Cool News
Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek herewith Elston's review of the past workweek out in tinseltown. Lots of cool news... Oh yeah, we here at Geek Headquarters in Austin are painfully aware of Director Ted Demme's passing. He was a long time supporter of this site, and a sometime spy. Harry will be posting his thoughts on this tragic event later, right now he is collecting and couping with his feelings about the loss of his friend... look for it later today... much later.
Now on to Elston's regular column...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
Now on to Elston's regular column...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Alicia Witt will join Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant in Castle Rock's
untitled romantic comedy from writer/director Mark Lawrence. Production
begins Feb. 25 in New York for a Christmas release. The film's plot is being
kept under wraps, but is said to explore whether it is ever too late to say
"I love you." Bullock will play a very intelligent but slightly neurotic
attorney, with Grant as her rich, charming, and irresponsible client. Witt
will play a Harvard grad hired by Bullock to represent Grant when she leaves
the business.
* JJ Feild is in final talks to star in the title role of Peter Greenaway's
trilogy of films, THE TULSE LUPER SUITCASE. The first installment, THE EARLY
YEARS, starts shooting March 4. Greenaway has been writing the project for
15 years. The story revolves around 92, the atomic number of uranium on the
periodic table. There are 92 characters in the films, with 92 stories
involving 92 suitcases, each containing 92 items.
* Sandra Bullock will star in and produce BRIDESMAIDS, an original female
buddy comedy feature set at a wedding at Martha's Vineyard, for Revolution
Studios. Liz Brixius is writing the screenplay.
* Christopher Walken is in talks to star alongside Tom Hanks and Leonardo
DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg's CATCH ME IF YOU CAN for DreamWorks. Walken
will play the father of Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie based on the
true-life memoirs of Frank Abagnale Jr., the youngest man to make the FBI's
10 Most Wanted List.
* Vincent Cassel has joined the cast of SIN EATER, the 20th Century Fox
supernatural thriller, for director Brian Helgeland. Production begins next
week. Cassel will play the "sin eater," who gives people absolution outside
of the church by literally eating their sins.
* Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sigourney Weaver will lend
their vocal talents to the animated comedy pic HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER for
Vanguard Films' John H. Williams and Greenlight Media. The project is set in
the fairy tale land of Simsala and explores what happens when the balance of
good and evil is messed up. There's also an emotional love triangle among
Ella, her ideal prince and her unknown true love, who turns out to be the
palace dishwasher. Weaver plays the evil, sexy stepmother Frida.
* DMX and Jet Li will star in CRADLE TO THE GRAVE for Warner Bros., producer
Joel Silver and director Andrzej Bartkowiak (ROMEO MUST DIE, EXIT WOUNDS).
Shooting begins next month for a fall release. It's about an unlikely
pairing of a law enforcement officer and a streetwise entrepreneur who is
suspected of being involved in a diamond heist. They try to find the crook's
daughter, who's been kidnapped by a man bent on acquiring diamonds as part
of a larger plan for mass destruction.
* Rachael Leigh Cook, Melanie Griffith and Hugh Dancy will star in the
jewelry heist pic TEMPO for director Eric Styles (DREAMING OF JOSEPH LEES).
The story centers on an American who goes to Paris to work in a jewelry
shop, where she meets two people, who are planning a heist of the store.
Production begins in February in Paris and Luxembourg.
* Nicole Kidman is attached to star in Fox Searchlight's COURT AND SPARK
about Eleanor of Aquitaine, who became queen of both France and England in
the 12th century. She was the daughter of William, Duke of Aquitaine and was
in line to inherit most of southern France. However, her desire to rule was
hindered by her gender. She married King Louis VII and became queen of
France, but had an affair with Henry Plantagenet, the Duke of Normandy who
would become king of England. Eleanor had the Pope annul her marriage, and
she soon became queen of England. Alan Howard will write the script.
* Toby Stephens (ONEGIN) will play the lead villain in MGM's latest James
Bond film for director Lee Tamahori. Production will begin at the end of the
month and continue through the spring.DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Warner Bros. has snatched up the horror pitch DEATHWATCH by Michael Weiss
about a group of teens who discover a haunted Web site that predicts their
future. The project is tentatively scheduled for a Halloween 2003 release.
Silver Pictures, Dark Castle Entertainment and MBST Entertainment will
produce.
* Escape Artists has grabbed the thriller pitch UNTITLED HARVARD HEIST from
Stephen Susco. It's about two Harvard Law students who pull off a robbery of
the campus credit union and get away with it only to later caught up in a
web of deceit involving a new professor.
* Director Stephen Sommers will direct THE ARGONAUTS, set on the eve of
WWII, about a group of treasure hunters who think they've know the location
of the fabled sunken ship of Jason and the Argonauts The adventurers wind up
in the land of Greek mythology, battling Cyclops and a minotaur. The project
is an homage to filmmaker Ray Harryhausen. Sommers is developing a script
with writer Simon Kinberg.
* Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE) is developing 3 MILES DOWN, based on Clyde
Burleson's book THE JENNIFER PROJECT, about the story of a fugitive Russian
nuclear sub and a salvage mission that nearly started WWIII. Nicolas Falacci
and Cheryl Heuton are writing the script.
* Nick Cassavetes (upcoming JOHN Q) will direct New Line's thriller SOLACE,
written by Ted Griffin, about a psychic hired by the FBI to find a serial
killer in New York. Shooting is expected to begin in the spring.
* Marc Forster (MONSTER'S BALL) will direct NEVER LAND, a biopic about PETER
PAN creator James Barrie, for Miramax Films. It's based on Allan Knee's play
THE MAN WHO WAS PETER PAN which tells the story of Barrie, who was inspired
to write his popular play after bonding with his neighbors in
turn-of-the-century London.
* Chris D'Arienzo's script THE JORDEYS has been picked up out of Warner
Bros. turnaround by producer Scott Rudin and Paramount. The screenplay is a
mockumentary about the rise, fall and rise of two teenage movie stars.
Writer Ed Solomon will producer with Rudin.
* David Auburn (PROOF) will write an adaptation of Paul Watkins' thriller
THE FORGER for Miramax Films. It's about an American student who arrives in
Paris in 1939 and gets involved in a scheme to replace French masterpieces
with forgeries before the Nazis seize them.
* Danish director Bille August (PELLE THE CONQUEROR, SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW)
will cast his next film in southern California for the first time on the pic
WITHOUT APPARENT MOTIVE. The L.A. CONFIDENTIAL-esque thriller was written by
Eric Blakeney. Production begins this spring.
* Andrew Fleming is in final talks to direct Michael Douglas in TILL DEATH
DO US PART for Warner Bros./Franchise Pictures. The project is a remake of
the 1979 pic THE IN-LAWS and begins shooting in late spring. Ed Solomon
wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay.
* John Hughes will write and produce the family comedy THE GRISBEYS for
Revolution Studios about a wealthy family that loses all of its money and
must move to the other side of the tracks at Christmas.
* Ned Zeman and Daniel Bernstein will the write a script based on Zeman's
upcoming Vanity Fair article "The Millionaire Fugitive" for Revolution
Studios and Bruce Willis' Cheyenne Enterprises. The story centers on
Gilberte Najamy and her quest to solve the murder of her friend Kathie
Durst, wife of real estate scion Robert Durst. Najamy had tried to get her
friend to leave her husband and when Kathie went missing, Najamy became
convinced she had been killed by Durst. Meanwhile, Durst remains under
investigation in connection with several murders.
* Christopher Dean Johnston will write the comedy PANTS ON FIRE for Disney
and producer Rachel Pfeffer. It's about a liar so compulsive that Liars
Anonymous kicks him out of their group. However, when he becomes entangled
in a dangerous game of international espionage, his real identity is
uncertain.
* Neil LaBute will adapt and direct a feature based on his latest Off
Broadway play THE SHAPE OF THINGS, keeping the original cast in tact. Paul
Rudd, Rachel Weisz, Gretchen Mol and Frederick Weller will star in the story
of a man who becomes the raw material for a student's high-concept art
project. Shooting begins in February.
* David Berenbaum has written HAUNTED HOUSE for Disney, inspired by its
theme park attraction: Haunted Mansion (a la THE COUNTRY BEARS and PIRATES
OF THE CARIBBEAN). The script is about a father who has neglected his family
and encounters a ghost while on a job interview.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* New Line Cinema has picked up the feature rights to the 1991 wartime bio
LIEUTENTANT RAMSEY'S WAR: FROM HORSE SOLDIER TO GUERRILLA COMMANDER with
Peter Kosminsky (WHITE OLEANDER) attached to direct. Edwin Ramsey and
Stephen Rivele wrote the book about the U.S. Army lieutenant who refused to
surrender after Japan took the Philippines in 1942, where he joined the
Filipino resistance -- commanding 40,000 guerrilla fighters. The Japanese
put the leader at the top of their death list, but Ramsey rejected the
opportunity to escape and stood his ground until Gen. Douglas MacArthur
arrived in 1945.
* Radar Pictures is developing a feature adaptation of David Howarth's WWII
book WE DIE ALONE. It's the true story of allied commando Jan Baalsrud, who
infiltrated Nazi-occupied Norway and teamed with villagers from a remote
enclave to avert the Nazis.
* Universal has optioned Lian Hearn's ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR, the
first book in a trilogy of novels about a Japanese orphan, for producers
Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. It focuses on a 16-year-old who is the
only survivor when his village is massacred by an evil warlord.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* TromaDance 2002 is this week in Park City, Utah. Visit Their Great Site for more info.
* There is a move to get Spirit Creek's Spiderman song on the new SPIDER MAN
movie. Visit http://www.spiritcreek.net/spiderman.html
* Check out This Site for SIREN outtakes.
* SERIOUS DOG FILMS announces the completion of principal photography on
Emmy Award-winning writer Tom Sheppard's feature directorial debut, WOULD I
LIE TO YOU? The romantic comedy is loosely inspired by Oscar Wilde's THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Brad Rowe and Susan Ward star.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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David Lynch is the president of this year's Cannes Festival!!!!!
WOW!!!!! -
Jan 14, 2002 12:05:20 PM CST
Wasn't Ted Demme with Aaliyah on the POLITICALLY INCORRECT p
by guerilla_films
I'm not starting anything, but for god's sake that has to be painful. He was a cool guy who didn't have to do alot of the things he did, like work on YO! MTV RAPS, Beautiful Girls, and "slum" it with the folks here on AICN like he did...
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Is there a project out there that she isn't in some way attached to?
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RIP Ted - Beautiful Girls is one of my all-timers......
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I am "couping" with the fact that she isn't attached to me.
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Yay, Philippines! =)
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sorry to hear about Ted Demme
=( -
Jan 14, 2002 1:05:56 PM CST
Bullock seems busy too, is it finally the year of women in film
by burnmeister
This woman deserves a decent flick again, Murder by numbers sounds interesting already.
Off topic: Bummer about Ted Demme - why is it always the really talented guys that bite it? Ah, well, I think I -
Anything LESS unlikely in a film it would be hard to imagine. Except maybe that dogs survive any disaster, and heroes can always outrun fireballs. On a more general note, Cradle to the Grave sounds like Romeo Must Die 2: Missing Aliyaah, which is no great recommendation. The Court and Spark story of Eleanor of Aquitaine sounds interesting - by far the most interesting female historical figure I can think of. She wasn't having great sex with Louis the Pious of France, so she got her marriage annulled on grounds of barrenness (despite having had two children by him) and ran off with the King of England instead. Say what you like, this was a woman with style. As regards the take over of women in cinema, I am reminded of a few years back when Now and Then, and Moonlight and Valentino, and Waiting to Exhale came out within a few months of each other. All women led projects, all solid star casts, all dreck. I am NOT holding my breath for Sandra Bullock to turn that trend around. She may have made Miss COngeniality, but she also made Practical Magic.
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After Blow I thought he was really coming into his own as a director. I am saddened that we will not get to see his follow up to Blow, of course thats irrelevant when compared to grief his family and friends are feeling.
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That bollox song gettin in the spiderman movie, in any capacity, would be worse than N'Sync jerkin off over Jango Fett in Clonez.
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"She may have made Miss COngeniality, but she also made Practical Magic." - Okay, point taken, I bow my head in shame=). As for your opinion on "From the cradle to the grave", I heard it was supposed to be a remake of the classic "M" - well, any way you look at it, this movie seems to be crap. About this whole Wonder Woman signing, I believe when I read it in the trades, although I hope not. I like Sandra, but this movie doesn
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TAKEN FROM THE N'SYNC SCENE IN STAR WARS....The Hughes Brothers known as James and John Jr. to their Dad, John Sr. (producer of DUTCH and BABY'S DAY OUT) will direct FROM HUNGER based on the graphic novel by Dinty Moore and Kid Campbell about serial murderer Joe the Ripper...Thanks to the success of Peter Jackson's Tolkien adaptation, Hollywood is now, unpredictibly, jumping on the bandwagon with LOUNGE OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING-A-DING-DING, blending Ratpack cool with Elvish fantasy (not to be confused with the similarily themed BAGGINS NINE). Matthew Lillard is in talks to play Frank Sinatra, who gets a magic pinkie ring from Marty Feldman (Corey Feldman). Moblord Sam "MoMo" Gianconna (Chris Penn) who created the ring, wants it back. Frank teams with pal J.F.K. (Mark Wahlberg) who is out to reclaim his mistress Judith Exeter (Jaimie Pressley) from MoMo. Things go from bad to worse when MoMo brings in a new hired gun, the reanimated corpse of Johnny Stompanato (Sean Penn). There's already talk of a sequel, THE TWO TOWERS, about Frank's date with Connie Stevens...Lucasfilm is filing lawsuits to stop production on David Lynch's DADDY, I WANT A BOY BAND. The story centers around filmmaker Jim Loomis (Billy Crystal) who hit it big in the '70s with a space opera OTHER PLANETS and never quite got over it. The 21st Century finds Jim as a single Dad trying to recapture past glories with a new series of OTHER PLANETS films. Jim's kids demand input into his movies. When his pre-school son, a boy named Shuttle (played by the ageless Jonathan Lipnicki) creates the character of a 10 foot space squirrel named Mondo Gigilo, Loomis feels compelled to use it. Jim's daughter Amelia (Drew Berrymore, who fired her personal trainer and her nutritionist for the role) gets in on the act, begging him to give several boy bands major roles in OTHER PLANETS: EPISODE 3 THE DEATH RAY SHOOTERS, in exchange for dating her. When all of the boy bands balk at the prospect, Loomis must create his own boy band G'WILLICKERS (Ryan Phillipe, Thomas Ian Nicholls, Kevin Smith, Paul Walker and Hayden Christianson). Loomis suddenly finds himself in boy band business, even managing the younger brother of one of G'WILLICKERS (played by Jake Lloyd)...Screenwriter Richard Tollhouse won't learn his lesson when it comes to taunting the Disney studios. His new screenplay THE GHOST THAT HAUNTED BURBANK has Josh Harnett interested in the role of Jan Michael Vincent and Ving Rhames hot to play John Amos, with Willem DaFoe after the role of Walt Disney. In the screenplay, Disney's ghost goes on a rampage when he sees Vincent doing huge amounts of dope on the set of THE WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE. A terrorized Vincent must hire witch/fantasy author and wife of the late Jim Morrison, none other than Patricia Keneally-Morrison (Janeane Garafalo is interested) to exorcise Walt's vengeful spirit...The hottest set in Hollywood is Barry Levinson's PROJECT ARTICHOKE. Set in the 1950's, the film depicts a real life confrontation between the C.I.A. and the writing staff of YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS. Woody Allen (Seth Green) is slipped L.S.D. while visiting an Asian prostitute and turned into an assassain in a precursor to the MK-ULTRA programs that graduated such killers as Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and John W. Hinkley. It is up to Allen's friends to save him. Nicolas Cage plays Carl Reiner. Nicholas Tuturro is Mel Brooks. Neil Simon is played by Giovanni Ribisi and Larry Gelbart is played by Kevin Spacey. The opposition consists of J. Edgar Hoover (Kirstie Alley), John Foster Dulles (Luke Wilson) and Alan Dulles (Owen Wilson). See you in rehab...
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Jan 14, 2002 2:29:27 PM CST
The Wonder Woman movie may not even use the classic costume
by kingkrypton
Check out http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/305522p1.html. Apparently the script WB's using for WONDER WOMAN is going down a BATMAN/MATRIX route with a black-clad WW. So the casting of Sandra Bullock actually fits this concept...not that I approve, by the way. I think this sucks. But then again, SMALLVILLE and Jon Peters' plans for Superman suck (including McG as the new director), and they're going full-steam ahead, so what difference does it make?
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what the hell is going on!?
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Jan 14, 2002 2:58:01 PM CST
I just read the supposed WW script - this is a joke, right?
by burnmeister
ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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When I met my future wife, there were the ususal attrations. But it was a conversation about movies that finally let us hit it off. On our first date, we talked endlessly about one of our favorite films..."The Ref". I loved this movie, as did my future wife. The great understated performance by Spacey, the sharp writing and the pin-point direction by Demme. One of best dates occured when we went to see "Beautiful Girls", we were all alone in the theatre on a tuesday night. It was a spur of the moment call that led us to the movies. This lush romantic ensemble helped seal my fate, as I knew that the woman sitting next to me was to be with me forever. Movies can do that to you, create lasting moments for a lifetime. They don't have to be "THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME". But be the RIGHT movie at the RIGHT moment. Ted Demme's movies were just that for us, the right movies that created, for us, the right moments. We'll miss the future moments he would have created for us...
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Aaliyah was not on that show...I think you're thinking of that lady who hosts "Talk Soup".
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That "song" by spirited away is horseshit. Sounds like Creed meets Cher. In other words derivative and garbage. The fact that this band was voted "most likely to succeed" or something by people online is a fucking joke and an embaresment. All these Creed clones are gonna disappear of the radar like Warrant and Poison before you know it. Use the Ramones song.... at least it's fun. And oh yeah.... WAKE THE FUCK UP! Sheesh.
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Supposing this rumor is true, as well as the description of the treatment floating around the Net, then Sandra Bullock is Wonder Woman and it's going to be some wonky Matrix crap. Actually, y'know...I can live without the costume. But with Silver producing and Bullock starring?! The problem with this charater to begin with, even in the comics, is that she's got NO PERSONALITY. Superman is Clark Kent, Batman is the Dark Knight. One minute Wonder Woman is the smiling and sunny belevolent peace-maker, the next she's Xena Warrior Princess lopping off demon's heads. This project reeks of Charlie's Angels to me.
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Didja' hear that John Hughes is also attached to write and produce a family film about a streetwise nun played by Sandra Bullock, who teams up with a uppercrust chief of police played by Don Cheadle and it's gonna be set at Christmas?
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Laura Elena Haring! (The brunette from "Mulholland Drive.") Or, yeah, Jennifer Connelly. Of course, that's if they should even make a Wonder Woman movie. Which they probably shouldn't.
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I got the chance to hear Peter Greenaway speak at Indiana Univ. in the spring of 1997 just as The Pillowbook was being released (with Ewan McGregor). He was very eloquent and interesting to listen to. This particular film with 92 characters, 92 suitcases, etc.. sounds different and promising. Does anybody have any recommendations regarding his other films? I've only seen "The Pillowbook" thus far......
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the ramones spdierman would be a hellva lot better than that crap whats better than 1.2.3.4 and straight into the song may joey be rocking out in heaven
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Rob Schneider is pitching the sequel to THE ANIMAL to Disney, THE ANIMAL MEETS MANIMAL. Watch for Sean Penn as a mentally challenged porn star (no, it's not redundant) in I BE STROKIN'.
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In fact the DC message boards have been furiously debating whether or not this script is a good idea (you can guess what the majority view is). In fact, rumor has it that Kevin Smith was asked by WB to write the script based on this very story concept Todd Alcott is using. Smith, being a traditionalist (to the point where he was fired from SUPERMAN by Burton and Peters for not bending to their "darker, more murderous" vision of the character), apparently refused their offer. And with the road WB's currently taking with Superman, this WW treatment isn't any great surprise.
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There have been only a few good comic book movies out there. I found the Rocketeer to be impressive, I liked parts of X-Men, some of Reeve's Superman was good, same with Burton's Batman, though I thought Val Kilmer was a good serious Batman, and I liked Clooney as well, Keaton had his moments to. It seems some aspects of the comic bool movies work, but the entire film as a whole seems to fall apart. I anticipate Spiderman, and I am really excited about the Hulk, it opens on my birthday in 2003!(Tenatively)Finally I like Sandra Bullock alot, but not as Wonder Woman, Jennifer Connoley would be perfect. Now if we could just get a good script.
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