Well, its once again the time of the week when Father Geek introduces our regular weekly column that chronicles all the past week's news from Tinseltown in one single report for you to use if you need to catch-up on what may have whizzed past you during your busy work-week. Soooo, here it is, sit back, relax, and dive into...
Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Vince Vaughn is attached to star in and produce THE BREAK-UP by Jay
Lavender and Jeremy Garelik for Revolution Studios. It's a comedy about a
couple going through a divorce but forced to live in the same house
together.
* Owen Wilson is in talks to star opposite Drew Barrymore in DATE SCHOOL at
DreamWorks Pictures for director Jon Favreau.
* Robert Duvall will star with Will Ferrell in Universal Pictures' untitled
soccer comedy to be directed by Marco Schnabel. Penned by Leo Benvenuti and
Steve Rudnick, the project is due to start production in January. It stars
Ferrell as 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. Mosaic Media Group is producing.
* Seann William Scott is in talks to star in Paramount's comedy SEBASTIAN
KNIGHT about a dashing CIA agent who has a one-night stand with a woman
vacationing in Monaco in order to get himself out of a jam. But the needy
woman then makes Knight sorry he met her when she becomes convinced that
they made a love connection and pursues him. The project was written by
Steve Koren and is being produced by Lorne Michaels. Molly Shannon also
helped develop the project.
* Ana Gasteyer has joined the cast of MEAN GIRLS for Paramount Pictures.
* Gary Dourdan ("CSI") will star in the indie pic BLACK AUGUST as Black
Panther party field marshal and controversial civil rights activist George
Jackson. Samm Styles directs the pic.
* Famke Janssen will star opposite Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning in 20th
Century Fox's thriller HIDE AND SEEK for director John Polson (SWIMFAN).
* Tony Curran (THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN) joins the cast of THE
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX for director John Moore.
* Dennis Quaid is in talks to star in SYNERGY for director Paul Weitz,
producers Chris Weitz, Andrew Miano and Kerry Kohansky, and Universal
Pictures. It's about a 49-year-old ad salesman struggling with major life
changes such as a corporate takeover, a hard-charging young boss, a pregnant
wife and his teenage daughter going off to college.
* America Ferrera (REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES), Elizabeth Pena and Lucy Gallardo
will star in HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS SPENT THEIR SUMMER for writer/director
Georgina Garcia Riedel. The story follows three generations of women in a
Mexican-American family during one hot summer in the small border town of
Somerton, Ariz.
* Sandra Bullock will produce and star in a sequel to the Warner Bros. hit
MISS CONGENIALITY, written by Marc Lawrence. Her Fortis Films is also
developing SLEEP TOWARD HEAVEN, adapted from the novel by Amanda Eyre Ward
with a screenplay by Attica Locke, and SPRINKLER QUEEN, written by Liz
Brixius and produced in conjunction with Red Stroke Entertainment.
* Jim Carrey will star in THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN for Dimension Films and
director Todd Phillips (OLD SCHOOL), who will write the script with Scot
Armstrong.
* Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. and George
Carlin will lend their vocal talents to the CGI animated film HAPPILY N'EVER
AFTER.
* James King will star opposite Marlon and Shawn Wayans in WHITE CHICKZ for
director Keenen Ivory Wayans.
* Chris Klein and Brendan Fehr will star in the indie THE LONG WEEKEND for
director Pat Holden and Gold Circle Films. Production begins in January in
Vancouver. Tad Safran wrote the script about two brothers, Ed and Cooper.
Uptight Ed has one weekend to save his career, but his babe-magnet brother
has other plans for the weekend -- to get his stressed-out brother laid.
* Jacinda Barrett ("The Real World") joins the cast of BRIDGET JONES: THE
EDGE OF REASON, starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Beeban
Kidron directs.
* Sanaa Lathan toplines ALIEN VS. PREDATOR for 20th Century Fox and director
Paul Anderson. Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen and Ewen Bremner also star.
* Taye Diggs will star in Armada Pictures' DRUM for director Zola Maseko.
Jason Filardi (BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE) wrote the script based on the real
life accounts of Drum magazine writer Henry Nxumalo, who risked his life
exposing the brutal nature of the South African apartheid regime.
* Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard and Campbell Scott will star in
Holedigger Films' feature version of Craig Lucas' two-act stage piece THE
DYING GAUL to be adapted/directed by Lucas. Shooting starts Nov. 14 in Los
Angeles. It's an edgy examination of a three-pronged relationship between a
writer attempting to sell a script chronicling the death of his male lover
from AIDS; a bisexual Hollywood producer with an interest in the project and
the writer; and the producer's wife, who tolerates her husband's gay
infidelities but becomes curious about his new lover.
* Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis and Jake Gyllenhaal will star
in PROOF, based on David Auburn's Tony award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning
play, for Miramax Films and Endgame Entertainment.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Nigel Dick will direct CHASING FATE, written by Mark Famiglietti and Lane
Garrison, for Maverick Films. It's a romantic comedy about a successful man
whose life unravels after he dumps his fiancee. When she finds sudden fame
and fortune, he becomes convinced they were fated to be together and goes on
a journey to win her back.
* Robert Lederman is attached to direct Kirby Atkins' fantasy script
BAGLORIA with Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca on board to
produce for Regency Enterprises. It's about a group of kids who find a
portal in their classroom closet to a fantasy world called Bagloria. When
their teacher is pulled inside, the kids must brave the inhabitants of this
world to rescue their teacher and save the school.
* Lexi Alexander will direct Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam in HOOLIGANS,
written by Dougie Brimson, Josh Shelov and Alexander based on the work of
novelist/journalist Brimson, for Odd Lot Entertainment. The story centers on
a wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad who moves to London and befriends a
young man who introduces him to the violent underworld of football
hooliganism.
* New Line Cinema picked up the 8 MILE-esque urban feature pitch WILD STYLE
from Michael Bacall and John Morgan for Noah Emmerich's Sandbox
Entertainment to produce.
* Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Price (THE CAT IN THE HAT) will write the
romantic comedy BLIND DATE, based on the Bruce Willis/Kim Basinger 1987 pic,
for producer Lou Pitt and Revolution Studios.
* Ellory Elkayam (EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS) is set to direct THE 9th PASSENGER
for Redbus Pictures and Lakeshore Entertainment. The project is about eight
students stranded on a yacht, with a mysterious ninth passenger who may or
may not exist. Shooting begins next March in South Africa.
* Universal Pictures picked up the college comedy ACCEPTED from writer Mark
Perez for Shady Acres to produce. It's about an underachieving high school
senior who, wanting to get his parents off his back about higher education,
decides to take an entrepreneurial point of view on things.
* Steve Faber and Bob Fisher (upcoming WEDDING CRASHERS) are writing MOVING
DAY, which is described as a buddy comedy in the vein of PLANES, TRAINS AND
AUTOMOBILES. Director David Dobkin is said to be eyeing the project.
* Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant will write the redo of HERBIE THE LOVE
BUG for Disney and producer Robert Simonds.
* Warner Bros. picked up the spec LABOR PAINS, by Lara Shapiro and Stacy
Kramer for producer Bernie Goldmann. It's the story of a woman who prevents
herself from being fired by faking a pregnancy but must then live out the
lie for the next nine months.
* Dan Wilson and Dave Gilbreth (SMART AND SMARTER) will write the CGI pic
THE CHUBBCHUBBS!, based on the Oscar-winning short film, for Sony Pictures
Animation. The story follows an intergalactic janitor-turned-singer who's
unwittingly befriended the most dangerous race of cute-but-lethal critters
ever known. Loyal but fierce, they are called upon to save the universe from
a sinister plan.
* Steve Buscemi will direct LONESOME JIM, a dysfunctional family
comedy-drama starring Liv Tyler and Casey Affleck to be produced by Buscemi
and Galt Niederhoffer's Plum Pictures. James C. Strouse wrote the story
which follows 28-year-old Jim to his hometown in Indiana, where he is
forced, after failing to make it on his own, to move back in with his
parents and deal with crippling family obligations. Tyler plays a woman Jim
meets in a local bar, whose young son begins treating him like a father.
Production begins in February. Buscemi originally had intended to make his
next directing project QUEER, based on the novel about the period spent by
author William S. Burroughs in Mexico City in the late 1940s and early '50s.
However, since JIM requires a winter backdrop, that film has been moved up,
with the QUEER shoot now planned for fall 2004.
* Mark Steven Johnson (DAREDEVIL) will direct MGM's SUCCUBUS, a horror film
about a cult of female demons who use their supermodel looks to seduce and
steal the souls of men. Johnson will produce with Horseshoe Bay partner Gary
Foster. The film revolves around two friends. One's a hunky girl magnet, the
other a bright nebbish guy who always watches his friend get the girl. The
handsome guy is shocked when his buddy is propositioned by a drop-dead
beauty. When his pal goes AWOL and spends every second with his new
girlfriend, the handsome friend seeks out the woman to find out her
intention. She reveals her identity and intentions, and the pal dutifully
decides to tear down a succubus network that threatens the sanctity of male
bonding.
* Kenneth Lonergan (YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) is in talks to direct the drama
MARGARET at Fox Searchlight for Mirage to produce. It centers on a
17-year-old girl who witnesses a bus accident, and what seems like a simple
issue of whether it was or was not accidental slowly spreads out to affect
many people.
* Morgan Creek Prods. has tapped director Renny Harlin to replacing Paul
Schrader for six weeks of reshoots on EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING.
* Universal Pictures grabbed Anthony Swofford's Gulf War memoir JARHEARD and
tapped William Broyles (CAST AWAY) to adapt it. Red Wagon will produce. The
book is reminiscent of FULL METAL JACKET in its depiction of how men are
broken down and forged into soldiers.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Producer Mike Fleiss is in early talks with Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes
about a sequel to Marcus Nispel's reimagining of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW
MASSACRE.
* Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman have optioned THEY MARCHED INTO
SUNLIGHT, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss' book about two
brutal days in October 1967 that defined the futility of the Vietnam War: on
one side of the world, students on the U. of Wisconsin campus waged an
antiwar demonstration against the Dow Chemical company for its dispersal of
napalm. As that peaceful protest turned into a full scale riot, a battalion
of U.S. soldiers marched off into the jungle, only to fall into an ambush
that resulted in a furious battle claiming the lives of 61 Americans. Those
cataclysmic events are interspersed with the activity in LBJ's White House,
as the president and his advisers realized the war had spiraled out of
control.
* Producer Alain Sarde (THE PIANIST) will produce with Pathe Pictures
Daniele Thompson's next film, the ensemble comedy FAUTEUIL D'ORCHESTRE.
* Universal Pictures grabbed the rights to Tim Gautreaux's novel THE
CLEARING for Working Title to produce. The book takes place at a lumber mill
in the swamps of Louisiana right after WWI and centers on two brothers. One
is a camp constable who took the job after returning from the war to outrun
his privileged family past. His brother is sent to the mill because his
family is going to buy it. The brothers run into a violent confrontation
with a group of mob-connected Sicilians who run a nearby saloon.
* Back-to-back sequels to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN may be in the works with
producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, writers Terry Rossio
and Ted Elliott, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley returning
for at least one sequel.
* Disney has pulled the plug on the Ben Affleck wedding comedy GHOSTS OF
GIRLFRIENDS PAST.
* Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF CHRIST will open in the United States on Feb.
25 -- which is Ash Wednesday on the Christian calendar.
* The start date of Cameron Crowe's ELIZABETHTOWN has been pushed to an
unspecified spring start because the director wants to shoot the ensemble
comedy during a specific time of year.
* Dimension Films purchased the remake rights to the Quebecois horror pic
SUR LE SEUIL (EVIL WORDS) from Montreal producer Nicole Robert. It's about a
novelist who has an uncanny knack for imagining horrific events before they
happen. Steven Susco (THE GRUDGE) will work on the script.
* Screenwriter Dennis Osborne and Jackie Autry have teamed up to form
Control Freak Prods. First pic to be produced will be BIRDS OF PASSAGE,
based on British author Bernice Rubens' novel about two sixtysomething
widows on a Mediterranean cruise who realize through a series of dark and
disturbing incidents that you can mature and come into your own at any age.
The company is also developing FILTHY RICH, a dark comedy about a
Kennedyesque American family and the history of mysterious tragedies they
suffer through; ONLY A WOMAN, a musical comedy about a young woman's
involvement with the music industry; and THE ASCENT OF ICARUS, a sci-fi
thriller once developed as a prequel to BLADE RUNNER that Ridley Scott was
at one time attached to produce and direct.
* Columbia Pictures has bought the rights to HOW I PAID FOR COLLEGE: A TALE
OF SEX, THEFT, FRIENDSHIP AND MUSICAL THEATER, a comedic first novel by Marc
Acito with Laura Ziskin attached to produce. The novel follows a New Jersey
teenager in the early 1980s who needs to scour for money in order to attend
Juilliard.
* One of Europe's only year-round film schools for children, Spain's Orson
the Kid, is prepping its first feature, an adaptation of Charles Dickens'
ghost chiller THE SIGNALMAN. The project will update the 19th century tale
to the '60s. Story turns on a signalman who works at the mouth of a train
tunnel in the mountains and suffers visions of ghosts and terrible train
accidents. Events will be seen from the point of view of his young son, who
returns to the scene of the drama 40 years later.
A first version of the script has been completed by 10-year-old Alejandro
Sastre and 15-year-olds Daniel Celaya and Marco Nolan. Film will be shot in
HD largely at Villa Orson, an abandoned 12th century hamlet near Siguenza,
north of Madrid, where Orson the Kid plans to establish a permanent film
village for children.
* Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller have been
tapped by MGM to mount a remake of the 1979 hit THE AMITYVILLE HORROR.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* For the fourth year in a row, a film by Dayton, OH artist Trevor Hollen
will be screened at the Ohio Independent Film Festival (OIFF), held annually
in Cleveland. This year, the film shown will be LOVELY, Trevor's fifth
Ohio-made short. LOVELY will be screened with other films from Ohio and
around the globe at the festival on Nov. 6. Visit http://www.chickencob.com
for more info.
* The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator (HPANA) has posted photos from
the set of HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN at Virginia Water.
Included are pictures of the horse that will be used as a unicorn, the
paddock set, the man-made beach, and Rupert Grint at his trailer:
http://www.hpana.com/news.cfm?nids=17598_exclusive_new_behindthescene_photos_from_azkaban
Until next week... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Hell-ston Gunnshotwoundtothehead
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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