Father Geek here, finally back on the aire after a week of travel and computer problems. No need to rehash the Academy's choices of last night, with few exceptions it was OK, just not what I personally wanted. I felt FOTR really deserved at least 10 oscars. Oh well, the academy has NEVER lived up to my expectations beginning in the early 50's when I first began to watch (Oh the bitter disappointments of my youth)on through the travesty of Chariots of Fire Vs Empire Strikes Back, right on down to the present day. Well enough of crying in my coffee, its only watering down those fine Italian Roast beans... Here's Elston with the week that was out in Tinseltown...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Will Smith is in talks to star in I AM LEGEND after Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to step aside from starring to becoming the film's porudcer. Michael Bay is in negotations to direct the Warner Bros. project. It's an adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel about a biological war that pits the last man on Earth against the populace of mutants who want him dead.

* Paul Bettany (A BEAUTIFUL MIND) will star alongside Russell Crowe in 20th Century Fox's MASTER AND COMMANDER for director Peter Weir. Shooting begins June 17 at Fox Studios Baja in Mexico. The film is based on Patrick O'Brian's series of adventure novels set at sea.

* Thomas Lennon joins Glenn Close, Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson in LE DIVORCE for Fox Searchlight and director James Ivory.

* Eddie Murphy, director Rob Minkoff and producer Don Hahn are in talks to join Disney's HAUNTED MANSION. Murphy would play a work-obsessed father whose encounter with a ghost makes him realize the importance of his own family. David Berenbaum wrote the script.

* Johnny Depp will play J.M. Barrie, author of PETER PAN, in NEVERLAND for Miramax Films. Marc Forster (MONSTER'S BALL) will direct the project this summer in London. It's about how Barrie wrote his classic story during the 1800s in England after bonding with four fatherless children who lived next door to him.

* Viola Davis joins the cast of SOLARIS for director Steven Soderbergh and 20th Century Fox.

* Orlando Bloom will co-star with Heath Ledger in THE KELLY GANG about notorious Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. Bloom will also star in THE CALCIUM KID about a British milkman with a steel jaw who serves as a replacement boxer in a title bout against the U.S. champ.

* William Lee Scott has joined the cast of I.D. alongside John Cusack, Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet. James Mangold is directing the murder mystery.

* Nicolas Cage is planning star in and produce a contemporary remake of the 1973 cult thriller THE WICKER MAN for writer/director Neil LaBute. Written by Anthony Shaffer and directed by Robin Hardy, the 1973 film stars Edward Woodward as a Scottish policeman investigating the disappearance of a little girl. The policeman travels to a remote island where he is shocked to discover a colony of modern-day pagans. At the same time, Christopher Lee and director Robin Hardy are working on a different version of the film called THE RIDING OF THE LADDIE. Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Astin may star with Lee in that project.

* Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger are in talks to star in the Civil War drama COLD MOUNTAIN, based on the novel by Charles Frazier, for director Anthony Minghella. Law would play wounded solider Inman, while Kidman would portray his pre-war sweetheart Ada and Zellweger as Ada's sister Ruby.

* Hugh Grant is set and Emma Thompson is in talks to star in the romantic comedy LOVE ACTUALLY for writer/director Richard Curtis (NOTTING HILL, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL). The pic tells 10 separate stories in the two months leading up to Christmas, with each tale climaxing on Christmas Eve. Grant will play the British prime minister and Thompson his sister. Shooting is set for September.

* Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is in talks with Universal to star in the action/adventure pic HELLDORADO, where he'll star as a bounty hunter who tries to get rid of a debt by going to the Amazon jungle to capture someone. The bounty hunter discovers that said person isn't the bad guy he'd been warned about, and the two team up to find riches stored in a mine in the Amazon. James Vanderbilt (upcoming BASIC) is rewriting the R.J. Stewart script. Production begins late summer.

* Ashton Kutcher will star in New Line's psychological thriller THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT about a young man trying to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a way to travel back to the past, occupy his childhood body and change history. But he discovers that every change he makes has unexpected consequences. Amy Smart, William Lee Scott and Elden Henson are in talks to join the pic for writers/directors J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress (FINAL DESTINATION).

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Jonathan Rosenbloom and Justin Merz sold their script TOPSIDERS to DreamWorks Pictures for Evolution Entertainment to produce. It's about a group of kids who discover a treasure map that leads them on an underground search through New York's subway system.

* Artisan has purchased Stephen Falk's romantic comedy script THE PROM about a teen in love with his girl-next-door best friend, who has a date to the prom and is determined to deflower the guy.

* Disney has grabbed an untitled drama pitch from writer David Collard (upcoming OUT OF TIME, "Family Guy") It's set against the backdrop of intramural boxing at the Naval Academy, focusing on a young man whose dream of attending Annapolis becomes a reality.

* DreamWorks Pictures bought an untitled action thriller pitch from writer David Benioff, with Marc Forster attached to direct.

* Jesse Dylan (HOW HIGH) will direct Universal's SHORTY, starring Lil' Romeo, written by Dallas Jackson and produced by Master P. It's about a midget alien stranded in an L.A. 'hood. He becomes a rapping, hip-hopping partner with a 12-year-old who wants to win an MTV talent contest.

* Signpost Films has picked up the psychological thriller pitch MEET JANE DOE from Chris Soth and Collin Chang. It's said to be in the same vein as THE SIXTH SENSE with a strong female lead.

* Janet Scott Batchler and Lee Batchler (BATMAN FOREVER) will write MY NAME IS MODESTY for Miramax Films. The project will feature the character special agent Modesty Blaise who first appeared in the 1966 pic that beared her name.

* Ron Bass and Vicki Iovine will write a romantic comedy for 20th Century Fox that will focus on a family's recovery from a death.

* David Koepp will write and direct THE SECRET WINDOW, based on the novella by Stephen King, about a writer going through a painful divorce who is stalked by a psychotic stranger claiming that the writer stole his story.

* Steve Carr will direct a contemporary remake of the 1948 comedy MISTER BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE for RKO Pictures. The original is about a couple who live in a New York apartment and decide to move to the country and build a house, a job that proves to be harder than they thought.

* Will Rokos (MONSTER'S BALL) will write the screenplay for a remake of John Schlesinger's 1963 film BILLY LIAR for Artisan Pictures. The original story centered on a man who escapes his dreary small-town life by telling elaborate fibs. Two women are sucked in by his storytelling and think that they are set to marry him, while a third woman causes him to wonder whether he can live without lying at all.

* F. Gary Gray will direct THE ITALIAN JOB, a remake of the 1969 action heist pic, for Paramount Pictures and producer Donald DeLine. Shooting is planned for August for a summer 2003 release.

* John Luessenhop (LOCKDOWN) will direct the Screen Gems action pic BONE DEEP, written by Gabriel Casseus and Peter Allen, about a Manhattan cop whose after a young crew that pulls off spectacular heists. Production begins this summer in New York and Toronto.

* Scott Caan will direct the drama DALLAS AND RUSTY from his own script about two city kids who constantly get into trouble. One tries to go straight while the other doesn't and things get complicated. Shaw Hatosy, Marley Shelton, Selma Blair, Isla Fisher and Val Lauren will star alongside Caan.

* Damian Shannon and Mark Swift will adapt AREA 52, the comic book series created by Brian Haberlin, for Casey Silver Prods. It's about a top-secret warehouse in Antarctica used by the government as a storage dump for otherworldly discoveries. The base is staffed by a group of misfits who have nothing to do until a mislabeled storage box from the 1947 Roswell crash turns out to be an alien killing machine.

* Joe Carnahan (NARC) will write and direct VOID for Misher Films about a blackout that occurs at a prison at the same time a female homicide cop is there to extradite a prisoner.

* Harald Zwart (ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL'S) will direct Frankie Muniz in CODY BANKS about a teen drafted by the government for covert operations requiring youth-sized participants. Shooting starts at the end of May.

* Roland Emmerich is in talks to direct and produce ALIEN PRISON for Columbia Pictures about six humans who have been abducted, studied and torturously experimented upon by an alien race. After years of abuse, they plot an escape and attempt to foil a full-scale invasion of Earth.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Revolution Studios and Mayhem Pictures are developing KNIGHT RIDER, a feature version of the David Hasselhoff NBC drama. Series creator Glen A. Larson is reportedly writing the first draft of the script.

* Artisan Entertainment Inc. is launching Family Home Entertainment (FHE), a new division to distribute family films starting with JONAH -- A VEGGIETALES MOVIE. The computer animated feature film, based on characters in the VeggieTales videos, is scheduled to hit theaters in fall 2002.

GUNN SHOTS

(NOT from the trades)

* Check out This Coooolnesssss for new content updated weekly by 7M Pictures. The siter highlights short films, movie trailers, music videos and innovative commercials.

* Orlando Technology Forums will conduct educational seminar/workshop series exploring the latest hardware, software and concepts in dynamic digital content production to run concurrently with the Florida Film Festival. For more info, check out Their Site Here

* MULLHOLLAND DRIVE SUPPORT GROUP is a short film you can find here: Click Right Now!

* Check out This Location , a site chock full of indie pics.

* There is a petition online to bring THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD to DVD as a special edition. Visit http://members.tripod.com/~evilbaby/ROTLD.html for more info, or go to the petition here: By Just Clicking

* Who are the Mercury Men? Visit Them Here to find out.