Ask and you shall receive. A couple weeks ago I had some flash of memory about Crackpot, the new Elaine May feature––her first since Ishtar, released during Ronald Reagan’s Presidency––announced in November 2019 with Dakota Johnson attached. A historic number of things transpired in the immediate months hence, four years came to feel like 25, and any and all notice of it turned to dust. In other words: I just wondered if there was some chance.
Not even ten hours later Ben Mekler implored anyone interviewing Johnson on her Madame Web tour to yield an update. Doing the necessary footwork, Brazilian journalist Thiago Gelli did just that. And as she stated:
“We are trying to get that done. It’s so hard to get any movies made ever, at all, but I’m producing it and Elaine will direct it and I’ll star in it, and we’re working on casting.”
That’s the long and short of it––no sense of who might join, when things could ramp up, even what the film’s about. But at this moment Johnson’s only known obligation is Celine Song’s The Materialists, which is expected to roll cameras shortly. Though I won’t be so bold (or foolish) to think the stars are aligning, this coming more than four years on and as a seemingly open schedule presents itself: good enough.