After a documentary and a Broadway play, the story of Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier will also become an HBO Film. Originally planned as a feature film, Grey Gardens will go into production starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. Though it may have a theatrical run as well, HBO Films is the producer.
The first incarnation of the story, Albert Maysles’ 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, followed the mother and daughter pair after they came close to being kicked out of their East Hampton mansion. The house, called Grey Gardens, was raided by the Suffolk County Health Department, where they found raccoons, rats, piles of garbage, no heat or running water, and nearly 50 cats. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Little Edie’s cousin and Big Edie’s niece, stepped in to help the two clean up the mansion and allowed them to stay. Little Edie went on to become a nightclubsinger in Manhattan.
The Edies’ story recently won raves as the Broadway musical Grey Gardens, starring Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. Both won Tonys for their roles before the play closed in June. Lange will step into Wilson’s role as Big Edie, while Barrymore will play Little Edie, though the feature version will not be a musical.
I’ve had my eye on the Grey Gardens project for a while now as part of my other job, and was wondering whether or not a feature film version could stand up after the musical’s massive success (of course, maybe I think it was massive just because I live in New York, the only place in America where people actually care about Broadway). I’m not sure it’s a good sign that the film has been redirected to HBO-- this summer’s As You Like It was also originally intended for the big screen, and mixed reviews when it aired on HBO indicate it may never have made it in theaters. Who knows, though? After watching the Emmys on Sunday, where a whole slew of TV movies I didn’t watch and had never even heard of racked up Emmy after Emmy, I realized that TV movies can have major quality and, apparently, fans. Barrymore and Lange can obviously do a lot when given good material, and the story of the Edies has proven fascinating for decades now. Let’s just hope HBO knows what to do with it.
