Disney Ponies Up for Malkovich, Lane in ‘Secretariat’

Filming begins this week in Louisiana and Kentucky on “Secretariat,” the Randall Wallace directed story of the 1973 Triple Crown winner.

Diane Lane stars as Penny Tweedy, a housewife who takes over the family horse farm during her father’s sickness. Dylan Walsh plays her husband, an attorney who is unsure about his wife’s new-found independence. Secretariat’s trainer, Lucien Laurin, who doesn’t believe in the horse at the start, will be played by John Malkovich.

The real life Laurin was a jockey before he became a trainer, so some horse-lovers are already questioning how Disney plans to deal with the fact that John Malkovich is around a foot too tall for the part, although they expect him to have no problem with Laurin’s French-Canadian accent.