Father Geek here with the 1st (for 2003) of Elston Gunn's regular weekly rehashs of the news from Tinseltown you may have missed during your busy work-week. Lots of cool info here this time, soooo sit back, relax, grap a big ol' mug of your favorite warm drink, and prepare to dig in to...

THE WEEKLY RECAP...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cedric the Entertainer are in early talks to
star in Intermedia Films' JOE'S LAST CHANCE for director Andrew Bergman and
Outlaw Prods. It's about a dedicated hit man who travels to a tropical
paradise to terminate his "mark." However, when the mark inadvertently saves
the hit man's life, the hit man gives him a stay of execution and uses the
opportunity to take a vacation, sparking a friendship with the man he is
supposed to kill.

* Tom Wilkinson joins Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst and Mark
Ruffalo in Focus Features' ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, written by
Charlie Kaufman, for director Michel Gondry. It's about Joel, who falls in
love with Clementine, but once the relationship ends, they decide to
eliminate the memories of the doomed affair. Halfway through the process,
they change their minds, but it is too late to hide from Dr. Mierzwiak, who
is supervising the elimination of their memory waves. At the same time, the
married Mierzwiak is secretly having an affair with his secretary, while one
of his technicians falls for Clementine.

* Ryan Reynolds (VAN WILDER) joins Anna Faris, Luis Guzman, Jay Mohr, Busta
Rhymes and Molly Simms in the indie pic WAITING for writer/director Robert
McKittrick. The story centers on a group of twentysomethings who work out
their various crises in the midst of working at a busy chain restaurant.

* Gabriel Macht (BAD COMPANY) joins the cast of GRAND THEFT PARSONS
alongside Johnny Knoxville, Christina Applegate and Marley Shelton. David
Caffrey is directing from a script by Jeremy Drysdale.

* Method Man has joined the cast of New Line's THE OTHER SIDE OF SIMPLE for
director Joseph Ruben. The project also stars Shannyn Sossamon, Hayden
Christensen, Don Cheadle and Vince Vaughn.

* Calista Flockhart, Tim Blake Nelson and Toni Collette are in talks to join
the cast of the mob feature PROVIDENCE for Disney and director Jeff
Nathanson. Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick star.

* Amy Smart, Gil Bellows, Faye Dunaway and Giancarlo Esposito have rounded
out the cast of Millennium Films' BLIND HORIZON, which Michael Haussman will
direct. Val Kilmer, Neve Campbell and Sam Shepard star in the pic about a
man who has lost his memory after being shot in a small desert town in New
Mexico. He must piece together clues in an attempt to rediscover his
identity as he is watched by a suspicious sheriff and taken in tow by a
woman claiming to be his wife. The man slowly begins to believe that he is
linked to a plan to assassinate the president. Paul Benz and Steve Tomlin
wrote the script.

* Albert Finney is in talks to play the lead in the murder mystery/thriller
DINNER MUSIC FOR A PACK OF HUNGRY CANNIBALS for writer/director Willard
Carroll (PLAYING BY HEART). Production will start shooting next summer in
Los Angeles. Finney would play an eccentric newspaper columnist drawn into
the investigation of a murder in which none of the suspects apparently
wanted the victim dead.

* James Gandolfini is in talks to star opposite Ben Affleck in SURVIVING
CHRISTMAS for director Mike Mitchell about a wealthy young man who, stricken
with a variety of neuroses that preclude him from having a normal family
life, elects to hire a family with which to share the holidays. However, he
discovers they are even more psychotic than his own troubled clan.
Gandolfini would play the patriarch.

* Disney has given a greenlight to DEUCE BIGALOW: ELECTRIC GIGOLO, starring
Rob Schneider, who is now working on the script to the sequel, with an eye
to shooting next year.

* Nick Cannon (DRUMLINE) will star in and executive produce THE
UNDERCLASSMAN for Miramax based on the 22-year-old Cannon's idea. The
project would see him star as a 24-year-old detective who doesn't get any
respect among his peers, who constantly send him on petty assignments at the
mall and such. When he is sent to go undercover at an elite private school,
he stumbles upon an international stolen-car ring involving some of the
students.

* Disney and director Gavin O'Connor have cast Eddie Cahill opposite Kurt
Russell in THE MIRACLE, where Cahill will star as goalie Jim Craig in the
story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's gold medal quest.

* Kristen Stewart (PANIC ROOM) will star in Fox 2000's CATCH THAT GIRL for
director Bart Freundlich and producer Andrew Lazar. Production begins next
month in Los Angeles. It a remake of a the Danish feature KLATRETOSEN about
a 12-year-old girl whose father needs a costly operation to fix a spine
injury. The girl and two friends decide to rob the bank where her mother
works in an attempt to get the cash to help her father.

* Amanda Peet is in final talks to play the much younger girlfriend of Jack
Nicholson's character in an untitled comedy for director Nancy Meyers.
Shooting starts Feb. 5 on the project, which Meyers wrote and will direct.

* Aishwarya Rai, India's biggest female film star, has been cast as the lead
of Gurinder Chadha's romantic comedy PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: THE BOLLYWOOD
MUSICAL. Rai (DEVDAS) will play the Elizabeth Bennet character in the
contemporary version of the Jane Austen novel, set primarily in India.
Chadha intends to cast an American actor as romantic hero Mr. Darcy.

* Hugh Grant joins the period drama HEAD IN THE CLOUDS for director John
Duigan, starring Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman and Jay Rodan. The
Canadian-British co-production begins production in Paris Jan. 17. The
pre-WWII epic romance concerns a young Cambridge student and a budding
fashion photographer. Their relationship is severed when he heads to Spain
to fight fascism, and they are reunited later as she puts her life on the
line for him.

* Lauren Bacall and Nicole Kidman will join Danny Huston in Fine Line's
BIRTH for director Jonathan Glazer (SEXY BEAST). It's about a 10-year-old
boy who falls in love with an older woman. He then becomes convinced that
he's the reincarnation of the woman's late husband, causing her to question
her past.

* Vinnie Jones will star opposite Eddie Griffin in the action pic BLAST! for
director Anthony Hickox. The movie, written by Steven DeSouza, is described
as DIE HARD set on an oil rig with Jones playing a righteous
environmentalist who hijacks the oil tanker. Production begins next month.

* Patrick Wilson will play rebel Army commander Col. William Barrett Travis in Disney's THE
ALAMO, joining Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton, who'll play future Texas President Sam Houston,
and the backwoods legend Davy Crockett, respectively. Jason Patrick (NARC) is slated to play the knife fighting brawler Jim Bowie. John Lee Hancock (THE ROOKIE) directs the
pic (set during the 1835-36 Texas revolution), initally scripted by John Sayles for Ron Howard, which will begin filming in late January just outside of Austin, Texas, where Disney
has built a 40-acre replica of the Alamo mission and the outlying town of Bexar (San Antonio).

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Antoine Fuqua will direct the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced KING ARTHUR for
Disney. A spring start date is being eyed. The project is said to be based
on a more realistic portrayal of King Arthur than has ever been presented
onscreen. The film will focus on the history and politics of the period
during which Arthur ruled as opposed to the mystical elements of the tale.

* Kirk Jones (WAKING NED DEVINE) will direct Emma Thompson in the family
comedy NANNY MCPHEE from Thompson's script for MGM and producer Lindsay
Doran. It's adapted from the NURSE MATILDA book series by Christianna Brand.
T he stories follow a magical nanny and the rather large group of horrible
children who surround her.

* Writer/director Justin Lin (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW) will direct THE TENTH
JUSTICE for Fox 2000. It's adapted from the New York Times best-selling
novel by Brad Meltzer, centering on a Yale Law School graduate, who gets
embroiled in a conspiracy involving the Supreme Court following the
revelation of a verdict. The project will follow the same story line, but
the protagonist has been changed to a female lead.

* Nigel Sinclair and Guy East are developing a World War I script through
their startup production company Spitfire Pictures. The script, tentatively
titled THE GREAT WAR, is being developed for Intermedia with Larry Ramin
(THE GATHERING STORM) and will tell of the intersecting lives of four
soldiers in the last years of World War I.

* Nicholas Kendall will direct the romantic comedy ISLAND GAMES, set on a
volcanic island that rises from the deep once every few centuries.

* New Line Cinema and Mutual Film Co. will produce an adaptation of the Lee
Child novel KILLING FLOOR with John Rogers adapting the screenplay about an
ex-military investigator who solves crimes as he drifts from city to city.
He wanders into a small Georgia town to reconnect with an older brother but
finds himself the key suspect in his brother's murder. He avenges his
brother's death and uncovers a global counterfeiting ring that brings a
corrupt town to justice.

* Phillip Noyce will develop with an eye to direct Columbia Pictures and
producer Mace Neufeld's untitled project revolving around a real-life U.S.
takeover of an Afghanistan city that was accomplished with a cavalry.
Tentatively titled MAZAR E SHARIF, the project takes its roots in the true
story that began shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when the United States sent
several 12-man Special Forces alpha teams to liaise with the Northern
Alliance forces in preparation for their attack on the Taliban.

* Miramax Films has snapped up a rewrite of the classic 1958 film BELL, BOOK
AND CANDLE, adapted by Andrew Stengel. The original starred Kim Novak as a
witch who enchants her neighbor, played by Jimmy Stewart, because she
despises his fiancee. The film also starred Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacks
and was based on a play by John Van Druten.

* Paramount Pictures has tapped Joel Wyman to script the remake of THE
WARRIORS to be directed by Tony Scott.

* Andrew Klavan has come aboard to adapt Jeffrey Deaver's novel THE BLUE
NOWHERE for Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver. Additionally, Warners
and Silver purchased Klavan's spec script WXYZ. NOWHERE is a thriller about
a homicide detective who recruits an expert hacker to stop a serial killer
who uses technology to stalk his victims. WXYZ is the story of a late-night
talk show host at a small-town radio station who encounters supernatural
warnings involving a series of murders that he may or may not be responsible
for.

* Emmett/Furla Films purchased the action script SNAKESKIN by
actor-turned-scribe Caesar Luisi. It's about a man who specializes in
"acquiring" specialty items for the highest bidder. He seeks revenge when
he's double-crossed and must recover a priceless relic.

* Writer/director Chris Fisher (NIGHTSTALKER) will next direct the
psychological thriller THE HILLSIDE STRANGLER from his own script. Shooting
is slated to begin in late February in Los Angeles.

* Intermedia Films picked up THE TRANSLATOR, a comic script by Tom Lassally
and Chris Henchy ("Spin City"). It's a take on the classic Cyrano de
Bergerac tale. A translator is hired to make a Spanish diplomat appealing
to a woman for political reasons. However, as he sells the merits of this
suave loser, the translator finds himself falling in love with the woman.

* French director Catherine Breillat (ROMANCE) has begun shooting ANATOMIE
DE L'ENFER, based on her sexually explicit novel PORNOCRATIE. Rocco
Siffredi and Amira Casar will star.

* Pedro Almodovar (TALK TO HER) will next direct LA MALA EDUCACION (BAD
EDUCATION) in April. It follows the lives of two boys from a 1960s church
school in three time periods to adulthood. Shooting will take place in
Madrid and a rural part of Valencia in eastern Spain.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* New Line Cinema has committed to make THE REAL SPRING BREAK, a film that
will be shot in Cancun in March and released in early summer.

* Producers William J. Macdonald and Preston Holmes are teaming with 4 Reel
Entertainment to tell what they feel is the real story behind the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in a feature film project titled
CODENAME: ZORRO. The pic, whose title comes from the FBI's code name for
King as they were surveilling him, was written by Justin Stamm and mixes
factual information with poetic license as a conspiracy film about the
murder surrounding King.

* Warner Bros. is closing a deal to become the domestic distributor of
Oliver Stone's epic ALEXANDER THE GREAT, a move that allows producer
Intermedia to greenlight the picture for a June start. Colin Farrell will
star as the Macedonian conqueror. The director spent the last year working
exclusively on scouting and rewriting a script. The result, said insiders,
is as strong as anything the Oscar winner has written.

* Distributor Gaga has taken an exclusive option on the film rights to
Capcom's samurai computer game ONIMUSHA with RESIDENT EVIL producer Samuel
Hadida attached to develop the project for the bigscreen.

GUNN SHOTS

(NOT from the trades)

* The movie ELEVATOR featuring actors from the main stage cast of SECOND
CITY has already started playing online. This is the second movie in a
series of online movies from Sonnyboo Productions that will feature the
entire main stage cast of the Second City. The movies can all be seen on
www.sonnyboo.com, www.triggerstreet.com as well as several other short film
sites.

* BACKSEAT CONCEPTIONS are proud to announce the arrival of Park City's most
anticipated event of January 2003. The first ever BACKSEAT FILM FESTIVAL
will consist of two days of stimulating screenings and debaucherous parties
on Jan. 20th and 24th, and an inaugural cocktail reception on the 19th. For
more info, visit Their Site.

* A couple of readers chime in about the Snake Plissen anime project,
"...the script is truly incredible. ...In this movie you will learn how
Snake lost his eye as well." "The writers of the film are Corey Mitchel and
William
Wilson and the script is totally awesome!! ... In this one, Snake is going
to kill the President... By the way, if you like Bruce Lee then you will
love this flick when it comes out. ... Also, the White Tiger from Big
Trouble in Little China will be making an appearance in this film as well."

* Here are a couple of reviews of the new "Battlestar Galactica":
Just Click Here, and then if you want more Click Right Here.

* Created for fans by fans, Anime Reactor reaches beyond current Anime
trends to introduce emerging artists and premiere Japanese anime products.
Creative fan panels, seminars, and social activities make Anime Reactor
attractive to both new and experienced fans. For more information, check
out www.animereactor.org.

* From moviefans.de and placeboproductions: While several studios are
involved with the licensing rights to THE
VILLIKON CHRONICLES and THE CRUCIBLES OF MYSTERE, a trailer is being lensed
to
debut this year and adult screen siren CHEYENNE SILVER may have snagged the
coveted role. Visit http://www.cheyennesilver.com/mystere.htm for a first
look. Also, visit http://www.moviefans.de/a-z/v/villikon-chronicles/ and
http://www.placeboproductions.net

Until next week. Happy New Year!

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com