Father Geek here with Elston's latest look at the past week's news in the movie industry... this week with alot of it coming from Cannes also... sooooo ol' Father Geek will get out of the way and let you get right into the heart of the past work-week's happenings in the world of tinseltown that may have slipped by you in the last seven or so days...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Kristin Scott Thomas and Romain Duris will star in the action pic ARSENE LUPIN, based on the the adventures of French literature's most famous gentleman-thief, for director Jean-Paul Salome (BELPHEGOR).
* Paul Hogan and Michael Caton will co-star in the comedy STRANGE BEDFELLOWS about two old straight guys who pretend they're a gay couple to avoid paying taxes. Dean Murphy will direct from a script he co-wrote with Stewart Faichney. Shooting begins Aug. 4 in Australia.
* Naomi Watts is in talks to replace Gwyneth Paltrow in Fox Searchlight's I LOVE HUCKABEE'S for writer/director David O. Russell. Mark Wahlberg, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman and Catherine Deneuve also star.
* Newcomer Alexa Davalos joins the cast of Universal's CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, the sequel to PITCH BLACK, for writer/director David Twohy, Radar Pictures and One Race Prods. Production begins June 9 in Vancouver, with Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, Colm Feore, Thandie Newton and Karl Urban also starring.
?* Sara Foster and Jordana Brewster will star in D.E.B.S. for Screen Gems, based on Angela Robinson's comedy short that debuted at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Robinson will direct from her own script, with production beginning this week. It's about four plaid-skirted high school girls whose SAT scores display an exceptional aptitude for lying, cheating and killing, so they are drafted to be secret agents. Devon Aoki, Meagan Good, Jill Ritchie, Michael Clarke Duncan and Holland Taylor also star.
* Keira Knightley (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) will play Guinevere in the Walt Disney Co.'s Jerry Bruckheimer-produced KING ARTHUR. Antoine Fuqua directs.
* John Travolta will play the villain in Artisan Pictures and Marvel Studios' THE PUNISHER, opposite Thomas Jane, for director Jonathan Hensleigh. Production begins in July.
* Sandra Bullock and Ralph Fiennes will star in Neil LaBute's VAPOR for Renaissance Films. It's based on Amanda Filipacchi's novel about a struggling actress who saves the life of a stranger. He turns out to be an eccentric scientist who, in a surreal variation of the Pygmalion myth, offers to use his bizarre techniques to transform her into a star. Shooting will begin in September.
* Andy Garcia play Italian artist Modigliani in an untitled pic for writer/director Mick Davis and Bauer Martinez Studios. The feature centers on the last days and last love of the artist as well as the untold story about the bitter rivalry between him and Picasso. Production is set to begin May 25 in Bucharest, Romania.
* Dennis Hopper and Gina Gershon will star in the suspense thriller OUT OF SEASON for Baure Martinez Studios, Lucky 7 Prods. and director Jevon O'Neill. It's about a thief in training, a religion-fixated handyman, a scheming temptress and a former cat-burglar who all become embroiled in one woman's scheme to murder her husband.
* Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard and Freddie Highmore will star in FIVE CHILDREN AND IT, based on Edith Nesbit's classic 1902 novel, for director John Stephenson, Capitol Films and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. It's the story of five siblings who are sent to stay with their uncle in a strange house by the sea. While exploring, they dig up an ill-tempered 8,000-year-old sand fairy, who grants them one wish a day. But the consequences are never quite what the children intend. The project, which starts shooting in July from a David Solomon script, will blend live action with animatronics and CGI.
* Cate Blanchett is in talks to star in Phoenix Pictures' MISS POTTER about the love, loss and struggle for independence of Beatrix Potter, the young spinster who overcame a domineering mother and chauvinism of Victorian England to become a bestselling author. Bruce Beresford will direct from a script by Richard Maltby Jr. The project will combine live action and CG animation to bring Potter's animal characters to life.
* Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christian Bale and Aitana Sanchez-Gijon (A WALK IN THE CLOUDS) will star in the psychological suspense thriller THE MACHINIST for director Brad Anderson and Filmax Ent. It's about an insomniac lathe operator, haunted by a ghostly figure he sees in a factory.
* Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat will star in a new Chinese historical epic, HUA MULAN, for Han Entertainment and Mythical Films. Production begins Aug. 22 in China.
* Snoop Dogg and Method Man will star in SOUL PLANE for MGM and director Jessy Terrero. Described as an urban version of AIRPLANE!, the project will start shooting in June. Snoop will play the plane's pilot, and Method Man will portray Muggsy, the airline owner's best friend who is put in charge of the plane's business class.
* Christina Applegate will star opposite Will Ferrell in DreamWorks' comedy ANCHOR MAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY for director Adam McKay. Production begins in the summer.
* Marc Blucas (WE WERE SOLDIERS) will star opposite Katie Holmes in Regency Enterprises' romantic comedy FIRST DAUGHTER for director Forest Whitaker. Shooting begins mid-May.
* Ashley Scott and Kristen Wilson will play the female leads, opposite Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, in MGM's updated version of WALKING TALL for director Kevin Bray and Hyde Park Entertainment. Shooting is scheduled to start in July.
* Eric Idle will spoof Merchant Ivory's costume dramas with Stratus Film Co.'s feature REMAINS OF THE PIANO from a script he wrote and will direct. Geoffrey Rush, Anjelica Huston, Patrick Stewart, Catherine O'Hara, Orlando Bloom, Alfred Molina, Neve Campbell, Billy Connolly, Tim Curry, Michael York, Julian Sands, Will Kemp and Jim Piddock also star. Shooting begins Aug. 18 in British Columbia and the UK.
* Angelina Jolie and Vanessa Redgrave will star in THE FEVER for director Carlo Nero and HBO Films. Adapted by Wallace Shawn from his play, the story chronicles the political awakening of a middle-class woman previously untouched by world events.
* Richard Gere is in talks to star in SLEEPWALKER, Intermedia's remake of the Swedish/Norwegian thriller about a sleepwalking man who fears he is responsible for the sudden disappearance of his family. He straps a video camera to his shoulder hoping to replicate the situation and solve a mystery that continues to get more complicated. Nick Kazan and Doug Wright wrote the script and Mark Johnson is producing.
* Nicolas Cage is attached to star in a bigscreen version of the bestselling videogame DEAD TO RIGHTS for producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Saturn Pictures. Kevin Brodbin will make the pitch and likely write the script. The story centers on a disgraced cop who is hell-bent on discovering who murdered his father.
* Michael Rispoli will join Bernie Mac and Angela Bassett in the Walt Disney Co. baseball comedy MR. 3000 for director Charlest Stone.
* British actor Chewitel Ejiofor (DIRTY PRETTY THINGS) will star in Slate Films' GIRLS AT WAR an African love story based on the short story by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe. Biyi Bandele wrote the script to be directed by Andrew Dosunmu.
* Michael Madsen, Omar Sharif, Billy Zane and Robert Davi will star in GILGAMESH for director Roger Christian, Stonelock Pictures and Abn Amro. Shooting begins Sept. 20 in Morocco on the script by Mitchell Cohen. Epic action/adventure follows the story of the warrior king on his quest to find the answers to happiness and immortality. Dennis Hopper and Peter O'Toole are being eyed for roles as well.
* Kristin Scott Thomas will star in the epic MAN TO MAN for Wild Bunch, Vertigo and director Regis Wargnier (INDOCHINE). It's about the prejudices of early anthropologists who capture pygmies and bring them back to Europe, aiming to prove that they are the missing link between man and apes. William Boyd, Michel Fessler, Frederic Foujent and Wargnier wrote the script, which will go into pre-production this fall and begin shooting next January or February.
* Billy Zane, Brad Dourif, Nicholas Irons and Francesco Quinn will star in the gothic thriller VLAD for writer/director Michael Sellers, Quantum Entertainment, Shawkat and Basra Entertainment. It's loosely based on the Romanian legend of medieval ruler Vlad Drakul, who inspired Bram Stoker's DRACULA. It follows four American grad students studying in Romania as they begin a journey of mythic and ancient discovery of the historic character.
* Sharon Stone and Rupert Everett will star in the romantic thriller A DIFFERENT LOYALTY for director Marek Kanievska, Lions Gate and Spice Factory. Set in 1963, the plot centers on a woman's search for her husband, a journalist and part-time spy, after he disappears from his Beirut home.
* James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet will star in ROMANCE & CIGARETTES, a dark comic musical written and to be directed by John Turturro. Filming begins in the fall. MGM/UA will co-finance the pic with Icon. The story of one man's journey into infidelity and redemption is being produced by John Penotti and GreeneStreet Films.
* John Malkovich will star alongside Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton in THE LIBERTINE for director Laurence Dunmore, Odyssey Entertainment and Mr. Mudd. The feature is adapted from Stephen Jeffreys' play about the Earl of Rochester, a notorious 17th century poet and sexual athlete. Production begins in December.
* Leonardo Sbaraglia, Unax Ugalde and Silvia Abascal have joined Jordi Molla,Valerio Mastandrea and Elio Germano in OXIGENO (OXYGEN), a U-boat drama for director Alvaro Fernandez Armero and Morena Films.
* Michael Keaton is attached to star in WHITE NOISE for Senator Intl. and Gold Circle Films about a man who is contacted from beyond the grave by his murdered wife. Shooting begins in August.
* Debra Messing is in talks to star in SOMETHING BORROWED written by Diane Cox about a woman who hires a male-escort to pretend to be her boyfriend when she is forced to re-encounter her ex-fiance.
* Robert Carlyle is attached to star in John McKenzie's BENNY LYNCH, based on the true story of the champion boxer from Glasgow in the 1930s, for Slate Films and BBC Scotland.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Philip Levens ("Smallville," upcoming FOUND IN THE STREET) will write a new version of the feature adaptation of DC Comics' WONDER WOMAN for producer Joel Silver, Leonard Goldberg and Warner Bros. Pictures.
* Wim Wenders will direct Sam Shepard, Jean Reno and Jessica Lange in the comedy DON'T COME KNOCKING about an aging cowboy actor who plunges his latest production into chaos by simply riding off the set in the middle of a scene. Production begins this fall in Arizona.
* Bob Smeaton ("The Beatles Anthology") is working on the documentary FESTIVAL EXPRESS which recounts the story of the legendary Canadian tour in 1970 of Janis Joplin, the Band and the Grateful Dead, plus a dozen other acts. They traveled across the country on a special train, jamming and consuming copious amounts of intoxicants.
* Animation company Klasky Csupo is developing the indie toon pic THE WAY THE DEAD LOVE, based on seven short stories by writer/poet Charles Bukowski. Bruce Wagner wrote the script to be directed by Igor Kovalyov and Laslo Nosek. The project follows the adventures and fantasies of Bukowski and his youthful alter ego Henry Chinaski as they dabble with sex, death (in the form of a beautiful woman) and the Devil.
* Richard Attenborough will direct the romantic drama CLOSING THE RING for Odyssey Entertainment, the Film Council and Baker Street. Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Hopper, Mena Suvari and Colin Hanks will star, with Brenda Blethyn, Peter O'Toole and Ryan Phillippe in talks to join them. Shooting begins in September on the story about a U.S. rear gunner in World War II who is shot down and asks a local to return his ring to his girlfriend back home. Half a century later, a young Belfast man finds the ring, learns its history and tracks down the old girlfriend, who turns out to have married the gunner's best friend.
* Robert Young (FIERCE CREATURES) will direct Emilia Fox, Michael Gambon, Bob Hoskins and Stephen Fry in ELIZABETH REX from his own script based on a novella by Bram Stoker. The story is based on the hypothesis the real Queen Elizabeth I died of the plague as a 10-year-old, and was secretly replaced by her illegitimate half-brother, without the knowledge of their father, Henry VIII.
* Crusader Entertainment has purchased the rights to Ayn Rand's 1957 novel ATLAS SHRUGGED and has tapped writer James V. Hart (CONTACT, BRAM STROKER'S DRACULA) to adapt. The story is set around an economic collapse in the near-future United States as its top innovators and industrialists inexplicably disappear amid the growing power of politicians.
* Spanish horror helmer Jaume Balaguero (THE NAMELESS) will direct FRAGILE for Filmax Ent. The project is a modern ghost story set at a Victorian hospital on the Isle of Man, off the coast of England.
* Russell Mulcahy will direct ESCAPE for Davis Panzer Prods and Miramax. It is based on Billy Hayes' book THE RETURN, which recounts what happened after he broke out of the Turkish prison in MIDNIGHT EXPRESS. David Abramowitz and John Nichols scripted.
* Brian Robbins will direct FEVER PITCH for Fox 2000 Pictures. It's a remake of the FilmFour pic, a 1997 British adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel about his obsession with North London soccer club Arsenal. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel have Americanized the story and changed the focus to baseball and Boston Red Sox fans.
* Kevin Bacon will direct his wife Kyra Sedgwick in LOVERBOY for Warner Bros. and Franchise Pictures. It's about an unsound mother who surrounds her only son with a magical world for two, filled with art, games and bottomless devotion. When the boy longs to attend a school with other children, outsiders threaten their fragile world.
* Hugh Wilson will direct Uma Thurman and Brendan Fraser in THE ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND for Initial Entertainment Group. Mimi Hare and Clare Naylor wrote the script about a self-help guru who runs into a problem when planning her wedding: She is already married to a rogue. She tries to persuade him to give her a divorce but ends up worrying whether she is marrying the right man.
* Robert Altman will direct Salma Hayek and James Franco in Capitol Films' ULTRAVIOLET, set against the backdrop of the back-stabbing Gotham art scene. Shooting begins in September. Jeffrey Lewis wrote the script.
* Columbia picked up the comedy pitch NINE BASTARDS to be written by Fred Wolf and produced by Happy Madison. It's about an orphan whose singular devotion to hard work makes him a multi-millionaire, but finds out that a sister he never knew he had has died, and he's become the legal guardian of her nine kids. He then must try to instill some manners in the kids and they start to grow on him, even as his work suffers.
* Ivan Zacharias will direct RUSSIAN THEATER from a script by Michael Lerner for Stillking Films. It's based on the October 2002 hostage takeover of a Moscow theater by Chechen rebels.
* Martin Lobo is directing the comedy DOS ILUSIONES (TWO ILLUSIONS) about two naive fame seekers. Los wrote the script with contributions from Santiago Carlos Oves (THE VERSE) and Lito Espinosa (CLAMS AND MUSSELS).
* Roger Michell will direct ENDURING LOVE for Free Range Films as well as Pathe Pictures and FilmFour, who are in talks to co-finance the pic. Daniel Craig and Rhys Ifans are lined up to star, with Samantha Morton in discussions to join the cast. Joe Penhall adapted Ian McEwan's novel about a man whose life unravels when he becomes the target of an obsessive stalker in the aftermath of a ballooning accident.
* 4Way Pictures picked up Emily Barr's novel BACKPACK for Antonia Bird to develop and direct about a young woman's compulsive desire to travel to exotic places and an encounter with a serial killer.
* John Sayles has written and will direct JAMIE MCGILLIVRAY for 4Way Pictures and Anarchists Convention. Based on an idea from Robert Carlyle, the movie is a historical adventure set in 18th century Scotland and North America.
* Clive Gordon will direct the international thriller GULL written by Paul Laverty. The project, set on a tanker sailing between Africa and Europe, will be shot in Europe and Africa.
* Christian Volckman will direct the futuristic animated pic RENAISSANCE for Pathe, Onyx Films and Millimages. In black-and-white with touches of color, the pic will use a brand new 3-D animation technique developed specially for the film by Onyx, Millimage and Attitude Studio.
* Stephen Fry will write and direct an adaptation of his novel THE STARS' TENNIS BALLS for Revolution Films. It's the story of a schoolboy with a glittering future who gets wrongfully imprisoned through the workings of a jealous classmate. When he's escapes 10 years later, he dedicates himself to revenge.
* Elio Quiroga will shoot the thriller pic NO-DO for Eqlipse, New Zeal, and Guerrilla Films. To be shot in Spanish on digital video with substantial high-tech effects, the project is a horror story in which a woman sees ghosts. The explanation to their appearance lies in an old NO-DO newsreel.
* Gregg Araki will direct MYSTERIOUS SKIN for Fortissimo Film and Antidote Films. Adapted by Araki from Scott Heim's novel, the drama follows two boys who meet at age 18 and discover a common past that has shaped them in completely different ways.
* Sidney Lumet will shoot STRIP SEARCH for HBO Films London and producers Tom Fontana, Barry Levinson and Jim Finnerty. It's described as a series of interwoven stories exploring crime and punishment in post-9/11 America. The project starts shooting in July with Fontana writing the script.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Cinema Revival has optioned the feature film rights to Patricia Anthony's six published novels, more than 30 short stories and several unpublished manuscripts. Writer/director Scott William Alvarez is working with Anthony on an adaptation of CONSCIENCE OF THE BEAGLE, a sci-fi political thriller about an android with the mind of a behavioral scientist that is sent to Earth's richest colony to prevent terrorism triggering civil war. Also in the works, Anthony's FLANDERS, a supernatural drama about a Texan sharpshooter for the British forces in WWI as he experiences visions of a world beyond the trenches. David W. Johnson will produce both projects.
* Paramount Pictures has optioned feature film rights to Michael Bamberger's yet-to-be published nonfiction book WONDERLAND for MTV Films and Tollin/Robbins Films to produce. Anthony Jaswinski will write the script under the tentative title PENNSBURY. The project will chronicle a year in the life of the seniors at Pennsbury High School, a public school outside of Philadelphia known for staging the ultimate prom every spring.
* Arclight Films has created Darclight, a label specializing in action, fantasy and horror fare. First up is THE LAST SIGN, a supernatural thriller directed by Douglas Law, starring Andie MacDowell, Bruce Greenwood and Samuel Le Bihan. It's the saga of a woman trying to come to terms with the death of her alcoholic husband. Also in development, DECK DOGZ, a skateboarding actioner from writer/director Steve Pasvolsky. That will be followed by POSESSION, a modern DON'T LOOK NOW with Peter Flinth directing. Another project brewing is PERFECT CREATURES from director Glenn Standling.
* Leonardo DiCaprio's production shingle, Appian Way, has several projects in development including THE AVIATOR -- Martin Scorsese's biopic of Howard Hughes. Also on deck: Todd Haynes' next feature, about the life of Bob Dylan, tentatively titled I'M NOT THERE: SUPPOSITIONS ON A FILM CONCERNING DYLAN; JESSE JAMES HOLLYWOOD, a bio of the real-life former teen impresario of a San Fernando Valley drug ring who is on the run from the FBI; THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON, starring Sean Penn for director Alfonso Cuaron; CAT'S CRADLE, an adaptation of the Kurt Vonnegut novel with Richard Kelly writing and Darren Aronofsky is planning to direct; GARDENER OF EDEN, a suburban TAXI DRIVER with Adam Davis writing the script; and BOMBSHELL, a Cold War saga that DiCaprio plans to topline and Lasse Hallstrom plans to direct for Universal.
* Producer Dino De Laurentiis and author Thomas Harris are developing the prequel THE LECTER VARIATIONS: THE STORY OF YOUNG HANNIBAL about Lecter as a boy who is born in Lithuania, moves to Paris and finally comes to the U.S. Harris is writing the script.
* Middle Fork Prods. is developing ANACONDA 2: THE BLACK ORCHID which starts shooting in Fiji early July for Sony.
* Distant Horizon has acquired remake rights to the Hong Kong film MY FATHER IS A HERO and the Thai comedy SAVING PRIVATE TOOTSIE.
* Hong Kong's China Star Entertainment is mounting WALLED CITY, an epic saga trilogy that spans the years 1842-1987. The three films will chart the 149-year history of a Kowloon enclave that became a seedy center populated by prosties, drug dealers and gambling dens. Johnnie To has expressed interest in directing with Andy Lau possibly starring. Production may begin in September in either Shanghai or Hangzhou.
* Davis Films this year will co-produce the Canadian historical romance NOUVELLE FRANCE and is producing AT THE END OF THE WORLD TURN LEFT, a multilingual comedy set in Israel. NOUVELLE FRANCE is a historical romance about a Canadian figure of folklore, a peasant girl called Marie-Loup, will be directed by Jean Beaudin. It begins shooting in Quebec in August. AT THE END OF THE WORLD is in English, French, Hebrew and Arabic and describes the culture clash between Moroccans and Indian communities living in the same small village in Israel.
* FilmFour is developing several features including Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestseller THE LOVELY BONES; EL BULTO, a comedy written by Dan Mazer about a rock dinosaur who wakes from a 20-year coma to find the world much changed; Toby Young's adaptation of his own book HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE; Dan Reed's STRAIGHTHEADS, a tale of greed and revenge; an adaptation of Jake Arnott's London crime novel HE KILLS COPPERS; and TWIST, a gambling drama from writer/director Penny Woolcock.
* Telespan 2000 is developing a feature on Spain's late '70s/early '80s Madrid punk movement, the so-called Movida, which was immortalized in the early pics of Pedro Almodovar. Set in a disco on the day in 1981 when Spain experienced an attempted military coup, the feature will be shot on digital video.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* The new FIRECRACKER production site is online at http://www.dikenga.com/films/firecracker
* Screenwriting Expo 2 Screenplay Competition - Early Bird Deadline is June 1st. http://screenwritingexpo.com/competition.html
* PALE BLUE MOON has been picked up by H3O Filmed Entertainment (http://www.h3ofilm.com), for more info visit http://www.palebluemoon.com
* John-Paul Nickel's indie feature-length film WHY WE HAD TO KILL BITCH, a feel-good family comedy, will have its world premiere on Tuesday, June 10th at 8pm at the Loews Movie Theater in Pittsburgh, PA. Go to www.fivecentproudctions.com (or www.killbitch.com coming soon) for more.
* World 3-D Film Expo to Unspool at Egyptian Theatre With Over 30 Classic and Rare Feature Length Treasures and Over 20 Short Subjects, All Screened Using the Original Polaroid "Double-Interlock" 3-D System. For more info, visit http://www.3dfilmfest.com
