What with the new Broadway version of his 1990 Johnny Depp vehicle, Cry-Baby, and the hit film of the hit musical of his 1988 indie hit Hairspray keeping him busy, John Waters hasn’t had a chance to actually write and direct a new movie since 2004...and considering said movie was A Dirty Shame and the one before that was Cecil B. Demented, I haven’t exactly been holding my breath.
But Perez Hilton blogged Thursday that Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey are now attached to Waters' next project, the Christmas comedy Fruitcake.
According to Perez and THR.com, the film (originally set up at Waters’ alma mater, New Line) is being produced by Killer Films, That Is That Productions and, possibly, ThinkFilm. The plot has something to do with “a boy named after his favorite dessert” who “runs away from home during the holidays after he and his parents are caught shoplifting meat, then meets up with a runaway girl raised by two gay men and searching for her birth mother.”
After more than four decades in the film business, it’s astonishing how amateurish Waters’ recent cinematic output has been, but here’s ho-ho-hoping the Christmas motif of Fruitcake will inspire him to raise the bar at least as high as Pecker (1998), arguably his last truly coherent film.
At the very least, Waters' talk-show P.R. tour should liven up the holidays considerably...so, God bless us, every one!