"Neve Campbell to play 1920s star Louise Brooks"

Neve Campbell to play 1920s star Louise Brooks

Canadian Press
April 27, 2004 8:33 PM ET

VANCOUVER — Canadian actress Neve Campbell, who recently finished three days of work on Reefer Madness, the musical version of the 1936 cult pot howler being shot here for Showtime, says she's not sure what's next.

"I don't really like anything I'm reading," says Campbell, whose younger brother Christian is in the Reefer cast along with Tony winner Alan Cumming and TV's Steven Weber (Wings, The D.A.). "I've optioned a script about Louise Brooks, a silent film actress in the '20s. I'm working on producing that."

Brooks, who like Campbell was a dancer and actress, made two dozen movies between 1924 and 1938. She was best known for her trademark Dutch bob hairstyle and as Lulu, the heroine in the erotically charged 1929 film Pandora's Box by German director G. W. Pabst.

After sinking into obscurity for decades, Brooks re-emerged as a respected writer in the 1950s.

Campbell says she's also producing A Private War, about Tourette Syndrome, an inherited neurological disorder that causes involuntary movements and verbal outbursts, which afflicts her brother Damien.

Campbell's When Will I Be Loved, done with writer-director James Toback, is due out in September.

Campbell is also awaiting the release of Churchill: The Hollywood Years, where she plays a young Princess Elizabeth in this broad satire starring Christian Slater as a Churchill substitute hired because Hollywood decides the original isn't photogenic enough to win the Second World War.

"It's absolutely silly English humour." says Campbell.

Reefer Madness, which wraps shooting in June, will air on Showtime next year.