Whilst fact checking, I came across the IMDB profile of writer/producer/director Ryan Murphy. Murphy has worked both the small and big screens, and his name is the new golden ticket for success. His small screen credits include Popular, Nip/Tuck and Glee, while his big screen work includes Running with Scissors.
Murphy’s latest project is the screenplay for Eat, Pray, Love. Set to be released in 2010, the film is based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir about a woman’s journey around the world in search of herself. In the novel, Gilbert is a depressed divorcee looking for happiness. Her flourishing writing career may foot the bills, but she still spends her nights crying on the bathroom floor. Having decided to make a change, Gilbert spends one year abroad. She eats in Italy, prays in India and loves in Indonesia. Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir was a huge success, spending 110 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. Of course, her guest stint on Oprah didn’t hurt (I confess, that’s why I picked up a copy from Chapters back in ‘06). Paramount Pictures will be bringing the Penguin published book to the big screen, with Ryan Murphy writing the screenplay. The film is sure to be a hit judging by the names attached: Brad Pitt is producing the feature, Julia Roberts is set to play Elizabeth Gilbert, James Franco is rumoured to be starring in it, and Javier Bardem has signed on.
But the scribe is Hollywood’s “It” man this year for his work on the smash hit Glee. The musical dramedy airs Wednesdays on FOX and revolves around McKinley High’s Glee Club. When Spanish teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) decides to battle it out against the wicked cheer coach for Glee Club success, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. From his wife’s fake pregnancy to a teen’s real pregnancy, discrimination against minorities, to bullying and true love, Mr. Schuester encounters it all whilst teaching at McKinley High school. With musical numbers threaded throughout the show, Glee is definitely 2009’s most original series.
Ten years ago I was singing the same tune for The WB’s Popular. When the father of queen bee Brooke McQueen (Leslie Bibb) gets engaged to the mother of social outcast Sam McPherson (Carly Pope), the two Jacqueline Kennedy High school students are forced to live together. The series includes such oddball characters as the powerful and manipulative Nicole Julian (Tammy Lynn Michaels)-who reveals a softer side when she searches for her biological mother-, the desperately dorky April Tuna (Adria Dawn), and-my personal favourite-the wacky Mary Cherry (Leslie Grossman). Despite the fact that Popular only had two seasons (thanks to its Friday night death spot), the show still has a strong cult following.
From the big screen to the small screen, Ryan Murphy has done it all. His stories of social outcasts have garnered him critical acclaim, but not always mainstream success. Now that Murphy is Hollywood’s “It” man, it seems he hasn’t forgotten life outside of the in crowd.