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Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek here with another recap of Hollywood news from Elston... Enjoy...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Calista Flockhart will star in the indie feature FRAGILE for director
Jaume Balaguero, who is helming from a script he wrote with Jordi Galceran.
The Filmax project will see her play a nurse who takes a new job at a
desolate children's hospital during its closing days. She struggles to keep
the kids safe and uncover the mystery behind apparent attacks of an unknown
origin that hurt the kids so that they cannot leave the premises. Richard
Roxburgh, Yasmin Murphy and Gemma Jones are also on board to star.
* Bruce Campbell, Lynda Carter and David Foley have joined the cast of SKY
HIGH as superhero teachers for director Mike Mitchell and producer Andrew
Gunn.
* Ethan Suplee has joined the cast of United Artists' ART SCHOOL
CONFIDENTIAL, playing an aspiring filmmaker who rooms with an aspiring
artist who achieves the fame he's always dreamed of when he's inadvertently
arrested for being a murderer. Terry Zwigoff directs.
* James Gandolfini will star as Ernest Hemingway in an untitled film about
the tempestuous romance between Hemingway and war correspondent Martha
Gellhorn. Robin Wright Penn may play Gellhorn. Barbara Turner (POLLOCK) is
writing the script and will produce with Alex Ryan. The Hemingway pic takes
place between 1936 and 1945. Gellhorn's competitive nature inspired the
novelist to pen FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.
* Sarah Carter will star with Paris Hilton and Paula Garces in NATIONAL
LAMPOON'S PLEDGE THIS. Carter will be playing Kristen, a Brooklyn native all
too excited about sorority life at South Beach University.
* Daniel Baldwin, Danny Trejo, Declan Joyce and Dee Wallace-Stone star in
THE BLUE ROSE, a thriller about a successful but drug-addicted real estate
agent who meets a woman who changes his life. Joe Knight stars and directs
from his own script.
* Rachel Blanchard ("7th Heaven") has been added to the cast of Atom
Egoyan's WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, based on the novel by Rupert Holmes. Colin
Firth, Kevin Bacon and Alison Lohman star. Egoyan also adapted the script
for Serendipity Point Films. Book follows the story of a female journalist
who tries to uncover the truth behind the breakup, years earlier, of a
celebrated comedy team after the duo found a girl dead in their hotel room.
Though both had airtight alibis and neither was accused, the incident put an
end to their act.
* Malinda Williams (Showtime's "Soul Food") has joined the cast of HBO's
Untitled OutKast Musical, starring Andre 3000 and Big Boi. Williams will
portray the wife of Big Boi's character, Rooster.
* Matt Davis and Michael Madsen have been cast in BLOODRAYNE, based on the
popular video game, joining Ben Kingsley, Kristanna Loken and Michelle
Rodriguez. Uwe Boll is directing and producing.
* Donald Faison, Molly Sims, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Eddie Guerra ("CSI:
Miami") are set to star in the indie comedy feature VENUS AND VEGAS for
director Demian Lichtenstein. Penned by Guerra , the project follows a trio
of crooks who must work together to repair their fractured relationship
after they botch a holdup job. Jaime Pressly, Abraham Benrubi, Florence
Henderson, Jon Polito and Paul Ben-Victor round out the cast.
* Nicholas Turturro ("NYPD Blue") will play a quarterback in THE LONGEST
YARD, starring Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds and Chris Rock.
* Ian McKellen will lend his voice to the magical character Zebedee in
Pathe's THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT, the movie version of classic kids TV show.
Robbie Williams, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone, Kylie Minogue and Bill Nighy
are also a part of the voice cast.
* Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton and Chloe Sevigny are joining
the cast of director Jim Jarmusch's untitled movie that is to begin shooting
next month. Bill Murray also stars.
* Simon Rex joins NATIONAL LAMPOON'S PLEDGE THIS! opposite Paris Hilton.
William Heins directs.
* James Marsden will star in the indie pic 10th AND WOLF for director Bobby
Moresco based on a story he and Chazz Palminteri came up with. It finds
Marsden as Tommy Santaro, a member of the Philadelphia street crew known as
"10th and Wolf." He accepts a deal to serve in the military instead of going
to jail for getting mixed up in a mob hit only to get back in the wrong
crowd in order to save his brother from going to prison.
* Samantha Morton is in talks to play Diane Arbus in a biopic of the seminal
American photographer's life to be titled FUR and to be directed by Steven
Shainberg. Erin Cressida Wilson is adapting the screenplay from Patricia
Bosworth's book DIANE ARBUS: A BIOGRAPHY.
* Dakota Fanning will star opposite Kurt Russell in DreamWorks' DREAMER for
director John Gatins and Tollin/Robbins Prods. Shooting is scheduled to
start next month, with Fanning heading off for horse training next week in
Louisiana. Kris Kristofferson also joins the cast. The project, inspired by
a true story, originally centered on a Kentucky horse trainer and his
11-year-old daughter who rescue a horse with a broken leg. The two then help
nurse the animal back to health and take it to race in the Breeders' Cup.
* Zhang Ziyi is in final negotiations to play the title character in the
film adaptation of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. while Ken Watanabe has signed on to
play the male lead. Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh and Koji Yakusho
also are in final negotiations to join the cast of the Columbia
Pictures/DreamWorks/Spyglass Entertainment feature, which Rob Marshall is
directing.
* Piper Perabo joins James Marsden in 10th AND WOLF for director Bobby
Moresco and the British romantic comedy CLICK opposite Lena Headey. The
latter project, which starts in October in London, will be directed by
Oliver Parker.
* Christopher Masterson ("Malcolm in the Middle") will star in and produce
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, which is set at the height of the Cold War, centering
on a brilliant young inventor who is determined to protect his revolutionary
inventions. Masterson also is attached to star in the indie film WATERBORNE,
the story of a fictional terrorist strike on the water supply of Los Angeles
and how it affects the lives of people in the area. Jake Muxworthy also is
attached to star for director Ben Rekhi.
* Jared Leto will star in AWAKE, an independent feature written and directed
by Joby Harold. GreeneStreet Films is producing. It's about a scion of a
huge family fortune who needs a heart transplant. During the operation, he
becomes aware of a conspiracy involving the entire surgical team in order to
get his money, and he must outthink and outmaneuver them in order to
survive.
* Jeremy Renner will star in 12 AND HOLDING for director Michael Cuesta
(L.I.E.) about a former firefighter who moves to a new town for construction
work following the loss of a young girl whose death haunts him. Renner then
travels to Iceland for A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN, directed by Baltasar
Kormakur (101 REYKJAVIK). He will star opposite Julia Stiles and Forest
Whitaker as a con man who busts out of prison to search for his former
partner in crime and lover, who also happens to be his sister.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Rupert Wainwright is attached to direct MGM's THE OUTER LIMITS, the
feature adaptation of the TV show.fast becoming a staple at MGM. He has also
signed on to direct the werewolf fllm BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE, also for MGM.
* Sean Hood will write the horror thriller THE BREATHTAKER, based on Alice
Blanchard's novel, for John Wells Prods. The story follows a small-town
police chief's pursuit of a serial killer who strikes only during tornadoes,
brutally killing his victims in the eye of the storm.
* John Woo is developing the Chinese-language film THE WAR OF THE RED CLIFF.
Chow Yun-Fat has been offered the starring role. It's based on historical
events that took place in China 1,700 years ago and on a chapter in the
popular novel ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. Some 600 years after its
publication, the book is still widely read in China.
* DreamWorks has set commercials director Noam Murro to direct ALL FAMILIES
ARE PSYCHOTIC. Mark Poirier will adapt the Douglas Coupland novel. The book
chronicles the Florida reunion of the ultimate dysfunctional family, who
gather to see the clan's sole productive family member, an astronaut, fly
into space.
* Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER) is set to direct Warner Bros.' remake of the horror
pic THE BAD SEED for Strike Entertainment. The original centered on an
8-year-old girl who seems all sugar and spice until she begins killing
people.
* Mark Bomback (upcoming CONSTANTINE) will write RUNAWAY TRAIN, a drama
about an out-of-contrail train, for 20th Century Fox, Firm Firm Films and
Milbrook Farms. Bomback is also hoping to direct his script DISTURBING THE
PEACE with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Debra Messing attached to star in the
tragic comedy about an ordinary suburbanite who decides that his life should
be extraordinary.
* Universal Pictures has picked up PARTY BOYS, a comedy pitch by Mark Jordan
Legan and Mark Wilding, for Double Feature Films. Legan and Wilding will
write the script, in which two ex-cons are forced to find employment as
children's party performers and discover that the work presents the perfect
opportunity to case the homes of the rich and famous.
* Steven De Souza will write and direct THE PRESENCE, a supernatural
thriller to be financed by Four Winds Pictures. Drama begins when a mother
dies in childbirth. Some 25 years later, her son is getting married and
thinks it would be swell to return to his birth home and start a married
life there. Trouble is, mom haunts the place.
* Greg Coolidge will rewrite and direct EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH for Lions
Gate. It's about a duel between two slackers who become model Costco workers
when they hear a new hottie may date the store's employee of the month.
* Ash Brannon and Chris Buck will co-direct SURF'S UP for Sony Pictures
Animation. The CGI pic will be a clever riff on the cult-surfing film
ENDLESS SUMMER, but starring penguins. Pic will be a mockumentary based on
the groundbreaking revelation that surfing was actually invented by
penguins.
* Writer/producer Joan Singleton has optioned film rights to two Meg Cabot
novels: TEEN IDOL and EVERY BOY'S GOT ONE. Singleton plans to adapt both
books for the big screen and produce along with her husband, Ralph
Singleton. IDOL centers on high school junior Jenny Greenley, who, as the
school newspaper's advice columnist, is good at solving other people's
problems. However, a swirl of problems start happening around her when
19-year-old screen sensation Luke Striker comes to Jenny's small town to
research a role. EVERY BOY'S centers on cartoonist Jane Harris, whose best
friend is eloping to Italy with her longtime boyfriend. Jane is asked to be
the bridesmaid and agrees so that she can butt heads with the best man.
However, they are forced to put their differences aside when the wedding
plans hit a major snag.
* Sommers Co. has acquired the feature film rights to the French-language
classic LES VICTIMES by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Novel,
originally penned in the 1950s, follows the web of deadly intrigue
encountered by a book editor when he follows his married lover and her
husband out of the country on business. Elisa Bell (SLEEPOVER, LITTLE BLACK
BOOK) will adapt the screenplay and give it a modern touch.
* DreamWorks has caught a sports pitch from scribe Lewis Colick (LADDER 49)
and set up the project with Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins. The untitled work
is a contemporary father-son story in the ultra-competitive world of
contemporary club baseball.
* Fox has signed a three-pic deal with the writer/director of the Russian
hit NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOJ DOZOR). Fox Searchlight will distribute Timur
Bekmambetov's pic and its sequel, DAY WATCH. Studio will then go into
production on a big-budget prequel to both films, DUSK WATCH, which will be
released by Fox and it leaves an opportunity for Fox to remake NIGHT WATCH
and DAY WATCH as English-language sequels. They are based on books by Sergei
Lukyanenko, following what happens after a 1,000 year truce between good and
evil is broken on the streets of Moscow. The story follows opposing
supernatural forces in search of the One -- a child who can choose to side
either with good or evil.
* Gary Fleder is set to direct the thriller SKELETON COAST for Paramount and
Icon Prods. Script, written by Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring, is set
in South Africa and focuses on a man who tries to steal the world's largest
diamond.
* Neal Marshall Stevens has been hired to adapt, with an eye toward
directing, SUPERSTITION, the supernatural thriller by novelist David
Ambrose. Radar Pictures is producing with Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes.
Story follows a group of college students whose psychology experiment goes
wrong and creates a ghost.
* Twentieth Century Fox has set Dan McDermott to write HONG KONG HEIST, an
action film about rival gangs drafted by a triad leader to steal three rare
gems.
* Twentieth Century Fox is closing a deal with F. Scott Fitzgerald's estate
to remake TENDER IS THE NIGHT, a book it first adapted in 1962. Jesse
Wigutow will adapt the novel. It's a jazz-age story about apsychiatrist
whose marriage to a wealthy patient ultimately destroys him.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Sam Raimi is in talks with New Line Cinema for a project titled FREDDY VS.
JASON VS. ASH. In the proposed sequel, Freddy and Jason would go up against
Ash from the EVIL DEAD series. Bruce Campbell played Ash in the trilogy and
would play him again if the deal were to close. Although Raimi would not
direct, he holds rights to the EVIL DEAD franchise.
* Producers Adrian Askarieh and Chuck Gordon (upcoming SPY HUNTER) have
optioned the videogame PSI-OPS to adapt for the bigscreen. It's the story of
a government agent with psionic powers whose memory is erased. He slowly
recalls his abilities as he is sent to infiltrate a group of rogue agents
who were also part of his training program.
* Universal Pictures has made a two-year first-look producing deal with
Black and White Prods., a newly formed company that teams Jack Black with
writer Mike White (THE SCHOOL OF ROCK).
* HBO Films has optioned THE DEW BREAKER, Haitian writer Edwige Danticat's
bestselling collection of interwoven stories, to be developed as a
feature-length film. Set between Haiti in the 1960s and present-day New
York, the stories piece together the past of a former torturer whose crimes
in the country of his birth are masked by his new reality in America as a
husband, father and hardworking Brooklyn barber.
* British musician/producer Jeff Wayne announced plans for a musical CGI
feature along the lines of his 1978 double album THE WAR OF THE WORLDS,
which sold 12 million copies worldwide and spawned a line of computer games.
Wayne plans to set the pic in the Victorian era of the H.G. Wells novel, as
opposed to the contempo take planned by Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg.
GUNN SHOTS
* NT Limited, a focused animation house based in central NJ, today announced
the production of its first animated film, Day of the Pigman. Scheduled for
release in the spring of 2005, the hand-drawn film follows the path of the
brilliant Dr. Osgood a dangerous scientist whose disturbing research leads
to creation of the first Pigman and the eventual destruction of humankind.
The only thing that stands in his way is the kind heart of his head of
security, The General. Visit http://pigmaniscoming.ne1.net
* The award-winning documentary SPEEDO: A DEMOLITION DERBY LOVE STORY by
Jesse Moss will air this week on PBS. For additional information and photos,
please visit http://www.pov.org/pressroom.
* CAMP XRAY: GHOSTS OF GUANTANAMO has been officially selected for the BITE
THE MANGO FILM FESTIVAL 2004. Go to http://www.campxray.co.uk for more.
* THE LAST STARFIGHTER - THE MUSICAL is casting now. The production will
take place at The Storm Theatre in NYC. Music & lyrics by Skip Kennon, book
by Fred Landau.
* The Screenplay Festival 2004 deadline is September 1! For more info,
visit http://www.screenplayfestival.com
* Writers have until August 31, 2004 to enter the Screenwriting Expo 3
Screenplay Competition and vie for over $50,000 in cash, prizes, feedback
and access. For more info, visit
http://screenwritingexpo.com/competition.html
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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He is a evil bitch.
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Aug 26, 2004 10:43:58 PM CDT
SKY HIGH sounds a little too much like RISING STARS for my taste
by george newman
At least the cast is starting out right
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Cabin Fever was the worst movie I'd seen since Boys and Girls. They guy seems to think he's very hip and clever, and unfortunately he's neither. The result was a truly awful movie. I'm sure Bad Seed will be no better. It really irks me a studio would give him the money and rights to remake Bad Seed. I don't hold the original sacred, but it sure as hell doesn't deserve the Roth treatment.
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Why the fuck is Paris Hilton going to be in a shitty movie? The movie would suck even without that human stain. My faith in the future of cinema has further been diminished...
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Paramount obviously compromised. Wayne gets to do the period-set movie, Cruise-Spielberg's version is set in the present day. Boy, THIS is a disappointment. I wanted to see Spielberg do the 1898 England setting. Instead Dork Boy gets to do it after holding Paramount by the nuts for years. What a letdown.
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My brain...did I just read the words "The Last Starfighter:The Musical"? Jack White as Zur.
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"Outer Limits" is just the name they'll put on some generic shit horror/sci-fi thriller made by some shitty smartass young director. Like Eli Roth. Or possibly worse. Not to be too cynical.
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old movies. I realize there are not a whole lot of original ideas available, but please. I know I never thought, "gee, I sure hope they remake BAD SEED." Very few remakes are worth seeing, or arguably, none at all.
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He shouldn't even been allowed to make "House of the Dead"! What the fuck is with this guy? Is he financing himself?!!
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Aug 27, 2004 12:12:03 AM CDT
Unfortunately, the plot of BLOODRAYNE doesn't follow the game...
by frankdrebin
The game was vampires versus nazis, but the movie is just Rayne's backstory in the middle ages. (For you non-gamers, I recommend trying it. You can find it for $10 or so. But get the pc version, not the ps2 version, so you can download fan-made costumes and stuff from the internet.)
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jesus...how many of your mothers has this guy fucked cos you sure all seem to hate him. well, guess what...he is an established director now and he will continue to make films.....real ones unlike your little imovies that will never see the light of day. cabin fever was fucking great...another question...does anyone here actually like movies??i thought this was a site for movie lovers.....it must really suck hating every film that comes out so why do most of you bother reading about or going to movies anymore....not to mention how much most of you hate films which haven't even been fucking made yet.
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As someone involved with the production of the Magic Roundabout
I can say it's an absolute stillborn of a film. "Let's strip away everything that made the original magical and ethereal and turn it into the dullest piece of work possible"
I don't understand the Ian McKellen news either. Zebedee's voice was already recorded by Richard O'Brien.
Good for you Jeff Wayne. -
Good to see struggling, talented, young actors like Paris Hilton getting all the plum roles. I'm sure National Lampoon's Pledge This will catapult her into the international consciousness. Speaking of Natonal Lampoon's Pledge This, it was featured twice in the above article, i wonder if this will be run through the Ain't-It-Cool-News hyperbole machine and be heralded as the peak of geek 'coolness'. I Hope so.
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...You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada!".... It's not often I have an excuse to type that. Gotta go, my betazoid just came back from work.
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Shocking, absolutely shocking. I can't believe someone enjoyed Cabin Fever, that movie was laughably bad, and not in a fun Ed Wood way. The reason the response to most of the developing films get blasted here on this site is because these people DO love movies. 95% percent of what is being theatricaly released is garbage designed to either capitalize off a previous formula that worked/made money, or a demographic-usually the 13-17 crowd. A PG-13 Alien/Predator movie??? Results are quickly written, poorly made movies which make the folks who love what movies CAN be somewhat bitter. I'm not asking for every movie that comes out to be some masterstroke in cinema, but at least some evidence of thought, wit, or especially craft would be welcome. You, Slappy Jones, have obviously not seen enough (quality) movies to have a clear idea why the talkbackers on this site quickly pounce on a film (let's pick Catwoman, or perhaps AVP as recent examples) before it's even finished production. You can often smell bullshit before you see it. I myself had some hope for Cabin Fever, it seemed like the kind of film that albeit would not be a "great" movie, would at least be fun and gory, something I find valuable if done right. Eli Roth delivered a film that was UNBELIEVABLY bad. Jaw dropping. I guess it's all a matter of contrast, when you know what a good movie can be, the bad ones just make you disapointed, confused, and angry.
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Anyone else see the irony in that?
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Title: Oldboy
Log line: A man in his mid-30s is kidnapped by unknown captors and held in a room for years. On the 15th anniversary of his capture, he's knocked out and awakens in the middle of a city, which begins his quest to find out who kidnapped him, who's killed his family while he was away, and why.
Writer: Justin Lin, Ernesto Foronda and Fabian Marquez
Agent: Rowena Arguelles of CAA (Lin)
Buyer: Universal Pictures
Price: n/a
Genre: Drama-Thriller
Logged: 8/3/04
More: Remake of the South Korean picture. Justin Lin will direct."
Over in the UK, we haven't even had chance to see the original yet. This is getting ridiculous.
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crap... surfing penguins... crap... crap...
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is the air thin up there?? on your fucking high horse you uppity prick.
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