Fox Searchlight Pictures is set to release Drew Barrymore’s Whip It! for a wide release on on October 9, 2009.
The film marks the directorial debut for Barrymore and stars Ellen Page (Juno) as Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller derby. Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) plays Bliss’ disapproving mother, while Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) and Juliette Lewis (Old School) play roller-derby stars. Whip It! also stars Eve, Jimmy Fallon, and Daniel Stern.
The film is based on the Shauna Cross novel “Derby Girl” and Cross also adapted the screenplay.
I am actually anxious to see how this one turns out. The fact Searchlight picked it up and will distribute it wide is good news for the film, but the October release is a bit of a no man’s land territory so I guess we will just have to wait and see. Of course, this year’s October has the potential to be quite strong with the Coens’ A Serious Man and Scorsese’s Shutter Island opening on October 2, Where the Wild Things Are on the 16th and then Amelia on the 23rd. It’s beginning to look like there isn’t a month worth over-looking any longer as even March has been staked out for at least one blockbuster each year and Taken made January look like a month worth owning in 2009 as did Paul Blart: Mall Cop. If you make (and it’s decent) they will come.
