Stowe told no to CAPTIVES role

Actress turns down millions for her script

By Patrick Sauriol     April 21, 2003
Source: Variety

What happens when you're a Hollywood actress and you can't find the parts you want to play? Madeleine Stowe thought she had found the solution: write a screenplay that the studios want to make and agree to sell it to them if they cast you somewhere in the movie.

Unfortunately for the 12 MONKEYS actress, it's turning out to be harder than she thought. Under a pseudonym, Stowe and her husband wrote a period western called THE UNBOUND CAPTIVES which attracted the attention of 20th Century Fox. Fox wanted to put it into production immediately, hiring Ridley Scott to director and Russell Crowe to star in the picture...but not Madeleine Stowe.

Stowe turned down Fox's first offer to sell the rights to her script, which was supposed to be somewhere around $3 million dollars. According to a new report filed in Variety today, Fox upped their asking price to an unbelievable $5 million dollars -- and Stowe again allegedly turned them down.

Variety reports that the storyline for UNBOUND CAPTIVES is about a 19th-century mother whose husband is killed and her two children captured by Comanche braves. The mother is saved by a frontiersman who agrees to help her rescue her children. Reportedly, other studios are interested in buying the script and Stowe is said to be willing to sell it for less than Fox's asking price if she gets to play the role.


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