Father Geek here with Elston's weekend edition of all the Hollywood news from the past week, however, the BIG news this weekend is that ATTACK OF THE CLONES doesn't stink, in fact it is quite good, thrilling even. Yes ol' Father Geek was the only other person with Harry in that seedy hotel room on the edge of what used to be Austin's warehouse district late this afternoon when the not-too rough cut was shown to us by a(some) mole(s) burrowed deep into the northern California mountains. He/She/It/They let us see the print/disc/tape once, we do not have a copy. In fact He/She/It/They had to return the print/disc/tape we saw to someone/place today. Its beautiful, action packed, and a delight. Fear not geeks you will be thrilled at this one. Read Harry's review for more, or come to Harry's LA book signing if you're in the area. It will be at BOOK SOUP Tuesday evening. Now on to Elston and...
The WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER...
CASTING
* Frankie Muniz ("Malcolm in the Middle," BIG FAT LIAR) is in talks to star
in MGM's AGENT CODY BANKS about a teen who is recruited by the U.S.
government for covert missions requiring youth-sized participants.
Production begins June 1.
* Rachel McAdams joins Rob Schneider as a spirited high school student who wakes up one morning to find her body
transformed into that of a 30-year-old man. Tom Brady is directing from a
script he co-wrote with Schneider for Happy Madison Productions.
* Harrison Ford will star in an Intermedia Films project about the heroic
life and tragic death of humanitarian worker Fred Cuny. Alejandro Gonzales
Inarritu (AMORES PERROS) is in talks to develop the pic. William Nicholson
(GLADIATOR) is writing the script based on Cuny's life rights as well as
David Fanning's "Frontline" documentary, "The Lost American." Intermedia is
hoping for a spring
2003 production start.
* Neal McDonough ("Band of Brothers") joins the cast of TIMELINE for
Paramount and director Richard Donner. Paul Walker, Gerard Butler and
Frances O'Connor also star.
* Denis Leary and Robin Tunney have joined Hope Davis and Campbell Scott in
the cast of Alan Rudolph's indie pic THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS, based on
the novella by Jane Smiley, for Holedigger Films.
* Stephen Dorff will star opposite Ben Kingsley in the indie crime drama ALL
FOR NOTHIN' for director Predrag "Gaga" Antonijevic. Production begins in
April in south Florida. It's based on the true story of telecommunications
pioneer Walter L. Shaw and his son Walter T. Shaw, the confessed "Dinner
Time Burglar."
* Sarah Polley and Mark Ruffalo are in talks to star in MY LIFE WITHOUT ME,
about a terminally ill trailer-park mother who decides to live life to the
fullest along with her husband and two little girls without telling anyone
that she is dying. Isabel Coixet (THINGS I NEVER TOLD YOU) will direct from
her adaptation of Nanci Kincaid's short story "Pretending the Bed Is a
Raft." Amanda Plummer, Alfred Molina, Deborah Harry and Maria De Medeiros
will also star.
* Jeremy Davies joins the cast of SOLARIS for director Steven Soderbergh and
20th Century Fox. Shooting begins April 29 for a Dec. 13 release. George
Clooney and Natascha McElhone star.
* Newcomer Omar Benson Miller will star as the title characer in 20th
Century Fox/Davis Entertainment's live-action pic FAT ALBERT for director
Forest Whitaker. Production begins next month in L.A. and Philadelphia.
The project follows Fat Albert and friends, who come to life when they walk
out of the cartoon and into the real world. Bill Cosby and Charles Kipps
wrote the original draft of the script.
* Viggo Mortensen is in talks to star in BORGIA for Myriad Pictures,
Imagemovers and director Neil Jordan. Shooting is aiming for a summer
start. It's about the corrupt 15th century Borgia family that includes
siblings Lucretia and Cesare and their father Roderigo, who went on to
become Pope Alexander VI and ran the 16th century Vatican as a crime
syndicate. Mortensen would play Cesare.
* Jon Voight will join Sigourney Weaver in HOLES, based on the book by Louis
Sachar, for director Andrew Davis. It's about a young boy punished for a
crime that he did not commit. Under the watch of the warden, the boy and
his fellow detainees are forced to dig holes in order to "build character."
The boys soon find out that they are actually being tricked into unearthing
a secret buried treasure.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed on to star in and produce the remake of
WESTWORLD, the Michael Crichton sci-fi action thriller, as well as his role
in the new CONAN THE BARBARIAN project for John Milius.
* Albert Brooks is set to join Michael Douglas in TILL DEATH DO US PART, a
remake of the 1979 comedy THE IN-LAWS for Warner Bros. Andy Fleming (DICK)
will direct.
* Bebe Neuwirth joins the cast of LE DIVORCE for Fox Searchlight, director
James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. Shooting is underway in Paris.
Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stockard Channing, Sam Waterston,
Matthew Modine, Stephen Fry, Leslie Caron, Thierry Lhermitte, Romain Duris,
Melvil Poupaud, Jean-Marc Barr and Lambert Wilson star.
* Maggie Gyllenhaal (40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS) joins John Sayles' CASA DE LOS
BABYS as well as Lodge Kerrigan's IN GOD'S HANDS.
* Daryl Hannah is set and Lucy Liu is in talks to join Quentin Tarantino's
KILL BILL for Miramax Films. Uma Thurman, Warren Beatty and Michael Madsen
star.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Columbia Pictures has picked up an untitled thriller pitch by writer Dario
Scardapane that Mutual Films will produce. It focuses on former FBI agents
who work as free-lance security consultants. The consultants hook up with
the bureau's bank robbery unit to track down an elusive and murderous master
thief.
* Writer-director Richard Kelly (DONNIE DARKO) will rewrite and helm the
thriller KNOWING for Columbia Pictures and Escape Artists. It's about a man
who digs up a time capsule that was buried in the 1950s with children's
drawings predicting the future. One child's drawings predicted several
horrible events that have already come true; however, one of those events
has not yet occurred.
* Milo Addica (MONSTER'S BALL) will write an untitled revenge thriller for
Warner Bros. and Section Eight that's being developing as a directing
vehicle for Don Cheadle. The project, based on an original idea by Steven
Soderbergh, is about a man who takes the fall for a crime and goes to jail.
Upon his release, he seeks revenge on those who framed him. Soderbergh and
George Clooney will produce.
* MGM has purchased Pablo Fenjvez's thriller script MAN ON A LEDGE for
producer Gavin Polone about a man who checks into a Manhattan hotel,
apparently to commit suicide. However, as the police move in and shut down
the block it turns out he's really running a jewelry store heist across the
street.
* Geoff Rodkey sold his comedy script DADDY DAY CARE to 20th Century Fox's
for Davis Entertainment to produce. It's about a father who loses his job
and turns his house into a day care in order to make ends meet.
* Nicolas Winding Refn (PUSHER) is directing FEAR X, starring John Turturro,
Deborah Unger and James Remar. Winding Refn and Hubert Selby Jr. wrote the
project about a man, haunted by visions, searching for the truth behind his
wife's murder.
* Kevin Bray (ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS) has come aboard to develop and direct
an English-language remake of the 1998 French pic TAXI for 20th Century Fox.
* Disney has picked up CAMP WOODWARD, an X Games-themed pitch from Craig
Zadan and Neil Meron's Storyline Entertainment. David Rothenberg will write
the script set at an X Games summer camp.
* Spike Jonze may soon be in negotiations to direct MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA,
based on the novel by Arthur Golden, for Columbia Pictures and Red Wagon
Entertainment.
* Gerald DiPego and sons Justin and Zachary will write THE OUTER LIMITS, a
feature based on the long-running sci fi TV series, for MGM.
* Sony's Screen Gems has snapped up the thriller script STREAMING EVIL,
written by Robert Fyvolent and Mark R. Brinker, about a serial killer with a
Web site that graphically displays his murders and the FBI investigator on
the case.
* John Wells Prods. has acquired writer Dana Glazer's untitled pitch based
on the life of Civil War hero and college professor Joshua Chamberlain, with
Mimi Leder attached to direct and produce. The project will follow focus on
Chamberlain, who was a professor at Bowdoin College in Maine and is
recognized by some scholars for helping to turn around the fortunes of the
Union, leading a charge at the Battle of Little Round Top. He also is
remembered for leading the Army of Northern Virginia to surrender at
Appomattox, Va.
* Charles Herman-Wurmfeld (KISSING JESSICA STEIN) will direct THE YES MAN,
written by Noah Hawley, for Wind Dancer Films. It's about a man on a
fast-track to nowhere whose life takes a strange turn when he decides to
stop making decisions and says yes to everything.
* Misher Films has hired writers Peter Speakman and Michael Galvin to pen
DUCK IN HIGH HEELS, a sports comedy about two men who vie for the last spot
on the Olympic team and the love of a woman in the world of competitive
racewalking
* Nickelodeon Movies and Gary Ross are developing IMAGINARY FRIEND, to be
written by Anne Spielberg (BIG), about a boy whose imaginary friend takes
him out of the real world and into his: an animated universe of a child's
imagination.
* Columbia Pictures and Scottish filmmaker Susan Montford are developing
SPEED TRIBES, a remake of the cult film HELL'S ANGELS '69 about two brothers
who join the Hell's Angels before a Vegas casino robbery, only to fall prey
to them. Peter Dowling will write the script.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Radar Pictures has both optioned Poul Anderson's BRAIN WAVE, about a
phenomenon that drastically increases the intelligence of all life forms on
earth, and William Tenn's horror film CHILD'S PLAY, about a man mistakenly
receiving a Christmas gift from 500 years in the future.
* Paramount and producer Alan Ladd Jr. have optioned the Dennis Lehane novel
GONE, BABY, GONE and will develop the drama as a potential franchise for Ben
Affleck. The story revolves around an unlikely pair of Boston private eyes
Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.
* 20th Century Fox has grabbed the feature film rights to the Japanese anime
property DRAGONBALL for Fox 2000 to develop into a live-action franchise.
Created by Japanese writer Akira Toriyama, the franchise has followed an
epic story between good and evil, centering on the character Goku and his
friends who battle for the Earth against the deadly forces of the Saiyans.
Their best chance for survival rests with the Namekian DragonBalls, which
give them the power to summon a mighty dragon.
* Producer Larry Kasanoff (MORTAL KOMBAT) has purchased all remake rights to
the Japanese 1994 anime blockbuster NINJA SCROLL for a possible live-action
feature. It's a samurai sword-and-sorcery epic about a masterless ninja for
hire who joins forces with a powerful female ninja after her team is
destroyed by a man-monster.
* Warner Bros. and Outlaw Prods. are in talks to make a TRAINING DAY sequel,
with Ethan Hawke in negotiations to reprise his role.
* Miramax Films has purchased the English-language remake rights to Italian
director Ettore Scola's 1974 comedy-drama C'ERAVAMO TANTO AMATI (WE ALL
LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH). Gabriele Muccino will direct the project from a
script he's written with Mike Weller, which sets the story in New York.
* New Line Cinema has picked up the rights to Rebecca Reisert's novel THE
THIRD WITCH, a retelling of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" through the eyes
of one of the story's legendary witches.
Until next week....
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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