Ragesh Dipu
Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield are on board to star in the upcoming biopic ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye.’ The Fox Searchlight production is directed by ‘The Big Sick’ director Michael Showalter. According to Variety, the movie is based on the documentary ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. The 2000 film chronicles the spectacular real-life story of the televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Garfield and Chastain play the couple in the upcoming feature version.
The 70s and 80s saw Jim and Tammy’s exponential rise as the two of the most popular televangelists. They even built the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and a theme park. Tammy Faye was known as the Queen of Eyelashes for her indelible eyelashes, her amazing voice and acceptance. She embraced all kinds of people from every walks of life. Tammy’s work among the LGBT community during the peak time of AIDs wave earned her more visibility.
On the other hand, her husband Jim built up an empire around the couple’s charisma and fan following. But everything collapsed after a series of revelations about financial irregularities and a sexual assault allegation against Jim surfaced. The controversies tore their marriage apart and it was the beginning of the end of their empire.
Michael Showalter directs the movie from a screenplay written by Abe Sylvia. Chastain also serves as the producer along with Kelly Carmichael. Their banner Freckle Films produces the movie in association with Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane’s Madison Wells Media. Jordana Mollick also joins the project as an executive producer.
Director Showalter is known for the 2017 romantic drama ‘The Big Sick,’ starring Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, and the 2015 Netflix series ‘Wet Hot American Summer.’ Both Showalter and Chastain are reportedly developing an untitled comedy for Universal. The movie features Chastain and Octavia Spencer in the lead roles. Michael Showalter’s latest outing as a director was the rom-com ‘The Lovebirds,’ starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani.
Chastain has an impressive upcoming movie line-up ahead, which includes the long-awaited ‘X-Men‘ spin-off ‘Dark Phoenix‘ and ‘It: Chapter 2,’ the sequel of 2017 horror epic ‘It.’ The first look trailer of ‘It: Chapter 2‘ petrified the social media when it was unveiled on Thursday. Chastain also has the action flick ‘Eve‘ in the pipeline, which reunites the actress with the director of her critically acclaimed 2011 movie ‘The Help,’ Tate Taylor.
Meanwhile, Garfield is consumed with his Broadway schedule. The actor won the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in a Broadway revival of ‘Angels in America.’ A couple of days back he has joined the upcoming musical ‘Instrumental’ directed by James Marsh. Garfield was last in David Robert Mitchell’s ‘Under the Silver Lake.’
