There’s a sure way to tell if a genre has become too formulaic: somebody will make a spoof of it. It happened with the teen movie genre (Not Another Teen Movie); it happened with the scary movie genre (Scary Movie); and now it has happened with the genre of musical biopics (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story).

I suppose that biopics are particularly susceptible to becoming formulaic. Since the filmmakers don’t want to disrespect the memory/legacy of the person they’re depicting, they can’t really take a whole lot of creative freedoms in describing his life. Unfortunately, this results in essentially the same story being told over and over again, in pretty much the same way (I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed that Walk The Line was basically a carbon-copy of Ray, only with prescription drugs).

I guess that’s why I’m excited about the new Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There. In this film, the role of Dylan will be played by 6 (yes, 6!) different actors, each portraying a different time-period in the singer’s life. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of any movie doing this, let alone a biopic!

What’s even better is the list of actors who are playing Dylan: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Winshaw. To be honest, I could do without Richard Gere and Heath Ledger on this list, but the chance to see both Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett playing Dylan is well worth the price of admission.

Unfortunately, only the teaser trailer is available at the moment, and it really doesn’t show much. On the other hand, I don’t really need a whole lot of selling on this one. I’m Not There is definitely a SEE IT for me. I love Dylan; I love Bale and Blanchett; and I love the creativity. I wish Hollywood had the balls to make more movies like this.

I’m Not There is not yet rated and opens in limited release on November 21. (Official Site)

I’m definitely a Richard Gere fan, and I’m rooting for him to make a comeback. That’s why I was excited when this trailer dropped a couple days ago, with Richard Gere finally starring in a serious role again and not just as Julia Roberts’ love interest.

But after watching the trailer, I’m not nearly as excited anymore. The Hoax looks fairly entertaining, and Richard Gere’s performance looks spot-on, but it seems to me that the success of the entire movie rests on the audience’s ability to believe that fabricating a biography about Howard Hughes is the greatest hoax of all time. Unfortunately, I just don’t think the modern audience is gonna buy it. For one, most of us have absolutely no understanding of how momentous a Howard Hughes biography would have been back then. And secondly, so what if he fabricated a biography; nowadays even the autobiographies are fabricated. Personally, I just don’t think I’m going to be able to sit through a two hour film when I don’t even care about the opening premise.

But my man Richard does look pretty good.