Father Geek here with Elston's regular recap report on all that weekly tinseltown confirmed business that may have passed under your filmic radar while you were working your buns off last week. Well, we've got your back, and AICN is where you can catch-up every week. Soooo relax, grab a mug of steaming java and ease on into...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Kate Winslet is in talks to star in LITTLE CHILDREN for New Line Cinema.
Winslet would play the role of Sarah in the adaptation of Tom Perrotta's
book, which Todd Field is set to direct. The film is set in a suburban town
where perfect parents rear perfect children by day and surf Internet porn
and have affairs by night. Winslet's character is a mother who has a fling
with a stay-at-home dad.
* Josh Coxx has joined the cast of SHOCKWAVE playing a helicopter pilot
stranded on a remote island in the indie actioner, which Jay Andrews is
directing.
* Elijah Kelley (28 DAYS) and Dante Basco (LOVE DON'T COST A THING) have
joined the cast of New Line's TAKE THE LEAD playing New York high schoolers
in the pic, starring Antonio Banderas as a ballroom dance teacher.
Production begins April 23 in Toronto.
* Clayne Crawford (A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG) will star opposite Jim
Caviezel in UNKNOWN, playing a rookie cop in the indie thriller, with Greg
Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano, Bridget Moynahan, Jeremy Sisto and Peter Stormare
rounding out the cast. Simon Brand directs.
* Nia Long will reprise her role in BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE 2 for 20th Century
Fox/Regency. Comedy sequel again stars Martin Lawrence as a FBI agent who
goes undercover in Big Momma drag. John Whitesell will direct, set to begin
lensing April 25 in Los Angeles and New Orleans. Zachary Levi and Emily
Procter are also joining the cast. Levi plays Kevin, an awkward FBI agent
with a crush on a co-worker. Kevin is too nervous and shy to make his move
until he hooks up with Lawrence's character. Procter will play the
disgruntled wife of a workaholic who is under investigation for murder.
While undercover as the nanny in the household, Big Momma shows Procter how
to slow down, calm down and reconnect with her family.
* Sean Astin will give voice to a cat raised as a dog in Imagi Services'
upcoming computer-animated movie CAT TALE. Elisha Cuthbert, Stanley Tucci
and Alan Cumming round out the feline cast. Astin will play Rover, a cat who
grows up in Dogtown by accident and returns to Catopolis to find his roots.
Cuthbert will voice Cleo, Rover's love interest, who also is sought after by
Simon, a ruthless cat-box-litter exec, voiced by Tucci. Cumming is set to
play Newton, Rover's guide and friend in Catopolis. Supporting characters
will be voiced by Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Idol, Rip Torn and
Chazz Palminteri, among others. Flix Ip directs from a script by Aaron
Mendelsohn and Kevin Munroe.
* Beyonce Knowles is in negotiations to star in DreamWorks' DREAMGIRLS, Bill
Condon's adaptation of the Broadway hit that's a thinly veiled story of the
rise of Diana Ross and the Supremes. The film retains Tom Eyen's book and
lyrics as well as Henry Krieger's music.
* Ray Liotta, Rachel Blanchard, Glenne Headly and Shaun Sipos are set to
star in the indie comedy COMEBACK SEASON for writer/director Bruce
McCulloch, Endgame Entertainment, Myriad Pictures and ThinkFilm. The pic
follows a married man who, after cheating on his wife, moves in next door
with the local high school football star as they both try to win back the
hearts of the women they love.
* Timothy Hutton will star in THE KOVAK BOX for director Daniel Monzon (THE
HEART OF THE WARRIOR), Filmax Entertainment and Estudios. David Kelly, Lucia
Jimenez and Gary Piquer complete the key cast. Hutton plays a sci-fi writer
who is trapped after being lured to an island to host a conference. Monzon
and Jorge Guerricaechevarria (FERPECT CRIME) scripted.
* Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid and Morgan Freeman (in the role created by
Otis Young) are in talks to star in LAST FLAG FLYING, a sequel to THE LAST
DETAIL that takes place 30 years later. Darryl Ponicsan has written the
sequel.
* Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies have been cast in the supernatural
thriller WHISPER for director Stewart Hendler and Gold Circle Films. Callies
plays the girlfriend of a convict/kidnapper, to be played by Holloway, in
the story of a New England-set kidnapping of a young boy. The screenplay is
from producer-turned-writer Chris Borrelli.
* Forest Whitaker will star as Idi Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, a
political drama that Kevin MacDonald is directing for Fox Searchlight. James
McAvoy also has been cast to star in the film, which is being produced by
Slate Films along with Cowboy Films. Film Four and DNA are co-financing the
project. Set in the 1970s, the film is based on Giles Foden's award-winning
novel that blends history and fiction. It centers on a Scottish doctor who,
though a twist of fate, becomes the hand-picked personal physician of the
then-new president of Uganda.
* Disney is in talks with Mark Wahlberg to star in a film based on the
underdog story of Vince Papale, a Philadelphia Eagles fan who answered an
open tryout and emerged with a spot on the team. The film will be directed
this summer by Ericson Core for Mayhem Pictures. Brad Gann and Mike Rich
wrote the script. Papale was a 30-year old bartender who'd lost his teaching
job and his wife, when incoming Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil decided to
shake up his lethargic team by inviting fans to compete for a roster spot.
* Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette will star in Big Beach's
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, a road-trip comedy for directors Jonathan Dayton and
Valerie Faris. Michael Arndt wrote the script about the cross-country
journey in a VW bus of a family bent on getting an 8-year-old to the finals
of a beauty pageant.
* Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss and Kim Cattrall star in
SNOW CAKE for Rhombus Media and Revolution Films. Marc Evans directs from a
script by Angela Pell. It centers on the friendship between a
high-functioning autistic woman and a shy, tortured man who is traumatized
after being involved in a fatal car accident.
* Aishwarya Rai will star in Rajkumar Santoshi's SAAMNA (CONFRONTATION),
about an Indian guru who exploits his devotees. Pic co-stars Ajay Devgan and
Akshay Kumar while Nana Patekar will play the guru.
* Olivier Martinez and Agnes Bruckner have signed on to star in
MGM/Lakeshore's werewolf film BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE, adpated by Ehren Kruger
from Annette Curtis Klause's novel about a teenage werewolf who has spent
her life trying to hide the fact that she is part wolf. She must choose
between her love for a human and her family after her relationship with a
visiting American threatens to expose her secret. German helmer Katja von
Garnier directs.
* Kristin Chenoweth has boarded Columbia Pictures' RV, starring Robin
Williams, for director Barry Sonnenfeld. The comedy follows a man and his
dysfunctional family who rent an RV and head for the Rockies, ending up in a
campground community. Chenoweth plays Mary Jo, a stay-at-home business woman
who sells products out of her trailer and a member of that community. Cheryl
Hines is also cast. Original script was written by Geoff Rodkey. Lowell Ganz
and Babaloo Mandel wrote the most recent draft.
* Gina Gershon, Wyclef Jean, Sunny Mabrey, Johnny Messner and Brian Stokes
Mitchell have joined the cast of HDNet Films' drama ONE LAST THING... for
director Alex Steyermark. It stars Cynthia Nixon as the mother of a
terminally ill son, played by Michael Angarano, who makes a bizarre last
request involving a supermodel.
* Ty Burrell (IN GOOD COMPANY) will star opposite Nicole Kidman and Robert
Downey Jr. in FUR for director Steven Shainberg (SECRETARY). He will play
Allan, the husband of famed '60s photographer Diane Arbus. Production begins
in New York in May.
* Adam Scott (THE AVIATOR) will star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in Focus
Features' untitled supernatural thriller. It's about a Midwesterner being
stalked by her ex-b.f. and haunted by nightmares of a past murder. Asif
Kapadia directs the thriller, now lensing in Austin, Texas.
* Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures have picked up the comedy CAMP
COUTURE to star Emma Roberts. Ian Southwood is writing the project. The
fish-out-of-water story follows a spoiled, trendy teen who is forced by her
parents to go to a "regular" camp filled with misfits and not the famed
elite fashion camp known as Camp Couture that she would like to attend.
* Michelle Rodriguez, Taryn Manning, Oliver Hudson, Hill Harper and Eric
Lively will star in the indie horror project THE BREED for director Nick
Mastandrea, First Look Media, DEJ Prods. and exec producer Wes Craven. The
project follows five young friends who vacation on a peaceful deserted
island only to discover that the canines they befriend are genetically
altered and possess a frighteningly high level of intelligence -- with an
appetite to match. Ian Somerhalder had been announced to star in the film
but since has dropped out.
* Ian Somerhalder is in negotiations to star in PULSE, a horror movie that
Jim Sonzero is directing for Dimension Films. Based on the Japanese horror
movie KAIRO and written by Ray Wright, the pic centers on a group of college
students who discover that a computer hacker friend of theirs unwittingly
pirated a strange wireless signal that opened a doorway for a terrifying
evil to cross over into the world. As it spreads, everyone in its path is
consumed, and the students must race to find a way to stop it. Kristen Bell
("Veronica Mars") and Steve Talley also star.
* Zooey Deschanel has been cast in FAILURE TO LAUNCH for Paramount Pictures
and Scott Rudin Prods. Deschanel joins Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew
McConaughey in the comedy about a thirtysomething guy whose parents are
desperate to get him to move out. When he finally meets the girl of his
dreams, he grows suspicious that his conniving parents might have had a hand
in the matter. Tom Dey is set to direct the picture from a script by Tom J.
Astle and Matt Ember.
* Lucy Liu will star in the horror/thriller RISE for Ghost House Pictures.
Written and to be directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, the film will begin
principal photography this summer. Liu will play a reporter who wakes up in
a morgue and discovers she's no longer among the living. She vows revenge
against the vampires responsible for putting her there and hunts them down
one by one. Kingsgate Films and Carsten Lorenz are producing.
* Barbra Streisand and her Barwood Films have joined the Gary Smith Co. and
Sonny Murray in acquiring the rights to MENDEL'S DWARF and have set Peter
Dinklage to star. The novel, by Simon Mawer, centers on the life and work of
Dr. Ben Lambert, a scientist who struggles to unravel the genetic secrets of
achondroplasia (dwarfism) as well as his entangled relationship with a
woman. Sonny Murray is scripting.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* New Line Cinema has picked up the rights to MEG, Steve Alten's horror
adventure about a prehistoric shark, with Jan de Bont on board to direct.
The story features a 80-foot-long prehistoric shark -- scientifically known
as Carcharodon megalodon and believed by some to be an ancestor of the great
white shark -- which terrorizes the California coast. Two men from opposite
points of view are forced to come together to neutralize the threat. Shane
Salerno is rewriting Alten's script. Producing are Ken Atchity, Nick
Nunziata, Guillermo Del Toro, Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Chi-Li Wong.
* Transition Productions co-founders Kevin Harrison and Kemp Curley are
directing FIRST DESCENT a snowboarding documentary and the first first
project of MD Films, a new film division Mountain Dew has created to produce
action/sports movies. Universal Pictures is in negotiations with PepsiCo. to
distribute the film.
* Brad Anderson will direct THE CRAZIES, a remake of George Romero's 1972
horror-thriller set up at Paramount-based Penn Station. Anderson will be
reteamed with writer Scott Kosar (THE MACHINIST). The pic will update the
storyline of the original, in which inhabitants of a small Pennsylvania town
are beset by death and insanity after a plane crash lets loose a secret
biological weapon into the water supply.
* Stephen Sommers will write and direct a remake of the 1951 sci-fi film
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE for Paramount and the Sommers Co. In the original,
scientists discover that another planet is veering dangerously close to
Earth, and they make plans for a small group of humans to leave the planet
before the inevitable deadly collision.
* Gold Circle Films has picked up the comedy spec RIZZLE PIZZLE SIZZLE by
Adam Farasati and Ethan Furman for producer Jennifer Klein. Pic is about a
former Rock, Paper, Scissors champion who reunites his ragtag team of
misfits to defeat his arch nemesis at the annual RPS tournament.
* Leigh Whannell and James Wan and Leigh Whannell (both of SAW) will direct
and write, respectively, the horror pic SILENCE for Universal and Lions
Gate.
* Noam Murro will direct STRANGERS, a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's STRANGERS
ON A TRAIN for Warner Bros. Pictures. Story concerns a psychiatrist who
murders an exec's clingy mistress and wants him to return the favor by
killing the shrink's sister. David Seltzer adapted the Patricia Highsmith
novel. Rand Ravich did a rewrite. Polly CohenPolly Cohen is the Warners exec
on the project.
* New Line has picked up the comedy JEFF THE DEMON from writers Tom
Scharpling and Joe Ventura for American Work and Radar Pictures. It's the
story of two high school losers who find a book that allows them to summon a
power from the netherworld. The demon, Jeff, helps them win every battle and
right every wrong in their lives, but they quickly discover that having all
of their dreams come true can cause problems.
* Simon West is in talks to direct a remake of the 1979 cult horror flick
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS for Screen Gems. Jake Wadewall is writing the script.
The studio also is developing a sequel called WHEN A STRANGER RETURNS.
* Stuart Beattie (COLLATERAL) will pen an Australian-set, period epic for
helmer Baz Luhrmann. The project, a romance that is being compared to GONE
WITH THE WIND, is being kept under wraps. Beattie will also rewrite
Universal's vidgame adaptation SPY-HUNTER, which is to star Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson with John Woo directing.
* Writer/director Cess Silvera (SHOTTAS) is in talks to direct rapper T.I.
in GRAND HUSTLE. Silvera, who scripted the drama, also is weighing offers
for SHOTTAS 2, a film he's written and will direct that would be a sequel to
a film never released due to piracy. Silvera has also directed the screen
debut of Jayceon Taylor (aka the Game) in THE MILLIONAIRE'S BOYS CLUB.
* Joshua Marston (MARIA FULL OF GRACE) will write and direct his next
project, temporarily titled THE IRAQI CONVOY PROJECT for Warner Independent
Pictures. It's based on the true story of American truckers who have made a
one-year commitment to drive goods for U.S. contractors through the Iraqi
war zone because of financial hardships back home. Cherry Road Films will
finance the development of the project.
* Phil Joanou has signed to direct Sony's GRIDIRON GANG, which rapper Xzibit
is in negotiations to board for Original Films. Script by Jeff Maguire
concerns a dedicated probation officer -- played by Dwayne "the Rock"
Johnson -- who puts together a football team of juvenile-detention inmates
to compete against local high school teams. Xzibit would star as the
assistant coach of the team.
* Richard Shepard (THE MATADOR) will write and direct SPRING BREAK IN BOSNIA
for Warner Independent, Intermedia and Cherry Road Films. Bosnia-set drama
is drawn from an Esquire magazine article by Scott Anderson about journos
Sebastian Junger and John Falk, who made a half-hearted attempt to catch
Radovan Karadzic, an alleged architect of ethnic cleansing. The
correspondents were promptly mistaken for CIA agents and came close to
finding their target.
* Jay Scherick and David Ronn (GUESS WHO) are in talks to write the
bigscreen version of BAYWATCH for DreamWorks. Pic is on the fast track with
the hope of a 2006 summer release. ContraFilm is producing with "Baywatch"
creators Michael Berk, Doug Schwartz and Greg Bonann. Michelle Berk will
exec produce and Eli Roth will co-produce.
* Betty Thomas is in negotiations with 20th Century Fox to direct JOHN
TUCKER MUST DIE, written by Jeff Lowell. It centers on the heartbreak
endured by three girls from different high school cliques. When each is
successively and unceremoniously dumped by the class heartthrob, they cross
social lines to collaborate on the ruination of their hunky nemesis.
* Paramount has picked up THE MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING, Mike Reiss' ("The
Simpsons") spec script preemptively and setting it up at Happy Madison.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Computer animation firm Critterpix Studios will produce the best-selling
children's book OLLIE THE OTTER, a 3D feature based on Kelly Alan
Williamson's book about a sea otter caught in a fisherman's net.
* Sony has acquired the Isaac Adamson novel TOKYO SUCKERPUNCH for Ed Solomon
to adapt into a feature for Tobey Maguire to topline. Maguire Entertainment
and Red Wagon will produce. Novel's protag Billy Chaka writes a column that
casts him as macho hero living in a surreal, amped-up Tokyo. When his book
gets turned into a movie, Chaka flies to the city for the premiere and hates
it enough to clash loudly with the director, who ends up murdered.
GUNN SHOTS
* Pasadena Pictures' production manager Zack Urbina
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1413904) has inked a deal to produce the limited
exhibition 35mm short film A CIGAR AT THE BEACH. Cigar was written and will
be directed by actor turned director Stephen Keep Mills
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0444791). Mills' previous short HOTEL LOBBY was
nominated for a Young Artist Award.
* Dallas Producer Andy Stark is in the final stages of post-production on
DANGALANG, an indie feature from first time-writer/director J. Fabian.
Expect a Dallas premiere this summer.
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
| 
