Posted on 3/07/06 at 07:42 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source:
variety.com

Thesps set for docu on Starz!

Docu deals with gonzo journalist Thompson
By JOHN DEMPSEY


John Malone's Starz! has brought together Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Bill Murray, John Cusack and Benicio Del Toro for a documentary on the life and death of Hunter S. Thompson.

Budgeted at $500,000, "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film" is nearing completion. When writer-director Tom Thurman ("Sam Peckinpah's West") delivers the finished picture in August, Starz! will decide whether to put it in theaters to qualify for an Academy Award nomination.

"If we want to release it theatrically, we'll open it in a few film festivals so that acquisitions scouts from the distribution companies will see it," said Stephan Shelanski, senior VP of programming and acquisitions.

The Thompson docu is only one of a number of nonfiction films commissioned by Starz!, highlighted by "The Volvo Ocean Race," 32 half-hours that follow a group of actors appearing in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy who entered a boat in a round-the-world competition.

Also in production is "Going to Pieces: The Rise & Fall of the Slasher Film," a compilation docu scheduled for October that will delve into why movies like "Friday the 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream" have touched a nerve among young moviegoers.

Starz! is developing "The Face Is Familiar," another compilation movie probing the appeal of successful character actors from the beginning of the sound film to the present.