Father Geek here with ol' Elston and this week's recap of all of last week's confirmed movie news, some of which may have slipped by you during the work week, soooo check it all out below in AICN's regular weekly column...

THE WEEKLY RECAP...

CASTING
* Gerard Depardieu and Giancarlo Espositon join Queen Latifah, Alicia Witt and LL Cool J in THE LAST HOLIDAY for Wayne Wang and Paramount.
* Marcia Gay Harden is in talks to play an attorney who recruits a Little League coach in BAD NEWS BEARS, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Greg Kinnear, for director Richard Linklater and Paramount.
* Brenda Blethyn will star in CLUBLAND, playing a raucous English comedian who causes a stir when she entertains auds at Sydney clubs. Blethyn's character poses a dilemma for her 20-year-old son, who must choose between the mother who raised him on her own and his feisty new girlfriend. Scripted by Keith Thompson, film will be directed by Cherie Nowlan (THANK GOD HE MET LIZZIE) and produced by Rosemary Blight.
* Justin Theroux will star opposite Julie Delpy in the supernatural thriller THE LEGEND OF LUCY KEYES for writer/director John Stimpson. Theroux and Delpy will portray a city couple whose youngest daughter disappears shortly after they move their family to rural Massachusetts, where a 250-year-old legend about a little girl gone missing begins to repeat itself in the present. Brooke Adams and Mark Boone Junior have also joined the cast.
* Aaron Stanford, Paul Schneider, Michael Rapaport, Kevin Dunn and Zooey Deschanel are set to star in the comedy LIVE FREE OR DIE about a clueless criminal and his dimwitted sidekick. Judah Friedlander and Ebon Moss-Bachrach also star for writers/directors Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin.
* Jessica Lange, Neve Campbell and Evan Rachel Wood will star in THE MERMAIDS SINGING, based on the novel by Lisa Carey, for writer/director Robin Swicord. Story follows a young girl's return to the remote and enchanted Irish island where she was born.
* Chuck Norris and Daniel Bernhardt have signed on to star in THE CUTTER for director Bill Tannen and Millennium/NuImage Films. Production will begin this month on the action film, written by Bruce Haskett, which centers on a detective who must save the life of an old diamond cutter.
* Guy Pearce will star in El Camino Pictures' FIRST NOW about a man who falls into a psychological tailspin when a psychic predicts his death. Mark Fergus will direct from a script he wrote with Hawk Ostby.
* Julia Stiles has joined the cast of ContentFilm Intl.'s BURNS, a biopic of 19th century Scottish poet Robert Burns. Other cast members include Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, John Hannah, James McAvoy, James Cosmo, David O'Hara and David Hayman.
* Greg Kinnear will star opposite Meryl Streep and Chinese thesp Liu Ye in DARK MATTER, written by Billy Shebar, for Myriad Pictures and director Chen Shi-Zheng. Inspired by a true story, film is the tale of a Chinese academic awarded special visa status to study in the U.S. Examining the origins of the universe, the student dreams of winning the Nobel Prize for his dark matter theory. But when his aspirations are thwarted by campus politics, tragedy follows.
* Angie Harmon, Cuba Gooding Jr., Burt Reynolds and James Woods will star in Millennium Films' thriller ENDGAME. Pic, penned by JC Pollack, is about a secret service agent and a female news reporter who team up to investigate the conspiracy behind the shooting of the president. Andy Cheng directs.
* Brooke Shields, James Woods, Joe Pantoliano, Sandra Bernhard, Eli Wallach and Nancy Kerrigan are on board to voice characters and Natalie Cole is performing several of the soundtrack's original songs for THE EASTER EGG ESCAPADE, which is being adapted from director John Michael Williams' story of the same title, for First Look Media. The story is set beyond the borders of Egg Town, an idyllic village where chickens and rabbits live in harmony and the mysterious and mischievous Take-Its conspire to steal Egg Town's Easter eggs and optimistic spirit.
* Roger Moore, Molly Shannon, Tom Kenny and Christopher Lloyd have been cast as voice characters in the Classic Media CG-animated feature PETER COTTONTAIL: THE MOVIE. Kenny will voice lead characters Peter Cottontail, Junior and Antoine, while Moore will lend his voice to the film's villain, Irontail. Shannon will voice the female villain, Jackie Frost, with Lloyd providing the voice of Mr. Sassafras, the film's narrator. The film also stars Kenan Thompson, Miranda Cosgrove and David Koechner.
* Kelly Carlson ("Nip/Tuck") has landed the starring role in Fox's THE MARINE opposite John Sena for Vince McMahon's WWE Films. John Bonito directs. The action-adventure pic tells the story of a Marine who races against the clock to free his wife, being held hostage by a murderous diamond thief.
* Jill Ritchie has been cast in Disney's HERBIE: FULLY LOADED for director Angela Robinson. Ritchie will play opposite Lindsay Lohan, acting as her best friend, a bubbly rich kid.
* Dash Mihok has joined James Marsden and Piper Perabo in 10th AND WOLF for director Bobby Moresco. Mihok will play a member of the Philadelphia street crew known as 10th and Wolf who gets mixed up with the mob.
* E.G. Daily has joined the cast of National Lampoon's PLEDGE THIS! as the mother of Paris Hilton's character. Daily will also appear in the upcoming Rob Zombie film THE DEVIL'S REJECTS.
* Bree Turner is set to star in Urbanchiller Films London's JEKYLL + HYDE for director Nick Stillwell. Turner plays a strong-minded woman who falls in love with someone she no longer knows or understands.
* Jim Turner and Jarrad Paul join BEWITCHED for director Nora Ephron.
* Joe Cortese (AGAINST THE ROPES) has joined the cast of Silvio Pollio's indie black comedy SHUT UP & SHOOT, co-produced by SP Entertainment and Trace Entertainment. He will star opposite Daniel Baldwin and James Russo as a B-movie producer who orders a hit on his five partners.
* Jacob Davich joins Dimension's THE ADVENTURES OF SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL IN 3-D for writer/director Robert Rodriguez. George Lopez, Taylor Dooley, Taylor Lautner and Cayden Boyd also star.
* Leonardo DiCaprio will produce and star in an untitled action thriller focusing on the growing global phenomenon of mercenaries used by governments and companies to wage war. Scott Burns has been set to write the script for Initial Entertainment Group and Beacon Pictures, which will produce with DiCaprio's Appian Way.
* William Hurt, Wendy Crewson, John Corbett and Leslie Hope star in THE LOUISE ARBOUR STORY about Louise Arbour, a Supreme Court of Canada judge. As chief war crimes prosecutor at the Intl. Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague, Arbour indicted Slobodan Milosevic for genocide and crimes against humanity, the first indictment of an active head of state.
* Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland will star in LAND OF THE BLIND for producer Jon Avnet and writer/director Bob Edwards. It's about a prisoner who recounts his life as a soldier-turned-dissident and his role in the overthrow of his country's totalitarian government.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Ann Peacock will adapt Nicholas Sparks' NIGHTS IN RODANTHE for Warner Bros. and Di Novi Pictures. It tells of a doctor's life-altering romance that begins when he stops at an inn on his way to see his estranged son.
* Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell sold the pitch MOTORCADE to DreamWorks. It's about an attack on the president of the United States and his motorcade during a visit to Los Angeles.
* Playtone picked up Jeanne DuPrau's young adult bestseller THE CITY OF EMBER, and are negotiating with Caroline Thompson (EDWARD SCISSORHANDS) to adapt it for Gil Kenan to direct. In the futuristic sci-fi fantasy adventure, Earth's citizens have moved to underground cities when the planet's atmosphere grows too toxic. The focus is on two teens: One longs to be a messenger because the job will allow her to venture above ground, while the other dreams of working underground to repair a generator whose failure will doom the city's power supply.
* Takashi Shimizu is already prepping THE DEATH, his next feature for the J-Horror Theater series for Lions Gate and producer Taka Ichise. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Shooting will start in March in Japan and in Japanese.
* Ali LeRoi, Alyson Fouse and DeRay Davis will write an untitled urban sketch comedy feature for New Line Cinema. Rat Entertainment and Next Entertainment are producing. The project will be a sketch comedy movie that will spoof pop culture ranging from movies and television to politics and sports, with a central story that connects all the sketches together.
* Daniel Clowes (GHOST WORLD) will write BACKYARD RESISTANCE for producer Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures. The project revolves the true story of three kids who made a shot-by-shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. They began the project while on summer vacation in 1982, finishing it seven years later, shooting on a VHS camcorder and using backwoods Mississippi locales.
* Single Cell Pictures partners Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern have optioned John Krokidas's script SLO-MO about a writer whose New Yorker articles have made him a stud among the literati, who cannot wait for the upcoming book that will cement the scribe as an important author. The pressure has blocked him to the point where he has fallen into a parallel reality that operates on a much slower clock than the real world and makes it impossible for him even to communicate. Krokidas will also direct.
* James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo are in Ohio shooting the feature documentary OHIO: AN AMERICAN VOTE. The duo went to Ohio when they heard reports that Republicans were sending more than 3,000 observers to challenge voters. Stern and Del Deo (THE YEAR OF THE YAO) are co-directing and co-producing through their Endgame Entertainment.
* Peter Webber will direct BEHIND THE MASK, the Hannibal Lecter prequel being scripted by author Thomas Harris, for producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis.
* Andrew Bergman will write a modern-day adaptation of the 1940 comedy I LOVE YOU AGAIN for New Line Cinema. Story concerns a dull businessman who suffers a blow to the head, snapping him out of a heretofore-undiagnosed nine-year amnesiac haze and revealing his true persona as a charming swindler.
* Eric Bernt (ROMEO MUST DIE) is set to direct VEGAS BABY for Insomnia Entertainment. Kal Penn and Jonathan Bennett will star in the road-trip tale of five pals who travel to Vegas for a bachelor party. Kathy Griffin and Vincent Pastore make cameos.
* Fabian Bielinsky will direct EL AURA for Davis Films Prods., Patagonik Film Group and Tornasol Films. Ricardo Darin stars as a taxidermist with delusions about planning the perfect crime.
* Brett Morgen (THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE) will direct ADDICTION, INC., the story of scientist Victor DeNoble, the key witness in the current conspiracy and fraud case against tobacco giant Phillip Morris. DeNoble designed a "safe" cigarette for Phillip Morris, but his invention was allegedly suppressed by the big-five tobacco companies.
* Tony Grisoni adapted BROTHERS OF THE HEAD, based on the Brian Aldiss novel, is directed by Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton. Shot in quasi-documentary style, it purports to reveal the (fictional) story of conjoined twins who became punk rock stars in the 1970s.
* Russell Mulcahy is in final talks to direct the family film RUSSELL in Australia for producer Martin Brown. It's a family adventure about a poacher who gets trapped in a koala's body and shipped to the London Zoo after falling under an Aboriginal spell. Befriending a feisty 10-year-old girl who likes to cry wolf gives him the chance for redemption. Simon Kelton penned the script, with a polish by Jim Piddock.
* Nick Palumbo (upcoming MURDER-SET-PIECES) will direct SINISTER, described as an "adult fairy tail" with a "Brothers Grimm feel."
* Erik MacArthur will direct BOTTOM'S UP from a script he wrote with Nick Ballo for Paul Walker and producing partner Brandon Birtell's newly formed production company Blue Collar Films will produce with Half Moon Bay and Cameo FJ Entertainment. The project is a satire about a seemingly witless Midwestern bartender whose machinations in Hollywood shock those he encounters. Walker will make a cameo appearance. Production is scheduled to begin January in Los Angeles.
* Stephen Susco will write THE GRUDGE 2 for Senator International and Ghost House Pictures.
* David Frankel will adapt and direct the fashionista comedy THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, based on the Lauren Weisberger novel, for Fox 2000 Pictures and producer Wendy Finerman. Story concerns a small-town girl who takes a job in New York working for the imperious editor of a fashion magazine.
* David Goyer will direct the English-language remake of THE INVISIBLE for Spyglass Entertainment and DreamWorks. Pic, written by Mick Davis, is based on the Swedish supernatural thriller about two young teens whose real selves are invisible to others. One teen's untimely death renders him literally invisible. The other is metaphorically invisible due to the neglect she's endured since the death of her mother.
* David Gordon Green and Danny McBride will write an untitled comic vehicle for Seann William Scott. Scott will produce with his Identity Films partner Graham Larson for Universal. The new comedy focuses on a slacker who applies for a job as a summer camp counselor so he can relive his youthful glory days of panty raids and food fights. But the camp has become a haven for young brainiacs who've come for intellectual growth.
* Michael Shapiro is in talks to direct STREET at MGM. Story follows a group of street basketball players recruited to play for an NBA team whose owner has slashed player salaries. Scribes Matt O'Neil and Chris Parker penned the script.
* George Tillman Jr. is in negotiations to direct SIX SHOOTERS for producer Laurence Mark at Columbia. Action adventure pic is based on a script by John Enbom. Story takes place in the waning days of the Civil War, when Jefferson Davis loaded the entire gold reserves of the South aboard trains during the siege of Richmond to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. A couple of Union soldiers are bent on making off with the gold.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Twisted Pictures and Lions Gate Films are planning a sequel to SAW. Production is slated to begin in February for an Oct. 28 release. James Wan and Leigh Whannell will exec produce, with heavy involvement in prep and post-production.
* Zinc Entertainment is developing a third pic in its DUNGEONS & DRAGONS franchise. Warner Bros. will release DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 2: THE ELEMENTAL MIGHT, which is completing production, next year.
* Dimension Films has acquired the rights to redo the South Korean horror pic DOLL MASTER. Story concerns a bunch of dolls that take on the lives of their owners after they're dead.

GUNN SHOTS

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Father Geek here with ol' Elston and this week's recap of all of last week's confirmed movie news, some of which may have slipped by you during the work week, soooo check it all out below in AICN's regular weekly column...

THE WEEKLY RECAP...

GUNN SHOTS

User login

Reader Talkback

Quick Talkback

Talkbacks