casting couch

Elle Fanning May Lead Belle & Sebastian Front Man’s Musical Film

HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 12: Actress Elle Fanning arrives at the 17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards held at The Hollywood Palladium on January 12, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Photo: Jason Merritt/2012 Getty Images

Once merely a mini-Fanning, now an entity all her own, Elle Fanning (Super 8, Somewhere, We Bought a Zoo) is in talks to star in God Help the Girl, a film musical written and directed by Scottish Belle & Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch. The project, which has been in the works since 2003, features a story already told via a studio album, two EPs, and three singles, and has raised more than $120,000 on Kickstarter for its transition to the screen. Variety writes that casting has “spanned the globe” and also landed on British actor Olly Alexander (the Jack Black–starring Gulliver’s Travels, a forthcoming iteration of Great Expectations). Fanning is slated to begin filming Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent several weeks after God Help the Girl begins production in Glasgow in June.

Elle Fanning May Lead Belle & Sebastian Front Man’s Musical Film