Elaine May is set to direct a feature for the first time since Ishtar, with Dakota Johnson offering a promising update on Crackpot.
Legendary writer, director and performer Elaine May is enjoying quite a time in her 90s. The media gaze when it comes to ninetysomething people in the world of world, theatre and TV might be trained on Clint Eastwood, but perhaps Elaine May should have been given more of the spotlight.
In 2019, for instance, in her late 80s, she took home a Tony award for Best Actress in a Play for her work in Broadway hit The Waverly Gallery. And these past few years, she’s been trying to realise a film project, when where she keeps coming up against hurdles.
The film in question is Crackpot, that’s had Dakota Johnson leading the cast for some time now. Sebastian Stan was also attached as of last year, but in 2024, financiers were demanding an ‘insurance director’ should Elaine May’s age prevent her from completing directorial duties on the film.
There is precedent here. Paul Thomas Anderson, for instance, was the ‘insurance director’ on Robert Altman’s final movie, A Prairie Home Companion. In this case though, in spite of being active for several years, Crackpot still isn’t before the cameras.
Still, Dakota Johnson is currently on the press tour for the film Materialists, for director Celine Song. And for those of us waiting for Crackpot, she seems to have a positive message. Deep in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, there’s a paragraph that touches on the movie, which Johnson is now also producing. There, she cites that the hope is for the film to be ‘shooting in the fall.’
Autumn. I’ll translate that into British.
Very much hoping this comes to pass. Plot details for Crackpot have been kept under wraps, and this will be the first time that Elaine May has directed since 1987’s infamous Ishtar. More, hopefully, on the movie as we hear it.
