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Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP

Published at:  Oct 13, 2001 2:45:41 AM CDT

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



    + Expand All

    Readers Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 2:57:09 AM CDT

    hey ho

    by wilko185

    go another piece of moss

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 4:37:40 AM CDT

    Samurai

    by bruce leroy

    Cloud Of Sparrow's sounds cool. I just wish they's made a great big samurai epic for once. I'd like to see a live action version of Ninja Scroll or something similar. Then again they'd probably mess it up again and piss of everyone.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 10:04:15 AM CDT

    Spike spike spike

    by the_darkness

    If you check IMDB it says that James Marsters is also in "chance" That's cool as heck :)

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 11:25:58 AM CDT

    Wow, a remake of "Fever Pitch" re-written to focus on baseball i

    by brother putney

    While they're at it, why don't they re-do "Fight Club" as a story about guys who form a secret society that's all about huggin' and kissin'? It just ain't right. Even if, by some miracle, an Americanized "Fever Pitch" turns into a good movie, it'll be a complete distortion of the book that it's "based on." What's the point of that? Fortunately, it does mean that Nick Hornby will get paid movie rights twice for the same book and he's definitely a guy who deserves tall stacks o' cash in ever exceeding numbers.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 11:32:17 AM CDT

    Chris Kattan as a hockey player? HAHAHA

    by bigtuna

    How unrealistic can you get? The little guy would be killed.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 12:33:37 PM CDT

    Master and the Margarita

    by nelsonalgren

    Yet another informative recap, thanks elston. Wow, Master and the Margarita, huh? Yet another situation where I am extremely excited but totally skeptical at the same time. The book is one of my favorites, totally surreal and thoroughly entertaining, but...
    The book is one of the most non-linear novels I've ever read, which means it will be quite easy to really mess it up. If done right, it could be quite profound,let's hope it is handled well. Until release, I'll sit back and cross my fingers. see ya on the flipside- Nelson Algren

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 3:52:15 PM CDT

    in place of Buzz...

    by holidill

    We have another fun-filled holidill hotsheet. I took off last week because my computer was having trouble hooking up with AICN. I've got three today:

    -Johnny Appleseed: directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson as the famous figure who walked across america planting apple trees. Here he hooks up with all kinds of people and sets them on their way to revolution, by accident totally. Figure Braveheart meets Forrest Gump. -I married Cal Ripken: romantic comedy about the highs and lows of a romance set during the whole career of Cal Ripken. The couple always have their major changes in their relationship occur at various Orioles games where Cal Ripken had a milestone. Casting is underway with Barry Levinson interested. -A live-action Captain Carrot and the Zoo crew film, based on the classic DC comic by Scott Shaw! The film will focus on the incredible Oz-Wonderland war. Good stuff out of my head. Long live Buzz Maverick!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 8:14:48 PM CDT

    The Americanized Fever Pitch will suck?

    by jonquixote

    Like High Fidelity did? I say it's a great idea because a) Hornby kicks ass, b) It's adapted by the guys that did Parenthood, and THEY kick ass, c)it's been far too long since we had a good baseball movie, and d) the only people who enjoy soccer are too poor to afford to go to the movies, and would probably wind up trampling a 6-year old to death if they did anyways.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 10:27:51 PM CDT

    I am looking forward to master and margarita as well.

    by crisv

    It is true it will be hard to adapt but even if it sucks it may get more ppl interested in Bulgakov, which will be nice.

    I always thought that a "Master and Margarite" movie should actually have the setting changed to the united states, probably san francisco.

    Americans do not begin to understand the realities and mechanics of soviet life, and a movie (as opposed to a book) will have a hard time explaining those.

    San francisco would be a great location, because (i) it has a very old russian population, so the cultural references do not need to be changed (i do not envy the screenwright that has to think of an american replacement for samovars), and (ii) it has trams which are required for the first scene.

    Oh yeah and i hope they do the cat right.

    Well thats my rant on M&M. I also want to say that the movie about the Michael Jordan shoes with magical powers sounds so incredibly tacky and commercial that ... i have no words.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 13, 2001 10:43:33 PM CDT

    re:jonquixote & "Hi Fi"

    by brother putney

    Well, I agree with you "High Fidelity" was not a bad movie. It could've been better, I think, but it was pretty good. But the "Hi Fi" guys remained relatively faithful to the book. With "Fever Pitch" we're talking about a massive reworking of the novel, changing a major component of the narrative. Imagine if in the film "High Fidelity" they'd re-written Rob as a Southern man obsessed with country music. Some may think that's a bit of an exagerration but I think it's apt. I just think that if they're gonna change it they should use a new title and perhaps say, "Inspired by...." And the original "Fever Pitch" isn't a classic, but it's pretty good.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2001 1:26:44 AM CDT

    Coen Brothers Christmas!

    by carouselambra

    Ha! Can't wait to see how the Coen Brothers define the "true meaning of Christmas"! Hehe, that is so cool.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2001 5:59:18 AM CDT

    Don't do "based on" movies, especially with "M"

    by rant_man

    Fuck you DMX. Get some fucking original material. Leave the masterpiece "M" alone. Do a sequel to "Exit Wounds" or something. Or do something original. I repeat, do not fuck with "M" or there will be hell to pay!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2001 5:06:15 PM CDT

    What A Brotha Know.

    by public enemy

    Hello I'm am Buzzaro, we are PUBIC ENEMY, a supergroup of Talkbackers formed to enlighten you with all the other shit that's going on in the world. I use the name. BUZZARO because I'm unoriginal and miss the MIGHTY BUZZ MAVERIK. Our first report comes from CHICKEN BONE JONES. "Hey Buzzaro CBJ here. Let's see not much this week, MANDY MOORE got stuck for the first time by Jason Schwartzman's brother on the set on the Princess Diaries. Good for her. Nicole Kidman is fucking that guy from the COUNTING CROWS. How the fuck does that guy do it? he's fucked Jen Anniston, Courtney Cox, Ally McBeal and Now Nicole Kidman. Fuck it that's all I'm writing this week, I'm going to go and get dreads and start a fucking band." Okay thanks Chicken Bone. Next up is Mister Gwieves, who suplies PUBIC ENEMY with his e-mail address. "This week Bwitney Speaws got into twouble with PEPSI because she posed fowa a pictuwe wiff a fan while holding a bottle of COKE. Pepsi gave her 7 million dollaws. they awe mad. I hope they keep aiwing that pepsi commucial wiff her becuz it gives me a bonuh. Bye Evewyone, Youwa Fwiend Mista Gwieves." Thank you Mister Gwieves, who notified me at BUZZARO headquarters that next weekend he will be making his film debut as an extra in a short. Congratulations Mister Gwieves. Before you know it, he'll be getting together with all the hot actresses, as a matter of fact call TARA REID at (323) 876-8907 and tell her to get with Mister Gwieves or any member of PUBIC ENEMY. That's all for this week AICN. Anyone out there have any HOLLYWOOD flavored news or just wanna say hi/fuck off? Write for/to PUBIC ENEMY, care of Mister Gwieves at MrG@hollywood.com Buzzaro out.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2001 7:19:50 PM CDT

    Excellent Recap!

    by dropkickmurphy

    I agree with the guy who said DMX should stay away from M, I think DMX may want to stay away from film altogether. Anyway great recap Elston and thanks to Holidill and Pubic enemy for keeping the laughs up...until next time...DKM

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 15, 2001 1:52:22 AM CDT

    my god

    by twig

    I KNEW I shouldn't have bashed Heather Graham so much for her dismal peformance in AP2. Based on her laughable acting in that MTV movie Carmen, Beyonce will be FAR worse. Oh, and yay for Amber Benson! Takin charge!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 15, 2001 4:55:47 AM CDT

    Alas, Poor Buzz

    by huneybee

    Let his memory rest in peace, why don't ya? It would be less painful.____A Mournful Bee

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 15, 2001 5:36:53 AM CDT

    Buzz is over in Afghanistan on a Special Forces mission!

    by regis travolta

    Don't you guys remember, he's with his brother Cal and their father and grandfather, it's a Maverik Mission Force! They are going to bring Osama back here to be hurled off the top of the Empire State Bldg. next year on Sept. 11 2002 and it will be broadcast LIVE on every TV network and also webcast on the internet! Go Buzz Maverik Go!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 15, 2001 6:50:46 PM CDT

    Buzz Maverik's Weekly Recap

    by buzz maverik

    TAKEN FROM A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE...As many of you may know, I like to keep my resume updated and my skills sharp by doing a little time in prison every now and then. I was down in Arkansas, hunting the Boggy Creek Monster known as the Skunk Ape (immortalized in that great '70s piece of dreck THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK) when I felt the need to do a stretch on the inside. Arkansas being a great party state (having spawned Clinton -- Bill, NOT Hilary) it's virtually impossible to get imprisoned. Fortunately, I knew the one crime that would get me put away: barn burnin'. Trouble was, the barn I picked to torch was full of Boggy Bottom Weed, which belonged to the top con, one Satchel Whillomette, at Osksahootchiecoo State Penitentiary where I was sent. My first day in the yard, I was stabbed 33 times. That night, while enjoying some excellent morphene in the infirmary, I got to thinking: if someone had burned up my barn full of skank and survived a good shanking, I'd send my boyz to get him in the dispensary. Working fast, pausing only for more morphene, I got ready. Sure enough, when Satchel's boys The Aryan Crips showed up and set fire to my bunk, I was safely on the floor underneath. I kicked my flaming mattress into the biggest one and rolled out with one my bunk legs in hand. I proceeeded to beat four of the nastiest, stinkiest cons in Arkansas into paste. Prison officials ruled it homocide by "person or persons unknown" even though they came in while I was still whacking at them. After that, I ran the drug trade inside. The cons brought their problems to me. Mostly boring stuff, who owed who cigarettes, who was flirting with who's punk. But then this one guy,
    Ernie X. of the New Afrikan Uhuru Army came to me with an unique problem. It seems that he wrote a screenplay called THE GIGILO FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and sent it to David Geffen who likes to get mail from prisoners. Guess what Dreamwork's next picture is, with Brett Ratner directing. Is Ernie X. or the New African Uhuru Army listed in the credits? Fuck no! Ernie paid me 500 cartons of Camel Lights to take care of this problem. I got on a remote work detail with a single fish hack and here I am, back on AICN. Who knows, I might actually even keep my word to Ernie. See you at Graceland...

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 15, 2001 7:25:00 PM CDT

    well i'll be damned

    by kojiro

    Should have known you weren't dead old man. After all,what's a punctured lung or two, right? Good to see ya back.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 16, 2001 12:57:02 AM CDT

    Buzz!!

    by huneybee

    You've been missed! It's so good to see the Buzz Maverik Weekly Recap back where it belongs. Kudos to those trying to keep our spirits up during your absence, but Long Live the Recap King!!!____Bee

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 16, 2001 12:28:40 PM CDT

    I defer to the master Buzz

    by holidill

    I'm glad you are back my lord. Now I can go back to my normal life of eating skittles and drinking Mountain Dew Code Red while i let the master work. Hope all is well in the big house. You need me to get you out...I know some people.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 16, 2001 4:32:01 PM CDT

    Person or Persons Unknown

    by jonquixote

    Why wouldn't High Fidelity have worked if Rob liked Country Music? Other than restricting his musical tastes (which reflects on the character), nothing changes. It's still about a man and his obsession and his journey from being a consumer and a critic to a producer, in effect to start living his life instead of just passively experiencing it. It could have also worked for movies, comic books, and romantic poetry, although the marketing and appeal of the movie would be different. Is Fever Pitch about soccer, or is it about the fans and their passion for the game? Are baseball fans not as obsessed and consumed by the fortunes of their team? Of course they are, although they usually tend to express their devotion in less violent terms. A good sports movie is pretty universal, because the main attraction to sport is universal. Bull Durham could easily have been about a minor league hockey team. Tin Cup could have been about tennis. Bang The Drum Slowly could have involved cricket players. Now, if Fever Pitch was a biography on Vinnie Jones, or the history of soccer, then it would be pretty stupid to adapt it using a different sport. But it's about fans, and fans are pretty universal, and from a commercial point of view, it makes sense to change the sport to baseball, because nobody in America is going to see a soccer movie (although it might make more sense to change it to hockey, because I can't imagine a lot of Europeans lining up to go see a baseball movie. But, then again, how many South American countries are going to see a hockey movie. Decisions, decisions.)

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 16, 2001 10:38:13 PM CDT

    You're right

    by brother putney

    I completely agree with you. But we're talking about two different things. I can't argue any of the points you made, they're totally correct. But I'm talking about the questionable integrity of severely altering the source material in the process of making a movie. And, granted, any book-to-movie adaptation is going to alter the source considerably -- I love both "The Ice Storm" and "The English Patient," in both book and movie form... but they take great liberties with the material (Think "The Ice Storm" is a downer of a movie? Try the book some time, the family is infinitely more screwed up on paper). But when it comes to completely changing the guts of a book (particularly since an obsessive's love of soccer in the most specific sense IS the guts of "Fever Pitch") I have to object. I hope you're right, I hope they make a great movie out of it, but... it just makes me think of the Paramount executives who wanted Coppola to set "The Godfather" in the then-present day 1970's. Come to think of it, that might have been pretty cool. Anyway, I must now go and worry about anthrax.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 16, 2001 11:00:07 PM CDT

    Just a little thing about M&M

    by thecomedian

    I too am a huge Master and Margarita fan. This project has crossed many hands over the years. Polanski wanted a crack at it at one point I think. Anyways, one note to Elston or whoever he got the info from. Not to be an ubergeek but M&M isn't set in the Stalin Era. It's set way earlier in the teens (before the bulshevics)if I remember correctly. It was banned in the Stalin Era. Anyways, there are so many ways they could fuck this up. The Cat, the Ponteous Pilot narrative, The red haired vampire chick, The Party where all the damned come up from hell. This could all so easily be ruined if it's put in the wrong hands. Here's hoping for the best.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 16, 2001 11:06:01 PM CDT

    wait, I'm a moron

    by thecomedian

    M&M is set in the Stalin Era. Just in the early half of it. Apologies, Elston.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 17, 2001 1:36:09 PM CDT

    Adaptations

    by jonquixote

    See, I'm not all that concerned when a movie intends to deviate from the source material, provided they remain true to the spirit of the book, or the integrity of the characters. The Cider House Rules is far better a movie than a book due to the streamlining of the narrative and the change in the unsatisfying ending. William Goldman writes about the changes he made to 'Absolute Power' and 'Misery', and they actually made the book stronger. Now, the change to Fever Pitch is certainly commercial, but it will work for me. See, I really like Nick Hornsby, and thought both the movie and book versions of High Fidelity were kick ass. However, I can't stand soccer. I don't have a problem with people who do, unless they're slaughtering each other with the ferocity of a Bloods/Crips feud, but personally, I find watching a soccer match like watching golf on Horse tranquilizers. I'm sure it's just a regional thing, but that's just my opinion. Not that baseball's all that more exciting, mind you, but I can relate to it much better. So to get the wit and wisdom of a Nick Hornsby movie adaptation, but to not have to wade through 2 hours of a sporting background that effects me like morphine effects a narcoleptic, I'm more than willing to see the topic flip-flopped, especially considering purists and soccer fans already have a traditional movie adaptation. I think everybody wins. Yay!

    Reply to Talkback

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