Well, it's that time of the week again folks, and Elston Gunn has sent Father Geek and the AICN Home Office in Austin another great review of all the major happenings in the film industry last week. Of course one of the absolute hottest casting scoops of this week, or any week for that matter in Father Geek's opinion, was the ultimate confirmation of George Lucas' personal casting of 19 year old Hayden Christensen
as Anakin Skywalker in STAR WARS: EPISODE II over the objection (Too Young) of the film's Casting Director Robin Gurland as reported by AICN some time ago.
Shortly after our story two weeks ago confirming Hayden as Anakin, Christensen canceled his plans to appear in a television movie with Aidan Quinn. He had signed on for both the next two episodes in the Star Wars saga. Hayden it seems will join up with the cast and crew sometime in June, when they begin their filming down in Australia.
Hayden Christensen, as described long ago on this site, is a virtually unknown actor. His most recent appearance being in the Sundance Festival entry, The Virgin Suicides, a motion picture notable only for the directorial debut of Sofia Coppola, the daughter of GODFATHER director Francis Ford Coppola.
Hayden's name first surfaced on our site in this regard in a July of 99 story on the many possible candidates for the Anakin role. One of our well place spies stated in that story 9 months ago that the part would probably go to an Unknown, 18-20 years of age, who was Canadian, and had a film entered in The Sundance Film Festival in January of 2000. As it turns out Hayden Christensen fits the bill on all of those points. That same spy had stated in an even earlier report on our site that the Anakin role would be awarded to an 18-20 yearold unknown.
Now on to Elston's regular column...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
Shortly after our story two weeks ago confirming Hayden as Anakin, Christensen canceled his plans to appear in a television movie with Aidan Quinn. He had signed on for both the next two episodes in the Star Wars saga. Hayden it seems will join up with the cast and crew sometime in June, when they begin their filming down in Australia.
Hayden Christensen, as described long ago on this site, is a virtually unknown actor. His most recent appearance being in the Sundance Festival entry, The Virgin Suicides, a motion picture notable only for the directorial debut of Sofia Coppola, the daughter of GODFATHER director Francis Ford Coppola.
Hayden's name first surfaced on our site in this regard in a July of 99 story on the many possible candidates for the Anakin role. One of our well place spies stated in that story 9 months ago that the part would probably go to an Unknown, 18-20 years of age, who was Canadian, and had a film entered in The Sundance Film Festival in January of 2000. As it turns out Hayden Christensen fits the bill on all of those points. That same spy had stated in an even earlier report on our site that the Anakin role would be awarded to an 18-20 yearold unknown.
Now on to Elston's regular column...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
Hayden's name first surfaced on our site in this regard in a July of 99 story on the many possible candidates for the Anakin role. One of our well place spies stated in that story 9 months ago that the part would probably go to an Unknown, 18-20 years of age, who was Canadian, and had a film entered in The Sundance Film Festival in January of 2000. As it turns out Hayden Christensen fits the bill on all of those points. That same spy had stated in an even earlier report on our site that the Anakin role would be awarded to an 18-20 yearold unknown.
Now on to Elston's regular column...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jeremy Sisto and Alfonso Arau join Jennifer Lopez and Jim Caviezel in ANGEL EYES for director Luis Mandoki. Shirley Knight, Sonia Braga and Terrence Howard also star.
* Michael Angarano ("Cover Me") will star in the indie flick BRAINIACS.
* Daniel Roebuck (FINAL DESTINATION) joins Disney's DOUBLE TAKE.
* Soleil Moon Frye ("Punky Brewster") joins both THE GIRLS' ROOM with Wil Wheaton and SEX AND A GIRL with Robert Hayes and Ellen Greene.
* Christopher Meloni, Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce and Paul Rudd will star in WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, a summer camp comedy with Howard Bernstein producing.
* Loren Dean (MUMFORD) joins THE WAR BRIDE alongside Anna Friel, Molly Parker, Brenda Fricker and Aiden Young.
* Leslie Caron grabbed a role in CHOCOLAT for director Lasse Hallstrom.
* Vincent D'Onofrio and Emile Hirsch ("ER") join THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS for director Peter Care and producer/star Jodie Foster.
* Guy Pearce (RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL) joins Jim Caviezel in THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO for director Kevin Reynolds.
* Kate Beckinsdale will star opposite John Cusack in SERENDIPITY for Miramax and director Peter Chelsom (THE MIGHTY) about two people who meet and fall in love in the same night, get separated and look for each other ten years later while engaged to other people.
* Jean Reno is in final talks to play the villain in John McTeirnan's remake of ROLLERBALL starring Chris Klein and LL Cool J.
* Wes Bentley will play Montgomery Clift in the indie biopic MONTY for director Billy Hopkins. Michael Easton scripted the project which focuses on Clift's career from 1947 up until his death in 1966.
* Idina Menzel joins Marisa Tomei, Ron Eldard and Kyra Sedgwick in STILL A KISS for director Fisher Stevens.
* Drea De Matteo, Maurice Compte and Melvin Rodriguez join Matt Dillon, Frankie Muniz and Deborah Harry in DEUCES WILD for director Scott Kalvert and executive producer Martin Scorsese.
* Robbie Coltrane nabbed a role in FROM HELL starring Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and Nigel Hawthorne. Allen and Albert Hughes direct.
* Linda Hamilton and Treat Williams will star in Artisan's SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET.
* Daniel Day-Lewis is in talks to star in GANGS OF NEW YORK with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz for director Martin Scorsese.
* Chow Yun-Fat will star in BULLETPROOF MONK for MGM based on the cult comic about an immortal martial arts master who mentors an urban kid. John Woo and Terence Chang will produce.
* Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen will star in GOOD ADVICE about an investment banker who loses it all and finds out the important things in life. Steve Rash will direct.
* Robert Carlyle and Kiefer Sutherland star in TO END ALL WARS about American prisoners of war in WWII having to build a railway in Burma. David L. Cunningham is directing. Shooting has begun in Hawaii.
* Adrien Brody will star opposite Hilary Swank in THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE for director Charles Shyer and Warner Bros. Brody will also star in DUMMY for director Greg Pritikin about a socially retarded man who communicates to the world through ventriloquism.
* Tom Sizemore is in talks to star in BIG TROUBLE with Barry Sonnenfeld directing the story of a suitcase in a Miami airport and the people who come into contact with it.
* Vin Diesel will join Paul Walker in the street-racing flick RED LINE for Universal and director Rob Cohen.
* Gwyneth Paltrow, Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Eckhart are in talks to star in POSSESSION for Warner Bros. and writer/director Neil Labute based on the A.S. Byatt novel about two academicians who re-create the extramarital affairs of two Victorian poets they are studying.
* Johnny Depp will star in THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE for director Terry Gilliam about an ad exec who goes back in time and his mistaken by Don Quixote as his partner Sancho Panza. Jean Rochefort and Vanessa Paradis will also star.
* Jeremy Davies has joinee the cast of INVESTIGATING SEX which also stars Nick Nolte, Neve Campbell, Robin Tunney, Julie Delpy, and Dermot Mulroney. Alan Rudolph directs. Davies will also star in THE 24TH DAY, shooting on digital video, for director Tony Piccirillo.
* Jeremy Irons has committed to star in THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, based on the Tennesse Williams play, with Kirk Douglas and Thora Birch in talks to star for Rastar Prods.
* Dennis Quaid will star in STRANGER THAN THE WHEEL for director Peter "Gaga" Antonijevic (SAVIOR) about a man who sets out to destroy is father's legacy. Shooting begins in September.
* Ricky Martin and Natalie Portman are in talks to star in a DIRTY DANCING sequel for Artisan and Miramax. It will be set in Miami's South Beach with a modern Latin twist.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Russell Bates will direct New Regency's FREDDY GOT FINGERED starring Tom Green about a man who moves back in with his parents.
* J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress have written FROZEN for Phoenix Pictures about an FBI agent and a magician who team up to find an assassin who can freeze time.
* Writer/director Chris Noonan (BABE) will adapt and helm RULE OF THE BONE based on Russell Banks' novel about a 14-year old pot junkie named Chappie who moves into an adabandoned school bus with an old Jamaican mystic after living in New York with his mom and abusive stepdad. He later journeys to the Caribbean.
* Jack Amiel and Michael Begler ("Malcolm in the Middle") have written LIFE UNDERGROUND which Columbia has picked up for Cathy Konrad to produce. The story finds a Wall Street man who must move back in with his parents after he loses a fortune.
* Alan Sereboff's script THE PAYBACK ALL-STAR REVUE was sold to Icon Prods. about lounge musicians/thieves who manage an almost-impossible escape. Sereboff is also adapting Robert Sabbag's novel SNOWBLIND: A BRIEF CAREER IN THE COCAINE TRADE.
* Michael John Sarna (DOOMSDAYER) will direct ALWAYS GREENER starring Casper Van Dien, Gary Busey and Catherine Oxenberg about a stock broker who starts a new life in Nashville.
* British comedian Ben Elton will write the feature version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA with Antonio Banderas attached to star and Shekar Kapur (ELIZABETH) directing.
* Joel Schumacher will direct DARE for New Regency based on the 1996 BBC thriller directed by John Madden (then titled TRUTH OR DARE) about a female lawyer and three friends who are reunited after a long absence. The woman comes to realize that her old pals are now quite dangerous and they keep sticking around.
* Sue Kramer will write an untitled project for Julia Roberts and Disney Stuidos chairman Joe Roth about a woman in Europe who loses everything and must start over.
* Rebel Penfold-Russell will direct Anna-Lise Phillips (THE BOYS) and C. Thomas Howell in the comedy WILLFULL.
* Robert Zemeckis will direct a remake of the 1958 film MACABRE for producer Joel Silver about a doctor's daughter who is buried alive and he has five hours to find and rescue her.
* Marek Kanievska (WHERE THE MONEY IS) is directing 'TIL THE END OF TIME starring Linda Fiorentino and Ben Kingsley about the relationship between Georgia O'Keefe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Shooting begins June 12 in Santa Fe. Das Werk, CineMedia and producer Karel Dirka are funding the project.
* Bruce McCulloch is in talks to direct the comedy STEALING STANFORD for Imagine Ent. about a man who steals to pay for his niece's first year at Stanford.
* Bel-Air Ent. picked up the pitch KINDRED SPIRITS by Pierce Gardner (LOST SOULS) about a man who may have an identical twin who is accused of murder.
* Jerry Zucker will direct the comedy RAT RACE for Paramount and Seven Arts Int'l about a man who puts together the ultimate gambling contest.
* John Ridley will write the live-action pic UNDERCOVER BROTHER based on the animated series on Urbanmedia.com about an undercover agent for the Brotherhood and his alter ego Anton Jackson.
* George Romero will write and direct the indie vampire flick THE ILL about a college slacker who falls for a foreign exchange student with a mean streak.
* Agnieszka Holland will direct JULIA WALKING HOME about a couple trying different ways to deal with their son's illness.
* Zoe Clarke-Williams (upcoming MARY JANE'S LAST DANCE) will direct DEEP FREEZE GIRLS for Rastar Prods. about games being played by the girls of a Swiss boarding school.
* Joe Forristal and Dirk Wittenborn will write an untitled script for Warner Bros. about a gay interior decorator and a straight FBI agent who pose as lovers to capture a Columbian drug lord whose house they are decorating.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Eriq LaSalle has exited the directing gig on DANGER for Platform Ent.
* Nickelodeon Movies bought the rights to Lemony Snicket's children's book series A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS about three orphans searching for a home.
* Arnold and Anne Kopelson have optioned MAGIC KINGDOM FOR SALE--SOLD by Terry Brooks about a guy who buys a magic kingdom that's close to ruin.
* Producers Al Uzielli, Ben Myron and Ellen Freyer have optioned the book CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY by Karen Cushman. Pam Wallace and Madeline Di Maggio will adapt.
* Producer John Wells ("ER") will work on a feature adaptation of INVISIBLE ENEMIES based on an upcoming Vanity Fair article by Bryan Burroughs about a former computer hacker who now works for the FBI.
* Producer Scott Millaney is putting the 1930s James Bigglesworth character into feature films. The first, BIGGLES FLIES NORTH, will start production next year.
Lots of casting this week. I don't know where to begin. GANGS OF NEW YORK is off to a good start. Daniel Day Lewis has come out of hiding. ANGEL EYES, WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, DEUCES WILD, POSSESSION, INVESTIGATING SEX have rather intriguing casts as well. What do you think of Wes Bentley playing Montogomery Clift? I guess you can probably rule him out of SPIDER MAN. Ricky Martin and Natalie Portman in a DIRTY DANCING sequel for Miramax and Artisan? Don't know what to make of that. It's good to see Jerry Zucker directing a comedy again. Anyone know much about RAT RACE? I've heard FREDDY GOT FINGERED is really funny. Good to see it's starting to come together.
Until next week...Happy Mother's Day.
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
