Father Geek reporting in with Elston's edition of this week's rehash of all those confirmed movie news stories from last week that you may have missed during the course of your busy work-week. Soooooooo, sit back and relax, grab a big old steaming mug of your favorite cold weather drink and its corresponding munchie, annnnnd prepare to slip slowly into...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* James Van Der Beek will star in the indie comedy STANDING STILL for
director Matthew Weiss (MEAN PEOPLE SUCK) and First Addiction Films.
Shooting begins in late March in Los Angeles. Matthew Perniciaro and Timm
Sharp wrote the script about a popular yet drunken actor who reconnects with
a group of his college friends for a wedding several years after graduation.
* Daryl Hannah and Denise Richards will star in the Spanish film WHORE from
actress/director Maria "Luna" Lidon. It revolves around the underbelly of
prostitution.
* Stephen Dorff will star in and co-produce the action pic MULE for director
Geoffrey Wright (ROMPER STOMPER). Production is scheduled to begin in
April.
* Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Tony Leung Ka Fai and Francis Woo will star in a
prequel to the Hong Kong police dram INFERNAL AFFAIRS for Media Asia
Distribution. The film's original stars Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai
will make an appearance.
* Susan Sarandon is set to star in the upcoming drama A WHALE IN MONTANA for
PowerHouse Entertainment and director George Hickenlooper. She'll portray a
widowed doctor who finds herself disengaged from her family and the small
town she serves until a series of strange events allow her to find a new
sense of purpose. Paul Donohoe wrote the script which begins production May
19 in Canada.
* Vince Vaughn, Steve Buscemi, Saffron Burrows, Michael Rapaport, Barbara
Hershey, Mia Kirshner, Seymour Cassel and Ione Skye will star in THE SKY IS
GREEN, the feature directorial debut of writer-director Xan Cassavetes,
daughter of late filmmaker John Cassavetes. The coming-of-age drama
concerns a successful record entrepreneur in the midst of the West Coast
hip-hop scene during the late 1980s. The story focuses on his rise and
downfall, which leads him to rediscover his roots and love of music.
Shooting begins this April in Los Angeles.
* Brooke Shields will star in the romantic comedy pic THE LAST 2 PEOPLE ON
EARTH for writer/director Vic Levin and Gold Circle Films. It's the story
of a young woman who's jilted by her fiance on her wedding day. After he
dies suddenly a year later, the woman, who blames her ex's best friend for
the breakup, meets the friend again at the funeral.
* Famke Janssen and Piper Laurie have joined the cast of Myriad Pictures'
EULOGY, being directed by Michael Clancy. Ray Romano, Rip Torn, Debra
Winger, Monica Potter, Kelly Preston and Zooey Deschanel star in the black
comedy about three generations of a dysfunctional family that come together
for the funeral of the clan patriarch. A litany of family secrets and
hidden relationships becomes evident during the gathering.
* Mandy Moore and Jena Malone are in discussions to star in HAVOC, written
by Stephen Gaghan, for director Barbara Kopple and MDP Worldwide.
Production begins in April in Los Angeles. It's a multilayered drama about
a group of rich teens in L.A. who are confronted with the real-life gangster
lifestyle they have long tried to emulate when they come face to face with a
Latino drug-dealing gang.
* Julianne Moore is in final talks to star opposite Pierce Brosnan in the
romantic comedy LAWS OF ATTRACTION for director Michael Caton-Jones,
Intermedia Films, Stratus Film Co. Deep River Prods. and Irish DreamTime.
The project centers on two top divorce lawyers who face off in and out of
court. Aline Brosh McKenna and Robert Harling wrote the screenplay.
* Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt are in talks to star in Regency Enterprises'
action-adventure pic MR. AND MRS. SMITH for director Doug Liman, Weed Road
Pictures and Summit Entertainment. Simon Kinberg wrote the script about a
bored married couple who discover they are enemy assassins hired to kill
each other.
* Aaron Eckhart is in talks to star opposite Ben Affleck in Paramount's
PAYCHECK for director John Woo. Shooting begins April 3.
* Ice Cube has signed talent deal with Revolution Studios that calls for the
rapper turned actor to star in and produce at least two films for the
studio. The drama WILLIE, action pic CLASH and road trip comedy ARE WE
THERE YET? are three films Cube has lined up for Revolution through his Cube
Vision production company. WILLIE is expected to begin shooting in the
fall.
* Topher Grace ("That '70s Show," TRAFFIC) will star opposite Kate Bosworth
in DreamWorks Pictures' romantic comedy WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON!!! for
director Robert Luketic and Red Wagon Entertainment. Production begins in
May or June. Vic Levin scripted.
* Peter O'Toole and Julie Christie are joining the epic feature TROY for
director Wolfgang Petersen. Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Brendan
Gleeson, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Rose Byrne and Saffron Burrows also star.
David Benioff's adaptation of Homer's THE ILIAD about the showdown between
Achilles and Hector, begins production April 22 for a May 21, 2004 release
date.
* Daniel Day-Lewis will next star in IFC Films' ROSE AND THE SNAKE, a family
drama co-written and directed by his wife, Rebecca Miller. Shooting will
begin this summer. Day-Lewis will portray the father of a 16-year-old
daughter, Rose. They live on an abandoned commune on an island off the coast
of Canada, where he has tried to shield her from the modern world. However,
when he brings a lover and her two sons to live with them, Rose undergoes a
sexual awakening with liberating and devastating consequences. Miller
penned the script based on a story she wrote with Michael Rohatyn.
* Diane Lane is in negotiations to join Bruce Willis in the mystery ME AGAIN
for Cheyenne Enterprises, Hartswood Films and Intermedia. It's about a man
who wakes up in a hotel without a memory but with a dead body in his room.
He must figure out if he's a hit man or the undercover cop assigned to take
down the assassin.
* Denise Richards joins real-life husband Charlie Sheen in SCARY MOVIE 3 for
Dimension Films and director David Zucker. The movie is set for an Oct. 3
release.
* Hilary Duff (AGENT CODY BANKS) will star in CINDERELLA STORY for Warner
Bros. and director Mark Rosman. It's about a young and slightly dorky high
school student who goes through a transformation to become one of the
hottest girls in school.
* Breckin Meyer will play Jon Arbuckle in GARFIELD, based on the
long-running comic strip, for 20th Century Fox and director Peter Hewitt.
Jennifer Love Hewitt is near a deal to play his love interest. Joel Cohen
and Alec Sokolow (TOY STORY) wrote the script.
* Regina King and Kerry Washington will star opposite Jamie Foxx in UNCHAIN
MY HEART: THE RAY CHARLES STORY for director Mark Rydell and Crusader
Entertainment. Production begins at the end of March.
* Johnny Knoxville joins Selma Blair, Blythe Danner, Logan Marshall-Green,
Bridget Moynahan, Donald Sutherland and Maura Tierney in HATING HER for
writer/director Tom Bezucha and Idiom Films & Entertainment. It's about the
Stone family as they unite in a common cause when the favorite son arrives
home for the holidays with his uptight girlfriend.
* Jack Black and Will Ferrell will star in an as-yet untitled comedy for
writer/director Judd Apatow ("Freaks and Geeks") and New Line. Ferrell will
portray a cop who moves to Los Angeles because there's no crime in Irvine.
He partners with Black, who's the youngest in a long line of cops but is
unsuited to join the family business.
* Jennifer Garner will reprise her role as Elektra from DAREDEVIL in a
spinoff film being developed by 20th Century Fox.
* Robert Downey Jr. and Alan Arkin will star in a segment of EROS, a movie
consisting of short films by Steven Soderbergh, Michelangelo Antonioni and
Wong Kar-wai. The two actors are shooting the Soderbergh-scripted leg of
the film this week.
* Balthazar Getty joins John Travolta, Joaquin Phoenix and Robert Patrick in
LADDER 49 for Disney and director Jay Russell.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Martin Scorsese is planning a documentary chronicling the history of
British cinema for Miramax Films, Carlton International and Cappa Prods.
* Universal/Imagine are developing a thriller to be written by Jesse Wigutow
about foul play in the pharmaceutical industry. The story concerns a drug
company that discovers a cure for cancer but seeks to suppress it when it
proves not to be profitable.
* Nora Ephron is in final talks to write and direct BEWITCHED, based on the
long-running television series, for Red Wagon Prods. and Columbia Pictures.
Ephron is writing the project specifically for Nicole Kidman.
* Revolution Studios grabbed Gregg Rossen and Brian Sawyer's comedy script
GUIDA for MBST Entertainment to produce. It's the story of a street-wise
Brooklyn woman who witnesses a mob murder. In order to protect her, the FBI
sends her to the last place the mob would think to look as well as the last
place she fits in: a wealthy town in Newport, R.I.
* Wallace Wolodarsky (SORORITY BOYS) will direct the indie comedy SEEING
OTHER PEOPLE, which he co-wrote with his wife, Maya Forbes, for producer
Gavin Polone. It's about a couple two months shy of their wedding date.
The woman decides she hasn't sown enough wild oats, so they decide to see
other people right up until the wedding date, vowing to be honest with each
other about whom they date.
* Ric Roman Waugh and Tag Mendillo have sold their untitled supercross pitch
to the studio for Disney-based Mayhem Pictures to produce. It's being
described as action-drama set against the world of competitive supercross
racing.
* Danny DeVito will direct a remake of the 1942 comedy I MARRIED A WITCH for
Columbia Pictures, with Tom Cruise in talks to star and produce. Michael
Leeson (WAR OF THE ROSES) is writing the remake. The original started with a
witch burned at the stake in the 1600s who puts a curse on her tormentor's
family to ensure that his male descendants always marry the wrong woman.
The witch returns on the eve of the current son's wedding. She plans to
give him a love potion so he'll fall in love with her instead, but
accidentally drinks the elixir herself.
* Mike Nichols will direct a feature adaptation of Patrick Marber's
acclaimed stage drama CLOSER, with the playwright writing the screenplay,
for Columbia. Jude Law and Natalie Portman are close to deals to star. The
project is centered on two couples. When the guy from the first couple hooks
up with the girl from the second couple, the group dynamic turns ugly.
* Errol Morris (GATES OF HEAVEN, THE THIN BLUE LINE) is working on the
tentatively-titled documentary THE FOG OF WAR, which covers the life of
former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara who re-evaluates his life
and ruminates on the nature of American power. Sony Pictures Classics will
release the film.
* Sean Bailey is writing the big-budget war film LIBERTY for he and Chris
Moore, both of LivePlanet, to produce for Disney. The story centers on an
attack on the U.S. with an electromagnetic pulse that makes computer chips
inoperable, completely disrupting modern society. As a result, the U.S. is
forced to resort to old-fashioned combat methods.
* Robert Nelson Jacobs (CHOCOLAT) will write Marvel Comics' WEREWOLF BY
NIGHT for Dimension Films. The story centers on a man who tries to accept
and live with the curse that transforms him into a werewolf during a full
moon.
* Joe Carnahan (NARC) is in final talks to direct MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 for
Paramount Pictures and C/W Prods. Dean Georgaris (TOMB RAIDER 2, PAYCHECK)
is in talks to script, though Robert Towne remains attached. Paramount is
eyeing a summer 2004 release date.
* Kevin Bray (ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS) is in talks to direct Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson in MGM's updated version of WALKING TALL for Hyde Park
Entertainment. Production is planned for a July start.
* Kate Lanier (WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT) will write the comedy WOMEN'S
MAINTENANCE CLUB for New Line Cinema and Hart Sharp Entertainment. The
project is based on the lives of a group of women in Queens, N.Y., who are
fed up with waiting for the men in their lives to fix up their broken-down
houses and decide to band together to create a club that not only mends
their homes, but their lives as well.
* Bruno Dumont is writing/directing 29 PALMS for Wellspring, 3-B Prods.,
Thoke Moebius, Canal Plus and Flach Pyramide International. Katerina
Golubeva (POLA X) will star in the story of a young couple scouting photo
locations in Southern California's Joshua Tree National Park whose lives are
shattered by a shocking confrontation in the desert.
* Chris Wedge (ICE AGE) and Blue Sky Studios are working on their second
digitally animated film ROBOTS for Fox as part of a new five-year,
multipicture deal with Twentieth Century Fox. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo
Mandel wrote the script. Additionally, Wedge will executive produce an ICE
AGE sequel with Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow writing a script.
* Bob Gale will adapt CrossGeneration Comics' comic book series MERIDIAN for
the big screen. The series centers on Sephie, a sheltered young girl and
beloved only child of the Minister of Meridian who grows up in a world where
enormous islands float through the sky. When her father dies, she inherits
a sigil imbued with the power to create, but so does her wicked Uncle Ilahn,
except that his powers are bent on destruction and domination.
* Donald Petrie (HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN TEN DAYS) will direct the
political/romantic comedy WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT for 20th Century Fox and
Intermedia. Ray Romano is attached to star in the story about a former U.S.
president whose plan to retire in a small Northeastern coastal town goes
awry when he tries to fill an empty mayoral seat. Tom Schulman (DEAD POET'S
SOCIETY) wrote the script, based on a story by Doug Richardson.
* Guillermo del Toro (BLADE II) will write, with Matthew Robbins, and is
attached to direct THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, a live-action/computer-animated
adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's novel for Disney.
* Robert Fyvolent and Mark R. Brinker will adapt the bestselling horror
video game FATAL FRAME for DreamWorks. The game's premise revolves around a
woman's search for her missing brother. This leads her to a haunted
mansion, armed only with an antique camera that lets her see ghosts.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Universal optioned film rights to Michael Moorcock's epic fantasy book
series THE ELRIC SAGA for Chris and Paul Weitz's Depth of Field to produce.
The landmark '60s book series is widely considered to be one of the most
important and formative works in the fantasy genre.
* The Twentieth Century Fox, Miramax Films and Universal Pictures feature
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD will be released Nov. 14 as
opposed to June 6 as originally planned.
* Fortissimo Films Sales has picked up worldwide rights to the Pang
brothers' THE EYE II, a sequel to hit Japanese horror pic THE EYE, from
Asia's Applause Pictures. Danny and Oxide Pang scripted the sequel, which
Applause's Peter Chan will produce.
* Vanguard Films and Greenlight Media has set up the live-action/CG
big-screen children's book adaptation TED at Nickelodeon Movies. The
project, based on the illustrated book of the same name by best-selling
author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, will star a CG-animated character
named Ted who is the mischievous imaginary friend of a young boy. Rob
Moreland scripts.
* Josh Hartnett has chosen NOT to portray the Man of Steel in Warner's
SUPERMAN. Brendan Fraser, Paul Walker and newcomer Matthew Bomer have
emerged as top candidates.
* Dean Devlin and his Electric Entertainment will produce MECH WARRIOR,
based on the best-selling video games for Paramount, who is in talks to
option the property.
* Section Eight has come aboard to produce Don Cheadle's directorial debut,
TOSHOMINGO BLUES, based on the Elmore Leonard best seller.
* DreamWorks has optioned LIONBOY for Team Todd to produce, beginning with
the novel LIONBOY, written by a single mother, Louisa Young, and her 10-year
old daughter, Isabelle for Team Todd to produce. Set in London in the near
future, the story is about a boy named Charlie Ashanti, who was scratched by
a leopard as a baby and can communicate with cats. The book has Charlie
teaming up with circus lions to track down his kidnapped parents.
* Hilary Swank and her husband, Chad Lowe, have launched Accomplice Films, a
producing venture that has three projects up and running. They acquired the
novel FAMILY TRUST, by Amanda Brown (LEGALLY BLONDE) with Morgan Upton Ward
(RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS) set to adapt. It's about a couple brought
together when each is named guardian of a 5-year-old whose parents died
suddenly. They're teaming with Camelot Pictures on Michael Nichols's THE
WAKING with David Atkins (NOVOCAINE) adapting the story of a journalist who
investigates an accident that left his wife comatose, discovering that she
had been leading a secret life. Accomplice also has optioned BATORSAG AND
SZERELEM, a short story from Ethan Canin from the collection THE PALACE
THIEF. Canin will adapt the coming-of-age story about a socially
maladjusted 14-year-old math genius.
* Miramax Films is working securing the rights for a GUYS AND DOLLS remake
for Storyline Entertainment (CHICAGO) to produce, optioning the original
short story on which the musical was based, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,"
from newspaperman Damon Runyan's estate. The producers had the blessing of
composer Frank Loesser's widow, Jo Sullivan Loesser, and Samuel Goldwyn Jr.,
who held rights because his father made the original film. The story
centers around Nathan Detroit, the organizer of the oldest established
floating crap game in New York. He challenges fellow gambler Sky Masterson
to a bet that he can't make the next girl he sees fall in love with him.
* The prospect of a war in Iraq has prompted 20th Century Fox to postpone
the production start of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, starring Mel Gibson and
written/to be directed by George Miller. The picture was expected to begin
filming in Namibia in July, but now production is set for fall. The studio,
Gibson and Miller are fully committed to shoot the film in Namibia.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* Emptyhouse Film has new trailers for their short films THE DARK and
BENEATH THE FROST LINE at http://emptyhouse.sabatos.net/main-trailers.php.
For more information, visit the official website
http://www.emptyhousefilm.com.
* Buoyed by the resounding success and continuing growth of what is becoming
the only event for high definition, HD EXPO Executive Producer, Kristin
Petrovich, announces HD EXPO: HIGH DEF MARDIS GRAS, to be held at Gearhouse
Broadcast in Burbank on March 6 from 5:00 to 9:30 PM. For more info, visit
http://www.hdexpo.net.
Until next week. Happy March!
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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