2007 an A-list year for sought-after star
IMTA Press Release
April 27, 2007
Paramount’s “Next” opening nationwide Friday, April 27
“Being someone I'm not for a period of time and loving every minute of being in someone else's skin.” — Jessica Biel, on why she loves acting.
In “Next,” Nicolas Cage plays a man with the unique ability to see future events and affect their outcome. Pursued by the FBI, which is seeking to use his abilities to prevent a global terrorist threat, he is ultimately faced with the daunting choice of saving the world or the woman he loves—who just happens to be IMTA alum Jessica Biel. Based on the Philip K. Dick story “The Golden Man,” Next is a major step for Biel in a year movie pundits predict will see her solidified as one of the next big names in Hollywood—with a little help from her A-list costars, Hollywood heavyweights Cage and Julianne Moore.
In the past few years, Biel has appeared in a diverse group of films that have made her one of Hollywood’s most sought-after stars, from action/adventure (“Stealth,” “Blade: Trinity”) to period mystery (“The Illusionist”), horror (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) to drama (“Home of the Brave”), with romantic comedy (“Elizabethtown”) thrown in as well. 2007 will be no exception to Biel’s showing her acting range. The year began with an appearance in “Your Mommy Kills Animals,” which premiered at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and is slated for nationwide release on June 6. The documentary features interviews with celebrities such as Biel, Joss Stone, Katherine Heigl, Moby, Betty White and Jorja Fox, among many others, and has been hailed by critics as “an easy Oscar contender.” The film is an in-depth look at the animal rights movement and the FBI's recent declaration calling them the number one domestic terrorist threat to the US.
Biel recently completed filming on “Hole in the Paper Sky,” a short film based on Howard Kingkade’s dramatic screenplay and on which she is also a producer. The story centers on a Ph.D. Math student (Jason Clarke from the Showtime TV series “Brotherhood”) who risks all in order to save his friend’s life. After a premier in Los Angeles, the film will be entered into various national and international film competitions. The comedy “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” opens July 20 and Biel co-stars with Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Buscemi and Richard Chamberlain. The plot of the feature revolves around two straight, single Philadelphia firefighters who pretend to be a gay couple in order to receive domestic partner benefits.
Biel, who attended IMTA in 1994, has two other A-list feature projects in the works: voicing a character in the DreamWorks Animation comedy “Route 66” alongside Christian Slater, Kim Basinger, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Malkovich, Thora Birch, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Matthew McConaughey, and “A Woman of No Importance” (based on Oscar Wilde’s play) with Sean Bean and Annette Benning.