Broccoli’s latest project: The Kid Stays in the Picture

Barbara Broccoli

Barbara Broccoli has another non-Bond project lined up, a stage production of The Kid Stays in the Picture about movie executive and producer Robert Evans.

Broccoli, along with half-brother Michael G. Wilson, Patrick Milling Smith and Brian Carmody, are the producers of the play. Broccoli and Wilson are the co-bosses of Eon Productions, which make James Bond films.

Evans, 86, started as an actor before working behind the camera. One of his early roles was in 1957’s Man of a Thousand Faces, a James Cagney movie about Lon Chaney. Evans played film producer Irving Thalberg. He later became a movie mogul in real life as an executive at Paramount. He shifted to being a producer of movies such as Chinatown and Marathon Man.

Along the way, Evans led a colorful life, including marrying actresses Camilla Sparv and Ali McGraw as well as pleading guilty to cocaine trafficking. The title of the play comes from his 1994 autobiography, which was turned into a 2002 documentary.

The play adaptation will run March 7 to April 8 at the Royal Court Theatre in London’s West End.

For producer Broccoli, this is her second recent project dealing with the life of a Hollywood figure. She’s also a producer of Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, in which Annette Bening plays actress Gloria Grahame. That film is in post-production. Wilson isn’t involved in the movie.

Annette Bening to star in a non-007 film for Broccoli

Annette Bening

Annette Bening will star in a non-007 movie for producer Barbara Broccoli, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, VARIETY REPORTED.

Here’s an excerpt:

Shooting will begin in the U.K. on June 27 with Paul McGuigan (“Sherlock”) directing. The production will take place at Pinewood Studios and on location in London and Liverpool.

The story is based on the memoir by British actor Peter Turner and follows the playful but passionate relationship between Turner and the eccentric Academy Award-winning actress Gloria Grahame. What starts as a vibrant affair between a legendary femme fatale and her young lover grows into a deeper relationship.

Broccoli, of late, has been accelerating her non-James Bond projects. In February, it was announced Eon Productions formed a “creative alliance” with Cove Pictures to develop television projects.

Meanwhile, Bond 25 can’t really proceed until there’s a studio to release it. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2010, doesn’t have the resources to release a movie. Sony Pictures has released the last four 007 films but its contract expired with SPECTRE.