Cool News
Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek here with Elston once again to bring you his report of all the Hollywood business for the past week, sooo here we go... its time for...
The Weekly Recap...
Hey. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Comp troubles at home again.
Having someone look at it this weekend. Fortunately my computer at work is
doing okay...knock on wood...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
Hey. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Comp troubles at home again.
Having someone look at it this weekend. Fortunately my computer at work is
doing okay...knock on wood...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Pierce Brosnan has signed to play James Bond for a fifth time and is
skeptical about a sixth.
* Benjamin Bratt will star in the Miramax World War II drama THE GREAT RAID.
Based on true events, the movie will focus on Col. Henry Mucci's raid on
Cabanatuan, a POW camp where 500 American prisoners were in grave danger.
* Robert Downey Jr. is in talks to star in SIX BULLETS FROM NOW for director
Stephen T. Kay (GET CARTER) and producer Ridley Scott. Production will
begin this spring in Montreal and New York. The project is inspired by the
events of New Year's Day 1972, when five gunmen stole more than $10 million
in cash and jewels from the Pierre Hotel in New York.
* Jason Isaacs (THE PATRIOT, BLACK HAWK DOWN) is in negotiations to play
Lucius Malfoy in HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS. The film is
currently in production in England. Isaacs would also reprise the role in
the fourth HARRY POTTER installment.
* Monica Bellucci (MALENA, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) will star in
LUCRETIA BORGIA, an English-language pic about the notorious illegitimate
daughter of Pope Alexander VI. According to legend, she killed three
husbands and numerous lovers, poisoning them with powdered foxglove from a
ring she wore on her finger.
* Jeff Bridges will star in and produce a feature film adaptation of author
Lois Lowry's 1994 Newberry Award-winning novel THE GIVER for Walden Media
and RCN Entertainment. The story presents a world without pain, pleasure,
racial or socioeconomic differences, crime, poverty, sickness, free will or
love. In the community, every member has a role, and 12-year-old Jonas is
chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Mentored by a wise old
man known as the Giver, he gradually finds out the disturbing truth about
his world: that its people have chosen to give up their humanity to create a
more stable society.
* Gary Sinise will star opposite Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins in
Miramax Films/Lakeshore Entertainment's THE HUMAN STAIN. Shooting begins
March 25.
* Russell Crowe is in talks to star in 20th Century Fox's MASTER AND
COMMANDER, an adaptation of the Patrick O'Brian book series, for director
Peter Weir. He'll play Royal Navy Capt. Jack Aubrey, who is given his first
command of a British sailing vessel sent to battle.
* Jeremy Piven and Juliette Lewis join Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Will
Ferrell, Ellen Pompeo, Leah Remini, Craig Kilborn, Sarah Shahi and Terry
Reeves in the DreamWorks comedy OLD SCHOOL about three disenchanted guys who
try to recapture their college days.
* Fred Savage joins the casts of CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND and AUSTIN
POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER.
* Steven Roy ("Roswell") joins the indie pic SKINWALKERS for director Rob
Howard.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Mimi Leder (DEEP IMPACT, PAY IT FORWARD) is in talks to direct THE
BOOSTER, based on the novel by Eugene Izzi, for Intermedia Films. It's
about a former thief who comes out of retirement to partake in the biggest
and most dangerous heist of his life.
* Janusz Kaminski (LOST SOULS) will direct the action thriller COLLATERAL
for DreamWorks. It's about a New York cab driver who finds out he is a
target that a professional assassin has not yet been contracted for. He
also discovers he is chauffeuring a hit man from murder to murder.
* Simon Kinberg has written MR. AND MRS. SMITH, set up at Summit
Entertainment and New Regency, about a couple who bond while escaping a coup
in Columbia.
* Comedian Chris Rock will star in and direct the DreamWorks comedy HEAD OF
STATE from a script he co-wrote with Ali Leroi. Production begins in April.
It's about an unlikely alderman chosen to be the presidential nominee for
one of the major political parties.
* Martin Campbell will develop a feature film project based on his
award-winning 1985 BBC miniseries "Edge of Darkness" for Catch 23
Entertainment. The original miniseries, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, is
set in England during the 1980s and follows a widowed cop and unfortunate
witness to the murder of his daughter, Emma. After her death, he takes on
the murder investigation, leading him down a path of haunting revelations.
* Artisan has purchased the script JEALOUSY, written and to be produced/
directed by John Herzfeld (15 MINUTES). It's an edgy comedy about two
couples who fall victim to their own chaotic feelings of jealousy.
* Miramax Films has snapped up Alon Kaplan's romantic thriller script FUGUE
with Eric Bross (ON THE LINE) attached to direct. It's about a brilliant
medical student who mysteriously vanishes and then reappears eight years
later with no memory of where he has been. During the course of
investigating his missing years, he discovers that he possessed numerous
identities, one of which holds the answers to his past.
* Robert Altman will direct VOLTAGE, a comedy based on Robert Grossbach's
novel A SHORTAGE OF ENGINEERS. Shooting begins in May. Alan Rudolph has
adapted the screenplay for the project. Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour
Hoffman, Liv Tyler, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub, Elliott
Gould, Harry Belafonte and Bob Balaban have committed to star. Set in 1991
at an engineering firm in Long Island, N.Y., with a defense department
subcontractor, the film centers on a group of workers and their bosses and
examines their outside lives and loves.
* Audrey Wells (DISNEY'S THE KID, THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS) will adapt
and direct UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN for Miramax Films, based on the bestselling
novel by Frances Mayes. It's a romantic comedy about a single American
lawyer who gives up everything she's worked for and moves to Italy in search
of a more romantic and satisfying life.
* MGM has grabbed the comedy screenplay SWEET SWINGER about a broke pro
golfer who needs to repay a debt. Desperate to earn some cash, he poses as
a female, joins the ladies professional golf tour and ends up winning the
big tournament. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the leading player.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Disney is developing LIZZIE MCGUIRE, a bigscreen feature based on The
Disney Channel series, about the misadventures of a 13-year-old girl.
Shooting is expected to begin soon for a spring 2003 release.
* Twentieth Century Fox and James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment have
optioned Steven Pressfield's upcoming novel LAST OF THE AMAZONS, a story
about female Amazon warriors who nearly overrun Greece. Pressfield may also
write the script. The book will be published in June.
* Tom Cruise is no longer attached to the Miramax/MGM adaptation of Charles
Frazier's Civil War novel COLD MOUNTAIN. Anthony Minghella will direct the
film later this year.
* Tarsem has dropped out of directing CONSTANTIN, based on the comic book
HELLBLAZER, for Warner Bros. The step-down is said to be due to budgetary
issues.
* Henri Kessler and Joshua Pollack have formed Hudson Pictures, with an
initial commitment of $1 million from Reich Brothers. The company has
secured deals with Sean Gullette, Michael Nash and Josh Haygood to direct
pictures for it. Gullette (PI) will direct MONOPOLIS, a sci-fi thriller.
Nash will remake a low-budget pic with Hudson. Haygood has two projects in
development at the shingle.
* Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium Entertainment is developing an
English-language version of the Japanese horror fantasy picture DARK WATER.
It's about an economically disadvantaged woman's ugly custody battle for her
daughter, which descends into a supernatural maelstrom.
* Jerry B. Jenkins (LEFT BEHIND series) has formed a film production and
distribution company with son Dallas. The first film from Jenkins
Entertainment is an adaptation of Jenkins' novel HOMETOWN LEGEND, an
inspirational football drama set in a small town in Alabama.
* Producer John Davis is developing GARFIELD, a live-action/CGI feature
based on the comic strip, for Fox.
* Universal has abruptly stopped the untitled comedy that was to star Jim
Carrey and Nicole Kidman in a Gary Ross written/directed pic. Carrey was to
play a widower who begins dating, only to find himself haunted by his
deceased wife, to be played by Kidman. No reason was given, but Kidman's
busy schedule may have been a factor.
* Revolution Studios is in early talks to develop a live-action feature
version of PETER PAN in a co-production with Walt Disney and Columbia
Pictures.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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+ Expand All
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oh that's right, i have to read before i post
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Why the shit isn't Royal Tenenbaums nominated for any best picture awards. IT was by far the best picture, bar none. I don't care what the shit you say.
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Maybe because she makes movies fast and cheap, not because they make money or are even any good. Her flicks achieve neither.
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Jan 22, 2002 2:30:40 AM CST
Eisner's Head on a Stick, Give His Money to Altman and Gilli
by the feral kid
Altman is all ready on the ball with a new film. And that cast? It's already been said but...wow. ..very much excited here. That lull between the Player and Gosford Park seems like a distant nightmare. It's nice to have the man back. Oh, Disney needs to wake up. It's horrible that fuckin' Snow Dogs made $13 mil over the break, I was hoping that would put another stone in the duffle bag around that studio's neck (and Cuba Gooding's for that matter). At least the Rookie looks like a decent product - but families deserve a good selection of films to see as much as we geeks. I remember seeing that very first teaser trailer for "Return to Neverland" and being very excited - well, they fucked that up. That Dwarf in control needs to be ousted, big time.
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Because Altman made a shit load of films between The Player and Gosford Park, 6 to be be exact. Even though Short Cuts was the only one I really dug of all of them. By the way, anyone seen Vincent & Theo his film before the Player.... that's a great movie that grows on you with repeated viewings.
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THE PICKER - set in a world where there is no crime, poverty, racism, or Rosie O'Donnell, everybody is has a role to play. Jake Lloyd plays a 12-year old yippee-saying boy who is mentored by The Picker, the one who picks his nose while talking to people. Along the way he meets interesting characters such as SNORT LAUGHER, WOO-GIRL, and FAKE SMILER.
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I swear Nicolas Cage has a curse on him.
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That lasagna-mooching lazyass fleabag wouldn't stand a chance against the mighty Calvin and Hobbes. With their brilliance and an army of evil snowmen, they could take over the WORLD!!! BWAHAHAHAHA Garfield and that sloppy-tongued abberation of a canine don't deserve a movie.____Bee
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HE'S MAKING A COMEBACK BABY
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Jan 22, 2002 12:38:54 PM CST
Ok stop with the plot, " aging theif tries one last big heist be
by bigtuna
Now the Booster, how many more films like this? Geeze. Get some new ideas.
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or whatever his name is...good. He couldn't tell a story to get out of a traffic ticket. Now Del Toro with Blade 2 and Backbone would be interesting. Or what about the guy who did Donnie Darko for an outsiders look. M Night Shamalyan were to do a comic I would like it to be this. If Wes Craven were to take a stab at big screen projects this could be it. Basically anyone that could tell a story. I leave out Burton due to POTA pissing me off...or how about the guy who did the Others?
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Those are pretty good movies to land roles in. Though certainly he is playing himself.
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TAKEN FROM THE DIRECTOR'S CUT OF ISHTAR...Never let it be said that Hollywood does not take the online rantings of loser's seriously. In an effort to please all geeks, Tri-Star and Hollywood Pictures and Orion have joined forces to produce MATRIX POTTER & THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE CLONES, described as a cyber-punk, children's action science-fantasy. But something went terribly wrong at a test screening I attended last Friday night. Before the movie started, everyone in the audience started attacking everyone else's favorite films and a huge fight broke out. Not being emotionally involved with any fantasy film franchise, I nonetheless took advatage of the opportunity to punch several geeks...That Oliver Stone has been awfully quiet lately, probably because he's making a film about his favorite subject. The project, entitled ME will star Freddie Prinze Jr. as young Vietnam Vet turned filmmaker Oliver Stone, and is built around the framing device of his ex-wife Elizabeth (Suzy Amis) reading his journals in which he was stupid enough to write about having sex with thousands of women during their marriage. We'll see young Ollie (Jonathan Lipniki) as a lonely boy playing with football cards, which will later inspire ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. Grown up Ollie will be a drug addicted drifter whom he will later identify with Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK and will Billy Hayes in MIDNIGHT EXPRESS. Middle aged Ollie (Dan Hedaya) will be an ass-grabbing skirt chaser who leaves evidence against himself where it can be found, not unlike the title character in NIXON...Salvadore Santiago has sold his first spec script BLOODY DON for the low seven figures. BLOODY DON deals with a legend among Hollywood production assistants that if you burn a black candle, turn off all the lights and say "Bloody Don" thirteen times in front of the bathroom mirror, the image of the late producer Don Simpson will appear and will become your boss. Clive Barker, who has already made a couple of films about this kind of thing, will executive produce...See you in group therapy.
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Jan 22, 2002 6:15:24 PM CST
You'll probably never see a Calvin and Hobbes movie because.
by the garbage man
Bill Watterson doesn't believe in promotion/merchandising/making obscene amounts of money off of his beloved characters. That's why everything you buy featuring C&H (except the books, of course) is pirated merchandise. So go rip up that sticker you have of Calvin peeing on the floor, repent, and buy no more - maybe THE WATTERSON will forgive you.
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(Voiceover with the opening of 'Turn turn turn' in the background): "And I knew then, after my father found my Swedish Penis Enlarger, that our relationship would be different from now on...."
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But I have to admit, I'm not very happy that they're doing it. Given the recent track record of Hollywood comic-to-film translations, GARFIELD could end up being seriously screwed over. And they're going to have a hell of a time trying to find a voice actor who can succeed Lorenzo Music without the hard-core fans rioting. My only hope for the film is that Jim Davis and Paws keep a super-tight rein on the project, because Garfield, like Superman, was a cherished part of my youth and I don't want to see the character gutted.
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I hear he's shaving his head for the role.
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