John Waters hasn’t disclosed whom he’ll cast in his next movie, if it moves ahead, but he did say where it will be filmed.
“We’re going to film it here definitely if it happens,” he told his audience at a spoken-word performance last week in Baltimore.
Waters was responding to a question about the movie version of “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance,” the 2022 novel that he wrote and is adapting as a motion picture.
Village Roadshow Pictures optioned the novel in the fall of 2022, before it even came out in paperback, and said Waters would write the script and direct the film. According to Deadline.com, Steve Rabineau will produce alongside Village Roadshow Entertainment, backed by financier Steve Mosko. Deadline called the news “a high-profile return to filmmaking” for Waters, whose last movie was “A Dirty Shame” in 2004.
Waters, 77, was tight lipped about the film’s status for much of 2023, saying he couldn’t talk about it during the writers’ and actors’strikes that ended in the fall. He told a Baltimore audience in December that he has completed the script but cautioned that the project is still in the early stages and he couldn’t say much.
“I’ve written the script and I turned it in and they like it and we’re doing a budget,” he said at the time. “Who knows? We’ll see. We’ll see.”
A thief and a scammer
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, “Liarmouth” tells the story of Marsha Sprinkle, a thief and a scammer who steals luggage at the airport, and her efforts to stay ahead of the law.
“Dogs and children hate her,” the book jacket teases. “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.”
The story starts in the Baltimore area, where the early action takes place, and turns into what the publisher calls a “delirious road trip,” as the lead character travels north along Interstate 95 to New Jersey, New York and, finally, Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod.
Key details such as who will star in the film and when it will be released weren’t part of the 2022 announcement involving Village Roadshow Pictures. Waters has said he didn’t write Marsha Sprinkle with any particular actress in mind. Known for putting himself in his movies, he’s admitted that he might like to save one role for himself: a talking penis.
Aubrey Plaza will ‘do anything’
Delaware-born actress Aubrey Plaza told Dazeddigital.com in October 2022 that she’d “do anything” to play Marsha Sprinkle, and that led to speculationthat she might get the part.
When the news broke about a possible new John Waters movie, “I emailed him immediately and said, ‘you better let me audition for you,” Plaza said in her 2022 interview with Dazed. “I even look like the girl on the cover” of the book.
Plaza, 39, starred as intern April Ludgate in the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation” and was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for her role as Harper Spiller in Season 2 of “The White Lotus.” Her movies include “Emily the Criminal,” “Black Bear,” “Ingrid Goes West” and “Scott Pilgram vs. the World.” Time magazine named her one of its “100 most influential people” in 2023.
“I exclusively only audition for John Waters,” Plaza said in the Dazed interview. “He told me I’m on his list, but I want to be at the top of the list. I want to be the only person on his list. They’ve told me I’m this generation’s Kathleen Turner. I mean, come on – I’m a shoo in. I need that movie.”
“I’m throwing myself at his feet,” she added. “I’ll do anything to get the part. I mean anything.”
Waters fueled the speculation about putting Plaza in his movie when he appeared onstage with her for an hourlong conversation at a book event in San Francisco in May 2023. No announcements were made, but he didn’t close any doors. At the end of the 2023 event, Waters thanked Plaza and offered these words of encouragement: “If I ever direct a movie again, I hope you’ll be in it.”
In the question-and-answer session after his Valentine’s Day show at Baltimore Soundstage this month, the filmmaker got four questions about the production, more than any other subject. Asked specifically whether Plaza would be his leading lady, he made a gesture of zipping his lips. He declined to say when any casting decisions might be made public.
16 movies set in Baltimore
It’s not entirely a surprise that Waters would film “Liarmouth” in Baltimore. He lives in the city, is fiercely loyal to it, and has used locations in and around Baltimore for all 16 of the movies he’s directed. At the same time, other jurisdictions offer tax credits and other financial incentives designed to help them attract film producers.
The 2007/John Travolta-Nikki Blonsky version of “Hairspray,” which Waters didn’t direct, was filmed mostly in Canada, with only a few opening shots from Baltimore. The Tilted Acres amusement park scene in the 1988 Divine-Ricki Lake version of “Hairspray” was filmed at Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, Pennsylvania, as a substitute for Gwynn Oak Amusement Park, the inspiration for Tilted Acres. Gwynn Oak closed in 1973 after suffering severe flood damage during Hurricane Agnes and was no longer available as a filming location when the first Hairspray movie was shot in 1986.
Filming in Baltimore would be an economic boost for the city, which hasn’t seen much movie production activity in recent years. One of the last major productions was the filming of Laura Lippman’s “Lady in the Lake” for an Apple TV+ limited series that hasn’t aired yet. Filming for “Lady in the Lake” started in April 2022 and continued into the fall, bringing to town stars such as Best Actress Oscar-winner Natalie Portman and Baltimore native Moses Ingram.
In addition to roles for the actors, “Liarmouth” would provide work for the film crew, jobs at hotels and restaurants while the cast and crew are in town, jobs for caterers, security staffers and many others.
During Waters’ show last week, one audience member asked about opportunities for extras. The book has a raucous crowd scene at the end, where kinksters gather for an outdoor sex festival, plus scenes at the airport and other locations.
“Couldn’t we all make extras in ‘Liarmouth?’ ” the fan asked.
“Sure. Let’s see if it happens,” Waters replied. “Who knows? We’re in the middle of all that. We’ll see.”
‘A Baltimore travelogue’
Waters’ previous movies have been filmed in different parts of the Baltimore area and have come to be associated with those communities. “Pecker” was based in Hampden. The Turnblads from “Hairspray” lived in an East Baltimore rowhouse. “Serial Mom” was set in leafy Towson and used locations such as Towson Senior High School, the Towson courthouse, and upscale residences bordering the Maryland Country Club on Stevenson Lane.
For “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” the exhibition about Waters’ career that’s currently on view at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, exhibitions curator Jenny He and associate curator Dara Jaffe made a point of showing how Waters used various Baltimore settings, both indoors and outdoors, as a sort of muse — to help tell his stories, set a tone, and give his films a distinct, often quirky, sense of place.
During a panel discussion about the exhibit at the museum last year, Waters talked about striving to get “shots that are so Baltimore.” One benefit of filming multiple movies in the same city, he said, is that he was able to work with some of the same crew members on more than one film. “We even had crazy Teamsters that liked us, in Baltimore, that just did my movies,” he recalled.
Places that the curators focused on include the courthouse in “Serial Mom” that has a portrait of disgraced former Baltimore County Executive Spiro Agnew hanging on the wall next to the ladies’ restroom; the 1960s-era TV dance studio used for The Corny Collins Show in “Hairspray,” which they recreated for the exhibit, and 3900 Greenmount Avenue, the house where Waters lived at one point and used as Connie and Raymond Marble’s home in “Pink Flamingos.” They also recreated the mobile home trailer where Divine’s Babs Johnson lived in “Pink Flamingos,” and used it to show the trailer produced to promote the movie.
“In John’s movies, Baltimore is always one of the major characters, the city of Baltimore,” said Scott Huffines, the former owner of Atomic Books in Hampden and a longtime friend of the filmmaker. “It always plays a big role in his movies.”
Viewing Waters’ films is like watching “a Baltimore travelogue,” Huffines said. “If you were on a John Waters pilgrimage, all you’d need to do is watch the movies and you could pick all the locations you’d want to go visit.”
‘Liarmouth’ locations
Filming “Liarmouth” in Baltimore would only add to the travelogue.
Even though the book is fictional, Waters fills it with names of real people and places that are familiar to Baltimoreans. Names include news personalities Jayne Miller and Denise Koch. Places mentioned include Graul’s in Ruxton; Eddie’s on Charles Street; the Dutch Village apartment complex; the Prime Rib restaurant and the Eagle bar. Much of the story takes place on the northeast side of Baltimore and Baltimore County, between downtown and Overlea, including one key location along the Belair Road corridor.
If the movie follows the book, it would potentially include some areas not previously used as film locations in other Waters movies. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is named as one of the places where Marsha Sprinkle steals suitcases, and multiple locations within the airport are mentioned, including the baggage claim area.
Other places named in the novel, which may or may not make it into the movie, include: a foreclosed McMansion where Marsha is “squatting,” located in a fictional subdivision called Happy Hollow that’s north of Roland Park; Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; Russell Street; the Baltimore-Washington Parkway; an unidentified house that’s used for a tickle bondage session; a store called the “Overlea Convenience Market” that’s not far from the “Joppatowne Royal Farms”; the corner of Guilford Avenue and 21st Street; “an alley off Cathedral Street”; the “Bouncy Bouncy Trampoline Fun Park” somewhere off Belair Road, and the Maryland House Travel Plaza off I-95. From there, the book’s characters head north with stops in New Jersey, New York City and Provincetown.
Keeping busy
Before any filming gets underway, Waters is staying busy with bookings and appearances that he has on his calendar, including more than a few annual events.
On March 3, he’ll receive the Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award at the American Cinema Editors’ 74th Annual ACE Eddie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
On March 9, he’ll be at the Ocean City (Maryland) Performing Arts Center for a 35th anniversary screening of “Hairspray” and commentary as part of the Ocean City Film Festival that weekend.
On March 30, he’ll visit the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California, for a screening of “Hairspray” with Mink Stole and Ricki Lake.
On April 10, “Chucky” returns to the USA and SYFY networks for Season 3 Part 2, with Waters co-starring as Good Guys doll creator Wendell Wilkins. Waters will be on the fourth episode of Season 3 Part 2.
For his 78th birthday on April 22, he’ll present his “John Waters: Devil’s Advocate” show at the City Winery on Pier 57 in Manhattan.
On July 6 and 7, he’ll host the Mosswood Meltdown 2024 music festival in Oakland, California, with The B-52s; Redd Kross; Big Freedia; Pure Hell; Gibby Haynes; Hunx and his Punx; Bush Tetras; and others.
On July 13, he’ll spend a night in the Provincetown Jail, as part of a fundraising event for the Provincetown Film Society. Four fans bid a total of $10,800 to have dinner and spend a night in the jail with him. On July 25, assuming he’s released, he’ll present “Devil’s Advocate” at Town Hall in Provincetown.
From Sept. 13 to 16, he’ll host his annual Camp John Waters “adult sleepaway” gathering for superfans at Club Getaway in Kent, Connecticut, with guest counselors Melanie Griffith, Mink Stole, and Ken King.
Then it will almost be time for his coast-to-coast tour of holiday spoken-word shows, including “A John Waters Christmas.”
Footwear in the spotlight
This week, John Waters films have been getting attention for a different reason. Since Donald Trump started selling $399 gold Trump sneakers, memes have been circulating with still photos from John Waters movies that feature footwear.
In one, instead of getting incensed about people wearing white shoes after Labor Day, Serial Mom’s Beverly Sutphin fumes that “Juror No. 8 is wearing Trump shoes after Labor Day!” In another, a disappointed Dawn Davenport from “Female Trouble” finds Trump shoes under the Christmas tree instead of the cha cha heels she hoped to get, black ones. “WHAT ARE THESE?” she cries.
