Next time Terry Gilliam gets down about his bad luck, he should talk to Constantin Film about Pope Joan. In October of 2006, Franka Potente signed on. In April 2007, John Goodman got sued for backing out of the feature. That made production stop. Then director Volker Schlöndorff was fired over comments he made to a paper. Last we heard, there was a new director, Sönke Wortmann, but that was last August.And I just had to go and say: "How funny would it be if she could no longer do it? Also disappointing, since I'd love to see her really command a period piece." The Hollywood Reporter posts that due to scheduling conflicts from the rampant delays, Franka is out and German actress Johanna Wokalek is in as Pope Joan. That news just, well, sucks. It would've been a great opportunity for Franka, and Wokalek isn't well-known stateside, which could affect the production further.
But here's where things get weird. It seems that although he was sued and left eons ago, "Constantin said Wednesday that it remains in talks with Goodman and that the actor could still join the cast." That would certainly help foreign cred, but is he really still around? Is this just due to the lawsuit? The whole production just seems like a mess.
Should I even bother saying that principle photography is now set for August, with the film's release set for 2009? Will this come to fruition, or are more problems on the way?
