Diane Lane is doing a horse movie. Variety says she’s been hired by Disney to star in Secretariat, a film about the well known, 1973 triple-crown winning racehorse.
Directed by Randall Wallace from a script written by Mike Rich, Lane will play Secretariat’s owner Penny Chenery. The film will focus on the relationship between the horse and his owner. Chenery was a housewife who knew nothing about horses until she took over her father’s Virginia farm.
Unless we’re talking about The Black Stallion, I’ve never really bought into this whole Hollywood notion of affection between race horse owners and their horses. I mean, most of them don’t even actually ride them. Heck, it took being stranded on a desert island with him even for The Black’s owner to give two shits about him.
I also wonder who a movie like this is geared towards. Since it’s Disney, you’d think they’d be after horse crazy little girls. Little girls lust after horses the way little boys go bonkers for dinosaurs, only horses actually exist and so they’re able to pester their parents until they get to ride one. Little boys are forced to settle for Stegosaurus lunchboxes. But it’s hard to see how Diane Lane appeals to that demo. She’s too old for little kids to identify with. I say drop the whole thing and remake National Velvet. Little girls love National Velvet.
