Fan Forum - View Single Post - Francesca (The Sophomore/Assassination of a High School President) 08: BRUCE WILLIS?!

**Cristofle** · 06-14-2007, 08:53 PM

Mischa is currently filming this movie in New Jersey- she's got a big role, so we're very excited about it!

Mischa Barton To Join Willis, Thornton In "The Sophomore"

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (June 14, 2007) - Mischa Barton is joining the cast of "The Sophomore," also starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton, Access Hollywood has learned.
The film originally had the working title, “"Assassination of a High School President."
Barton, best known for playing Marissa Cooper for three seasons on television’s “The O.C.,” has 5 films slated for 2007 (according to IMDB) – “Closing The Ring,” “Virgin Territory,” “Don’t Fade Away,” “St. Trinian’s,” and “Malice In Sunderland.”

Source: Access Hollywood | Mischa Barton To Join Willis, Thornton In "The Sophomore" | Celebrity and Hollywood News

Here are two kind of plot descriptions of the movie, along with the mention of Francesca:

Quote:

The comedy, set in a Catholic high school, will follow Bobby Funke, a bullied sophomore investigating the theft of the school's SAT exams for St. Dominick's newspaper. Willis will play principal John T. Kirkpatrick, a Desert Storm veteran fond of recounting pungent anecdotes from his time liberating Kuwait and barking inspiring speeches such as: "Gentlemen, you are filth. Your parents have either spoiled or abused you to such a degree that your hearts have become black and lifeless. Your brains are warped, your souls doomed. There is no hope for any of you."

The movie is based on an original script by first-time writers Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski. Brett Simon will make his feature film debut.

Quote:

Bruce Willis, who has a knack for picking memorable supporting roles (see: "Fast Food Nation," "Nobody's Fool"), has just snagged himself another juicy one. The 52-year-old actor has signed on to play the ultimate intimidating principal in "Assassination of a High School President," a hot original script written by first-time scribes Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski that landed on a list of the most-liked screenplays late last year.

A comedic homage to "Chinatown" set in a Catholic high school, "Assassination" is replete with surprising twists, duplicitous characters and a wry, hard-boiled voice-over delivered by Bobby Funke, a bullied sophomore investigating the theft of the school's SAT exams for St. Dominick's newspaper. Of course, this leads to broader conspiracies, and no one is without a secret agenda. Throw in fart jokes, wet willies, beer pong and lunchroom class war and it's "All the President's Teenagers."

(Though the violence in the script is minimal, it remains to be seen if the killing spree at Virginia Tech will effect changes to it.)

Yari Film Group optioned Jakubowski and Calpin's screenplay last fall, and Willis has signed a pay-or-play deal to shoot the film in July for video and commercial director Brett Simon, making his feature film debut. Willis will play principal John T. Kirkpatrick, a Desert Storm veteran fond of recounting pungent anecdotes from his time liberating Kuwait and barking inspiring speeches such as: "Gentlemen, you are filth. Your parents have either spoiled or abused you to such a degree that your hearts have become black and lifeless. Your brains are warped, your souls doomed. There is no hope for any of you."

"That is Kevin's and my amalgamation of what we thought the student-to-faculty dynamic was, which is very warlike," says Calpin, who with Jakubowski is a product of the Catholic education system. "The great part is, it might be what teachers actually thought of Kevin and me."

The hipness of the screenplay's concept and tone echo the high school environs of John Hughes movies. That, and the popularity of Simon's music videos, have prompted many of the industry's hottest young actors — Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan, among others — to show interest in Francesca, the femme fatale. (Willis' 18-year-old daughter, Rumer, last seen in "Hostage," will appear in a supporting role.)

The script I sped through was a fast and funny read. A riff on "JFK," "All the President's Men" and Robert Towne's neo-noir classic, "Assassination" contains dialogue richly peppered with the stupidly slangy put-downs of the teen years, and it's more accessibly stylized than last year's "Brick," a previous dramatic attempt to set a noir in a modern-day high school. The plot is intriguingly convoluted, and Calpin, 27, and Jakubowski, 28 — former assistants on "South Park" — make great use of the locales, relentless humiliations and social hierarchies of the high school snake pit.

"Everything mattered so much when you were in high school — that's your world," Jakubowski says, "and something that would happen to a student council president is as big as if the actual president was assassinated."

Pictures of Mischa on the set