David Mamet enlists Cate Blanchett for new screen project

The last several months have been wildly up and down for David Mamet. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright saw his new play “The Anarchist” flop on Broadway, while a revival of his “Glengarry Glenn Ross” proved a box office hit thanks to Al Pacino.

Mamet received mixed notices for his HBO movie “Phil Spector” last month, but the writer-director has apparently already moved on, casting his next big project.

Variety reports Cate Blanchett will star in Mamet’s “Blackbird,” a screen thriller about a woman who travels to Los Angeles for the funeral of her grandfather, a Hollywood visual-effects artist who also worked for the government.

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The story involves a hidden conspiracy involving the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, according to the report.

“Blackbird” is reportedly being financed by French producer Said Ben Said. He has worked with another prominent playwright, Yasmina Reza, in adapting two of her plays for the big screen.

This won’t be the first time Blanchett has appeared in a work written by Mamet. The actress starred in a production of “Oleanna” opposite Geoffrey Rush at the Sydney Theatre Co. in 1993. Blanchett recently served as co-artistic director of the company with her husband, Andrew Upton.

Blanchett stepped down as artistic director at the end of last year, while Upton remains the company’s leader. The Oscar-winning actress is set to appear opposite French actress Isabelle Huppert in Jean Genet’s “The Maids” next month at the Sydney Theatre Co.

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