Once again its time for Father Geek here in our Austin, Texas Geek Headquarters Compound to post up Elston's report on all those little stories that have slipped thru the cracks in the floor during your busy work-week, soooo fillup that mug with some fresh steaming java and prepare to dig into...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Naomi Watts has been offered the role of Ann Darrow, an American actress who makes a living performing in Broadway song and dance shows in Depression-era New York in Universal's KING KONG for director Peter Jackson.
* Alec Baldwin will play the title role in THE SWIMMER, an update of John Cheever's classic short story, for ContentFilm, El Dorado Pictures and Iron Films. Burt Lancaster starred in a version of the story in 1968. It's about a middle-age man who swims home during a hot afternoon from one backyard pool to another, with each stop vividly evoking a different rush of memories.
* Julia Roberts is in negotiations to join the cast of Mike Nichols' adaptation of Patrick Marber's play CLOSER at Columbia. Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen are also set to star in the story of a tangled relationship between two couples after a guy from one and girl from the other have their own affair.
* Omar Epps will star opposite Marisa Tomei and Jude Law in the untitled Paramount remake of the 1966 classic ALFIE for director Charles Shyer.
* Chris Williams will join Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor in the 20th Century Fox comedy UNDERDOGS about the owner of a corporate-chain fitness club trying to take over the local gym across the street.
* Dat Phan ("Last Comic Standing") has been added to the cast of Sony's CELLULAR, starring Kim Basinger and William H. Macy.
* Josh Brolin and Brooke Smith join Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Zak Orth, Wallace Shawn, Gene Saks, Vinessa Shaw, Radha Mitchell, Chloe Sevigny and Jonny Lee Miller in Woody Allen's next film, which will be released by Fox Searchlight.
* Mel Gibson is in talks to star in and produce Warner Bros.' UNDER AND ALONE, based on William Queen's upcoming book about Queen's infiltration of the Mongols motorcycle gang. Queen was an officer in the Southern California office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, where his three years of undercover work led to more than 80 arrests. Daniel Barnz and Ned Zeman are attached to write the screenplay.
* Nick Cannon (DRUMLINE) will star in and executive produce the political thriller THE BELTWAY for Miramax and Tapestry Films. Laurence Malkin and Chad Thumann will script the story of a young intern on Capitol Hill who uncovers an illegal and dangerous plot overseen by the CIA.
* Jeff Garlin ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") and Jane Lynch (BEST OF SHOW) are joining the cast of MGM's SLEEPOVER for director Joe Nussbaum. Alexa Vega (SPY KIDS) also stars.
* Anthony Mackie, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Brown, Nia Long, Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson are in talks with Spike Lee to star in SHE HATE ME for producer Pathe. It's about a Harvard-educated biotech exec who gets fired when he blows the whistle on his bosses. He is forced to earn a living by impregnating high-powered lesbians, one of whom is an ex-girlfriend.
* Erykah Badu joins David Duchovny's HOUSE OF D, also starring Duchovny, Tea Leoni, Robin Williams and Tyler Hoechlin. It's a drama about a man coming to terms with his past and present friendships
* Michelle Williams will star in Wim Wenders' upcoming untitled project for IFC's InDigEnt banner. Production begins this week in Los Angeles with John Diehl and Richard Edson also starring.
* Parker Posey joins the cast of New Line's BLADE: TRINITY.
* Anne Archer has joined Tommy Lee Jones in the cast of Revolution's CHEER UP for director Stephen Herek. Production is set to begin Oct. 6 in Austin, Texas, with Brian Van Holt, Paget Brewster and Shea Whigham also starring.
* Daniel Bruhl (GOOD BYE LENIN!) is joining Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in LADIES IN LAVENDER for writer/director Charles Dance. It's adapted from William J. Locke's early 20th century short story about two unmarried sisters whose lives are turned upside down when they find a young Polish castaway on the beach below their house. Miriam Margolyes, Natasha McElhone, David Warner, Freddie Jones, Clive Russell and Toby Jones also star.
* Will Ferrell will provide the voice of the Man in the Yellow Hat for Universal/Imagine's animated feature CURIOUS GEORGE.
* Dennis Farina joins Jamie Foxx, Tom Cruise, Jada Pinkett Smith and Irma Hall in COLLATERAL for director Michael Mann.
* Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will star in SPY HUNTER, a film adaptation of the classic 1980s videogame, for Universal. He'll play an ex-fighter pilot who fights spies and assassins with his high-tech G-6155 Interceptor car. Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (2 FAST 2 FURIOUS) are scripting.
* Monica Bellucci will play the evil queen in Terry Gilliam's THE BROTHERS GRIMM, starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Jonathan Pryce.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Columbia Pictures picked up Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson's script, tentatively titled 911, for producer Mark Gordon to produce. It's a thriller about a female 911 operator who becomes convinced that her dead sister is trying to warn her of yet-to-be committed murders via cryptic emergency calls. No proof supports her claims and those around her begin to question her sanity. She then teams with a veteran homicide detective to find the killer before he hunts her down.
* Helena Kriel will adapt Sena Jeter Naslund's fictional best seller AHAB'S WIFE for Camelot Pictures. It's the tale of a young Kentucky girl who, looking for adventure, poses as a young boy to gain entrance on the whalers of Nantucket. After a harrowing accident and adrift at sea, she is rescued by Capt. Ahab, and thus begins a great love between them.
* Katia Lund (CITY OF GOD co-director) will helm LIL' ROMEO AND LIL' JULIET, starring Lil' Romeo, for MGM and Artists Production Group. Dallas Jackson wrote the script.
* David E. Kelley will write the feature remake of Agatha Christie's classic mystery WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION for MGM.
* Michael McCullers (AUSTIN POWERS) will write MAGNUM, P.I. for Universal, Brian Grazer and series co-creator Donald Bellisario, who will produce.
* Miguel Courtois will direct Eduardo Noriega, Patrick Bruel, Jorge Sanz and Jose Coronado in the terrorist thriller LOBO for Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo, who is teaming with Filmax and Telecinco to produce the pic. The project is based on the 1970s real-life story of Mikel Lejarza, a Spanish secret agent who infiltrated the rank-and-file of Basque terrorist org ETA.
* Mark Lord's script LAND OF PLEASANT LIVING was picked up by Focus Features. It's a drama about a woman emotionally devastated by the death of her boyfriend. Fifteen years later, battling depression and trying to sustain a failing marriage, she comes face to face with her dead boyfriend's ghost in the form of his little brother, who has grown up to be just like him.
* Gabor Csupo will direct GREEN MONKEYS, a live-action/CGI feature film based on a comic strip that Klasky Csupo is producing for Paramount/Nickelodeon. The project is based on the comic book by Mickey and Betty Parskevas and follows green monkeys who think they are human. Dave Connaughton and John Tozak will write the script.
* George Tillman Jr. will direct REVELATION about an FBI agent who's wounded while foiling an assassination attempt on a cardinal who is first in line to replace the recently deceased Pope. As the agent heals, his search for the shooter dovetails with his own religious re-examination.
* German helmer Gandulf Henning is finishing FALLEN ANGEL GRAM PARSONS, a feature-length docu on Byrds singer-songwriter Gram Parsons for BBC Music Entertainment.
* Niall Johnson has sold BEFORE, his pitch for a supernatural thriller about reincarnation, to Mostow/Lieberman.
* Sheldon Turner will write the remake of THE LONGEST YARD for Happy Madison Prods.
* Danny McBride and Len Wiseman will write a sequel to UNDERWORLD, which Wiseman has said he would again direct for Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment. A third film, a prequel, may follow.
* DreamWorks has purchased the pitch NON-HUMAN ANIMAL from writer Christopher Bird for Vanguard Films. The story centers on a personal injury lawyer charmed by a sweet-talking animal-rights activist only to find himself enmeshed in a landmark legal challenge that makes him the reluctant hero of the world animal-rights movement.
* Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont's (CAN'T HARDLY WAIT) script MARRIED IN THE MORNING was picked up by Columbia Pictures for Original Film to produce. The duo is attached to direct the romantic comedy about a Katie Couric-type on-air personality from a local morning show. While planning a wedding for a couple during a segment of the show, she winds up falling for the groom.
* Adam Abraham will direct DRAMARAMA, written by Andrew Osborne, for Mad Chance Prods. and Warner Bros. Pictures. It's about a promising drama student who goes to a an elite high school and expects to use her performance in a competitive drama competition to gain access to Yale. After her family's economic fortunes take a turn for the worse, she is forced to attend a rundown public high school. Determined to pursue her creative life, she forms a drama group at her new school and faces off against her old high school to see if she can regain her dreams.
* Carlos Sorin (HISTORIAS MINIMAS) will direct the comedy LE CHIEN (THE DOG) about an unemployed gas station attendant whose luck improves after he's given a dog for repairing a car.
* Jay Wolpert will pen a rewrite of the period action drama ESCAPE FROM LIBBY PRISON, based on the non-fiction book James Gindlesperger, for Warner Bros. Set during the Civil War, it's the story of a Union colonel and a small group of men who engineered the building of a tunnel through which 109 prisoners of war escaped.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Wim Wenders and Sam Shepard have received financing from Filmstiftung NRW for their bigscreen production DON'T COME KNOCKIN'. Petra Katherina Wagner also received funds for MARIA AN CALLAS, starring Goetz George, Martina Gedeck and Vadim Glowna.
* Reese Witherspoon's Type A Films has optioned Leslie Caveny's script PENELOPE about a young woman, plagued by a curse, who sets out on a journey of self-discovery.
* Paramount has Happy Madison Prods. developing the space alien comedy TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER. The story centers on a NASA janitor who accidentally launches himself into space. After he falls back to Earth and lands in Iowa, he finds everyone believes he's an alien.
* DreamWorks has optioned the feature rights to Vicki Iovine's GIRLFRIENDS' GUIDE book series for Team Todd to produce.
* Val Kilmer has left Michael Mann's COLLATERAL in favor of Oliver Stone's ALEXANDER.
* Revolution Studios has acquired the rights to Portia Iverson's upcoming novel STRANGE SON for Julia Roberts to produce and potentially topline. The project revolves around the true story of two mothers -- one who lives in a mansion in Los Angeles, the other in a one bedroom flat without running water in Bangalore, India -- who unite in a tireless search to find help for their severely autistic sons. During their quest they make breakthrough discoveries that outpace the latest medical reseach and challenge the prevailing theories about autism.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* The trailer for Gavin Booth and Michael Drouillard's movie LEAVING TOWN, shot digitally using the new 24p cameras in Windsor, Ontario, can be seen at http://www.mimeticonline.com
* Entries are now being accepted for the 2004 Florida Film Festival. The Festival will be held March 5-14, 2004. The early entry deadline is October 31, 2003 and the late entry deadline is December 5, 2003. Applications are available online at http://www.FloridaFilmFestival.com
* Key West IndieFest 2004 ( April 1 - 4)! is pleased to announce our OFFICIAL "Call For Entries." For complete information, and to enter thier Year 2004 event - please go to: http://keywestindiefest.com
* There are DVD campaigns underway for two made-for-TV films John Carpenter made in the late 70's: ELVIS: THE MOVIE and SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME! For more info, visit http://members.tripod.com/~evilbaby/Elvis.html and http://members.tripod.com/~evilbaby/WatchingMe.html
* Horror film music fans, the debut album by Van Helsing's Curse is a horror-centric concept album, likened to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra targeted to the Halloween season. It features covers of the themes to THE EXORCIST and THE OMEN. Visit http://www.vanhelsingscurse.com for more.
