Father Geek here proudly presenting the 5th Anniversary issue of Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP, our longest running regular weekly column authored and edited by a single writer... THANKS Elston for a job well done. If you've enjoyed this report that keeps you up-to-date on the movie industry's comings & goings that may slip by you during your busy work week, then by all means drop Elston Gunn a line and let him know how much you enjoy his efforts each and every week, because without his work there'd be NO...
WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Ryan Reynolds will star in the indie romantic comedy JUST THE TWO OF US
for director Chand Ahrendt. It's about a young couple who decide to elope
in Vegas instead of having a large wedding. They are followed by their
friends and family, who all hope to become part of the impending nuptials.
* Fernanda Montenegro (CENTRAL STATION) and her daughter Fernanda Torres
will star in An-drucha Waddington's A CASA DE AREIA (THE HOUSE OF SAND),
written by Elena Soarez (ME YOU THEM). The project centers around the
relationship of a mother and daughter who live in an isolated house built on
beach dunes.
* Chris Kattan and Parker Posey join Craig Chester -- who is directing from
his own script -- and Malcom Gets in the indie pic ADAM & STEVE for Stage 3
Studios. It's a romantic comedy following two New York couples, one
straight and one gay.
* Dominic West ("The Wire") is in talks to star opposite Julianne Moore in
Revolution Studios' THE FORGOTTEN for director Joseph Ruben. Gerald DiPego
wrote the script about a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of
her 8-year-old son. She is stunned when her psychiatrist tells her she has
created eight years of memories of a son she never had. But when she meets a
fellow patient who has a similar experience, she embarks on a mission to
prove her son's existence as well as her sanity.
* Jodie Foster is in talks to appear in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's French-language
romantic drama UN LONG DIMANCHE DE FIANCAILLES (A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT). Set
against the backdrop of World War I, the movie is due to start shooting in
early August. Audrey Tautou (AMELIE) will play the lead role in the film,
which recounts a young woman's efforts to establish the truth about her
fiance, who was pushed into no man's land as a punishment for trying to
escape the trenches. Gaspard Ulliel (LES EGARES) is in negotiations to play
the male lead.
* Jude Law will star in the historical romance pic TULIP FEVER for director
John Madden (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE), DreamWorks Pictures and Miramax Films.
Set in 17th century Amsterdam, the story revolves around a young woman who
marries a wealthy merchant to escape poverty. When she falls madly in love
with a poor artist who is hired to paint their portrait, the lovers try to
raise money to escape together by investing what little they have in the
high-stakes tulip market. Tom Stoppard penned the adaptation of Deborah
Moggach's novel.
* Penelope Cruz is in advanced talks to star in NON TI MUOVERE (DON'T MOVE)
for actor/director Sergio Castellito (MOSTLY MARTHA). Based on a novel by
Margarita Mazzantini, it's about a vulgar, introverted, working-class girl
whom life has treated hard. Shooting begins late July in Rome.
* Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac will star in the Columbia Pictures comedy
THE DINNER PARTY for Tall Trees Prods., 3 Arts Entertainment and Katalyst
Films. Jay Scherick and David Ronn are writing the script about a man
marrying a black woman whose father is having difficulty coming to terms
with the marriage.
* Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney will star in Gold Circle Films' romantic
comedy SOMETHING BORROWED for director Clare Kilner. Production begins next
month. Dana Fox wrote the script about a young woman who returns to her
parents' London home for her sister's wedding and has to confront her
ex-fiance, who dumped her two years before. Desperately wanting to face the
ordeal with dignity, she hires a top-drawer male escort to pose as her new
boyfriend.
* Keri Russell and Nathan Lane will topline the British comedy pic CABBAGES
AND QUEENS for director John Henderson. Shooting begins next month on the
story of an American documentary filmmaker in London who is assigned a story
on a quirky British theater group. While masquerading as a stage manager,
she unwittingly becomes involved in a jewel heist. She attempts to thwart it
along with some help from a suicidal actor. Simon Callow, Darren Boyd, Brian
Blessed, Greg Wise and Emilia Fox also star. Adrian Rigelsford and Kim
Lamont scripted.
* Chris Tucker is in talks to return for RUSH HOUR 3 for New Line and
director Brett Ratner. Jeff Eastin, Ross LaManna and Jason Richman have
written the script.
* Rory Culkin will star in the indie feature MEAN CREEK, written by Jacob
Estes, for Rick Rosenthal's Whitewater Films. Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz,
Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck, Carly Schroeder and William Mapother also star.
Shooting starts at the beginning of July in Oregon. It's about a group of
kids who conspire to get even with the school bully, but when the plan goes
awry, they are forced to face up to the moral consequences of their action.
* Seann William Scott is attached to star and produce, alongside the Donners
Co. and Winchester Films, a remake of the 2001 French feature GREGOIRE
MOULIN AGAINST HUMANITY for Universal Pictures.
* Laura Harring and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos are in talks to join the cast of
is in Artisan Entertainment/Marvel Studios' THE PUNISHER for director
Jonathan Hensleigh. Thomas Jane and John Travolta star. A July start date is
planned in Florida.
* Jake Weber will star in the indie drama SUMMERHILL for director William
Tyler Smith, who co-wrote the script with Julian David Hoxter. It's about
Summerhill, a British alternative school that students and faculty run
together as a community of equals. In 1999, the British government
threatened to shut the school down, and the students and faculty banded
together to fight its closing. They ultimately won their battle against the
authorities in a dramatic court case.
* Kathy Bates and Julianne Nicholson have joined Brittany Murphy in
Revolution Studios' romantic comedy LITTLE BLACK BOOK for director Nick
Hurran. Production is slated to begin in August.
* Dwight Yoakam joins Hyperion Pictures' independent feature THREE WAY SPLIT
for director Scott Ziehl. Dominic Purcell, Gina Gershon, Joy Bryant, Ali
Larter and Desmond Harrington also star. The pic is based on Gil Brewer's
1963 pulp novel WILD TO POSSESS and described as a darkly comic story of
murder, kidnapping, blackmail and sexual deception. Russell P. Marleau wrote
the screenplay.
* Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Chaplin and Richard Griffiths join the
cast of Artisan Entertainment's COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY which also
stars Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Hugh Bonneville, Edward Fox, Tom
Hollander, Clare Higgins, Fenella Woolgar, Alice Eve and Zoe Tapper for
director Richard Eyre. Jeffrey Hatcher adapted from his stage play.
* Nick Cannon (DRUMLINE) will provide a mouse's voice in 20th Century Fox's
big-screen live-action/CGI adaptation of GARFIELD.
* Liev Schreiber will join Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep in Paramount's
Jonathan Demme-directed remake of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.
* Colin Farrell and Eva Mendes will star in Robert Towne's adaptation of
John Fante's 1939 novel ASK THE DUST about a pair of immigrants whose chase
of the American dream in 1930s L.A. leads them to each other. Towne has been
wanting to make this film for 30 years. CW will produce with Jonas McCord.
* Giovanna Antonelli, Luige Bariccelli and Jose Wilker will star in MARIA, A
MAE DO FILHO DE DEUS (MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD'S SON) for Columbia TriStar
about the life of the Virgin Mary.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHEMENTS
* Simon West will direct DALI from a script by Jeremy Walters for the
director's own Simon West Prods. The project will draw a portrait of the
artist and his mentally unstable wife Gala, who conquered America with sex,
sin and surrealism only to succumb later to worldwide scandal and
misfortune.
* Nelson McCormick will direct the action/thriller END OF THE ROAD for 20th
Century Fox and producer Mark Gordon. It's about a former stuntman must make
a frenetic cross country trek in his vintage muscle car to save a friend
from meeting his end at the hands of the Mob. Ric Roman Waugh and Tag
Mendillo co-scripted.
* Out of the Blue Entertainment and Gruber Films are teaming on the feature
MURDER CREEK, a comic mystery written by G.E. Mimms set in the Deep South.
It centers on a small-town sheriff's struggles to keep his community
together in the face of strange events and incursions from outsiders.
* Rustam Ibragimbekov (BURNT BY THE SUN) will write and produce the indie
historical epic THE NOMAD, which will be directed by Ivan Passer (HBO's
STALIN) and executive produced by Milos Forman and Ram Bergman. The story is
set in 18th-century Kazakhstan and centers on a boy who is destined to one
day unite the three warring tribes of Kazakhstan.
* Paul Greengrass (BLOODY SUNDAY) is in talks to direct Matt Damon in
Universal's THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, adapted by Tony Gilroy. Production is
expected to begin at year's end. In this installment, the story centers on a
Chinese vice premier supposedly slain by Jason Bourne.
* Sean Hood will adapt the Charles Maclean suspense novel THE WATCHER for
Summit Entertainment. The story centers on a man who commits a terrible
crime and goes to a psychiatrist to find out why he suddenly went berserk.
* Columbia has purchased the script GROWN UPS to be produced by Ricochet.
It's about the overly protective parents of a 13-year-old who awake to find
themselves turned into 13-year-olds as well. They enroll at their son's
school in attempt to become his constant companions, but the pressure to
conform in junior high school causes their plan to backfire, leading to
changes in the couple as parents and spouses.
* Trey Parker will direct the marionette action comedy TEAM AMERICAN,
written by Parker, Matt Stone and Pam Brady, for Paramount Pictures and
producer Scott Rudin. It's a parody of Jerry Bruckheimer-esque action
movies, involving the prototypical action hero, who's drafted to help Team
America thwart the world's evil terrorists. The film will also address
certain celebrities who have outworn their welcome in the public eye.
* Disney has purchased Peter Dowling's Hitchcockian thriller pitch THE OFFER
for Kopelson Entertainment and Robert DiNozzi to produce.
* Argentine actor Victor Laplace's is directing his second pic, the social
drama LA MINA (THE MINE), for producer Nestor Romero. It's about an aging
miner who refuses to accept the economic and social decline of his fellow
villagers.
* Winchester Films and Stratus Film Co. are co-financing the romantic comedy
script FOREVER AND A DAY, written by Robert Zappia, about a couple who learn
to appreciate their lives together when they have a chance to live out their
greatest fantasy.
* Shekhar Kapur (THE FOUR FEATHES) is in talks to direct THE LAST FULL
MEASURE for New Line Cinema. Based on a true story, the project focuses on a
young Pentagon staffer who learns the true meaning of heroism when he fights
to get a Medal of Honor for a brave Air Force officer who was killed in
Vietnam.
* John Wells Prods. has optioned the John Cox-penned script THE COLD, with
Mimi Leder attached to direct. It's a suspense thriller about a young woman
who rents a cabin by herself in the Sierra Nevada mountains and something
supernatural interrupts her secluded winter vacation.
* Director Stephen Daldry and scribe Michael Cristofer are developing
EVEREST for Universal and Working Title Pictures. The script is based on the
disastrous climb of Mount Everest which took place May 10, 1996, when three
expeditions were hit by a ferocious blizzard at nightfall. Eight people were
left dead by the storm.
* David Frankel will rewrite and direct the sci-fi project IQ 83, based on
the book by Arthur Herzog, for DreamWorks. The story centers on a society
whose entire population heads into imbecility as the result of an airborne
virus that causes everyone's IQ to drop. The creator of the virus must find
a cure as his own mind begins to decay.
* DreamWorks Pictures picked up the remake rights to the Korean horror
feature A TALE OF TWO SISTERS for Craig Rosenberg to adapt.
* Lions Gate is in talks to pick up the psychological horror script DAWN,
written by Rand Ravich (THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE) with Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER)
attached to direct for Industry Entertainment and Di Bonaventura Pictures.
The story centers on a man whose obsession with artistic success leads him
to make choices that may trigger the emergence of ultimate evil.
* Ryne Pearson (MERCURY RISING) will adapt a remake of the Pang brothers
thriller THE EYE for Cruise/Wagner Prods. and Vertigo Entertainment. It's
about a blind girl who, after receiving a cornea transplant, begins to see
ghosts among the living. She sets out to uncover the origins of her cornea
and the nefarious history of its donor.
* John August (GO, CHARLIE'S ANGELS) will write an updated live-action
big-budget feature version of TARZAN for Jerry Weintraub Prods.
* Brad Follmer and Lauren Iungerich sold their comedy script GREATNESS to
Icon Entertainment. It's about a man's quest for fame and success, which is
endangered when he discovers someone is trying to steal his glory.
* John Herzfeld will direct EVERMERE for producers Mario Kassar and Andy
Vajna (T3) and Sony Pictures. It's a fantasy project about a 17-year-old
orphan who discovers he is the heir to the throne in an alternate universe.
He's called back there to battle his evil uncle, who has declared himself
king. Kevin Paturka and Greg Chabot are polishing the script originally
penned by David Goyer and James Robinson.
* Louis Mellis and David Scinto (SEXY BEAST) are adapting Buddy Giovinazzo's
novel POTSDAMER PLATZ for Fox Searchlight Pictures. The story follows an
American hitman, world-weary from a life of killing for the mob, who repairs
to Berlin. There, he again puts his skills to good use protecting a Turkish
real estate developer who is besieged by criminal elements from Russian and
Eastern European crime families during an enormous construction project.
* Jayme Monjardim is directing Camila Morgado in OLGA, a biopic about
political activist Olga Benario Prestes, based on Fernando Morais' 1985
bestseller.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Documentary/short-film producer Dan Cogan has established DMC Films to
move into features, with projects on the slate including: LA GRANDE THERESE,
based on Hilary Spurling's book about a 19th century peasant girl from the
French countryside who became an infamous con woman at the center of
Parisian social and political life; FIRST BASE, a romantic baseball comedy
about a second baseman who loses the ability to throw to first; THE SCARLET
PROFESSOR, based on Barry Werth's book about Newton Arvin, a professor at
Smith College in the 1940s and '50s who was a mentor and lover of Truman
Capote; STRAIGHT TO YOU, about a man coming to terms with his family after
the sudden death of his mother; THE LAMONT BRANCH PROJECT by Tanya Hamilton,
based on the true story of the exonerated prisoner who served 13 years for a
murder committed by his brother; THE FURIES, based on Janet Hobhouse's
autobiographical cult novel; an untitled legal thriller by novelist Josh
Pashman; and an untitled midlife-crisis drama from playwright Andrew
Leonard.
* Documentary filmmakers Venita Coelho and Deepti Datt have launched India's
first all-women film company, Firehorse Films. The company has lined up two
projects: the pedophilia pic MONSTERS UNDER THE BED and BOMBAY STORIES, a
documentary on five women's lives in a small suburb.
* Universal is planning to push back production on thriller SKELETON KEY due
to actress Kate Hudson's pregnancy. The studio is eyeing a mid-March or
early-April start date. Ehren Kruger scripted and Iain Softley ("K-Pax") is
attached to direct.
* Miramax Films has acquired rights to the musical DAMN YANKEES for CHICAGO
executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron to produce. Miramax has also
acquired the rights to make a feature of 1972 Broadway hit PIPPIN.
* Indie film producers Sean Kanan and David Stelzer have picked up feature
rights to John Faunce's biographical novel LUCREZIA BORGIA. It's an intimate
first-person account of Borgia, one of history's most notorious women and
the illegitimate daughter of Roderigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI.
Kanan and Stelzer are teaming up with Ron Ziskin Prods. and David Collins to
develop a script.
* Rodney Dangerfield is signing a deal with MGM to remake his 1986 hit BACK
TO SCHOOL.
* Columbia Pictures has snapped up THE DA VINCI CODE, Dan Brown's thriller
about the murder of a curator at the Louvre and clues to a 2,000-year-old
conspiracy encoded in the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci.
* Hypnotic has bought exclusive feature and TV rights to Nintendo's 2002
videogame ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY'S REQUIEM. The story revolves around an
awakened ancient race and a dozen humans chosen to decide the destiny of
their species. Each character must face their worst fears in defeating the
evil race.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* Filmmaker Craig Highberger completed principal photography in Los Angeles
Friday, June 6 for his feature-length documentary SUPERSTAR IN A HOUSEDRESS:
THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF JACKIE CURTIS and is pleased to announce that Lily
Tomlin is both the narrator and an interviewee for the film. For more info,
visit http://www.jackiecurtis.com/
*****A big thanks to everyone who's been reading the recap for the past five
years and to the folks at AICN for being great hosts.*****
Until next week. (the beginning of year 6)
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