Liarmouth was set to star Aubrey Plaza, and be the first John Waters film for 20 years. It’s now not set to be.
John Waters hasn’t made a film in 20 years, so it was exciting to hear back in 2022 that he was set to bring his demented brand of comedy back to the silver screen, along with Aubrey Plaza, a gifted comic actor with whom the filmmaker would surely have created something special.
Sadly, that’s not to be as Waters has revealed (courtesy of World Of Reel) that the project is no longer happening. Funding seems to be the source of the issue, with Waters telling Indie Wire that:
“I wrote the script, they liked it, Aubrey [Plaza] likes the script, wants to be in it, I want her to be in it, and every person said, “No, we don’t have a penny of the budget.” That is where it is today. Hopefully that will change. But the answer as of today? That’s it.”
Unfortunately, there seems to have been no movement since then and Waters has now declared the project dead. The film – which was set to be based on Waters’ own novel of the same name – seemed perfect for Plaza’s glib style, with the story set to ‘follow con artist Marsha Sprinkle, who is described as “a suitcase thief, scammer, and master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She’s smart, she’s desperate, she’s disturbed, and she’s on the run with a big chip on her shoulder. They call her Liarmouth―until one insane man makes her tell the truth.’
Waters’ last film was 2004’s A Dirty Shame which starred Tracy Ullman, Johnny Knoxville and Chris Isaak. That was his comedy about sex addiction. In the 1990s alone, Waters also gave us Pecker, which featured Edward Furlong taking pictures of perverts, and Serial Mom, the 1994 black comedy featuring the wonderful Kathleen Turner as a mother who doubles as a serial killer.
Plaza previously revealed that she campaigned for the role, with the actor stating that “I emailed him immediately and said, ‘you better let me audition for you. I even look like the girl on the cover’ of the book’.
It feels like we’ve lost out here and there’s no good spin on this story. If an idea like this with two clear talents on board can’t get it funded in an era where the comedy film is said to be in decline, no wonder the genre is in so much trouble.
