Sandra Bullock lines up another movie project

By Sarah Sluis

Sandra Bullock may just be one of the most likeable leading ladies in Hollywood. On the heels of her Best Actress win at the Oscars for The Blind Side, she's been circling a number of potential movies.

The latest such project would re-team her with her director on The Proposal, Anne Fletcher, and be produced by Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot. Variety described the project as "An Unmarried Woman meets Saturday Night Fever." So what does that mean? The 1978 movie An Unmarried Woman has been described as a woman's lib-inspired tale of an affluent Upper East Sider whose husband divorces her, leaving her unmoored. She learns to go out on her own and grow as a person. The allusion to Saturday Night Fever makes me think part of her self-discovery in this as-yet untitled film will involve DANCING!

Thoughts:

1) On one level, this project seems like a straight pandering to the "Dancing with the Stars" crowd, the popular reality competition show that has an intense following among middle-aged women: You, too, can redefine yourself after your divorce...through dance! Related: Can Bullock dance?

2) The "women's lib" element in An Unmarried Woman will have to be tweaked. Bullock can't be just a lady-who-lunches. Three decades later, most families have two working parents, and I don't think audiences will have as much sympathy for an rich idle woman in a recession climate. If she were in a situation where she was convinced to give up her career because of her husband's demanding job, for example, that would engender a lot more sympathy for her character.

Bullock has two other projects in the work that are more in the "serious drama" category: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a Scott Rudin-led literary adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel about 9/11, and Gravity, a sci-fi project being helmed by Alfonso Cuarn. I hope Bullock pursues one of these projects as well. Bullock has shown herself as an accomplished actress of comedy (Ms. Congeniality), action thrillers (Speed) and sentimental dramas (The Blind Side). Here's to seeing her in both familiar roles and new ones.