Father Geek here with Elston Gunn's Weekly Recap of all that movieland news you may have missed during the last week, but first there is this sad bit that came directly to ol' Father Geek here in Austin at the Geek Headquarters Compound from Uncapie...

Legendary singer and composer, Peggy Lee, passed away in her Bel Air home Monday night the 21st, at the age of 81. The silky-voiced, platinum-haired star's career spanned over fifty years giving us songs from Disney's "Lady And the Tramp," "Pete Kelly's Blues," "Johnny Guitar," "Midnight Serenade" and "My Man Godfrey."

Her life was marked with sorrow. At the age of four, her mother died and her father, a handyman and part-time railroad station agent, abandoned her. She was then raised by a stepmother, who physically and emotionally abused her. Miss Lee left home at an early age, learning to depend on herself developing her singing ability on radio programs and worked as a waitress in Hollywood when bandleader, Benny Goodman, heard her voice. Working with Goodman's band, gave her the chance she needed and with the hit song, "Why Don't You Do Right?", it took her to the top of the charts. Miss Lee later married the band's guitarist, Dave Barbour, but the marriage dissolved after eight years. Three consequent marriages to actors, Brad Dexter, Dewey Martin and Jack Del Rio, also were brief.

Miss Lee also appeared on "The Andy Williams Show" as a regular in the sixties. In "Pete Kelly's Blues," directed by and starring, Jack Webb, her work as the hard-drinking singer, "Rose Hopkins," earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress in 1955.

Disney fans knew her work from "Lady And the Tramp" where, not only did she sing the songs, but was the voice of, "Peg," "Darling" and of course, the Siamese cats, "Si and Am." In the eighties, Miss Lee sued Disney for not giving her owed residuals from the film, which she won hands down.

In 1982, Miss Lee tried Broadway with an ill-fated, autobiographical-musical story about her life, immortalizing her step mother in an appropriate titled song, "One Beating A Day." Her song writing and singing talent extended to the great Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, earning her several Grammy Awards for her work. Two classic hits were "Fever" and "Is That All There Is?", a torchy, sad song about life. Miss Lee had diabetes and had suffered a stroke three years ago, but was in good spirits, focusing on her work. A great singer. A great composer. A great woman. She was one of a kind.

Uncapie

WEEKLY RECAP...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Desmond Harrington (RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS) joins Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard and Isaiah Washington in the thriller GHOST SHIP for director Steve Beck (THIRTEEN GHOSTS) and Dark Castle. Production begins Thursday in Queensland, Australia for an Oct. 25 release.

* Roman Polanski will star in a feature project, based on Aleksander Fredro's play THE REVENGE, for Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda. Shooting begins Feb. 8.

* Daryl Hannah will play an assassin in KILL BILL for writer/director Quentin Tarantino and Miramax. Uma Thurman, Warren Beatty and Lucy Liu also star. Hannah will also join Jon Favreau, Kelsey Grammer, Rachel Leigh Cook in the Steve Anderson-directed THE BIG EMPTY and Lili Taylor and Mary Steenburgen in John Sayles' CASA DE LOS BABYS.

* Jason Isaacs (THE PATRIOT, BLACK HAWK DOWN) is in talks to play Capt. Hook in Revolution Studios' live-action feature PETER PAN for director P.J. Hogan. Production begins late summer for a Christmas 2003 release.

* Ryan Phillippe is in final talks to join Liam Neeson and Billy Crawford in John Frankenheimer's untitled prequel to THE EXORCIST for Morgan Creek Prods. Production begins in the spring. The film tells the story of Father Merrin and his first encounter with the devil while doing missionary work in post-World War II Africa.

* Adam Sandler is in negotiations with Miramax Films to star in SOLOMON GRUNDY for director Danny Boyle. The comedy centers on the whirlwind experiences of a man who lives a full, complete life in one week's time. Robert Nelson Jacobs penned the script.

* Kathryn Morris (MINORITY REPORT) is set to join Christian Slater, Gerry Butler, Patricia Velazquez, LL Cool J and Val Kilmer in Dimension Films' MINDHUNTERS for director Renny Harlin and Intermedia Films.

* Bruce Willis will star in ME AGAIN, a thriller about a man who loses his memory and tries to figure out whether he's a hitman or the hitman's target. Stephen Moffat wrote the original screenplay.

* Al Pacino will have a cameo role in Martin Brest's GIGLI, starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. It's about a hit man who kidnaps the mentally challenged brother of the attorney general to stop the prosecution of a mob boss.

* Frank John Hughes ("Band of Brothers") joins Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Walken in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN for director Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks.

* Tom Cruise will star in the WWII pic GHOST SOLDIERS, based on the bestseller by Hampton Sides, for director Steven Spielberg and Universal/DreamWorks. The project centers on the survivors of the Bataan Death March, who remained in a Japanese prison camp for three years until freed by Allied forces. Josh Friedman (CHAIN REACTION) wrote the first draft of the script.

* Olivia Williams joins Tim Roth, Dougray Scott and Rupert Everett in CROMWELL AND FAIRFAX, Mike Barker's English indie Civil War drama.

* Jennifer Love Hewitt will star in and co-produce the romantic comedy MY ROMANCE for Fox 2000. It's about a disenchanted artist who has sworn off romance. When rumors link her with a millionaire playboy, she plays along and finds love in the process.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Julian Fellowes (GOSFORD PARK) will adapt PURE DEAD MAGIC, based on the British children's book by Debi Gliori, for Universal Studios. The story is a comedy about a Scottish family, the last clan in a long line of witches living in their bewitched family castle in Scotland. When their father is kidnapped by an inheritance-seeking half brother, his children must use witchcraft, computer technology and help from some magical pet beasts to rescue him. Fellowes will also adapt Anthony Trollope's EUSTACE DIAMONDS for director Sharon Maguire (BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY) as well as Kate O'Riordan's THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE and P.G. Wodehouse's PICCADILLY JIM.

* Joe Johnston (OCTOBER SKY, JURASSIC PARK III) is in final talks to direct the horse racing pic HIDALGO for Disney Co. Shooting starts this summer for a summer 2003 release. John Fusco (YOUNG GUNS) wrote the script based on the true story of a Pony Express courier who travels throughout the world with his mustang to compete against Arabian thoroughbreds in a dangerous race.

* Victor Salva (POWDER, JEEPERS CREEPERS) will soon film American Zoetrope's LIKE A BAT OUT OF HELL: JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 for a 2003 release. The Creeper returns to terrorize a bus full of high school basketball players, cheerleaders and related characters.

* New Line has optioned the spec BEST SHOT, by Jim Piddock and Margaret Oberman, about a tough cop gets paired on a case with a colleague who may be the most neurotic man alive. It's being described as LETHAL WEAPON meets WHAT ABOUT BOB?

* Bill Duke (SISTER ACT 2, HOODLUM) will direct BLACKTIME, WHITENOISE for Fathom Motion Picture Co. Production begins this summer. It's about four friends of various racial backgrounds who break into a house and accidentally shoot the owner. While making their getaway, they are somehow transported to 1968, where they face a totally different racial climate.

* John Rice and Joe Batteer (WINDTALKERS) will adapt SECRET SANCTION, a novel by Brian Haig, son of former Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Intermedia Films has optioned the novel, the first of six installments of a series for Warner Books, and has Nicolas Cage attached to star in and produce the project.

* Jay Wolpert (THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO) will write a modern film version of THE SWORD IN THE STONE, based on the novel by T.H. White. The Disney project chronicles the early life of King Arthur as a boy before he becomes king.

* Noah Laracy and Charlie Sullivan will write the comedy script THREE DAY WEEKEND for Catch 23 Entertainment. It's about a conservative small-town sheriff who tries to maintain order amid the chaos that ensues when the residents find out the world will end in three days.

* Stephen Daldry (BILLY ELLIOT) is developing a feature project based on Jonathan Franzen's controversial National Book Award winner THE CORRECTIONS. The book portrays three generations of a deeply dysfunctional Midwestern family who get together for a final Christmas at the family home.

* Jonathan Frakes is attached to direct and produce ILLUSION for Disney about a master illusionist who after staging the death of a tycoon, is turned into a desperate fugitive in a world where nothing and no one are as they appear to be. Brent Bell and Matt Peterman will pen the script.

* Michael Ian Black will direct the comedy THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY from his own script about a guy who marries a complete stranger after he accidentally kills his girlfriend in a surprise marriage proposal. Magellan Filmed Entertainment optioned the rights to the script.

* Martin Scorsese is gearing up to direct Leonardo DiCaprio in a Howard Hughes biopic written by John Logan (GLADIATOR). Production on the pic, which is on the hunt for financing, would start in the fall with DiCaprio and Michael Mann serving as producers. The movie will focus on the formative Hughes years, when he was an aviator and movie mogul, and will end in the early 1950s.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* DreamWorks Pictures has grabbed the Ricky Blitt's pitch BREAKUPS ARE THEIR BUSINES, based on Los Angeles Times staff writer Mark Magnier's recent article of the same name. The article is about Japan's wakaresaseya, relationship termination specialists, that make tens of millions of dollars sabotaging/destroying relationships; sometimes using entrapment, deceit and blackmail to satisfy their clients' needs.

* Steven Spielberg has reportedly decided not to direct the Columbia Pictures project MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, based on the novel by Arthur Golden, but he is still attached to produce the project.

* Deep River Prods. and Bona Fide Prods. have optioned Bill Roorbach's debut novel THE SMALLEST COLOR about a U.S. Olympic ski coach struggling with the legacy of the 1960s and the long-kept secret that his brother, a underground radical, thought to be hiding from the FBI, died years ago.

* Bodega Films will release Jean-Luc Godard's adaptation of KING LEAR in French theaters in April 15 years after it was made. The pic was written by and starring Godard and Norman Mailer, and also features Woody Allen, Burgess Meredith, Peter Sellars, Leos Carax, Molly Ringwald and Julie Delpy.