Father Geek here with ol'Elston and all the news from last week out in Hollywood... Yep, all those little and not so little stories that just may have breezed by you during the last hectic work-week are recapped here in a single column for your peace-of-mind, or is that, piece-of-mind, or mine. Oh well, whatever, here's Elston Gunn's regular weekly edition of...

THE WEEKLY RECAP...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Don Cheadle and Naomie Harris (28 DAYS LATER) will join Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Woody Harrelson in AFTER THE SUNSET for director Brett Ratner and New Line Cinema.

* Mark Ruffalo is in talks to replace Val Kilmer in Michael Mann's COLLATERAL opposite Tom Cruise for DreamWorks Pictures. Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Dennis Farina and Irma Hall round out the cast.

* Michael Chiklis is set to star in the indie MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY for director Raymond De Felitta and Echo Lake Prods. The dramedy is set in the blue-collar community of City Island, N.Y., and centers on a dysfunctional, working-class family whose lives are turned upside down by the surprise arrival of the father's son from a previous relationship. De Felitta also scripted.

* Steve Martin is in talks to play Inspector Jacques Clouseau in MGM's BIRTH OF THE PINK PANTHER. Len Blum wrote the script.

* Frances O'Connor will star opposite Matthew Perry and his father John Bennett Perry in Franchise Pictures' THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM for director William Dear. T.J. Lynch wrote the project set during the Vietnam War and centering on a recently widowed rancher who falls for a beautiful hippie, who has been hired by his son to take care of him and his ranch.

* Bridgette Wilson-Sampras has joined the cast of SHOPGIRL, the Hyde Park Entertainment comedy that stars Steve Martin, Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman. Anand Tucker directs.

* Shane West will star as Darby Crash, leader of punk band the Germs, in the biopic WHAT WE DO IS SECRET. Bijou Philips will also star in the film, written and to be directed by Rodger Grossman.

* Dwayne Johnson (aka the Rock) will play a safecracker who dies and is reincarnated as a series of different animals, moving his way up the food chain in INSTANT KARMA, written by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, for New Line and Digital Domain. Pierce Brosnan, Mira Sorvino, David Alan Grier and Eartha Kitt also star in the live-action elements, while Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Gene Wilder and the comedy troupe Broken Lizard provide voices of the animals. Paul Hernandez will make his feature writing and directing bow on the pic.

* Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, Linus Roache and Anthony Edwards have joined the cast of Revolution's THE FORGOTTEN, starring Julianne Moore and Dominic West, for director Joseph Ruben.

* Kelly Hu (X2) joins the cast of UNDERCLASSMAN for director Marcos Siega, Miramax and Tapestry Films.

* Josh Lucas will star in STEALTH for director Rob Cohen, Phoenix Pictures and Columbia Pictures. The actioner is set in the naval Air Force in the near future and tells the story of an artificial intelligence pilot who is brought aboard to learn combat skills from human pilots. When the A.I. pilot begins to have ideas of his own, complications ensue.

* Eric Etebari (WITCHBLADE) joins the cast of CELLULAR, starring Kim Basinger and William H. Macy. David Ellis directs.

* Joan Chen will star in SAVING FACE for writer/director Alice Wu and Overbrook Entertainment about a Chinese-American surgeon in her late 20s who finds her life turned upside down when her single mother arrives on her doorstep pregnant. Subsequently, she must take her mother in and play matchmaker in an attempt to find a husband so the mother can return unashamed to her Chinese friends and family.

* Marla Sokoloff, Jennifer Tilly and Dave Thomas will star in DELUXE COMBO PLATTER, an indie romantic comedy for director/cinematographer Vic Sarin. Written by Brigitte Talevski, the story centers on a small-town waitress who pines for the town's most eligible bachelor. Just when she finally decides to throw caution to the wind and pursue her man, a successful, beautiful, big-city corporate executive blows into town, throwing the entire male population into a tizzy.

* Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is in talks to play a bodyguard-singer who develops an uneasy alliance with John Travolta's Chili Palmer in BE COOL for director F. Gary Gray and MGM.

* Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall are set to star in BIT PLAYERS for Universal Pictures with Scott Rosenberg and Michael Lewis writing the script. Story is about a trio of men whose small town in the West is destroyed by a Wall Street crook who has swindled townsfolk out of their pensions. Hoffman is the duped owner of the bank that leaves the town high and dry. Hackman and Duvall will play two of those men who band with Hoffman and head to New York, where they hatch a scheme to get even.

* Kevin James is attached to star in the Revolution Studios project FAN INTERFERENCE, a comic pitch inspired by a Chicago Cubs fan attempted to catch a foul ball, costing the Cubs a key out and triggering a Florida Marlins rally that led to a Cubs loss in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

* Jared Padalecki ("Gilmore Girls") has been set for a trio of projects: THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, LIVING THE LIVE and MOONLIGHT DRIVE.

* Christian Slater, Estella Warren and Michael Clarke Duncan will star in PURSUED, a thriller written by producer Peter Lenkov. Kristoffer Tabori will direct the pic.

* Anne Hathaway and Bijou Phillips will star in HAVOC for director Barbara Kopple. Also joining the cast are Laura San Giacomo, Michael Biehn, Mike Vogel, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Matt O'Leary. Pic, written by Stephen Gaghan (TRAFFIC), is based upon Jessica Kaplan's original screenplay THE POWERS THAT BE about teens clashing with the real world of urban Latino gang culture. Music-driven tale follows Allison and Emily on their journey from the safety of their affluent suburban homes into East L.A., where they learn that even innocent actions can have the most grave and critical consequences.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Mark Bomback (upcoming GODSEND) will write 20th Century Fox's DIE HARD 4, starring Bruce Willis, for Cheyenne Enterprises. Bomback is also developing an adaptation of Richard Yates' novel DISTURBING THE PEACE.

* Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up a pitch from writer Sean Sorensen about the Principality of Sealand, which bills itself as the smallest country in the world for Industry Entertainment to produce. Set in the late 1960s, pic follows former British Maj. Roy Bates, who moved his family to an abandoned World War II anti-aircraft platform off the coast of England and declared it his own sovereign nation on Sept. 2, 1967.

* Susannah Grant (ERIN BROCKOVICH) will write the big screen in a live-action/CGI adaptation of E.B. White's CHARLOTTE'S WEB for Paramount.

* Jonas Akerlund (SPUN) will direct the thriller BIRDMAN, based on the novel by Mo Hayder.

* Deborah Goncalves will script a dark comedy for director Francis Lawrence (upcoming CONSTANTINE) and producer Caleb Dewart.

* Paramount and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura have optioned the Gregg Hurwitz novel THE KILL CLAUSE and set the author to write the script. It's about a U.S. marshal and former special forces operative whose life is shattered when his 7-year-old daughter is brutally murdered. Enraged when the killer walks free, he is drafted to become an enforcer in an organized vigilante campaign, until the initial bloodlust gives way to questions about playing god and suspicions that his new colleagues don't have pure motives.

* Sacha Gervasi will write THE HYPNOTIST with Jim Carrey attached to star for Landscape Entertainment and Revolution Studios. It's about a world-renowned hypnotist who exhibits a completely different personality when not onstage. When he loses his powers, he has to woo a girl and fall in love with her in order to get them back.

* Dennis Lee will direct New Line's SLAY THE BULLY about a boy who transfers to a new junior high school and must face the school bully after being mistakenly credited with beating him up. Catch 23/Alter Ego is producing with Promark Entertainment.

* Dreyfuss/James Prods. has pacted with writer-director Ashvin Kumar to turn his short film ROAD TO LADAKH into a feature.

* Terry Loane will direct JONJO MICKEYBO, starring Julie Walters and Ciaran Hinds, from his own script for WT2. , starring Julie Walters and Ciaran Hinds. It's about two boys from each side of the sectarian divide in 1970s Belfast, Northern Ireland. They flee to Australia to escape the prejudices of their homeland and to live out their fantasy of emulating their heroes, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It's adapted by Loane from Owen McCafferty's play. Gina McKee, Adrian Dunbar and Susan Lynch co-star.

* Jeff Vintar (I, ROBOT) will write sci-fi adaptations of Y: THE LAST MAN for New Line and Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION trilogy for Fox. Shekhar Kapur is attached to direct the latter.

* Disney picked up a pitch from newcomer Yaphet Smith about the Harlem Little League for Malcolm Lee (UNDERCOVER BROHER) to direct and Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule to produce.

* Neil Jordan is in talks to rewrite and direct ME AND MY MONSTER for Columbia Pictures. It's about a young boy who has a friendship with an extraordinary creature that changes the course of his life as he becomes an adult.

* Director Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon are teaming again on TUT for Columbia Pictures. Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples will pen the screenplay about the young pharaoh Tutankhamen and his attempt to reclaim his throne and save his country after the death of his father.

* Vadim Perelman (THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG) is in final talks to direct THE TALISMAN, based on the 1984 fantasy novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub, for Universal/DreamWorks. It centers on 12-year-old Jack Sawyer, who goes on a quest in the living world and a parallel world known as the Territories to acquire a talisman that will save the life of his dying mother and the queen of the Territories. Ehren Kruger (THE RING) adapted the screenplay.

* Paramount has picked up an untitled comedy based on an idea by producer Robert Kosberg with Stephen Mazur set to write the screenplay for Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Films to produce. The project is described as a wedding comedy.

* Marco Schnabel is in final talks to direct Will Ferrell's untitled soccer comedy, written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick (SPACE JAM). Ferrell plays the coach of his young son's soccer team who is forced to go up against his highly competitive father, who has a new son on the opposing team.

* Donald Martin will write the fact-based drama RIKERS for Columbia Pictures and Winkler Films. It's about a high school program for teenagers who are passing through Rikers Island, a holding prison in New York. The school was set up after the state was sued for not supplying educational opportunities for inmates.

* Gore Verbinski is set to direct PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott are penning the sequel with Johnny Depp also reprising his starring role.

* Scot Armstrong (OLD SCHOOL) is writing THE SEVEN DAY ITCH, a romantic comedy inspired by THE HEARTBREAK KID, for Radar Pictures. It's about a man who hastily weds a local girl who he thinks is perfect until he falls in love with another girl during the honeymoon.

* Nicholas Meyer (THE HUMAN STAIN) will pen the big-screen adaptation of Michel Faber's novel THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE for director Curtis Hanson and producer Laura Ziskin.

* Marcus Nispel (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) is in talks to direct THE EXPENDABLES for Warner Bros. Pictures. It's inspired by a real-life program at California's Chino prison in which convicts are taught diving skills that can provide them with lucrative salvage and ship-repair careers following their parole.

* New Line purchased the spec script WHAT A MAN'S GOTTA DO, a romantic comedy penned by London-based scribes Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble. It's about a metrosexual guy, overly in touch with his feminine side, who learns to be a real man from an older Brooklyn car mechanic to win the girl he loves.

* Michael Addis' script CAR THIEF will be produced by Checkmate Entertainment, founded by Mario Lopez and Lou E. Perez. It's about a thief who carjacks a film executive, stealing a prized screenplay as well as the victim's identity.

* Robin Schiff and Ken Levine sold their spec script BETWEEN THE COVERS to MGM for Arthur Sarkissian to produce. The romantic comedy centers on a free-spirited woman who writes a book espousing freedom and independence and who winds up having an affair with a married writer considered America's foremost expert on marital problems.

* 20th Century Fox picked up the pitch TEST DRIVE from writing team Derek Guiley and David Schneiderman for Icon Prods. to produce. The project centers on a boring accountant who goes to test-drive a new sports car. Things go awry during the drive when the salesman takes him on the ride of his life and a wild goose chase ensues.

* Robert Redford will direct romantic thriller THE COMPANY YOU KEEP for Fox Searchlight, based on Neil Gordon's third novel of the same name. Lem Dobbs (THE SCORE, THE LIMEY) will adapt the book. It's the story of a single dad whose upper-middle class existence as an attorney in upstate New York is disrupted when his old life as a militant in the Weather Underground returns to haunt him. Accused of being the triggerman at a deadly bank robbery, he is forced to go on the lam to find an old flame -- a woman who can prove his innocence.

* Joe Carnahan will direct VOID, a gritty crime drama that has just been set at Universal by producer Kevin Misher. Script will be penned by Guillermo Arriaga (21 GRAMS). The contemporary drama centers on a female Chicago homicide cop who arrives at a prison to provide transfer for a dangerous criminal she helped put behind bars. Events get in the way of a clean transfer.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Fox 2000 has optioned the feature film rights to Christopher Paolini's ERAGON about a boy named Eragon who finds a polished blue stone in the forest. At first, he thinks it's a lucky discovery, something that will bring meat to his poor family for the winter. Instead it brings a dragon hatchling, and Eragon is soon thrust into a world of magic and power.

* New Line is developing a feature based on the life of Jack Greenberg, a young lawyer who became the only white member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and fought alongside Thurgood Marshall to end segregation. New Line acquired a treatment based on Greenberg's book CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS.

* Nicolas Cage and his Saturn Film have teamed with the recently launched production outfit Haynes/Geadelmann Pictures to collaborate on series of projects, including a feature film based on the life of boxer-turned-prison coach Billy Roth, with Cage starring as the former prize fighter.

* Miramax Films has collared a deal to acquire exclusive film rights to former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik's life story, based on the one-time top cop's autobiography, THE LOST SON: A LIFE IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE.

* Harry Jay Knowles will produce GHOST TOWN, an original comedy he pitched to Revolution Studios.

* Mel Gibson's controversial film about the last hours in the life of Jesus Christ is now known as THE PASSION OF CHRIST due to Miramax having registered title THE PASSION for its long-developed adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's novel by that name.

* Warner Bros. optioned the feature film rights to Mariane Pearl's memoir A MIGHTY HEART: THE BRAVE LIFE AND DEATH OF MY HUSBAND DANNY PEARL for Plan B Prods. to produce. The book is her heart wrenching account of the disappearance and murder in Pakistan of her husband, the South Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal.

* Negotiations for Rob Marshall (CHICAGO) to direct MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA have stalled over whether Miramax, which has an option on Marshall, will come aboard as a co-producer on the pic.