Ben Stiller is in talks to star in "I Am Chippendales," the true-life story of how the male dance club became one of the most famous adult entertainment shows in the world. The story focuses on the founding and expansion of the Chippendales nightclub by Paul Snider and Somen "Steve" Banerjee - who eventually pleaded guilty to attempted arson, racketeering and murder for hire and was found dead in his jail cell in 1994. Stiller will play Nick DeNoia, the former choreographer/partner who helped conceive the idea for the dance troupe with Banerjee and attorney Brian Nahin and played a big part in the expansion of the act on a global level. Alan Ball (Towelhead) will direct and write the script based on Rodney Sheldon's book.
- 4/2/2014
- WorstPreviews.com
Who would have thought that the wild and wonderful world of male stripping would become such fodder for major Hollywood dramas? Following the success of Steven Soderbergh’s surprisingly complex Magic Mike, the studios are finally taking the hint and producing a few more stripping-related dramas with high profile stars. Besides the upcoming sequel Magic Mike Xxl, the film I Am Chippendales, based on the book by Rodney Sheldon, will look to chart the rise of those most famous of naked artists, the Chippendale Dancers.
To this end, director Alan Ball (True Blood) has signed Ben Stiller to star as Chippendales choreographer Nick DeNoia, who helped to conceive the ideas behind the erotic dancing troupe that became so famous. I Am Chippendales will focus on the darker aspects of the male stripping world, somewhat touched on with Magic Mike, as original creators Paul Snider and Somen “Steve” Banerjee founded their...
To this end, director Alan Ball (True Blood) has signed Ben Stiller to star as Chippendales choreographer Nick DeNoia, who helped to conceive the ideas behind the erotic dancing troupe that became so famous. I Am Chippendales will focus on the darker aspects of the male stripping world, somewhat touched on with Magic Mike, as original creators Paul Snider and Somen “Steve” Banerjee founded their...
- 4/1/2014
- by Lauren Humphries-Brooks
- We Got This Covered
The male bump-and-grind is getting a new twist with Alan Ball's "I Am Chippendales," and it's possible that Ben Stiller will join the fun. Actually, the Ladies of Tampa should probably hold on to their dollar bills for now, as this biopic sounds like it's even darker than "Magic Mike." (Yeah, we'll say it. "Magic Mike" is kinda depressing!)
According to Variety, Ben Stiller is in talks to play Nicholas De Noia, a TV producer and choreographer for the original "Chippendales" who was found shot in his office in 1987. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in this crazy tale, which encompasses murder, murder-for-hire, dubious financial doings, and much more. It will be based on Rodney Sheldon's book about the franchise's beginnings, and its founders Paul Snider and Somen Banerjee. Ball, who is the mastermind behind "True Blood," "Six Feet Under," and "American Beauty," knows from sex,...
According to Variety, Ben Stiller is in talks to play Nicholas De Noia, a TV producer and choreographer for the original "Chippendales" who was found shot in his office in 1987. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in this crazy tale, which encompasses murder, murder-for-hire, dubious financial doings, and much more. It will be based on Rodney Sheldon's book about the franchise's beginnings, and its founders Paul Snider and Somen Banerjee. Ball, who is the mastermind behind "True Blood," "Six Feet Under," and "American Beauty," knows from sex,...
- 4/1/2014
- by Jenni Miller
- Moviefone
The chiseled jaw, the sweaty desperation, the theatrical rage: It's been a long time since we read a casting rumor as perfect as Ben Stiller potentially joining Alan Ball's male stripper drama I Am Chippendales. In a plot that sounds equal parts Showgirls and … more Showgirls, Chippendales follows the rise of nightclub co-founders Paul Snider and Steve Banerjee as they strike gold with their male exotic dance review. Stiller would play Chippendales choreographer Nick De Noia, whom Banerjee allegedly targeted in a murder-for-hire plot in 1987. The whole thing makes Magic Mike sound like a bunch of gyrating, oiled-up child's play that of course no child should ever be permitted to see.
- 4/1/2014
- by Halle Kiefer
- Vulture
Hollywood has been looking at the origin story of the Chippendales for years now. Directors such as Barry Sonnenfeld and Tony Scott have danced around the project but nothing has happened. Now American Beauty writer/True Blood creator Alan Ball is taking a shot with I Am Chippendales, and Ben Stiller is in talks for a key role.This will not, in case you were wondering, explain how a bunch of bodybuilders got into some radioactive baby oil and became a superhero team. The real-life story of how the male revue started is even more twisted and odd than that, focusing on Paul Snider Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the man who originated the idea for the stripping sensations. Starting out running gas stations and mudwrestling clubs, Banerjee hit pay dirt when he came up with the idea of presenting male strippers in a choreographed, brand-named touring fantasy show. But behind the...
- 3/31/2014
- EmpireOnline
Ben Stiller is in talks to star in “I Am Chippendales,” Alan Ball's fact-based feature film about the iconic male strip club. He'll play one of the club's early partners, a source close to the project said Monday. Ball will direct, produce and adapt the script from Rodney Sheldon's book for Permut Presentations and Sentinel Pictures. Also read: Ben Stiller's Red Hour Films Closes TV, Digital Pact With Legendary Television The book explores the founding and expansion of the Chippendales nightclub by Paul Snider and Somen Banerjee. Banerjee eventually pleaded guilty to attempted arson, racketeering and murder...
- 3/31/2014
- by Todd Cunningham
- The Wrap
Ben Stiller is in talks to join Alan Ball's I Am Chippendales, a film about the founding of the famous male exotic dance troupe. Ball, the former showrunner of HBO's vampire drama True Blood, will helm the pic as well as write the script based on Rodney Sheldon’s book. The story centers on Paul Snider and Somen Banerjee, founders of the dance group that eventually became one of the biggest adult entertainment shows in the world. Story: Ben Stiller-Produced Scripted Half-Hour Picked Up to Series at Comedy Central Stiller would play choreographer Nick de Noia, who helped come up
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- 3/31/2014
- by Rebecca Ford
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
We're surprised it took this long. After the smash success of "Magic Mike" in 2012, we figured Hollywood would be flooding the market with movies featuring buff dudes taking off their shirts. Well, "Magic Mike Xxl" is on the way with a director selected to take on the gig, and they'll have some competition around the stripper pole. Ben Stiller has signed up to star in "I Am Chippendales," in what sounds like a darker premise than the Channing Tatum joint. Alan Ball ("True Blood," "Six Feet Under"), adapting the book by Rodney Sheldon, will produce and direct the picture about Paul Snider and Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the men who founded the famed skin joint before arson, racketeering and murder got into the mix. Stiller will play Nick DeNoia, a choreographer who helped conceive the idea that Banerjee ran with. We certainly dig when Stiller moves toward interesting dramas rather than...
- 3/31/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Ben Stiller is eyeing a role in writer/director/producer Alan Ball's I Am Chippendales , Variety reports. Based on a manuscript by Rodney Sheldon, the film serves as a biopic of sorts for Paul Snider and Somen "Steve" Banerjee, the men who went through unlikely steps to form the popular nightclub franchise. Planned some years back for the late Tony Scott to direct, the project was then likened to Scott's True Romance and was said to chart the improbable rise and fall of Banerjee, who went from pumping gas in Culver City to running a high-end night club that evolved into Chippendales. After hiring a New York choreographer to polish the all-male dance troupe, Banerjee became wildly rich, as well as unreasonably competitive and paranoid. Stiller, who recently...
- 3/31/2014
- Comingsoon.net
There have now been any number of movies, whether documentary or fiction or docudrama, about the pornographic-film industry, including a couple of great ones (like Boogie Nights). Yet Deep Throat, the 1972 film that launched the porn revolution (and helped to kick the sexual revolution into 11th gear), marked such a seismic change in American life that it’s startling, and often quite funny, to watch Lovelace, the nimble and haunting new biopic of that film’s star, Linda Lovelace, that premiered to a very buzzy response at Sundance last night, and to realize how small-scale the whole saga really was.
- 1/23/2013
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW - Inside Movies
There are Famous Monsters…and then there are famous monsters.
Both Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were inspired by the real-life crimes of mass murderer Ed Gein; The Silence of the Lambs, book and film, incorporated character traits of multiple serial killers in the depiction of Jame Gumb, the psychopath hunted by FBI agent Clarice Starling — with a little help from the imprisoned Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, himself a (still-mysterious) amalgam of stranger-than-fiction monsters of past and present.
While the profoundly disturbing thriller Se7en reeked with authentic nihilism, and films like Dawn of the Dead and Hostel took blood-soaked pains to offer satiric commentaries on the sorry state of humanity, there’s an entire genre of films that bypass the more commercial goals of “escapism” in favor of more directly dramatizing the horrific tales we’ve read about in the newspapers, pored over in paperback, or seen described...
Both Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were inspired by the real-life crimes of mass murderer Ed Gein; The Silence of the Lambs, book and film, incorporated character traits of multiple serial killers in the depiction of Jame Gumb, the psychopath hunted by FBI agent Clarice Starling — with a little help from the imprisoned Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, himself a (still-mysterious) amalgam of stranger-than-fiction monsters of past and present.
While the profoundly disturbing thriller Se7en reeked with authentic nihilism, and films like Dawn of the Dead and Hostel took blood-soaked pains to offer satiric commentaries on the sorry state of humanity, there’s an entire genre of films that bypass the more commercial goals of “escapism” in favor of more directly dramatizing the horrific tales we’ve read about in the newspapers, pored over in paperback, or seen described...
- 3/15/2010
- by Movies Unlimited
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
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