Father Geek here with Elston's column on all the confirmed news out of Tinseltown the last several days that you may have missed during your busy work week. Yep, AICN's longest running regular report is here just like always to fill you in on all those little bytes of movie production info that may have gone over looked last week, or just slipped thru the cracks in your workspace floor while you out for coffee and donuts... at any rate we've got it all right here in...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jeff Bridges is in talks to star in the gymnastics pic STICK IT for
writer/director Jessica Bendinger and Disney. Bridges will play the coach in
the sports-themed picture about a team of rule-abiding gymnasts who develop
a taste for rebellion after a renegade member, played by Missy Peregrym,
joins the crew. Vanessa Lengies co-stars as Peregrym's rival.
* Nick Cannon will star in EXTRA PROTECTION, a buddy action/comedy that
Overbrook Entertainment is in negotiations to produce for Universal
Pictures. Cannon wrote the script and also will executive produce. The story
follows a male and female FBI trainees who are assigned to deliver a witness
to a crucial hearing.
* Paris Hilton and Jason Mewes are starring in the indie comedy BOTTOMS UP
for Paul Walker's Blue Collar Films and Cameo FJ Entertainment. The comedy
drama tells the story of a Midwestern bartender who finds love with Hilton's
character as well as money and success in Hollywood. Walker is expected to
take a cameo role in the project. The script was written by Nick Ballo and
Erik MacArthur. MacArthur directs.
* Bobby Cannavale (THE STATION AGENT) will portray the estranged lover of
Robin Williams in the feature adaptation of Armistead Maupin's THE NIGHT
LISTENER for Hart Sharp Entertainment. Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Rory Culkin
and Joe Morton also star in the pic, which is now in production under the
direction of Patrick Stettner (THE BUSINESS OF STRANGERS). Story concerns a
popular radio show host who, while trying to cope with a splintering
romance, strikes up a telephone relationship with his biggest fan. Maupin
adapted the screenplay with Terry Anderson and Stettner.
* Scarlett Pomers ("Reba") will star in SING SOFTLY STELLA for Z2 Films. She
plays a 15-year-old punk rocker in director Sasha Levinson's musical
coming-of-age story and will also contribute to the soundtrack. Shooting
begins in June.
* Rob Brown (FINDING FORRESTER) will star in New Line's TAKE THE LEAD. He'll
play a troubled inner-city kid opposite Antonio Banderas, who stars as a
ballroom dance teacher at a New York public school. Liz Friedlander directs.
* Amanda Brooks joins Malcolm McDowell in the indie TAKING CHARGE for the
Vine Entertainment. Gino Cabanas directs the story about a spoiled girl who
is cut off financially by her billionaire father.
* Frank Langella will play Perry White in Bryan Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS
for Warner Bros. Pictures. Hugh Laurie originally was cast in the role but
bowed out because of a scheduling conflict with his TV series.
* James Franco and Jean Reno will star in FLYBOYS for Electric Entertainment
and director Tony Bill. The screenplay was written by David Ward, based on
an original screenplay by Phil Sears and Blake Evans. Scripted by David
Ward, the drama details the adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young
American fighter pilots who volunteered for the French military before the
U.S. entered WWI. Ward rewrote a script originated by Phil Sears and Blake
Evans.
* Robert Redford has joined the voice cast of CHARLOTTE'S WEB for director
Gary Winick, Kerner Entertainment, Paramount, Walden Media and Nick Movies.
Redford will voice Ike, the arachnophobic horse who panics and faints at the
mere sight of Charlotte. Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, John Cleese, Steve
Buscemi, Cedric the Entertainer, Reba McEntire, Kathy Bates, Thomas Haden
Church and Andre Benjamin also provide voices.
* Denzel Washington is set to star in INSIDE MAN for Spike Lee and
Universal/Imagine. Clive Owen is in negotiations to join the movie, which
takes place during a tense hostage situation in which a tough cop matches
wits with a clever bank robber, who sets out to pull off the perfect
robbery. Russell Gewirtz and Menno Meyjes wrote the screenplay.
* Famke Janssen and Hugh Jackman has signed a deal to return for 20th
Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment's X-MEN 3 to be directed by Matthew
Vaughn. The demise of Janssen's psychic character in the last go-around will
not be ignored, as she will this time evolve into a character called the
Phoenix.
* Simon Pegg (SHAUN OF THE DEAD) has joined Brendan Fraser and Woody
Harrelson in the cast of Paul Weiland's black comedy THREE BAD MEN. Pic
begins shooting in June. Written by Peter Straughan and set in the U.S., pic
is about a trio of hit men who start new lives in the suburbs but find it
impossible to escape their past. It's a co-production between Priority
Pictures, Mirage Enterprises and Remstar.
* Kathy Baker has joined the cast of Sony's remake of ALL THE KING'S MEN ,
written and directed by Steven Zaillian, and starring Sean Penn, Jude Law,
Kate Winslet and Mark Ruffalo. Baker will also be seen opposite Glenn Close
and Holly Hunter in Rodrigo Garcia's NINE LIVES.
* Hilary Duff and Haylie Duff will team for the first time in MATERIAL
GIRLS, with Martha Coolidge directing for Maverick Films, Patriot Pictures
and Arclight Films. Production begins in Los Angeles April 18. Comedy
follows a pair of celebutante cosmetics heiresses who lose their fortune in
a corporate scandal and launch an investigation to expose the culprit. Story
was inspired by Maverick co-chairman Madonna's hit song "Material Girl,"
which Hilary Duff will re-record for the pic's soundtrack. John Quaintance
(NBC's "Joey") penned the script, rewritten by Susan Jansen (THE LIZZIE
MAGUIRE MOVIE) and Amy Rardin & Jessica O'Toole. Rafter H Entertainment
* Amy Poehler joins the cast of New Line's MR. WOODCOCK, playing a publicist
for an author (Seann William Scott) who returns to his hometown to stop his
mother, played by Susan Sarandon, from marrying his much despised high
school gym teacher, portrayed by Billy Bob Thornton. Craig Gillespie is
helming the comedy for Landscape Entertainment.
* Frankie Muniz, Jon Foster and Samaire Armstrong will star in the horror
thriller STAY ALIVE for Spyglass and Endgame Entertainment. McG's Wonderland
Sound & Vision shingle also is producing. Muniz is set to play computer nerd
Swink Sylvania; Armstrong will play Abigail; and Foster plays the lead,
Hutch, a handsome video gamer with a secret.
* Maria Bello, Danny Pino and Dallas Roberts have joined the cast of FLICKA
for Fox 2000. They join Tim McGraw and Ryan Kwantan in the update of the
1943 Fox film, MY FRIEND FLICKA. Based on the novel by Mary O'Hara, the
story is set against the backdrop of a modern-day ranch in Wyoming. It tells
the story of Katie, a teenager who dreams of running her family's ranch,
much to the dismay of her father. Katie finds a wild horse she names Flicka
and claims it as her own. Michael Mayer is directing from a script by Larry
Konner and Mark Rosenthal. Bello will play Katie's mother, Pino plays Jack,
and Roberts will play Gus.
* Milla Jovovich, Angus MacFayden and Stephen Dorff star in .45 for director
Gary Lennon, Mobius Entertainment and Media Talent Group. Written by Lennon,
the pic is a dark comedy about a criminal couple who turn on each other and
cause their own downfall.
* Don Cheadle will narrate Linden Prods.' KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST, a
documentary about the exploitation of the Congo by Belgium's King Leopold
II. James Cromwell is providing the voice of the king, and Alfre Woodard is
voicing Ilanga, a survivor who witnessed the atrocities inflicted during the
king's regime in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Based on the Adam
Hochschild book, the doc has been produced and adapted by Pippa Scott, who
co-directed with Oreet Rees.
* George Clooney and Cate Blanchett are in talks to star in the romantic
thriller THE GOOD GERMAN for director Steven Soderbergh, Section Eight
Prods. and Warner Bros. Pictures. The film follows an American journalist
who is sent to cover the Allied summit meeting that will carve out control
of post-World War II Germany. However, the reporter is secretly there to
search for a lost love, and when the body of an American soldier washes up
in the Russian zone, he is plunged into a murder mystery.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Deverill Weekes is directing Ardustry Entertainement's THE SECRET LIFE OF
SUPERFANS, a feature documentary focusing on people whose love for
pop-culture heroes becomes an obsession. Project will include interviews
with Rob Zombie, Bryan Singer, Gary Oldman and Malcolm McDowell.
* Director Bille August is working on a film about the life of children's
author Hans Christian Andersen, whose bi-centenary begins this month. August
is using one of Andersen's darker tales, THE SHADOW, as a central plot
device for his projected film bio. Pic will focus on the period when
Andersen was about 40 years old.
* Jeff Balsmeyer (DANNY DECKCHAIR) will direct the romantic comedy MAID OF
DISHONOR for Warner Bros. It's about a jilted bride who must face her former
fiance as they are the maid of honor and best man at her sister's wedding.
Cristi Limm wrote the script. Allison Greenspan is the executive producer.
* Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies will direct ACHATES
MCNEIL, which he will adapt from a short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Hart
Sharp Entertainment optioned the property and will produce the tale of an
undergrad who must face down the legacy of his famous-author father when he
visits the college.
* John Glenn and Travis Wright will write a script based on the untitled
Steven Spielberg thriller idea about an innocent man who must go on the run
when he becomes a target for the powers-that-be. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto
Orci produce.
* Michael Apted has signed on to direct the political thriller AMAZING GRACE
for Walden Media. It's based on the life of William Wilberforce, a young
idealist who as a member of Britain's Parliament navigated the cutthroat
world of backroom politics in 18th century England to end slavery in the
British Empire. Apted will be working from a screenplay by Steven Knight
(DIRTY PRETTY THINGS). Terrence Malick and Ed Pressman will produce under
their Sunflower Prods. banner as well as Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves
Raymond") and David Hunt for FourBoys Films, and Ken Wales.
* Chris Moore will make his directorial debut on Regency Enterprises' RACE
WITH THE DEVIL, a remake of a 1975 horror thriller that is being written by
Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan. The original revolved around two couples that
head off to Colorado for skiing and dirt biking. Along the way, they witness
a satanic sacrifice, but when they call the local authorities, all evidence
disappears. They resume their vacation but find themselves shadowed by a
cult.
* Andy Fickman will direct Amanda Bynes in DreamWorks' SHE'S THE MAN for
producer Lauren Shuler Donner. Project is a contemporary take on
Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, a story about the comic and romantic
complications that ensue when a teenage girl poses as her missing twin
brother for two weeks. Jack Leslie penned the original screenplay, with
rewrites by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith.
* Emir Kusturica is making a documentary on Argentinean soccer star Diego
Maradona, regarded by many as the world's greatest modern player. Spain's
Pentagrama and Estudios Picasso are producing the pic. Wild Bunch will
distribute. Covering 44-year-old Maradona's life from his childhood in a
Buenos Aires slum, it will culminate in an interview with Maradona looking
back on his life.
* Twentieth Century Fox has picked up an untitled pitch from Sheldon Turner
to be produced by Apartment 3B Prods. Based on in idea by Stuart Alexander,
the story line is being kept tightly under wraps but is described as being a
high-concept thriller.
* Jeph Loeb will write a bigscreen version of THE SPIRIT, based on the hero
created in 1940 by Will Eisner, for Odd Lot Entertainment and Batfilm Prods.
Project follows a masked detective who is believed dead and uses that to his
advantage to fight the criminals of Central City from his base at Wildwood
Cemetery.
* Brandon Noonan has a blind writing deal with DreamWorks, based on his
adaptation of DEM, William Melvin Kelley's satirical novel, written in 1967.
Neil LaBute is attached to direct the project which concerns a selfish white
marketing professional who's forced to take stock of his life when his wife
gives birth to a black baby. Pretty Pictures is producing.
* Universal has acquired screen rights to Top Cow-published comicbook series
PROXIMITY EFFECT and has set Jason Rothenberg to write the script for the
Sommers Co. The comic concerns a seemingly ordinary woman who exhibits
extraordinary powers, but only when she is within a certain distance of a
particular guy.
* Michael Bay is in talks to direct the DreamWorks/Paramount live-action
adaptation of THE TRANSFORMERS, Hasbro's popular 1980s toy line of giant
robots that morph into cars, trucks, planes, ships and other technological
creations. Production will begin in the fall. The project had been gestating
at the studio until Spielberg came up with a new take, which he imparted to
scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Angry Films' Don Murphy and Tom
DeSanto are producing along with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura.
* Thomas Carter (COACH CARTER) will direct FREEDOM HOUSE for Warner Bros.
Pictures Viviano-Feldman Entertainment. It's based on the story of Freedom
House Enterprises, an organization that trained residents of Pittsburgh's
poorest neighborhood to become the first modern-day paramedics. Stephen
David wrote the script from his pitch, which was rewritten by Don Scott.
* Bob Odenkirk will direct Dax Shepard and Will Arnett in the buddy comedy
YOU ARE GOING TO PRISON, the tale of a career criminal and an entitled rich
guy stuck together in a maximum-security prison cell, for Carsey-Werner
Films and Strike Entertainment. Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Michael
Patrick Jann penned the script.
* Rob Schiller is set to direct CABRINI GARDENS for Epidemic Pictures. The
romantic comedy centers on a single mother who works as a paralegal at a
prestigious law firm. She ends up falling for the firm's rising star while
at the same time falling into a case involving a snobby homeowners'
association. The screenplay was written by Taja, David Odom and Breht
Gardner.
* Paul Weitz (IN GOOD COMPANY) is in talks to adapt and direct Nick Flynn's
ANOTHER BULLSHIT NIGHT IN SUCK CITY for producer Michael Costigan at Sony.
Project is based on Flynn's bestselling memoir about an unconventional
relationship between a father and a son. The darkly comic tale unfolds while
Flynn, 27, is working as a caseworker at a homeless shelter in Boston and
meets his father for the third time.
* Disney Studios has snapped up a romantic comedy pitch from scribe Kara
Holden about a romance between a "blue state" boy who is always on his
Blackberry and a "red state" girl who has grown up on a peach farm. Karz
Entertainment will produce.
* Tim Hill will direct a sequel to GARFIELD: THE MOVIE for Fox.
* Josh Shelov (HOOLIGANS) is adapting the screenplay for TEN BEARS, a
nonfiction book about the first all-black lacrosse team, for producer
Michael De Luca and Warner Bros. Written by Chip Silverman and Miles
Harrison, Jr., the book is set in the racially turbulent Baltimore of the
early 1970s. The team, which included Harrison, was founded in 1970 and
comprised off-season college football players from the historically black
Morgan State University; most of them had never heard of the game. Their
coach was Silverman, who was then a 27-year-old Jewish administrator for
MSU's graduate school. Initially dreadful, the team went on to compete and
win in the NCAA championships. The team folded in 1975.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* New Line Cinema has acquired feature film rights to MONSTER, a
best-selling Japanese manga comic book series from author Naoki Urasawa.
Trilogy Entertainment is producing. It's a psychological thriller that tells
the story of a young doctor who saves the life of a little boy only to find
out a few years later that the life he saved was that of a brilliant killer.
The doctor must then track down the young killer and solve a larger
conspiracy.
* Spain's Ciudad de la Luz studio has greenlit its first pics: Javier
Rebollo's LO QUE SE DE LOLA and Manuel Iborra's LA DAMA BOBA. Produced by
Flamenco Films and Belen Gomez, BOBA is an adaptation of a comedy by 17th
century Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega. Romantic drama LO QUE SE teams
Spain's Malvarrosa Media, France's Lazennec and Belgium's Versus.
French/Spanish-language pic toplines Olivier Gourmet and Lola Duenas (THE
SEA INSIDE).
* Fox Searchlight is picking up Alexandre Aja's remake of THE HILLS HAVE
EYES in turnaround from Dimension Films. The original film centered on an
unsuspecting family making a detour into the desert to visit a silver mine
they've inherited, only to be preyed upon by a hidden band of psychotics.
* THE PINK PANTHER is back on the summer schedule, set for an Aug. 5
premiere. First dated for July 22, late last year MGM pushed the remake's
release back to Sept. 23.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* HEROIN TOWN, the controversial documentary by first time filmmaker Josh
Goldbloom will be making it's East coast premiere at the 14th annual
Philadelphia Film Festival. Winner of the Best New Feature award at The
Silver Lake Film Festival, Todd David Schwartz of CBS Radio says "FOUR
STARS." You can visit the website at http://www.herointownmovie.com
* Pasadena Pictures' production and talent manager Zack Urbina
(www.imdb.com/name/nm1413904) is in final talks to produce CIGAR, the next
short film from acclaimed writer Stephen Keep Mills
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0444791/). Mills' previous effort, the short HOTEL
LOBBY, was nominated for a Young Artist Award.
If you have a movie to promote, a screening to push, movie gossip missed by
the trades, fire a **one-paragraph, 50 words-or-less** GUNN SHOT to
elstongunn@hotmail.com. If it's not **one paragraph, 50 words-or-less,**
it'll be tossed. Sorry.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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