Father Geek here to post this week's issue of Elston Gunn's regular AICN column that looks back over the previous week's movie industry news, rehashing it for those of you who may have been too busy to catch it all during the past work-week. Soooo for the ones of you interested in "who's going to be doing what for whom, where and when", well, here it all is, just like every week in...
The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Reese Witherspoon is attached to star in and produce THE PROPOSAL for
Revolution Studios. The romantic comedy, to be written by Nicole Eastman
based on her own pitch, centers on a couple and their up-and-down journey as
they plan their wedding.
* Sissy Spacek will star opposite Naomi Watts and Simon Baker in THE RING 2
for DreamWorks and director Hideo Nakata. Production begins next month from
a script by Ehren Kruger.
* Natasha Richardson, Bonnie Hunt, Justin Theroux, Kip Pardue and Zoe
Saldana have signed to star in Maggie Greenwald's drama LUCY for Plum
Pictures. Based on the 1990 novel by Jamaica Kincaid, the story follows a
21-year-old girl from the West Indies as she spends the summer in a
sheltered New York WASP community. She takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy
couple but soon notices the cracks in their seemingly perfect facade.
* Ralph Fiennes and Rita Wilson will star in an untitled project for El
Camino Pictures. It's about an alienated high school student who reluctantly
responds to the kidnapping of a fellow student because the adults in his
suburban town are too self-absorbed to notice. Carrie-Anne Moss and Jamie
Bell also star. Zac Stanford wrote the script based on a story by Stanford
and Arie Posin, who is making his feature directing debut.
* J. Mack Slaughter ("Like Family") joins the cast of FAT ALBERT for
director Joel Zwick, 20th Century Fox and Davis Entertainment. Kenan
Thompson, Kyla Pratt, Omarion, Keith Robinson, Jermaine Williams, Aaron
Frazier, Jeremy Suarez and Raven also star.
* Tommy Pallotta will produce while Bob Sabiston (WAKING LIFE) will serve as
the animation director on Warner Independent Pictures' A SCANNER DARKLY,
based on the Philip K. Dick story, for director Richard Linklater. As in
WAKING LIFE, the project will convert live-action footage into animated
sequences. Keanu Reeves stars.
* Estella Warren, Cary Elwes, Nora Dunn and David Faustino will join Jon Bon
Jovi in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S THE TROUBLE WITH FRANK for director Arthur
Hiller. The film centers on a ne'er-do-well who decides to fund an all-girls
hockey team with credit cards and finds himself in legal hot water.
* Jared Harris will star opposite Gretchen Mol in THE BALLAD OF BETTIE PAGE
for director Mary Harron, Killer Films and HBO.
* Carrie-Anne Moss will join Tom Cruise in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 for
director Joe Carnahan, Cruise Wagner Prods. and Paramount Pictures.
* Chris Noth and Mike O'Malley are set to star opposite Hilary Duff in THE
PERFECT MAN for director Mark Rosman and Universal. It's about a teenager
who is trying to find the best mate for her single mom.
* Martin Landau and Judy Parfitt will star in the WWII drama THE ARYAN
COUPLE for director John Daly, Atlantic Film and Mairis Films. Daly and
Kendrew Lascelles co-wrote the screenplay, based on Lascelles' original
story about a German Jewish industrialist forced to turn over his empire to
the Nazis to pay for his family's passage out of the country.
* Emily VanCamp ("Everwood") is in final talks to play the young female lead
in THE RING 2 for DreamWorks. Naomi Watts, David Dorfman and Simon Baker
also star.
* Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls") grabbed a role in SISTERHOOD OF THE
TRAVELING PANTS for director Ken Kwapis and Alcon Entertainment.
* Aaron Carter, Dania Ramirez, Nick Zano, Derek Watkins and Alice Greczyn
have joined the cast of 20th Century Fox's live-action FAT ALBERT for helmer
Joel Zwick.
* Maria Bello, Mary Stuart Masterson and Erika Christensen are starring in
THE SISTERS, a modern feature adaptation of Anton Chekov's drama THREE
SISTERS. Eric McCormack, Elizabeth Banks, Tony Goldwyn, Alessandro Nivola,
Chris O'Donnell and Rip Torn also star. Arthur Allen Seidelman is directing
from Richard Alfieri's script.
* Glenn Close and Allison Janney will join Ralph Fiennes, Rita Wilson,
Carrie-Anne Moss and Jamie Bell in El Camino Pictures' untitled project
being directed by Arie Posin. Camilla Belle, Justin Chatwin, Rory Culkin,
Lauren Holly and musician Ben Jelen are in negotiations for roles. Pic,
written by Zac Sanford, is about an alienated high school student who
responds to the kidnapping of a fellow student.
* Terence Stamp will star opposite Jennifer Garner in ELEKTRA for director
Rob Bowman, Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox.
* Kristin Chenoweth joins Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Beyonce Knowles and
Jean Reno in MGM's THE PINK PANTHER for director Shawn Levy and producer
Robert Simonds.
* Clive Owen will star in the thriller DERAILED for director Mikael
Hafstrom, Miramax Films and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. It's about an
ad exec whose life takes an unpredictable turn when he misses his morning
train to the office. Stuart Beattie (COLLATERAL) adapted the screenplay from
James Siegel's novel.
* Harrison Ford will star in THE WRONG ELEMENT for Warner Bros. and Beacon
Communications. Joe Forte wrote the script about a security chief for a
global bank whose family is kidnapped. He's asked to topple his own security
safeguards and steal $37 million from the bank to save his family. Then he
has to stop the kidnappers, who've created a complex trail that will make
him look guilty of embezzlement.
* Ron Perlman (HELLBOY) will star in COLDWATER for director Sean Michael
Beyer about a detention center for juvenile delinquents.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Craig Moss and Steve Schoenburg have been hired to write the remake of
1982's PORKY'S for executive producers Howard Stern and Larry Levinson.
* Tim Kirkman (DEAR JESSE) will direct LOGGERHEADS, starring Elizabeth
Perkins, Melinda Dillon, Stockard Channing and Kip Pardue. Inspired by a
true story, the film will interweave three stories in three time periods in
the three geographical regions of North Carolina.
* New Line Cinema has picked up the comic book HAWAIIAN DICK to develop as a
starring vehicle for Johnny Knoxville. Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have
been brought on board to adapt. Set in 1953, the story follows a a
down-on-his-luck big-city detective who is exiled to Hawaii. While there, he
gets involved in a kidnapping case of a local island girl who turns up dead
but won't stay that way.
* Lawrence O'Donnell and Paul Redford will write a script for New Line
Cinema based on the story of Jack Greenberg, the attorney who argued in
Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation of public schools was
unconstitutional.
* Barry Sonnenfeld is near a deal to direct a loose remake of THE HEARTBREAK
KID for DreamWorks. Story is about a man who hastily weds a local girl whom
he thinks is perfect -- until he falls in love with another girl during the
honeymoon.
* Scott Burns will direct PU239 for United Artists and Section 8 Prods. It's
set in post-Glasnost Russia and centers on a nuclear facility technician who
has an accident, then travels to Moscow in search of work and finds himself
involved with the city's low-level mobsters.
* Jennifer Lynch (BOXING HELENA) will direct the supernatural cop thriller
SURVEILLANCE for Romano/Shane Prods. It's the story of an FBI agent who
encounters three would-be victims of a serial killer, all of whom have very
different stories of their experiences. Lynch wrote the script with Kent
Harper.
* Rosie Perez will make her directing bow with a feature doc for IFC on New
York's Puerto Rican Day Parade and the political and cultural history
linking the island and its people with mainland U.S.
* David Hayter will rewrite Marvel Comics' IRON MAN for New Line Cinema.
* Zach Braff (GARDEN STATE) will adapt with his brother, Adam, D. Burn's
novel ANDREW HENRY'S MEADOW for 20th Century Fox. It's the story of a boy
inventor who escapes suburbia to a beautiful meadow where he builds a
child's utopia in the trees. There he becomes a reluctant hero who leads a
band of fellow outcasts on a mission to awaken their families before it's
too late.
* David Ronn and Jay Scherick are writing a remake to the Rodney Dangerfield
starrer BACK TO SCHOOL for MGM as a poosible vehicle for Cedric the
Entertainer.
* Larry Gross has been tapped to write a script for Columbia Pictures about
the life of William Desmond Taylor, the Hollywood silent film director whose
1922 murder remains an unsolved mystery.
* Valhalla Motion Pictures and Kismet Entertainment Group are teaming to
produce remakes of Mario Bava's KIDNAPPED and BLACK SABBATH. Jeff Davis
(RETRIBUTION) will write the KIDNAPPED.
* Peter Jackson and partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are in talks to
make Alice Sebold's THE LOVELY BONES for FilmFour and producer Aimee
Peyronnet.
* Peter Weir is attached to direct the thriller PATTERN RECOGNITION, based
on the novel by William Gibson, for Anonymous Content and Warner Bros. Weir
will co-write the script with David Arata. The story follows the adventures
of a marketing expert who finds herself in a dangerous puzzle when she's
hired to track down the source of a strange collection of video footage on
the Internet.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* The Jim Henson Co. has inked a two-year first-look deal with MGM to
produce live-action films. The company is developing a sequel to last year's
GOOD BOY! Deal makes Henson a major supplier of family-friendly content for
MGM, but does not include the Muppets or "Bear in the Big Blue House"
characters.
* Newmarket Films will unveil a director's cut of DONNIE DARKO at the
Seattle Film Festival on May 29. The new version will have 20 minutes of
never-before-seen footage, new visual effects, and new music. After the
festival, Newmarket plans to release the film theatrically in Seattle before
moving into other markets later in the summer.
* Original Film will produce 21 JUMP STREET, Paramount Pictures' big-screen
adaptation of the TV series, which is currently out to writers.
* Miramax has acquired U.S. publishing and film rights to MISTMANTLE
CHRONICLES, a forthcoming trilogy of children's books by Brit author Margi
McAllister. First book in the series, URCHIN OF THE RIDING STARS, is due for
publication next spring 2005. Series is about a group of animals, including
squirrels, otters, hedgehogs and moles, living on an island hidden in mist.
Debut novel centers on Urchin, an orphaned red squirrel, who rises to meet
the challenges of a kingdom under threat while learning about loyalty and
friendship.
* Universal Pictures has acquired feature film rights to Lolly Winston's
dramedy novel GOOD GRIEF for Marc Platt Prods. to produce. The novel centers
on a young woman who is forced to reinvent her life when she is suddenly
widowed just as she was getting used to being married in the first place.
* Disney picked up the rights to Matthew Riley's book HOVER CAR RACER for
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to produce.
* Paramount Pictures has moved the release of SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF
TOMORROW from June 25 to Sept. 17.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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