Following playwright Douglas Carter Beane's Off-Broadway success with As Bees in Honey Drown and its subsequent movie sale, film folks seem more inclined to take the scribe's advice -- that is, Advice From a Caterpillar. Beane's early work is now being made into a film directed by Don Scardino and starring Cynthia Nixon.

Shooting of the independent feature began on June 8 in New York, according to an article in Variety. Nixon, who acted in Bees, plays a video artist with an aversion to commitment. She nonetheless falls for a bisexual actor who is involved with her best friend. The cast also features Timothy Olyphant, Andy Dick, Jon Tenney, and Ally Sheedy in a cameo role. (Sheedy starred in the show's 1991 Off-Broadway production.) Jana Edelbaum is producing and Edgar Lansbury is the executive producer.

Lansbury has a continuing interest in Beane's career. He co-produced the Off-Broadway transfer of Bees and directed Advice from a Caterpillar when it ran briefly at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1991. The film is financed by Robert Greenhut and John Ein's Foundry Film Partners.

Scardino, the former artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, has directed such Broadway ventures as A Few Good Men and Sacrilege. His previous film work includes the 1994 feature Me and Veronica. Nixon and Beane are among the most active members of the high-profile, Off-Broadway troupe The Drama Dept.: Nixon has appeared in three company productions and Beane is the group's artistic director. Nixon's Broadway credits include Hurly Burly and Indiscretions.

--By Robert Simonson