Father Geek here with the current issue of Elston Gunn's regular weekly column that looks over the past week's confirmed movie news...

THE WEEKLY RECAP...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Rufus Sewell is joining the cast of Columbia Pictures' LEGEND OF ZORRO,
the sequel to MASK OF ZORRO, starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine
Zeta-Jones. Martin Campbell returns as director.

* Jordana Brewster will star opposite James Franco in the Walt Disney
Studios drama ANNAPOLIS for director Justin Lin. It's about a boy from the
wrong side of the tracks whose dream of attending the U.S. Naval Academy
becomes a reality.

* Ben Affleck is attached to star in the adventure feature NOWHERE MEN, to
be written by Peter and David Griffiths, for Disney. Based on a treatment by
Soren Garcia Rey, a longtime friend of Affleck, and Chris Angulo, the
ensemble adventure is described as OCEAN'S ELEVEN meets MEN IN BLACK. It
revolves around a group of people, one of whom will be played by Affleck,
who pursue covert missions, aided by their personal extraordinary gifts.

* Terry Crews (WHITE CHICKS), Tracy Morgan, Joey "CoCo" Diaz, David Patrick
Kelly and pro wrestlers Kevin Nash, Steven Austin and Bill Goldberg will
take roles in Paramount/Sony's remake of THE LONGEST YARD.

* Allison Munn (WB's "What I Like About You") has been added to the cast of
Cameron Crowe's ELIZABETHTOWN.

* Jon Polito (BARTON FINK) joins New Line's GRILLED, starring Ray Romano,
Kevin James, Burt Reynolds and Juliette Lewis, and THE ALIBI, starring Steve
Coogan, Rebecca Romijn, Selma Blair, John Leguizamo, James Marsden and James
Brolin.

* Laura Dern has come aboard the Revolution/DreamWorks period piece THE
PRIZEWINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO. Pic, based on the memoirs of Terry Ryan,
concerns a couple who struggle to raise 10 children on the little money the
mother brings in by winning jingle-writing contests. Julianne Moore, Woody
Harrelson, Trevor Morgan, Ellary Porterfield also star. Jane Anderson will
direct from her own script.

* Jenny McCarthy has signed a multipicture deal with Beverly Hills Film
Studios. The first picture will be DIRTY LOVE, a romantic comedy written by
and starring McCarthy. John Asher directs. The follow-up film in the deal
will be ROLLIN, a teenage comedy set to start production in February.

* Dan Hedaya, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ian Holm, Allison Janney, Kristen
Johnston, Chris Pratt, Deborah Rush and Justin Theroux have signed on to
star in STRANGERS WITH CANDY, the feature film version of the cult hit
Comedy Central series. The actors join original cast members and creators
Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello and Stephen Colbert in the film, which is lensing
in New Jersey with Dinello at the helm. Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew
Broderick also have roles in the film.

* Billy Bob Thornton is set to star in MR. WOODCOCK, a New Line Cinema
comedy for helmer Craig Gillespie and Landscape Pictures. The story centers
on a young man who returns to his hometown to stop his mother from marrying
his old high school gym teacher, who made life a living hell for him and
many of his classmates.

* Gale Harold ("Queer as Folk") has been cast in two indie pics: LIFE ON THE
LEDGE, for director Lewis Helfer, where he'll play a suicidal man who falls
in love with a stripper. He will then segue to THE UNSEEN opposite Steve
Harris for writer/director Lisa France. Harold and Harris play former
childhood friends who have to face issues being on opposite sides of the
racial hotbed in rural Georgia.

* Mary Elizabeth Winstead joins Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston in Disney's
SKY HIGH for director Mike Mitchell. She will play a senior at Sky High, a
high school for the children of superheroes.

* Vanessa Parise has joined Danny Aiello to star in the indie comedy THAT'S
AMORE! for director Nick Vallelonga. Parise, who also is producing, plays a
shy, introverted woman who enters into a relationship with a fat and balding
man, and the two have to overcome each other's insecurities as well as
meddling families.

* Aria Wallace has been cast in Universal's THE PERFECT MAN, starring Hilary
Duff and Heather Locklear, for director Mark Rosman.

* Amy Acker ("Angel") is set to star as the female lead in the coming-of-age
indie drama THE NOVICE for writer/director Murray Robinson. She will play a
do-gooder flower child who gains the love of a young Jesuit seminarian,
thereby threatening his vocation.

* Meagen Fay joins the cast of DreamWorks' THE RING 2 for director Hideo
Nakata.

* Vin Diesel will star in FIND ME GUILTY, to be directed by Sidney Lumet in
New York this October for Stratus and producer Bob Yari. Based on a true
story and scripted by T.J. Mancini and Robert McCrea, pic concerns a mobster
who refuses to play the rat and instead defends himself in court.

* Peter Dinklage and Justina Machado are set to play husband and wife in an
indie remake of the 1953 film THE LITTLE FUGITIVE for director Joanna Lipper
and producers Frederick Zollo and Nick Paleologos. Machado will play Natalia
Morton, a dysfunctional young wife and mother who struggles to hold down two
jobs while caring for her sons -- and stay sober -- after her husband is
incarcerated. The story centers on a 7-year-old who runs away to Coney
Island and encounters a series of adventures after he erroneously thinks
he's killed his own brother. Brendan Sexton III and Sophie Dahl also star.

* Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is in talks to star opposite Ben Affleck MAN ABOUT
TOWN for writer/director Mike Binder. Production is set for a late-October
start. It's about a top Hollywood talent agent who seems to have it all --
success, money and a beautiful wife. But it all starts to unravel when he
finds out that she is cheating on him and his journal has been stolen by a
journalist who could expose him.

* Derek Luke and Austin Nichols join the cast of the 1960s hoops drama GLORY
ROAD for director James Gartner, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the Walt
Disney Co.

* Kevin Costner and Meg Ryan will star in THE TORTILLA CURTAIN, a Dayan
Ballweg-scripted adaptation of the T.C. Boyle novel. Stone Village will
produce the film with Costner. It's the story of two families, one wealthy
and experiencing suburban angst, the other illegal immigrants from Mexico
trying to make a new life for themselves. The two clans cross paths in a
hit-and-run accident.

* Julia Stiles and Jeremy Renner will join Forest Whitaker in psychological
thriller A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN for writer/director Baltasar Kormakur (THE
SEA) and Palomar Pictures. Production begins in Iceland and Minnesota in
mid-August. It's about a dead scam artist with a million-dollar life
insurance policy. His sister, her husband and the insurance investigator all
become embroiled in the case.

* Greta Scacchi (THE PLAYER, PRESUMED INNOCENT) joins the untitled Ted
Griffin project starring Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner and Shirley
MacLaine. Scacchi plays Costner's exuberant ex-wife. She'll also star in the
Middle Eastern political drama SYRIANA, opposite George Clooney and Matt
Damon, for writer/director Stephen Gaghan.

* Jamie Bell and Evan Parke have joined the cast of Peter Jackson's KING
KONG for Universal Pictures alongside Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien
Brody. Bell will play a young cameraman who accompanies Black's character, a
filmmaker, on a quest to find the giant gorilla, while Parke portrays the
first mate on the Venture, the tramp steamer that sails to Skull Island. He
ends up heading the rescue team sent into the jungle to save Watts'
character.

* Marcia Gay Harden joins the cast of IFC Films' ensemble drama AMERICAN GUN
for director Aric Avelino. Forest Whitaker, Donald Sutherland, Linda
Cardellini and Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon also star. The project explores the
lives of a set of people and how the proliferation of guns in America has
affected and shaped their lives.

* Paul Bettany is in final negotiations to play the villain opposite
Harrison Ford in THE WRONG ELEMENT for Warner Bros. Pictures and Village
Roadshow. Penned by Joe Forte, the project revolves around the kidnapping of
the wife and daughter of a security expert, who is forced to steal a vast
sum of money from a bank he's protecting in order to ransom his family. As
his efforts come to the attention of law enforcement officials, he races to
complete the illegal transfer of funds in time. Mark Pellington directs.

* Michelle Monaghan (upcoming KISS, KISS, BANG, BANG) will join the ensemble
cast in Stephen Gaghan's SYRIANA for Warner Bros. Pictures and Section
Eight. Monaghan joins George Clooney, Matt Damon, Greta Scacchi, Amanda Peet
and Max Minghella.

* Michael Keaton joins Lindsay Lohan in HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, Disney's LOVE
BUG redo. Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S.) is directing. Written by Tom Lennon and
Robert Ben Garant, HERBIE is set in the world of NASCAR racing.

* Mark Wahlberg will portray IN COLD BLOOD killer Perry Smith and Sandra
Bullock is in talks to play author Harper Lee in the Truman Capote biopic
EVERY WORD IS TRUE for writer/director Doug McGrath, Warner Independent
Pictures and Killer Films. U.K. stage actor Toby Jones will star as Capote.
The production has a Nov. 15 start date, with plans to shoot in New York and
New Mexico. McGrath adapted his script from George Plimpton's 1997 oral
biography TRUMAN CAPOTE: IN WHICH VARIOUS FRIENDS, ENEMIES, ACQUAINTANCES
AND DETRACTORS RECALL HIS TURBULENT CAREER. Pic will focus on the
relationship that developed between Capote and convicted murderers Dick
Hickock and, in particular, Smith while the pair awaited execution on death
row.

* Jeremy Irons is set to star opposite Heath Ledger and Sienna Miller in
Touchstone's period epic CASANOVA. He will play Pucci in the pic about the
famed seducer who learns the meaning of true love when he meets a woman
immune to his charms. Lasse Hallstrom will direct.

* Regina Hall is set to play Trixie Norton in Paramount's bigscreen version
of THE HONEYMOONERS, starring Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps. John
Schultz directs.

* Vince Colosimo and Jacqueline McKenzie are attached to star in helmer
Peter Cattaneo's Oz outback drama POBBY AND DINGAN. Shooting starts Aug. 19
in South Australia. Colosimo and McKenzie will play invisible characters who
befriend the daughter of a miner in the screenplay penned by Cattaneo, Ben
Rice and Phil Trail.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Columbia Pictures has acquired the pitch SOUL MATES by Luke Greenfield,
who also will direct for producer Michael De Luca. It's a romantic comedy
that charts a relationship between a man and woman who fall in love in high
school. The film chronicles their ups and downs over many years, showing how
these two are destined to be together, though life and timing keeps them
apart.

* DreamWorks picked up Darren Lemke's screenplay, ANCIENT HISTORY, an
archaeological thriller, for Jerry Weintraub to produce.

* Rodrigo Garcia is set to direct the indie drama NINE LIVES for Mockingbird
Pictures. The story is a series of vignettes, offering glimpses into the
lives of nine women, played by Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Elpidia Carrillo,
Glenn Close, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Holly Hunter, Amanda Seyfriend, Sissy Spacek
and Robin Wright Penn. Stephen Dillane, Dakota Fanning, William Fichtner,
Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, Mary Kay Place,
Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Miguel Sandoval and Aidan Quinn also star.

* Sheryl Longin (DICK) will adapt Ted Naifeh's COURTNEY CRUMRIN series of
comicbooks to develop as a potential fantasy franchise for Regency
Enterprises and Fox 2000 Pictures. Series follows a teen who must contend
with being a social outcast at a snobby new school while simultaneously
moving in with her warlock uncle and learning how to harness magic. Makeup
and creature f/x maven Stan Winston will produce the pic with Brian Gilbert.

* Paramount-based Robert Cort Prods. has hired a mother and her two children
to pen an untitled family comedy set in suburban Los Angeles. The writers
are Emily Dwass, Amy Silverstein and Josh Silverstein. Cort and Scarlett
Lacey will produce. Plot details are under wraps. The script is based on an
original idea by Lacey.

* Gold Circle Films has picked up Ronnie Christensen's supernatural thriller
spec SMOKE with Vertigo Entertainment and Bedlam Media attached to produce.
It's the story of a physically abused dancer who flees her home for an
apartment complex where she has premonitions of a tragic fire.

* Director Marcos Siega is helming the indie dark comedy PRETTY PERSUASION,
starring Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston, James Woods, Jane Krakowski,
Christopher Meloni, Selma Blair, Danny Comden, Jaime King, Stark Sands,
Elizabeth Harnois, Adi Schnall, Michael Hitchcock and Robert Joy. It's a
comic satire about a high school girl who turns her exclusive Beverly Hills
private school upside down when she accuses her English teacher of sexual
harassment. Skander Halim penned the screenplay.

* British screenwriter Terry Hayes (DEAD CALM, FROM HELL) is teaming with
director William Friedkin on Paramount Pictures' adaptation of Robert
Silverberg's BOOK OF SKULLS for Alphaville. The psychological thriller
follows four college students who discover an ancient book containing the
secret to eternal life -- except that it comes with a price.

* Regency Enterprises has hired John Stockwell to rewrite and direct the
casino drama CHASING THE WHALE. Story is set in the world of high stakes
casino gambling, in which "whales" -- big betting players like billionaire
gambler Kerry Packer -- can lose millions on any given night. These star
casino clients are hotly pursued and handled by a harassed group of service
professionals who compete for their business.

* Twentieth Century Fox has tapped Doug Richardson (upcoming HOSTAGE) to
rewrite DIE HARD 4, which is being developed under the supervision of star
Bruce Willis and his Cheyenne Enterprises partner Arnold Rifkin. Richardson
will be rewriting a script by Mark Bomback, who redrafted a pre-existing Fox
script called WORLD WAR 3.COM.

* Donal Logue is directing and starring in the black comedy TENNIS, ANYONE
for producer Orian Williams. It's set in the world of celebrity tennis
tournaments, where the stakes are small and the battles are bitter. Also
starring in the film are Kirk Fox, Jason Isaacs, Paul Rudd, Stephen Dorff,
Henry Thomas, Greg Lauren, Danny Trejo, Kylie Bax, D.W. Moffett and Noah
Wyle.

* Jordan Cahan has landed two screenwriting jobs with Adam Herz production
shingle Terra Firma Films. Cahan will pen a comedy for Fox and follow with a
blind script deal from Terra Firma's home studio, Universal.

* Ed Solomon (MEN IN BLACK) will rewrite the adaptation of Roald Dahl's THE
BIG FRIENDLY GIANT.

* Writer/director Brian Dannelly (SAVED!) is attached to Sobini Films'
romantic comedy THE GUIDED MAN. Described as a modern Cyrano story, the
project is a romantic comedy about an introverted guy who comes to rely on a
new service that allows someone to see, hear, feel and speak through him in
order to give him confidence around women. The project is based on a 1952
story by L. Sprague De Camp and was adapted for the big screen by Steve
Adams (ENVY). Dannelly will further develop the script with his writing
partner Michael Urban.

* Jeff Lieber is penning Dimension's remake of MY BODYGUARD about a boy who
enlists his new school's most feared kid when he finds himself being
bullied.

* Fernando Meirelles' O2 Filmes is developing CITY OF MEN, a sequel to CITY
OF GOD. Shooting is slated to begin in 2006. Paulo Morelli would likely
direct the gangland epic set in Rio's hillside slums.

* Donovan Leitch is shooting an installment of THE LAST PARTY, a doc series
begun with Robert Downey Jr. at the 1992 conventions. This latest
installment produced by Norman Lear, features Andre 3000 from OutKast in
scenes that have been shot in Boston and next month in New York for the
Republican convention.

* Steve Rosenbaum hired three camera crews to shoot footage on the
convention floor for INSIDE THE BUBBLE, a doc about John Kerry's inner
circle. Originally conceived as a story that would end with the DNC, it will
now continue shooting through Nov. 2. Additionally, Alexandra Kerry,
daughter of the Democratic nominee, is also shooting a doc at the
convention.

* Director Mike Nichols has bought screen rights to SKINNY DIP, the new
novel by Carl Hiaasen, and intends to direct and produce the adaptation. In
the book, Hiaasen, a columnist for the Miami Herald, again finds comedy and
mystery in South Florida where a crooked bureaucrat/biologist is in danger
of losing his lucrative business when his wife finds out about his pollution
scam. He tosses her off the back of a cruise liner, far out in the Atlantic.
Unfortunately for him, his curvy wife is surprisingly buoyant, and floats on
a bale of marijuana until she is rescued by an ex-cop.

* Jillian Tohber is set to script LUST FOR LIFE for Disney and Farrell Paura
Prods. It's a comedy about a seventysomething widower whose life becomes
more free-spirited and romantic when he retires, unnerving his
fortysomething children and delighting his adoring teen grandson.

* John Herzfeld will rewrite and direct the thriller TROPHY WIFE for
Mandalay Pictures. The story revolves around an executive at a powerful
global bank whose seemingly unstoppable rise to the top is derailed when his
mistress and his wife conspire to destroy his career.

* Gold Circle Films has optioned the Graham Masterton thriller FAMILY
PORTRAIT, with J.T. Petty in talks to adapt. Story concerns a corrupt clan
who have achieved immortality via a magic ritual that allows their souls to
remain trapped forever within an ancient painting.

* Betty Thomas is in negotiations with Paramount Pictures to direct PAY THE
GIRL, a feature about Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. Anonymous Content's
Steven Golin and Larry Kennar are producing from a script by Lisa Schrager.

* Spike Lee is in talks to direct THE NIGHT WATCHMAN, an original screenplay
by noir novelist James Ellroy, for producer Alexandra Milchan and Bob Yari
Prods. Set in Los Angeles in the early '90s, the ensemble piece revolves
around a cop who uncovers corruption and must resolve the problem in order
to redeem himself. The film is aiming to shoot early next year.

* Kerry Conran (SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW) is in talks to direct
the feature adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's A PRINCESS OF MARS for
Alphaville/Paramount which is being produced by Jim Jacks and Harry Knowles.

* Brett Ratner is attached to direct two pics: an untitled Lisa Schrager
pitch for producer Michael De Luca and an untitled comedy project for
Orginal Films. Ratner will also produce both through his Rat Entertainment.
Schrager's tale revolves around a female crew operating in Miami's organized
crime scene who come up with a plan to take down their boss and free the way
to move up within the crime family. The comedy is from writing team David
Diamond and David Weissman (FAMILY MAN), but the subject is being kept under
wraps.

* Room 9 Entertainment, the production shingle started by PayPal co-creator
David O. Sacks, has optioned the rights to Christopher Buckley's novel THANK
YOU FOR SMOKING from Warner Bros. Pictures. Jason Reitman is attached to
direct from his script. The satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big
Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of the embattled
tobacco industry while trying to remain a role model for his 12-year-old
son.

* Producer Ilyssa Goodman (A CINDERELLA STORY) will produce PRINCESS from a
script by Babar Ahmed, who will direct. The project is described as an indie
action thriller about an American high school cheerleader who finds herself
targeted for assassination when it is discovered that she's heir to the
throne of a Middle Eastern country.

* Dan Ireland is set to direct the dramedy MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT for
Cineville and Picture Entertainment. Adapted by Ruth Sacks from the novel by
British scribe Elizabeth Taylor, the project centers on an elderly woman
whose family persuades her to move to a London retirement hotel. After weeks
without any visits from them, the woman befriends a struggling young writer
who conspires with her to act as her grandson. The two wind up becoming good
friends.

* Brit lit agency Curtis Brown has created its own film development arm,
Cuba Pictures, to kickstart projects for its clients. Debut slate includes
an adaptation of Vikram Seth's Indian saga AN EQUAL MUSIC, being written by
Andrea Gibb; Ben Hopkins (THE NINE LIVES OF TOMAS KATZ) is penning an
English version of Elbert van Strien's Dutch horror short WORLD OF PUPPETS;
an adaptation of Michael de Larrabeiti's trilogy of cult children's novels
THE BORRIBLES; Debbie Isitt is adapting Jenny Colgan's chick-lit novel 16
AGAIN; Conor McPherson (THE ACTORS) is working on an untitled original
screenplay for FilmFour; Enda Walsh (DISCO PIGS) is adapting Eva Ibbotson's
novel ISLAND OF THE AUNTS; Ben Brown is writing an original script about
George Bernard Shaw's affair with American actress Molly Tompkins.

* Barry Sonnenfeld has teamed with Cherry Road Films for his longtime
passion project, Don DeLillo's WHITE NOISE, which he will direct and
produce. Stephen Schiff wrote the screenplay for the dark comedy in which a
professor must contend with a wife who's possibly drug-addled, four kids who
are too progressive for anyone's good and a chemical plant that has
accidentally released a cloud of potentially lethal gas. Sonnenfeld will
also direct Donald Westlake's MONEY FOR NOTHING, adapted by Jim Kouf, for
the company.

* Disney has optioned MATROPHOBIA: THE FEAR OF BECOMING YOUR MOTHER, a comic
pitch to be written by Lizzie Weiss for Pfeffer Film to produce.
Mother-daughter comedy is based on an idea Pfeffer hatched with Asha Kurian.
Title is based on the notion of the planet Saturn coming into a woman's life
when she is born and returning every 28 years. Saturn upends the forward
momentum of a successful 28-year old woman whose 56-year-old mother shows up
on her doorstep.

* Japanese helmer Hideo Nakata (RINGU, upcoming THE RING 2) will direct a
remake of THE ENTITY at Fox Searchlight. Based on the Frank De Felitta novel
of the same name, story follows a woman whose life crumbles when she
believes she is being repeatedly molested and raped by an unseen paranormal
force. Terrified, she turns to a parapsychologist to investigate her claims.
David DiGilio scripted the update.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Fox 2000 and Forest Whitaker's Spirit Dance Entertainment are teaming to
remake the 1956 comedy THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT. The music-driven original
followed the story of a talent agent who is hired by a mobster to turn his
musically challenged girlfriend into a big star.

* The upcoming third installment of the STAR WARS prequels has been
officially titled EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH.

* Robert Smigel and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog closed a deal for a feature
doc based around the nominating conventions and the presidential campaign
trail. The film will be released by Sony-based TriStar in time for film
fests early next year.

* Universal Pictures has picked up John Twelvehocks' upcoming sci-fi novel
THE TRAVELER for Kennedy/Marshall to produce. It is the first volume in a
trilogy from the first-time author. Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro are on board
to adapt the novel.

* Producer Robert Simonds (upcoming PINK PANTHER) will producer a remake of
the 1968 family comedy, YOURS, MINE AND OURS for MGM.

GUNN SHOTS

(NOT from the trades)

* HDFEST will be presenting the first High-Definition film festival to take
place in Florida August 6th and 7th in Fort Lauderdale. For more info, visit
http://www.hdfest.com/florida.htm.

* Since departing from MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3, Joe Carnahan is being sought
to direct raw female led spy thriller DAISY SCARLETT: SEMPER OCCULTUS.
Speaking of DAISY SCARLETT, the project's screenwriter Ben Trebilcook wrote
a Caribbean-set DIE HARD 4 script that is still on the fence with certain
execs despite Doug Richardson's rewriting WORLDWAR3.COM as a possible John
McClane story. The latter script suggests a WAR GAMES style plot according
to rumors.

* Talk of a movie adaptation of Tom Abraham's book THE CAGE is in the works.
Tom 'Bud' Abraham was one of the few Englishmen to serve in the Vietnam war.
He was captured and tortured by the Viet Cong and made a daring escape.

* The 7th Annual TULSA OVERGROUND, August 27, 28, 29, 2004 is a
non-competitive film festival showcasing innovative short films and videos
from around the world. A cinematic grab bag of first-time filmmakers,
student directors, professional lensers, and big name auteurs. EXTENDED
DEADLINE for entries: Postmarked by AUGUST 9. For official entry info go to:
http://www.tulsaoverground.com

Until next week...

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com