Hey, everyone. "Moriarty here. Blame Harry for this Weekly Recap being up late. He was far too much fun to hang out with in San Diego, and it was his bad influence that kept me from rushing back here to work this weekend. Of course, the whole Web seemed a little hushed this weekend, since I saw basically every major webmaster at the ComiCon. Interesting group. Interesting gathering. Here's some other stuff that happened last week, courtesy of Elston Gunn.
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Charlize Theron and Vincent Perez will star in THE HUSBAND I BOUGHT based on the Ayn Rand novella for director Stephan Elliot (THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT). The story centers on the marriage between a wealthy woman and an architect. When a building he designed collapses and kills several people, his life begins to fall apart. Another woman enters the picture trying to bring him back to architecture.
* Lance Crouther, Andy Richter and David Cross will star in POOTIE TANG for writer/director Louis C.K. ("The Chris Rock Show"), MTV Films, Alphaville and 3 Arts Prods. The film will center on a crime fighting hero/recording artist who speaks his own language, but the kids love him.
* Philip Seymour Hoffman will star in the digital feature LAST PARTY 2000 for director Donovan Leitch. The pic will follow a man through the election process from Repbulican and Democratic conventions to radical political movements throughout the nation. Leitch produced and co-wrote 1993's THE LAST PARTY.
* Tom Cruise is in talks to star in an untitled love story feature for writer/director Cameron Crowe. Shooting would begin late fall.
* Gary Oldman, Amy Smart, Michael J. Fox and Kurt Russell are in talks to join James Marsden in INTERSTATE 60, a surreal road trip movie about a man's venture on a road that doesn't appear on any map. Bob Gale (BACK TO THE FUTURE, USED CARS) will direct from his own script.
* Daniel Craig (ELIZABETH) has been cast as CIA agent Theo Rooker opposite Anjelina Jolie in TOMB RAIDER.
* Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Helen Mirren and Ray Winstone will star in LAST ORDERS for director Fred Schepisi about a group of friends who look back on their lives while setting out to carry another friend's ashes from London to the sea. Shooting will begin Oct. 16.
* Anne Heche is in final talks to join New Line's JOHN Q starring Denzel Washington, Kimberly Elise and Robert Duvall about a man who takes an ER hostage because they won't give his son a heart transplant. Nick Cassavetes directs.
* William H. Macy will play a wealthy business man in JURASSIC PARK 3 for director Joe Johnston.
* John Cleese, Kathy Najimy, Paul Rodriguez and Dave Thomas join Jason Alexander, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Seth Green and Whoopi Goldberg in RAT RACE for director Jerry Zucker about a race to find $2 million in a hidden locker.
* Tim Roth is in talks to take a role in both HARRY POTTER and PLANET OF THE APES (aka THE VISITOR), but may have to decide between the two as they'll shoot at the same time.
* Michael Sheen (Broadway's "Amadeus") will join Wes Bentley and Heath Ledger in FOUR FEATHERS for director Shekar Kapur.
* Liam Waite nabbed a role in JOHN CARPENTER'S GHOST OF MARS starring Ice Cube. Courtney Love may drop out of the pic due to an injury to her ankle while getting in shape for her role.
* Valerie Pettiford ("Fosse") joins Mariah Carey in ALL THAT GLITTERS.
* Jake Busey joins Adam Goldberg, Jennifer Tilly, Natasha Lyonne, Crispin Glover and Bijou Phillips in the road-trip comedy FAST SOFA for director Salome Breziner. Bruce Craven adapted the script from his own novel.
* Delroy Lindo joins Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Sam Rockwell and Rebecca Pidgeon in David Mamet's THE HEIST.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Rob Bowman (THE X-FILES) will direct REIGN OF FIRE for Spyglass Ent. about an post-apocalyptic American team who fights a group of dragons who dominate the earth.
* Commerical director Rob Pritts is in final talks to helm Disney's CORKY BONONO starring Chris Kattan and Peter Falk. David Garrett and Jason Ward scripted.
* Breck Eisner will direct EL PHANTASMA for USA Films from a script by Craig Fernandez. The film is set in the world of Aztec magical realism and is said to be MATRIX-esque.
* Fred Schepisi will direct BLACK MAGIC based on the true story of a World War II Aboriginal fighter pilot.
* Summit Entertainment picked up Simon Kinberg's pitch MR. AND MRS. SMITH about a husband and wife assassination team who end up hunting each other down.
* John Glenn and Travis Adam Wright have written the sci fi thriller script RED WORLD, purchased by Disney for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It tells the story of a man who enters an incomplete time portal and goes to the present from the future. He then tries to stop an invasion from happening once the portal is complete.
* Paul Cohen (WHIPPED) will write DOMESTIC PARTNERS (aka TWO GUYS) for DreamWorks about a marketing executive who pretends his straight roommate is his gay partner, so he can collect health benenfits from his company. His gay boss later takes him in and the roommates must keep the act going.
* Brad Silberling (CITY OF ANGELS) will direct both BABY'S IN BLACK, about a widowed man who falls for a woman while living with his deceased wife's family, as well as FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH about a business mogul who needs a bone marrow transplant and finds a match for his rare blood type in a poor con man who shows him they're not very different.
* Ed Decter will direct THE NEW GUY for Revolution Studios. DJ Qualls (ROAD TRIP) will star as a kid who goes to a new school to shake his old nerd reputation.
* Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (ELECTION scribes) are doing a script polish on JURASSIC PARK 3.
* Steven Carpenter will develop and write a sequel to Columbia' BLUE STREAK which he also penned. Production may begin in the spring.
* Kevin Nealon ("SNL") and John Henson ("Talk Soup") have written an untitled Cupid script for Revolution Studios and Happy Madison Prods. The companies are also working on a Norm Macdonald baseball comedy entitled TURK.
* Eric Roth will rework the Muhammad Ali script by Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson for director Michael Mann. Shooting may begin this fall.
* Ron Howard may direct THE CHECHNYA PROJECT based on some L.A. Times articles by Robyn Dixon about a business man who returns to a southern Russian republic to save his brother from Chechen bandits. Chris Brancato (SPECIES II) will script.
* Ron Bass will write the animated comedy adventure THE CIRCUS for DreamWorks featuring a group of animals in a 1920s French traveling show.
* Rich Taylor and Jeffrey Goldberg have written TRICKS OF THE TRADE purchased by Disney for Jerry Bruckheimer to produce about four business school grads who can't find work, so they bring their knowledge and business savvy to the mob.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Rob Legato (TITANIC) will be the visual effects supervisor for HARRY POTTER.
* Roman Polanski is being sued by Artisan Entertainment for allegedly taking over $1 million from the film THE NINTH GATE.
* Producer Steven Jay Rubin picked up a couple of World War II projects: CUT OFF, based on Bill Davidson's autiobiographical book, and THE SILENT NIGHT about a German boy and his mother who invite American and German soldiers to share Christmas Eve with them in their cabin in 1944.
* The gian-screen concert film N'SYNC: BIGGER THAN LIVE, shot in Detroit on July 18, will hit theaters this October.
* Wicked Monkey Prods. picked up the rights to Jason Lutes' graphic novel JAR OF FOOLS as well as the adapted screenplay by Jud Meyers about a young magician who looks for the truth behind his brother's death in the Coney Island underworld.
This seems to be the week of the "big ensemble cast." THE HEIST, FAST SOFA, INTERSTATE 60, LAST ORDERS, JOHN Q and RAT RACE all are sporting quite intriguing casts. So is BIG TROUBLE, but that didn't pic didn't really hit the trades this week as far as casting goes. Hope the scripts are all great. My confidence in JURASSIC PARK 3 went up a couple of notches with William H. Macy joining the cast and the ELECTION writers working the script. (Eric Roth working on the Muhammad Ali script is good too as I liked THE INSIDER script). Brad Silberling's plate seems rather full with two pics up ahead. Anybody read BABY'S IN BLACK? I like the sound of the Ron Bass animated adventure THE CIRCUS. Hope it's fun. I've admired the DreamWorks animated films. What do you think of the BLUE STREAK sequel that's in development? Would you rather see a sequel to BAD BOYS? Stay tuned.
Until next week...
