In 2001, New Line optioned the rights to make a movie adaptation of Chemical Pink, a novel about sexual fetishism and the world of female bodybuilding written by Katie Arnoldi. David Fincher was supposed to direct it and Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk was supposed to write the screenplay; however, both dropped out of the movie project and the future of the movie seemed uncertain.
Gene Hwang reports that a new team is moving forward with the Chemical Pink movie project.
Arnoldi eventually wrote the screenplay herself and music video director Jonas Akerlund will now direct. The latest is that he and producer Ted Field are now looking for someone to play Aurora Johnson, the main character - an aspiring female bodybuilder who moves to southern California to pursue her dream.
Patricia Arquette, Rosario Dawson and Jessical Biel were considered for the role of Aurora. And while the prospect of these actresses gaining 15-20 lbs of muscle would be quite appealing for fans of female muscle, the big name Hollywood actresses all rejected the role of Aurora. It is unclear whether the role was rejected due to the disturbing nature of steroid-related side effects and sexual fetishism portrayed in the screenplay or the daunting task of trying to look like a female bodybuilder in six months.
According to the Genextras blog, it now looks like the producers are searching for a real female bodybuilder to play the role of Aurora.
Arnoldi tells us they now plan to cast a “real girl” instead. They are even talking about an American Idol-style reality show in which Arnoldi, Akerlund and Field would go around the country auditioning female bodybuilders for the part - what Arnoldi calls “In Search of Aurora”. That could mean an amazing opportunity for a female bodybuilder to play the lead in a Hollywood movie. We’ll let you know as soon as we know more…
This is certain to be an interesting movie. I think Testosterone Nation best described Chemical Pink when the suggested it could have originated from the perverted mind of steroid guru Dan Duchaine:
If Dan Duchaine had been a writer of fiction, this is the book he’d have written.
Larry Flynt’s Hustler Magazine is profiling three female bodybuilders in the June 2008 issue. IFBB pro female bodybuilders Colette Nelson and Melissa Dettwiller and NPC bodybuilder Amber Steel were featured. The pictures are by one of my favorite photographers, Brian Moss. If you read just the article (text and ignore the context) , you will find it to be a relatively positive piece for female bodybuilding. But of course, the issue of female bodybuilder nudity and the source of the article are certain to be controversial. Thanks to Sioux Country (via Hardbody) for alerting us to the “Seriously Female” article.
Major bodybuilding websites like Flexonline.com and Bodybuilding.com (and MESO-Rx too) all erroneously reported that Ms. Olympia Iris Kyle was disqualified from the 2008 Ms. International female bodybuilding contest in Columbus last month. (Iris was NOT disqualified; she actually placed 7th place just out of the money.) Ruth Silverman from Iron Man Magazine fairly criticizes the internet rumor mill.
A text message from a friend wanted to know what was up with Iris being disqualified… It was reported on Bodybuilding.com and by Shawn Perine at FlexOnline…
I couldn’t help marveling at the human capacity to believe something just because someone said it on the Internet—and to hear only certain key words.
We humbly apologize to our readers and particularly to Iris Kyle for the misinformation.
Iris Kyle appeared on Pro Bodybuilding Weekly last night to discuss the controversy surrounding her seventh place finish at the Ms. International contest. We hoped she would have insight on the reasons she was undeservingly dropped to seventh place.
I absolutely can not, at this point, really tell you what happened… I’m still quite puzzled. From the judges standpoint, I have received no feedback leaving me with… thousands of unanswered questions to this day. I made a couple of calls… but I couldn’t get through to who I would love to speak to.
It was quite disappointing that the judges were reluctant to offer specific feedback to Iris regarding their controversial decision. In absence of this feedback, Iris addressed the suggestions that “bumps” on her body were responsible for her placing.
I rather would have seen after the first round that one of the judges come up to me and say, look we have made a decision that based on reviewing your physique we think we need to pull you out of the show I could respect that and walk away with my head even higher and it’s still high… The IFBB should have stepped in and made their call and not allowed me to finish the show.
We agree with Iris. If the IFBB were trying to make an example out Iris for having bumps on her glutes, they should have either disqualified her or placed her last.
Later in the radio broadcast, Larry Pepe interviewed Sandy Ranalli, head IFBB judge at the Ms. International contest. She confirmed that the bumps were responsible for Iris Kyle’s placing referring to them as “distortions in her physique.”
Her shoulders were a little bit you know distorted. There were distortions in her glute area.. At this level of competition, [there is] not a big difference between athletes, those things come into play… It was the distortion and not trying to figure out what it was.
The big question is why the IFBB felt the need to knock Iris Kyle out of the money when, in our opinion, the slight bumps did NOT distract or take away from her Ms. Olympia caliber-physique. Furthermore, if the bumps were such a distracting or grotesque “distortion,” why did Iris still place ahead of so many other competitors. We are only left to speculate…
Iris refuses to allow this to get her down and she is ready to move past the controversy:
I’m a true champ, so it’s not going to get me down. I’m going to keep plugging away.
Weider Publications has hired Issac Hinds of Lift Studios to expand coverage of female figure, fitness and bodybuilding at Flexonline.com.
Isaac wrote about his excitement at the hiring in an email he sent to me today:
I’m happy to be part of the Weider Team. I’ve been a fan of FLEX magazine for years and now to be contributing to their online presence is awesome. Peter McGough, Allan Donnelly, Lisa Clark, Chris Hoebrecker and the entire Weider crew are some of the best in the business. They recognize that there are a tremendous number of NPC and IFBB female competitors who deserve some of the spotlight. We’ll be providing a bit of that on FLEXONLINE.com. I’ll still be covering the women’s side of the sport on HARDBODY.com as well as bodybuilding.com and NPC NEWS magazine. This is another positive step in highlighting the hard working women in the industry.
This is good news for the sport of women’s bodybuilding and fitness. Isaac tells us we can expect to see additional news, updates and photos begining in April 2008.
