CAROLINA

[Umm... Jamie fans, don't hate me but I'm not going to pretend I'm not elated by the re-casting, even though I think Jamie's awfully cute and talented too, not to mention another Cambridge man! Here's my favourite Jamie site.]

I came across the following brief articles on-line about the film:

From Zap2it.com (Daily Variety also had a very similar article on July 10, 2001) -

Julia Stiles Kick Starts 'Carolina'

HOLLYWOOD - Julia Stiles is in final negotiations with Miramax to distribute "Carolina Torn Asunder" in the United States. Marleen Gorris is replacing Jon Amiel as director and Shirley MacLaine is set to co-star in the $15 million film which is set to begin production in Los Angeles July 23.

Originally slated to be fully backed by IAC, the film was expected to go into production this spring. However, financing of the film was beset by complications that threatened to end the project.

The film was brought back from near oblivion because of Stiles desire to see the project through as a follow-up to her last starring role in "Save the Last Dance". In "Carolina," Stiles plays a young woman who leaves her overtly eccentric Southern family to move to the West Coast, where she's forced to choose between two men who love her. Alessandro Nivola ("Jurassic Park III") also stars in the film which was written by Katherine Fugate.

by Kristin Hohenadel and Anna David:

JULIA STILES has been taking cues from Joe Dirt to play the title role in Carolina, a dramedy about finding your way in the world when you’ve been brought into it via some really eccentric folks. “My character comes from this white trash family, and she starts off very embarrassed by them,” Stiles says. Complicating her life is a dashing Brit (Edward Atterton) and a writer (Alessandro Nivola), who used to be her platonic best friend. Carolina’s irresponsible father (Randy Quaid) isn’t much in the way of support; her closest parental influence is her Grandma Mirabeau (Shirley MacLaine), whose idea of breaking up a fight between two kids is to hand each one a butcher knife and suggest that they kill each other. Ultimately, Stiles says, it is her grandmother who “makes Carolina appreciate the quirkiness of her life a little more.”

I also came across the following snippets about the film by some of the cast members:

From an interview with Azure Skye at the premiere of Bandits:

What's next for you?

"I just finished a movie called 'Carolina,' with Julia Stiles and Shirley MacLaine."

What's it about?

"Julia Stiles plays the 'Carolina' role, and I'm her younger sister. We've been raised by Shirley MacLaine who is this vulgar, white-trash grandmother who has raised us by taking us around to different bars to stock the cigarette machines. So you can imagine how we turned out - we're quite a family."

From an interview with Alessandro Nivola:

What film are you working on now?

"It’s called 'Carolina' and it’s a romance between me and Julia Stiles, and Shirley MacLaine is in it. It’s a sweet story. I play a guy who writes trashy romance novels to make a buck, but secretly is writing his own novel about his secret infatuation about this girl he has known his whole life."