New stage and screen projects for Tony Kushner (13370)

Out playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) is rapidly filling up his schedule. Playbill.com reports that he will stage excerpts of his play Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy in New York City from August 30 to September 1 to coincide with the Republican National Convention. Two scenes from Mystery, the main character of which is first lady Laura Bush, were read by John Cameron Mitchell, Kristen Johnston, and Patricia Clarkson in New York on August 2 as a benefit for the political action group MoveOn.org. The upcoming performances will be held in tandem with a performance of Patriot Act: A Public Meditation by Mark Crispin Miller (The Bush Dyslexicon) as part of the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues & Ideas.

Also on Kushner's plate is a collaboration with Steven Spielberg, according to Variety. The Oscar-winning director has hired Kushner to write a new draft of a film about the aftermath of the Israeli hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The as-yet-untitled drama, which will star Eric Bana (Troy, The Hulk), is set to start shooting in June 2005. "We are enormously pleased that a writer of such talent has joined us in bringing this project to the screen," Spielberg said in a statement. "For the past weeks, [Kushner] has been working on his initial writing for the project, a process that will require considerably more time to craft the final screenplay."