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Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek here with Elston's review of the Tinseltown events of the past work week... Sooooo check it all out below. Its a long one this week so I'll just set to the side and let you get to the meat of...
The WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Joseph Fiennes will play Protestant reformer Martin Luther in LUTHER, a
project to be shot on location in Germany in April. Erich Till (BONHOEFFER:
AGENT OF GRACE) will direct. The film will examine the rebel Catholic's
personal battles and his transformation from a simple monk into leader of
the Protestant movement. Peter Ustinov, Bruno Ganz and Uwe Ochsenknecht will
also star.
* Whoopi Goldberg, Christopher Plummer, Kevin Pollak and Zoe Warner will
star in the indie family pic BLIZZARD for director LeVar Burton. Brenda
Blethyn is in negotiations to join the cast. Production begins Feb. 18 in
Toronto and Quebec City. Murray McRae wrote the script about a young girl
and her relationship with Santa's most magical reindeer, Blizzard. The girl
is saddened after her love of skating is taken away from her and Blizzard
helps the girl find her way back to what she loves most. Meanwhile, Blizzard
is in danger of being banished from Santa's kingdom by the chief elf.
* Omar Epps will star alongside Meg Ryan in the drama AGAINST THE ROPES,
based on the story of Jackie Kallen, the first female boxing manager.
Charles Dutton will direct.
* Sergi Lopez (WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY) will star alongside Daniel Auteuil
in a historical adventure film set during the Crusades for director Helene
Angel and producer Michel Saint-Jean. Emmanuelle Devos and Gilbert Melki
will also star. Saint-Jean is also producing a fantasy script by HARRY
director Dominik Moll with a fall production start expected.
* Rob Schneider is attached to star in THE ADVENTURES OF SINBAD THE
INSURANCE SALESMAN about a claims officer who is unlucky in love until he
meets a girl who transforms his life. Mike Reiss ("The Simpsons") wrote the
script.
* Wanda De Jesus will play the female lead in BLOOD WORK for actor/director
Clint Eastwood. Brian Helgeland wrote the script about a woman who hires an
ex-FBI profiler to solve a crime.
* Crispin Glover will star in New Line's horror remake of the 1971 movie
WILLARD for writers/producers James Wong and Glen Morgan ("The X-Files,"
FINAL DESTINATION). Morgan will direct the pic. It's about an outcast
whose only friends are his pet rats. When one of the rats is killed where he
works, Willard goes on a rampage, using his pets to help him exact revenge.
* French actor Vincent Cassel has left SIN EATER due to creative differences
and been replaced by Benno Furman. The feature stars Mark Addy, Heath
Ledger and Shannyn Sossamon for writer/director Brian Helgeland.
* Christian Kane joins Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher in JUST MARRIED
for 20th Century Fox and director Shaw Levy.
* Ed Harris will star opposite Nicole Kidman, Anthony Hopkins and Gary
Sinise in THE HUMAN STAIN. Shooting begins March 25.
* John Cusack, Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet are in final talks to star in
Columbia Pictures' ensemble feature I.D. for director James Mangold and
Konrad Pictures. The feature begins shooting next month in Los Angeles.
It's a modern psychological thriller where 10 people marooned at a roadside
motel during a fierce desert storm discover that they are being killed off
one by one.
* William H. Macy will star in THE COOLER for ContentFilm about a man whose
ability to cool hot hands at casino gambling tables makes him the perfect
"cooler" for the shady Shangri-la Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, a job he is
forced into to pay off a bad debt. Once his debt is paid off, however, the
casino realizes that it has come to rely on him and, in an effort to keep
him on the floor, throws a gorgeous waitress his way.
* Gabriel Byrne, Karl Urban and Alex Dimitriades join Desmond Harrington,
Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard and Isaiah Washington in GHOST SHIP for
director Steve Beck and Dark Castle Entertainment.
* Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts are in talks to star in the comedy LE DIVORCE
for producers Merchant Ivory and Fox Searchlight with James Ivory directing.
The project is based on Diane Johnson's bestselling novel about a film
school dropout who heads to Paris to serve as an emissary between her
pregnant, cuckolded stepsister and the upper-class family of her French
painter husband. Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote the script.
Production is expected to begin this September in France.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Jerry Bruckheimer Films has snapped up the pitch SIGNATURE from writers
Cormac and Marianne Wibberly. It's a psychological thriller that centers on
the way violent serial criminals are rehabilitated in the future.
* Paramount Pictures has grabbed THE ADVENTURERS CLUB, a modern romantic
adventure pitch by Dan McDermott, for Mutual Films to produce. It's about a
man and a woman who team up to complete the Valley of the Immortals
expedition that their grandfathers died on 50 years ago.
* Dan Wilson and David Gilbreath sold their comedy script SMART AND SMARTER
to New Line Cinema for Charles Roven to produce. The story centers on two
brainiacs who have spent their lives in a think tank. When they head out
into the real world to reclaim a lost love, they constantly overthink ways
into messy situations.
* Jan de Bont is in final talks to direct the action pic THE COURIER,
written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, about a mythic figure who makes
deliveries to anyone, anywhere, no questions asked. The courier is hired to
make a delivery to a legendary underworld figure considered impossible to
find.
* DreamWorks Pictures has purchased the comedy spec script UNDERDOGS from
Rawson Marshall Thurber about a group of misfits and outcasts who enter a
Las Vegas dodge ball tournament in hopes of saving their beloved gym.
* Tony-winning director Susan Stroman will direct the pic CONTACT, based on
the Broadway musical, for USA Films. The film will be adapted by John
Weidman, focusing on the third act, in which a commercials director who
can't connect with anyone finds himself taken with a girl in a yellow dress
he sees on a dance floor.
* David Fincher will develop, with an eye to direct, Regency Enterprises'
supernatural thriller STAY. David Benioff wrote the script about a
psychologist at an Ivy League university who tries to prevent one of his
students from committing suicide.
* Bernardo Bertolucci will direct PARIS '68 about a real-life student
uprising that took place in France's capital during the late 1960s.
* RAW Entertainment has nabbed Brandon Bodie Beaver's spec script MR.
MYSTERIOUS with Simon West's Wychwood Prods. attached to produce. The
gothic action/fantasy, set in the 1880s, concerns a blind magician and his
traveling troupe of carnival performers who are forced to return to London
to stop an evil sorcerer from plaguing the world with black magic.
* Lasse Hallstrom will direct a Miramax adaptation of the David Liss novel A
CONSPIRACY OF PAPER this fall. It's a thriller set in London in the early
18th century, framed around the inception of the stock exchange. Robert
Nelson Jacobs (CHOCOLAT) will adapt the novel.
* RKO Pictures will develop, finance and distribute a feature film
tentatively titled DURHAM GRILL, written by Clyde Edgerton and John
Schulian, about the efforts of a large corporation to hoodwink residents of
a small Southern town and the Southerners' unusual and successful defense.
* Director Simon Wincer (FREE WILLY) will help bring a prequel to THE BLACK
STALLION to theaters for Disney. YOUNG BLACK STALLION explores the origin
of the legendary horse in a tale of a young girl and a black stallion who
come into each others' lives and rescue one another from dangerous
situations. Production begins March 4 in Africa
* Artists Production Group and StudioCanal have picked up the comedy spec
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH from Yoni Berkovits and Tony Dreannan. It's the story
of a valet parking guy who chronically lies to impress women until a strange
twist of fate forces him to live out his lies and realize that he has been
overlooking true love.
* MGM has grabbed SOUL PLANE from writer Chuck Wilson and writer-producer Bo
Zenga. It's described an urban version of AIRPLANE!
* Sarah Thorp's script BLACKOUT was sold to Paramount/Intertainment AG for
Kopelson Entertainment to produce. The project's story line has been kept
under wraps and is described only as a female-driven gritty thriller.
* New Regency has purchased the comic pitch BRAD PITT WANTS MY GIRLFRIEND to
be written and directed by Les Firestein. It centers on an attractive
couple that grows estranged because the girlfriend feels the guy is taking
her for granted. While on a trip to Canada, she meets Pitt as he's shooting
a film. The actor takes a shine to her, and the boyfriend tries every way he
can to win her back.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Singer/Jensen Entertainment has purchased the rights to Nicholas Sparks'
bestseller A BEND IN THE ROAD about a sheriff in a small town whose wife was
killed several years before. He romances his child's schoolteacher, only to
discover a trail of clues related to his wife's death. Singer/Jensen also
has optioned MEPHISTO, a Top Shelf comic by Jason Hall and Matt Kindt, about
a couple trying to save their troubled marriage. They attend a magic show
and the wife volunteers for a disappearing trick, but the magician dies
midway through. The wife is nowhere to be found, and the husband, not sure
if she's dumped him, journeys through a metaphysical world to try to find
her. The company is also developing two projects with W.R. McKinney
(TEACHERS), one is a drama called ONE SHOT ONE KILL, the other for BOOKER
AND CHANCE, a Western about two scam artists who hype themselves as famous
outlaws as an easy way to rob a town.
* Southpaw Media Group co-founder Richard B. Lewis has teamed with
Pandemonium to co-produce a pair of event movies: THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, an
action love story set amid NASA's early lunar missions, and an intergalactic
epic adventure set in outer space dubbed ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.
* Gran Via Productions is teaming with Pacifica to acquire rights to remake
the 1955 Orson Welles-directed film THE CONFIDENTIAL REPORT. Joshua Safran
will pen the remake about a grifter who's hired by a wealthy financier to
trace figures from his past. The grifter gets more than he bargained for
when he falls in love with the power broker's daughter.
* New Line has grabbed the rights to co-produce HIS DARK MATERIALS a trilogy
of kids' books by Philip Pullman.
* Artists Production Group has partnered with MGM to option Michael
Connelly's latest novel CHASING THE DIME, about an L.A. computer researcher
who becomes obsessed with a missing woman whose former phone number is
randomly assigned to him. His private investigation leads him through the
murky world of online adult entertainment.
* MGM is developing a remake of FOXY BROWN, a 1974 pic starring Pam Grier as
a woman seeking revenge. Tyger Williams (MENACE II SOCIETY) will adapt the
script.
* Industry Entertainment has optioned Jonathan Safran Foer's first novel
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED about an American Jew who is looking for his
family's roots in Eastern Europe. Liev Schreiber is producing the project
with Industry, adapting the script with Foer, and also considering making
the picture his directorial debut.
* Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired the rights to THE INFORMANT: A TRUE
STORY that Steven Soderbergh is developing at his Section Eight shingle with
an eye to direct. Scott Burns will adapt the book, which was written by
Kurt Eichenwald. The book's protaganist is Mark Whitacre, who wore an FBI
wire for more than two years to uncover a major price-fixing scam with ADM's
Japanese competitors that gave the company millions of dollars in profits.
ADM pled guilty in 1996 and paid a $100 million fine, but the whistle-blower
winds up doing more time than the corrupt leaders he helped nab.
* Disney bought rights to the THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, based on the classic
tale by Kenneth Grahame, treatment, art and related aterials developed by
Corey May, Michael "Dooma" Wendschuh and Baruch Inbar .
* Swedish writer.director Lukas Moodysson's TOGETHER, is getting an English
remake by FilmFour and production company Number 9. The duo is also working
on a film version of the 1941 novel THE DEADLY PERCHERON, a surreal crime
story by American author John Franklin Bardin.
* MGM and Hyde Park Entertainment will develop a remake of the 1973 actioner
WALKING TALL with David Klass in talks to write the script.
* Paramount Pictures has grabbed the screen rights to Doug Marlette's novel,
THE BRIDGE, about a cartoonist fired from a Gotham newspaper, who moves his
family to the North Carolina house in which he grew up and tries to come to
terms with his past and family. Mark Andrus (AS GOOD AS IT GETS) will
adapt the screenplay.
GUNN SHOTS
* See 6 short films at This Nice Little Site . Titles include
"C.O.P. Tales" and "Fear of Robots."
* Quinn Rollins' Fisher Price Little People site has been updated, bringing
the total to just over 600. New characters include U2, Love Boat (with
Charo) and Fat Albert. Check it out Here
* There's new UK independent film making website at: This Spot where they're looking for personalized
accounts of what it is that everybody does on a film.
* Watch "85 seconds of cute girls, crazy music, and seizure inducing CG!" at This Cool LocationUntil next week... Happy Valentine's Day.
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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+ Expand All
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... sounds an AWFUL lot like Ten Little Indians (by Agatha Christie). I'd love to see a really good adaptation with modern settings and modern actors. There was, I believe, one really good adaptation previously (the 1966) version... but the 1989 version... UGH! So is this what the I.D. movie is trying to pull off?
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Feb 11, 2002 1:54:06 PM CST
why we need a Paw Paw Bears movie staring stock company injuns L
by diablo muerte
you think people who are into sexual defication often deep throat a shit log as a little sex tease before a blow job?
here would be the ultimate movie: Frank Millers "Sin City: That Yellow Bastard" starring Clint Eastwood.
here would the the other ultimate movie:
deep in the jungle
far away from everywhere
when your in trouble....
and this goes double....
you call the PAW PAW BEARS!!!!
da da da da dum dum
PAW PAW BEARS!!!!
da da da da dum dum
PAW PAW BEARS!!!!
da da da da dum dum
PAW PAW BEEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRRSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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TAKEN FROM THE ONLY HOME I'VE EVER KNOWN...I'd like to clear up a little misconception that has been floating around Hollywood lately. The trades have been saying that Leonardo DiCaprio is going to play Hughes and they are right. Where they are wrong is that they keep mentioning him in connection with the HOWARD Hughes biopic CITIZEN HUGHES, when del Leo is really connected with the JOHN Hughes biopic BAD HUGHES. On reading the script, it's easy to see why Leo is interested. The scene where the writer-producer of CAREER OPPORTUNITIES goes ballistic when Molly Ringwald makes fun of his '80s mullet is priceless, as our gay friends would say. It's easy to picture Luis Guzman as Judd Nelson, method acting the part of John Bender in THE BREAKFAST CLUB and tricking Hughes into taking on the principle role. And the framing device, with Jeffrey Katzenberg (Jeremy Piven) and Michael Eisner (Gordon Clapp) waiting in a urine-reeking alley on the set of Hughes magnum opus CURLEY SUE to speak to Hughes about working for Disney. See you at the premiere.
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Anybody remember the Monty Python bit from the "Meaning of Life" soundtrack about the exciting adventures of Martin Luther? Anyway, I hope they portray him as he truly was - a foul mouthed anti-semite who changed the world. Hey, they could combine it with the upcoming Superman vs Batman film and rename the character Martin Luthor! sk
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BLITZEN, about a young boy who asks Santa for a Superbowl Championship for his favorite team. This the final film of the 'Reindeer Trilogy.' RICHARD GERE WANTS MY HAMSTER. Don't ask. Warner Brothers is developing an 'urban' remake of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. The title is yet unannounced.
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Feb 11, 2002 3:35:55 PM CST
Ahhh...so it's not actually an urban remake of AIRPLANE, jus
by lenny nero
Susan Stroman should not make CONTACT only about the third act, because the first two are JUST AS GOOD! Damn. And they're gonna have title troubles, too. Zemeckis may get on their ass. Oy.
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GODDAMMIT!!! I know there's a joke in there somewhere, but I just can't seem to find it!!! I Wanda de Jesus, but I just can't find him. No. Is that de Jesus, I Wanda? No. I'll keep trying and get back to you.
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That's what I heard today... Has anyone heard anything???
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Feb 11, 2002 4:54:13 PM CST
So that talentless f**k that made 13 GHOSTS gets to direct a coo
by cash bailey
Ratner gets RED DRAGON and Bay gets I AM LEGEND. What fucking sign are these guys born under? They just get everything handed to them.
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I've never heard of the original, and I usually loathe remakes, but the premise sounds like a perfect pretense for Crispin to display his uniquely cerebral oddness. Its about goddam time that CG got a lead role instead of having to steal scenes in average productions. I smell a future cult favorite!
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"a tale of a young girl and a black stallion who come into each others' lives". You can see more wholesome fun like this at www.blacksonblondes.com
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Atribiance is right ... The "His Dark Materials" trilogy is great stuff. But VERY dark in many ways, including how it plays with the conventions of Christianity. I was constantly shaking my head and going back to see if I'd really read what I thought I had! It's very hard to see how a major studio treatment could avoid watering it down to the point where it becomes a conventional fantasy frolick, devoid of the edge that made it a great read.
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I was just thinking this morning about how awful it would be if Disney optioned it and made a "Lyra and her Daemon" Saturday morning cartoon... Oh, if New Line gives this the respect that it gave LOTR, it'll be magnificent!
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'Mr. Mysterious' sounds sweet; there hasn't been a decent gothic film out for a freakin' long time. And the 'Brad Pitt...' script sounds interesting, though a bit too sit-comish (remember Van Damme on 'Friends'? how 'bout Charlie Sheen? Tom Selleck? Micheal Rapaport? ... wait for it- BRAD FREAKIN' PITT!) 'Sides, yummy though he may be, can't they get someone single? Jenny might get mad! Yay for 'Mr. Mysterious!' Out.
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Feb 11, 2002 9:34:16 PM CST
Crispin Glover: The only thing good about Charlies Angels beside
by rant_man
I'm hoping this role for Crispin does him good. I'd like to see him in an action hero role, because he doesn't look the part, but he'd be kickass!
Did anyone see that shit movie with Simon West's production company attached? Typical. Nothing really catches my attention except for the Crispins role and the one with William H. Macy. The guy can do no wrong...pretty much anyway -
Feb 11, 2002 11:48:18 PM CST
does anyone know who's playing who in the human stain?
by allrighthorse
My guess is that Harris is playing the narrater and Sinise would be playing Kidman's ex...
Any ideas? -
Feb 12, 2002 12:12:42 AM CST
This just in from Superman CINEMA--Jon Peters has indeed signed
by kingkrypton
Here's the article:
>>WEDNESDAY 6th FEBRUARY
McG signed to direct Superman New Movie?
A source I trust, but make up your own minds:
McG is signed. It's all under wraps. The studio is giving him a limited amount of time to get the project on track. If he fails, he is fired and STILL gets paid. Unbelievably stupid.
I am a bit afraid to let this information out, as it isn't good. While the upper management at Warner is pleased they were able to hire McG because he has "had a big hit", lower level people, the folks that care, are growing increasingly concerned because the director is taking a music video approach and doesn't seem to understand that the story is so very important. This is shaping up to be more TOMB RAIDER than Donner's SUPERMAN in the execution. :-(
One rumor is that he will be incompetent enough to get fired, but that means he gets paid his multi-million dollar salary. All this pay or play stuff comes out of the budget and eventually, there will be no money left for the film. Currently, they estimate they need 170 million to make the film. The studio says they will get 100 million.
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Yeah you'd assume Harris would be playing the narrator and Sinise Kidman's ex, but I was reading at DH that it was the other way round. I wonder if that's wrong though. I would have thought Harris would be closer in age to the narrator character and Sinise to the ex-husband. Also, if she was more fluent in English, don't you think Audrey Tautou would be perfect for the role of the French professor?? So what'd you think of the book? I loved it.
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that's too bad, it would've been a great. Helgeland is an excellent director/writer and Cassell is an entertaining acter. they would've been a good team-up!
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Didn't Eggers just sell the rights to "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius" for two million dollars? Or is that old news?
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when "Smart and Smarter" is actually one of the more original ideas in the weekly recap list. It sounds like total shit but at least it isn't yet another "reimaginging,reconceptualizing,reformatting" title drudged up from the '70s that is Hollywood's inspirado d'jour. In the indefatigable words of Jack "Napier" Nicholson: "This town needs an enima!!!"
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bought these for my g/f, haven't read them meself yet, but hang on, this'll get the fundies even more upset cos it's got d(a)emons in it. That and half the world is reading "Northern Lights", not "Golden Compass" as the first part.
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i agree with you folks...this is truly one if the finest things to come down the pike since LOTR...i wonder if it's possible at all to film it....maybe it could bemade into some kind of miniseries..one of those big budget affairs....anyway, it'll be a HUGE kicker of a career boost to the young girl and boy that get cast....
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New Line did great with LOTR, and the Dark Materials books were fantastic...BUT something just isnt right with this. I dunno, I dunno. This...there's something wrong. Is it just me being paranoid? Hmmm...
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