Father Geek here once again. Man, does time fly sometimes. I can't believe its already time for me to be posting another of Elston's weekend rehashs of the previous week's Hollywood film news he puts together especially for those of you who may have missed out on some of it during the weary work week...
Sooooooo, without any further delay Father Geek now turns you over to AICN's ace archivist, the one and only Elston Gunn for...
THE WEEKLY RECAP
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Minnie Driver will join Colin Firth, Heather Graham and Mary Steenburgen
in NEW CARDIFF, based on the novel by Charles Webb, for writer/director Mark
Herman (LITTLE VOICE). Oliver Platt is in talks to star as well. Shooting
begins Oct. 15 in Vancouver.
* Amber Benson ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") has wrapped the pic CHANCE,
which she wrote, produced, financed, directed and stars. The dark comedy
centers on a young woman in pursuit of her true love.
* Elise Neal ("The Hughleys") will star in HOLLA, an indie slasher comedy
about a TV star stalked by a psycho while stranded in a snow-covered mansion
with seven of her best friends.
* Clive Owen (CROUPIER) will star opposite Angelina Jolie in BEYOND BORDERS
for director Martin Campbell Mandalay Pictures. Production should begin by
the end of the year.
* Alessandro Nivola (JURASSIC PARK III) joins LAUREL CANYON, starring
Frances McDormand, Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale, for writer/director
Lisa Cholodenko (HIGH ART).
* Snoop Dogg will star in LADY T. AND MOJO SLIM, a USA Films project to be
written by Eric Bernt (ROMEO MUST DIE, THE CORE). It's about a small-time
crook who falls for a cop's daughter. The couple becomes legendary, stealing
and giving the proceeds to the poor.
* Marton Csokas (ATTACK OF THE CLONES) will play a villain in XXX, opposite
Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson, for Revolution Studios and director Rob
Cohen.
* Matt Battaglia joins Steven Seagal and Morris Chestnut in Franchise's
LOCKDOWN about an undercover FBI agent who is put in prison after a botched
drug bust and heads a resistance moviement against a gang of mercenaries.
* Jean-Claude Van Damme will star in the action pic DERAILED for Millennium
Films and director Bob Misiorowski. The project is set in Germany and
centers on a guy who must save passengers on a train that's been taken over
by terrorists.
* Naomi Watts (MULHOLLAND DRIVE) will star opposite Brenda Blethyn, Alfred
Molina and Christopher Walken in Miramax's PLOTS WITH A VIEW, written by
Frederick Ponzlov. Nick Hurran directs.
* Rachael Leigh Cook will star in the indie pic BOOKIES for director Mark
Illsley and is in talks to star in AMERICAN CRIME, a mystery/thriller to be
directed by Dan Mintz. Nick Stahl, Johnny Galecki and Lukas Haas also are
in talks to star in BOOKIES, about four college buds who become small-time
bookies. Kip Pardue is also in negotiations to star in AMERICAN CRIME,
which follows a small-town news crew investigating a series of deaths.
* Mel Gibson is attached to star in the drama SAM AND GEORGE for director
Richard Donner and Paramount Pictures. The studio recently purchased the
pitch from Dean Georgaris about a man who must deal with the life
adjustments after being released from prison, where he spent time for a
crime he did not commit.
* Beyonce Knowles is in advanced talks to play the female lead in AUSTIN
POWERS 3: GOLDMEMBER. Shooting begins next month with Jay Roach directing.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Andrzej Bartkowiak (ROMEO MUST DIE, EXIT WOUNDS) will direct DMX in an
untitled project inspired by the 1931 German thriller M for Warner Bros. and
producer Joel Silver. Reginald Blythewood wrote the script.
* Eli Roth will direct the thriller CABIN FEVER from his own script for
which his mentor David Lynch will executive produce. It's about five
isolated friends who contract a flesh-eating disease. Michael Rosenbaum,
Jordan Ladd and James DeBello are attached to star.
* Universal has bought the action comedy MOVING ELLIOT about an FBI agent
assigned to transport a criminal to court. When the agent's personal life
crumbles, he and the indicted man become unlikely pals. Adam Rodgers and
Glenn German wrote the script.
* Disney has picked up an untitled comedy pitch from writer Stephen
Carpenter for Chris Kattan to star in that Robert Simonds (CORKY ROMANO)
will produce. It's about a figure skater who goes to play for a losing NHL
hockey team and manages to help turn the team around. Meanwhile, he also
tries to mend an unresolved relationship with his father, a former hockey
player who's upset that his son never followed in his footsteps.
* Terry Zwigoff (CRUMB, GHOST WORLD) is in early talks to direct BAD SANTA
for Working Title Films from a script written by John Requa and Glenn
Ficarra and rewritten by The Coen brothers, who are also producing. The
story is about a couple of con men who masquerade as Santa and an elf,
traveling from mall to mall each Christmas to rob the establishment. Things
change for the men when they meet up with a troubled 8-year-old who
inadvertently reminds them of the true meaning of Christmas.
* Takashi Bufford's (SET IT OFF) urban-themed comedy script AFTER PARTY was
picked up by USA Films. Bufford will also direct.
* Jonathan Lemkin will direct HOWL, a modern-day werewolf feature, for
Warner Bros. from his own script.
* John Schultz (DRIVE ME CRAZY) will direct LIKE MIKE for Fox, starring Lil'
Bow Wow. The script focuses on a teen who happens upon a pair of Michael
Jordan's sneakers that hold magical powers.
* Boyce Bugliari and Jamie McLaughlin have sold their script MY BETTER HALF
to Univeral for Mostow/Lieberman to produce. The dark romantic comedy
centers on a married couple on the verge of a divorce who switch bodies and
set out to ruin each other's lives.
* Dan McDermott's supernatural thriller script SELLING TIME was sold to Fox
2000. It's about a guy who has the worst day of his life, but when he is
given a chance to relive it, he faces unexpected consequences.
* Fox 2000 is developing a remake of FEVER PITCH, the 1997 British
adaptation of the Nick Hornby book about his obsession with a professional
soccer team. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel will write the script and
change the focus to baseball--more specifically the Boston Red Sox.
* Marc Moss (ALONG CAME A SPIDER) is in talks with Warner Bros. to adapt the
John Maxwell novel POINT FURY about an aspiring rock musician who's asked to
house-sit by a potential benefactor and finds himself in a dangerous game of
cat-and-mouse.
* Michael Radford (IL POSTINO) will direct CRIME OF HONOR, a remake of the
1957 Louis Malle film ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. Production may begin in
April. The original followed an executive who murders his boss and gets
stuck in the building for the entire night. When he emerges, he finds that
his car had been stolen and he's arrested for a murder the thief committed.
* Stephen Herek (ROCK STAR) is in talks to direct the mistaken identity
comedy TUCKER AMES for Fox. It's about a Bill Gates-like character with a
fear of public speaking. When he goes into hiding to avoid an antitrust
suit, he ends up hanging out with a group of sketch comedy artists who think
he's a celebrity look-alike of himself.
* Douglas Coupland (GENERATION X) has sold his script MOM'S COOKIES to
Disney. It centers on two suburban teenagers who explore the world of
computer gaming to rescue one of their mothers whose life has been taken
over by the Web.
* Morgan Creek Prods. has picked up Caroline Case's script SNAG, about a
ritzy big-city publicist who, after witnessing the murder of a client, is
forced to hide out in a small Ohio town.
* Jim Uhls (FIGHT CLUB) will turn the historical drama GIDEON FORCE into a
feature screenplay for Warner Bros. It's the story of a British general's
unlikely alliance with a black prince to liberate Ethiopia from Italian rule
at the beginning of World War I. Brian Grazer will produce.
* Joel and Ethan Coen are in talks to direct George Clooney in INTOLERABLE
CRUELTY about a Hollywood divorce lawyer who discovers he is the target of
revenge by a client's ex-wife.
* Artists Production Group and StudioCanal have acquired Chris Hauty's
action-thriller pitch VIGILANTE, with Edward Burns attached to star. It's
about a newspaper columnist who goes after the gang responsible for his
wife's death, only to discover that he's now the target of a rogue cop.
* Adam Glass has sold THE CLUB, a broad comedy pitch, to Revolution Studios.
* Miramax Films has grabbed the sci-fi pitch HUMAN for Miguel Sapochnik to
direct. It's based on THE DREAMER, a short film by Sapochnik and Ivor
Powell, and is set 100 years in the future when genetically engineered human
clones are used as slaves. One defies the system and leads a revolt agains
the human race. Sapochnik and Powell are writing the script.
* Pandemonium has picked up the comedy script THE WRONG NINE YEAR OLD from
writers Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger about a young man whose life is turned
upside down when a classmate from grade school returns to seek revenge for a
slight that happened when they were kids.
* Ron Howard is in final talks to direct THE BURIAL, a fact-based script by
Doug Wright (QUILLS) about Willie Gary, a black personal-injury lawyer from
Mississippi. Gary was asked to take on the case of Jeremiah O'Keefe, the
owner of a local funeral home chain who claimed he had been swindled by a
major funeral parlor conglomerate. The script was adapted from a New Yorker
piece by Jonathan Harr (A CIVIL ACTION).
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Quentin Tarantino said that his next film, KILL BILL, may unite Hong
Kong's Yuen Woo Ping, who will choreograph the kung fu action, with Japan's
Sonny Chiba, who will choreograph the samurai action.
* Russian actress Svetlana Migounova is bringing to America the rights to
one of the most popular Russian novels of the 20th century, Mikhail
Bulgakov's THE MASTER AND MARGARITA. She'll star and produce with William
Paul Burns. The story tells about what happens with the devil appears in
Moscow for three days during the Stalin era.
* Eagle Cove/Deluxe Entertainment and Panoptic Pictures are developing a pic
based on DARKNESS IN HIM by Andrew Lyons. The story is set on an Ivy League
campus and follows a pre-law student whose perfect life is disrupted when he
gets a frat brother's girlfriend pregnant and opts to kill her rather than
suffer the consequences.
* Atlantic Streamline has acquired the feature rights to the Todd Komanicki
novel FAMINE. The author will adapt as well as direct the project. The
story follows a homicide detective who finds the corpse of a young man who
seems to have starved himself to death. As he continues to investigate, he
finds that his own past is entangled with the victim's.
* Fox Searchlight is in final talks to pick up two comedy projects for
Edmonds Entertainment to produce: THE ROAD TO FREAKNIK and SNOW CITY. The
first, written by Gregory N.T. Colleton and Edwardo Jackson, centers on
college students who travel across the country for an annual picnic in
Atlanta called Freaknik. SNOW, written by Al Sonja Rice, is about a
hard-working black father who takes his dysfunctional family away on a
disastrous weekend ski trip.
* Universal has acquired Takashi Matsuoka's book CLOUD OF SPARROW'S about
two warring samurai lords and three American missionaries in the 19th
century.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* Robert Ronan's 5-minute short THE PLUMBER is on the internet at
http://www.shotgunmonkey.com/movies/plumber.htm in Sorenson 2 Quicktime.
* Alex Holdridge's movie WRONG NUMBERS premieres this week at the Austin
Film Festival on Thursday, October 18th at 9:30 - Driskill Hotel Ballroom.
For more info about the pic visit http://www.americanstupidity.com
Until next week... Thanks to those who emailed with kind words.
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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