaturi Naughton, star of NBC’s upcoming seriesThe Playboy Club, who may be joining forces withHugh JackmaninThe Wolverine; the other, frequent Adam Sandler collaboratorKevin James, who could be working with directorCharlie KaufmaninFrank or Francis. More details on both projects after the jump.
Naughton is best known for being one-third of R&B group 3LW, but has recently been branching out into acting. In the last few years, she’s had starring roles inNotorious(playing real-life rapper Lil' Kim),Fame, andLottery Ticket; recently, she had a small part in the last season ofMad Menas (minor spoiler) a Playboy Bunny dating Lane Pryce (Jared Harris). As mentioned previously, she’ll be playing another Playboy Bunny in another ’60s-set TV series when she stars as Brenda inThe Playboy Club, which premieres this fall.
The reason I’m taking the allegedWolverinenews with a huge grain of salt for now is that it’s difficult to tell where the information is coming from. It looks likeShadow and Actwas the first to break the news, but they don’t reveal their source. We’ll keep you posted if we get further confirmation on the story; for now, it’s best to just consider it a rumor.
Much stranger and, in my opinion, more intriguing is the rumored casting of James inFrank or Francis, the second directorial effort bySynecdoche, New Yorkhelmer Kaufman.Jack Black,Nicolas Cage, andSteve Carellare alreadyattachedto star in the film, which follows the feud between a Hollywood director (Frank) and a critical blogger (Francis).
The Playlistrecently got their hands on the script, and according to them, it includes a role written especially for James. James would play Kevin James, a fictionalized version of himself who stars in the film-within-a-filmObese Cityand goes on to present at the Academy Awards. Perhaps James could take some tips from John Malkovich, who played himself to wonderful effect in the Kaufman-pennedBeing John Malkovich.
The catch here is that we haven’t actually heard anything about James being cast inFrank or Francis. All we know is that he was originally written into the script. At this point, it’s still very possible the character could be rewritten for a different actor. If James does sign on, though, it’d be an exciting and unexpected move by an actor generally known for critically reviled lowbrow comedies likePaul Blart: Mall CopandThe Zookeeper. I, for one, am hoping it’ll happen — it’s always interesting to see an established actor trying something completely different, and he’ll be in good hands with Kaufman.
