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Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek here with another week in review from Elston Gunn and The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Mia Maestro has been cast as the female lead in THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES for
director Walter Salles. Shooting begins in Argentina, Chile and Peru late
this month. Gael Garcia Bernal will portray Che Guevara.
* Maggie Gyllenhaal will join Julia Roberts in MONA LISA SMILE for
Revolution Studios and Shoelace Prods. Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst also
have recently joined the project for director Mike Newell.
* Orlando Bloom joins Johnny Depp in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. Geoffrey
Rush will play Capt. Blackheart.
* Reese Witherspoon will star in MGM's LEGALLY BLONDE 2: RED, WHITE & BLONDE
where here character finds herself running for politcal office. Production
begins in November for a July 2003 release.
* Writer/star Nia Vardalos (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING) will co-star in the
female buddy comedy CONNIE AND CARLA DO L.A., which she also wrote, for
Spyglass Entertainment. Shooting is planned to begin in the spring.
* LeAnn Rimes is attached to star for director Rocky Lang in THE GIRL WHO
STRUCK OUT BABE RUTH, based on a true story of Jackie Mitchell, who, in
1931, became the only woman to strike out baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou
Gehrig back-to-back, then was tossed out of the major leagues for being a
woman.
* Rachael Leigh Cook and Jonathan Tucker are set to star in the drama
STATESIDE for writer/director Reverge Anselmo and First Look Media. Agnes
Bruckner, Carrie Fisher and Ed Begley Jr. are in talks to round out the
cast. It's about a rich, rebellious teenager who, while on leave from the
Marines, falls in love with a young rock star who is stricken with a mental
illness.
* Martin Short is set to play Jiminy Glick in the feature comedy LALAWOOD,
for director Vadim Jean and Gold Circle, from a script written by Short,
Michael Short and Paul Flaherty. The movie will be largely improvisational
and will supplement a murder mystery plot. Some shooting will take place at
the Toronto Film Festival. It will also be an opportunity to grab
pic-promoting celebs for impromptu cameos.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Columbia Pictures snapped up the comedy pitch PRIZONAZ OF WAR from Robert
LoCash and Nick Creature about four hapless street criminals who escape from
a chain gang by hopping into an Army truck and wind up in Afghanistan.
* Paramount Pictures has optioned the feature film rights to the Jacquelyn
Mitchard novel A THEORY OF RELATIVITY with Lisa Loomer writing the
screenplay and Luis Mandoki attached to direct. The drama concerns the
custody of a 5-year-old girl when a tragic accident happens to her parents
and centers on the journey of the victim's brother, who becomes a man by
becoming a father.
* Joan Chen will direct THE UNWANTED, based on Kien Nguyen's memoir about
life as an Amerasian boy raised in communist Vietnam, for National
Geographic Feature Films.
* Mark Lewis will direct WOLF B36, a story adapted from a New York Times
Magazine article by Sara Corbett, for National Geographic Feature Films.
It's about a female wolf that was among 66 wolves relocated to Idaho under
the Endangered Species Act in 1995. When the wolves slaughter local
livestock, a young field biologist gets caught up in a battle between
environmentalists and ranchers determined to kill the wolves.
* United Artists has grabbed worldwide rights to the upcoming dark comedy
SAVED for Michael Stipe to produce. It's about a pregnant girl at a
Christian high school. The film will star Macaulay Culkin, Chris Evans,
Patrick Fugit, Jena Malone, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore and Eva Amurri.
Mary-Louise Parker is in talks to join the cast. Brian Dannelly will direct
from a script he penned with Michael Urban. Shooting is slated to begin in
mid-September.
* David Mamet will write for Warner Bros. a film about gangster John
Dillinger for Kimberly Peirce (BOYS DON'T CRY) to direct.
* Universal Pictures has optioned the Irwin Shaw short story WHISPERS IN
BEDLAM with Stephen Falk writing a screenplay based on the material. The
story centers on a football player whose career is on its last legs until he
undergoes experimental surgery. The surgery accidentally endows the player
with super hearing, not only making him a superstar on the gridiron but
transforming his life off the field as well.
* Peter O'Brian will direct HOLLYWOOD NORT for Winchester Entertainment.
It's set in 1979 and satirizes runaway production and tax-sheltered
filmmaking in Canada. Alan Bates stars with Matthew Modine, Jennifer Tilly,
Deborah Unger and John Neville, Alan Thicke, Kim Coates, Fab Fillipo, Clare
Coulter, Joe Cobden and Saul Rubinek.
* Former fashion photographer Sean Ellis will make his feature directing
debut on the thriller BROKEN for Gold Circle Films from his own script about
a woman who comes out of a coffee shop in a bustling city street and thinks
she sees herself driving past in a car. Disturbed by the event, the woman
follows the driver and tries to find out who she is and why she may be
trying to replace her.
* Rod Lurie (THE CONTENDER) will rewrite and direct Spyglass Entertainment's
THE ANGEL OF DEATH, about the police investigation of a hospital worker who
killed his patients.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Gebbia Brothers Prods. has optioned the feature film rights to recently
paroled NBA prospect Lee Benson's life story. The project is being
executive produced by Robert Townsend and is described as a story about
redemption. Benson, one of the nation's top high school basketball hopes,
went to an Ohio prison for drug trafficking and abduction. There, he played
hoops and met up with his former coach and youth counselor, now also an
inmate. After being paroled, Benson played at a Kansas junior college and
now hopes to reach the NBA.
* Producer John Williams (SHREK) will partner with Walt Disney Studios in a
multi-project animated film agreement. The first film to go into production
will be VALIANT, a comedy written by George Webster and George Melrod,
followed by an anticipated slate of three more CG-animated films. VALIANT
centers on a lonely and comically misfit pigeon through boot camp at the
Royal Pigeon Service. Vastly unqualified for the job, Valiant squeaks his
way through RAF training and is abruptly sent on the most important mission
of the war, charged with carrying key dispatches from the French Resistance
to Allies regarding the D-Day landing in Normandy.
* C/W Prods. banner is in final talks to pick up remake rights to THE EYE, a
Thai/Hong Kong co-production directed by Oxide Pang and Danny Pang about a
blind woman who undergoes a corneal transplant that restores her sight; she
discovers, however, that her new eye allows her to see unearthly things.
* 20th Century Fox has pushed back the opening of the crime-actioner THE
TRANSPORTER to Oct. 11. The studio wants more time to build awareness with
prospective moviegoers.Until next week.
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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Thought not. Looks like a trip to the VCD store in Asia (www.pokerindustries.com).
The Ring remake BETTER be good. -
Could that be any more unnecessary? And why do I get the feeling I'll pay to see it?
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Is this a joke? Or, should I say, iz thiz? Robert Low Cash is right. Sorry, but I thought chain gangs didn't exist anymore...
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Well, so long as they wing a few fastballs off her head, it'll be all right. That girl's a spoiled brat to the Nth degree (which is a shame, because she looks SOOOOOOO good and she's got a great voice)....
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Bobby Short. They sort of look alike, too.
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isn't mandy moore like an evangelical christian? wouldn't that mean she's risking eternal hellfire for being in a black comedy about religion?
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That is by far my favorite title for a movie pitch ever. I would love to see what type of jackass greenlighted that project. I bet he/she's the smarmiest suit in a land full of smarmy suits. As long as Ice-T is wooed into starring, I'll be in that theater!
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Yup...
pure gold... -
Yup...
pure gold... -
... lives aroud the corner from my house in Sri Lanka. Next door to the Iraqi embassy. I kid you not.
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Sep 11, 2002 3:40:55 AM CDT
I heard the sets for PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN (sp?) burnt down.
by cash bailey
Maybe someone who sat through PEARL HARBOUR saw an opening and saved us the misery of another Schlockheimer disaster.
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Oh well, at least Coolio can pay this month's rent.
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I laughed everytime I watch it.
I was wondering why Short has been running around the Toronto film fest as Glick all week. -
To be followed by "Missin' in Action, Bitch!" and "Concentration Camp Survivaz". sk
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I must have missed the film this is based on. Unless he's some kind of surrealist King Kong? sk
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"I would NEVER ever see a film with a Z at the end of the title" - then you'll never see David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ", which I thought was very diverting.
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The Glick voice, mannerisms and appearance were actually "ripped off" from Skip E. Lowe, a semi-notorious Hollywood public access figure. Short has owned up to the parody/homage in older interviews, but never does anymore. In a way, it's also a variation on Short's old Brock Linehan character, which was also a parody -- of a Canadian broadcaster.
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(1) Get that Naked Harry on a cube image out of my head! (2) I'll only see Pirates of the Caribbean if, in an arthouse move, the characters appear to be animatronic and do the same things over and over again for 100 minutes (3) Mona Lisa Smile is a Douglas Gibson joint, right? (4) All Dillinger remakes are irrelevant. Warren "Sgt. Hulka" Oates is the only Dillinger. (5) LeAnn Rimes--- feh (6) It's true! My awareness of "The Transporter" is growing exponentially!
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I know it's from a Cheech and Chong movie, but I don't think Harry has the upper body strength to pull his 400+lb carcass up a moving elevator.
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I was watching this foxy lady bending down the other day, and my awereness of the Transporter grew in my pants.
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The the appeal of the original RING was based purely on what they DIDN'T show you, so although it is indeed creepy as Hell, it would most likely get a PG 13 rating here in the States...frankly, I'm concerned that the remake will actually be too graphic.
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But I'll clarify that the disturbing Harry animation is from "Nice Dreams". Anywho, Sleazy G's been trying to get Buzz back on Weekly Recap and I've been wanting to talk to him about it too because this page feels totally empty without Maverik doing his speil satirizing all the trade tripe. But, so far no dice. So as a card carrying TL@ member and lover of great satire I'm gonna make a go at subbing for him this week. Every week some Buzz imitator usually crawls out of the wood work and takes a crack at it. So why the hell shouldn't I? Hopefully, you'll all laugh a little and maybe just maybe Maverik will read this and realize what he's missing. So without further ado, I give you...
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TAKEN FROM THE GHOST OF MY UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL...CASTING: *Vin Diesel & Denise Richards have both signed on to star in an Action Adventure remake of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, for Warner Bros. In this updated version George & Martha are wealthy extreme sports enthusiast trying to kill each other in various scenarios while holding a teenage couple hostage. Charlie's Angels helmer McG is set to direct the pic...*Sexy Hip Hop engenue Charli Baltimore has signed to star in UNBEWEAVABLE, an urban superhero vehicle about a timid inner city grade school teacher who gains superpowers after a mishap involving radioactive hair extentions, for Universal Pictures. M.Night Shamalan will direct. Irv Gotti will extort and intimidate him into giving him a co-director's credit... DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS: * Paul Verhoven will write and direct PERNKOPF'S ANATOMY, an irreverent, slapstick M*A*S*H-like satire about Nazi Doctors and their unwilling test subjects, for 20th Century Fox...and finally.. MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS: Hot on the heels of Warner Bros. recent SUPERMAN VS. BATMAN announcement another studio has announced plans to produce it's own dualing Superhero franchise that unlike the WB's will also double as a slightly fictionalized period piece/biopic. MOHAMMED ALI VS. EVIL KNIEVEL has gotten the greenlight at Sony with director Steven Soderberg currently attached. The film, set in 1976, involves the two iconic figures coming into conflict over whose ABC Wide World of Sports episodes get the biggest rattings. Once they're differences are sorted out they team up to battle Ali's old nemesis Howard Cosell who's inane rambling commentaries are putting each heroes audiences to sleep and the "The Agony of Defeat" skier guy. Will Smith has begun talks to reprise his role as the trash talking, two fisted demagogue. Matthew McConaughey is in talks to play the daredevil, alcoholic, womanizing, tax cheating sociopath...See you in the library.
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Isn't THE EYE running some occasional American dates? Huh...
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See, the Comedian did it right. I'll tell you why. 1) It was fairly short. People hate to read and long stuff isn't funny. 2)They sound enough like real movies to make you go "wha'?". Avoid casting David Hasslehoff and Gary Coleman in a Michael Bay movie, for example. Too far out. If you make a Michael Bay movie joke, cast Ben Affleck or Wil Smith because those guys are always in Michael Bay movies. Also, try to avoid casting dead people because if the reader knows they're dead that's going to distract from the joke. Use current stars and directors. 3) The Comedian's stuff sounds like the real trades. Check some out and pay attention Elston's stuff. And remember, and I can't stress this enough 4) shorter is funnier. Just ask your girlfriend!
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