Well the work week has ended out in Tinseltown sooooo ol' Father Geek is back with another of Elston's great rehashs of the Hollywood news for those of you who may have been too busy to catch it all during the last week. Some extra cool stuff went down in the last 5 or 6 days, but the really big news was the deaths of "Mr. Television"/"Uncle Milty" Milton Berle , ace funnyman Dudley Moore , and the legendary Writer/Director/Icon Billy Wilder , all within a 24 hour period. And while THAT news was notably "uncool" it was the dominate entertainment story of the week, but other things were happaning out in Hollywoodland and Elston got them all together for you in one easy to read spot...

The WEEKLY RECAP...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Dustin Hoffman will star opposite Edward Burns in Lions Gate Films'
CONFIDENCE. James Foley will direct. Doug Jung wrote the script about a
master con man who swindles a few thousand dollars from an unsuspecting
victim, who turns out to be an accountant for a major crime kingpin. Morris
Chestnut, Paul Giamatti, Rachel Weisz and Brian Van Holt have joined the
cast as well.

* Nick Stahl (IN THE BEDROOM) will play John Connor opposite Arnold
Schwarzenegger in T3: RISE OF THE MACHINES for C-2 Pictures/Intermedia and
director Jonathan Mostow. Shooting begins April 15 in L.A.

* Hilary Duff ("Lizzie McGuire") will star in CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA
QUEEN for New Line Cinema, based on the novel by Dyan Sheldon. Gail Parent
will write the adaptation about a New York teen who reinvents herself when
she is forced to move to a New Jersey suburb. Duff will also co-star with
Frankie Muniz in MGM's AGENT CODY BANKS for director Harald Zwart (ONE NIGHT
AT MCCOOL'S).

* William Hurt is starring in BLUE BUTTERFLY for director Lea Pool (LOST AND
DELIRIOUS), based on the true story of Georges Brossard, the founder of the
Montreal Insectarium, and a 10-year-old boy terminally ill with brain
cancer. Twelve years ago, the boy asked Brossard, who hosts Discovery
Channel's "Insectia," to fulfill his last wish of capturing the rare Blue
Morpho butterfly, only found in the jungles of central America. The
butterfly is said to have magical curative powers. They went to central
America, caught the butterfly and, soon after, the boy's cancer went into
remission.

* John Travolta is in early talks to star in MR. 3000, about a baseball
player who unretires when three of his past base hits are disallowed,
dropping him below the esteemed 3,000-hit plateau. Callie Khouri (THE
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD) is in talks to direct for Touchstone
Pictures.

* Jim Carrey will star in BRUCE ALMIGHTY for Universal Pictures and director
Tom Shadyac. Production begins in July. It's about a whiny guy who
constantly questions why God gives him so much grief. He is suddenly given
almighty power for one day to teach him how difficult it is to run the
world. Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe wrote the original script while Carrey
and Shadyac have been working with Steve Oedekerk on a rewrite the script.

* Actor James Franco has co-written with Merriwether Williams the dramatic
screenplay THE HEDONIST for New Redemption Pictures. Franco also will star
in the pic with Scott Ziehl (BROKEN VESSELS) is in negotiations to direct.
It's about two genius brothers, one venturing toward hedonism and decadence
while the other works toward a brilliant medical career. However, both fall
victim to similar obsessions of society.

* Eva Mendes is in talks to star opposite Denzel Washington in the thriller
OUT OF TIME for MGM, Original Films and director Carl Franklin. Shooting
starts at the end of May. Dave Collard wrote the script about a small-town
cop who gets caught in an affair with two women, one of whom is a detective.

* Ewan McGregor joins the historical drama BORGIA for Myriad Pictures,
Imagemovers and director Neil Jordan.

* Glenn Close and Danny DeVito jon Christina Ricci and Jason Biggs in Woody
Allen's untitled project, which shoots this spring. Allen also stars and
will direct from his script for DreamWorks.

* Warren Beatty has chosen not to star in Miramax's KILL BILL for
writer/director Quentin Tarantino. David Carradine is in talks to take on
the role in the pic.

* Viggo Mortensen is in talks to star as Pony Express courier turned
international horce racer in HIDALGO, based on a true story, for Disney and
director Joe Johnston. Mortensen had been in talks to star in BORGIA but
has chosen the Disney pic instead. Shooting begins this summer.

* Will Smith will produce and possibly star in a remake of the 1974 Sidney
Poitier/Bill Cosby comedy UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT about pals who chase some
crooks who've taken their winning lotter ticket. Smith and his Overbrook
Entertainemt partner James Lassiter will produce as part of a deal that also
covers the film's sequels, LET'S DO IT AGAIN and A PIECE OF THE ACTION.

* Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brittany Murphy and Rosario Dawson are in talks to
join Edward Norton in Spike Lee's THE 25TH HOUR for Disney. Shooting begins
in May in New York. David Benioff adapted his own novel for the screen
about the last day of freedom for a man before he begins a seven-year jail
term for drug dealing.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are writing the CGI animation project
ROBOTS for the ICE AGE team of Fox Animation, Blue Sky Studios and director
Chris Wedge. The feature, set in a world inhabited exclusively by robots,
will be a collaboration between Wedge and children's book author William
Joyce.

* Paul Scheuring and Christian Gudegast will write DEN OF THIEVES for New
Line and Bender/Spink about a mild-mannered bartender who works near the
Federal Reserve in L.A. The barkeep inadvertently gets involved with a
group of thieves who plot to rob the Reserve.

* David Goyer (BLADE scribe) will direct DARKSIDERS, written by Tom Parker
and Jim Jennewein, about a group of vampires turned into special operatives
for the FBI.

* Italian comedian Carlo Verdone is directing and starring in MA CHE COLPA
ABBIAMO NOI (IT CAN'T BE ALL OUR FAULT) for Virginia Films and Warner Bros.
about a group of therapy patients left to their own devices after their
shrink dies in the middle of a session.

* Guillermo del Toro (CRONOS, BLADE II) is in talks with DreamWorks to
direct AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft
novel. Del Toro will pen the screenplay with Matthew Robbins (MIMIC, DRAGONSLAYER) for
Angryfilms. The story centers around an expedition to an uncharted region
of the Arctic, where the explorers discover the ruins of an ancient
civilization and then find out they may have accidentally awakened
prehistoric creatures.

* Steven Brill (upcoming MR. DEEDS) will write and possibly direct IN THE
PINK for Revolution Studios and producer Dan Halsted. It's about a Texas
playboy with a cushy corporate job who suddenly finds himself unemployed.
He turns to selling Mary Kay cosmetics and eventually learns the secrets to
understanding women ultimately becoming a top seller.

* 20th Century Fox has grabbed the horror script IN VITRO, written by Ben
Ripley, for Scott Free Prods. It's about an infertile couple who conceive a
child using in vitro fertilization and then begin to question the real
origin of their child when the woman starts showing strange behavior.

* Mandolin Entertainment and Bosco Entertainment will develop a feature
based on Evelyn Farr's 1995 book THE UNTOLD LOVE STORY: MARIE-ANTOINETTE AND
COUNT FERSEN. Farris adapting the script, with Mandoki possibly directing.

* Sydney Pollack may direct THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY, based
on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Chabon who also wrote the
script.

* Paramount Pictures and Deep River Productions have purchased the feature
rights to "The Honeymooners" and will develop a film with a contemporary
setting. Ralph Kramden will be a New York bus driver and his neighbor
Norton will still work in the sewers. Danny Jacobson ("Mad About You") will
write the script.

* Singer/Jensen has purchased Elwood Reid's script GREEN HELL about a group
of extreme sports enthusiasts treasure hunting in a rainforest. The quest
turns dangerous when they're pursued by a brutal gang looking for the same
treasure.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Manifesto Spots and producer Francesco Papa will shoot CHATLINE, Romano
Scavolini's (NIGHTMARE) twist on the classic Lolita story. Production
begins early May.

* Producers Lawrence Bender and Kevin Brown have made a deal with Roy
"Dusty" Rogers Jr. and producer Jeffrey Kramer for film, TV and
merchandising rights to the estate and likeness of the late Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans. The producers want to make an overall deal with a media firm to
produce films and TV programs starring actors playing Rogers and Evans.

* Artisan Entertainment has nabbed the rights to Enron whistleblower Sherron
Watkins' life story as well as the rights to her upcoming book POWER
FAILURE, about the energy trader's meltdown as seen from her position at the
firm.

* Miramax purchased first-look rights at the contents of Michael Chabon's
TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, a book of eight short stories that the
author hasn't yet written. The studio gets first shot at the eight stories
which Chabon has declared will hopefully revitalize his own writing by
channeling the spirit of his formative literary influences, writers like
H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Chabon promised
thoroughly modern works of literature that are not homages. Chabon will
write a horror story, a Sherlock Holmes adventure, a ghost story, an
adventure story, a science fiction story, a story of suspense, a costume or
period or historical story as well as a sea story.

Until next week. Happy Easter.

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com