Kristen Stewart & Elizabeth Banks Join Jim Sturgess In 'Secretary' Director Steven Shainberg's 'The Big Shoe'
When we put together
our "where are they now" list of directors who'd gone years without making a film, one of the ones who didn't quite make the cut, but came very close, was
Steven Shainberg. The filmmaker's second film "
Secretary" was one of the more enduring indie cult classics of the first half of the '00s, but his follow-up, "
Fur," with
Nicole Kidman and
Robert Downey Jr., wasn't embraced by either critics or audiences, and seven years have passed since that film.
Much of that time has been spent trying to make the comedy-drama "
The Big Shoe," about a foot-fetishist who's also a gifted shoe designer trying to get away from his overbearing family. A few years ago, the film was
attracting the attention of
Joaquin Phoenix and
Mia Wasikowska, but never quite came together. Fortunately, it got a new lease on life last year as
Jim Sturgess took the lead role. And now two more high-profile cast members have joined, as
Deadline reports that
Kristen Stewart and
Elizabeth Banks have come on board the film.
Banks will play a psychotherapist hired by Sturgess' character's family, while Stewart will play his muse, Delphi. Interestingly, there's no mention of
Susan Sarandon, who last year was mentioned as playing Sturgess' mother -- presumably she's fallen off the film. The film's being shopped at the
European Film Market in Berlin this week, and hopefully financing will come together fairly quickly; it sounds like a fitting successor to "Secretary," and with a pretty promising cast.