Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark Sings To Bill Murray In 'City Of Ember'; Germs Film Expands Its Run

As we reported last November Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark will appear in the subterranean film, “City Of Ember” this fall alongside folks like Bill Murray and Tim Robbins (the L.A. hippie fruitcake singer is also writing songs for the film). But she also has yet another film project onhand that includes her entire band. The group have expanded on their winning 2007 album Imagine Our Love (one of our faves of the year) into a full-blown movie thanks to the help of director Maximilla Lukacs and artist Alia Penner (Stark is also starring in a short with Sonic Youth doyenne Kim Gordon, directed by Alia Raza that is based on a Miranda July short story).

But back to ‘Ember’ and some of the newer details she revealed. Stark was asked to write some “post-apocalyptic children’s hymns” by old friend and ‘Ember’ director Gil Kenan and she obliged writing several songs for the film that are featured in a huge street procession scene and a key moment in the film “We filmed the scene [in Belfast] with 600 people singing and I’m leading them in song, and then the mayor [played by Bill Murray] comes out on the balcony and then he points to me and I lead the people in song. It was pretty incredible to have that grand cinematic experience. I’ve never had anything like that before,” she said. [Pitchfork]

Katherine McPhee continues to focus her attention away from singing and closer to acting. The former American Idol singer, whose acting debut is imminent this summer in “The House Bunny,” is set to star along side Wes “I Need A New Agent” Bentley in the psychological drama “The Storyteller.”No one interesting is involved. [Hollywood Reporter]

The Germs/Darby Crash biopic, “What We Do Is Secret,” is already expanding what was hoping to be more than just a limited run. Originally scheduled in just L.A., New York and Chicago, a publicist for the project tell us the film has now expanded its markets to San Francisco, Philadelphia, Columbus Ohio and Denver. Dates in Portland, Seattle, Boston, Dallas, Austin and at least five other major American cities are pending. Looks like the company backin the film Peace Arch is finally doing something right. Hopefully they can do the same for “The Go-Getter.” [ThePlaylist]

Nobody really believed the rumors anyway, but Jack Black insists he won’t be playing Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo del Toro’s “The Hobbit.” James McAvoy is still said to be the front-runner. [MTV]

French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard has decided not to appear at a Tel Aviv film festival after a Palestinian group publicly urged him to boycott Israel. However, a statement on the matter did not openly address the boycott. Godard will not be attending apparently due to “circumstances beyond his control.” [Reuters] [ed. odd place to put this last piece of news, no?]