Father Geek here with a hefty update from Elston packed full of the latest confirmed news from Hollywood to Cannes, buuut before I turn you over to our man Gunn I'd be amiss if I didn't mention a rash of entertainment related deaths from the past week...
First the longtime voice of Fred Flintstone died... Henry Corden, the voice of cartoon caveman Fred Flintstone's "Yabba-dabba-doo!" died of emphysema Thursday in Encino, Calif.. He was 85.
He took over as the loudmouth Fred Flintstone when original voice Alan Reed died in 1977.
His first film role was in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" in 1947. He was frequently cast as a heavy, appearing in films like "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" and "The Ten Commandments," and in TV shows such as "Dragnet," "Perry Mason" and "Gunsmoke."
He moved into voice acting in the 1960s, including "Jonny Quest," "Josie and the Pussycats" and "The New Tom & Jerry Show."
Secondly Comic actor Howard Morris, best known for his portrayal of Ernest Bass on Andy Griffith, died in Los Angeles also at 85.
Morris had a long career in show business, from being a key player in the funtastic acting ensemble of Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows'' in the 1950s, to his time on the Griffith Show, to providing the voices for dozens of animated characters, including Beetle Bailey and Atom Ant.
He also directed TV shows and motion pictures, including the pilot episode of the series "Get Smart,'' the movie "With Six you get Eggroll,'' and the film version of the Woody Allen creation "Don't Drink the Water''.
Actor Chuck Layne has died in Los Angeles at the young age of 41.
He appeared in recent motion pictures that included "Starsky and Hutch," "Spiderman II" and "Anger Management."
On television, he was in shows like "The West Wing," "Judging Amy," "Will & Grace" and "Just Shoot Me."
Then Natalya Gundareva, one of Russia's most popular actresses for the last 30 years, died in Moscow of complications from a stroke. She was 56.
She was voted Best Actress of the Year by "Soviet Screen" magazine 4 times during her career.
After she gained worldwide acclaim for her early stage roles, she brought energy and emotion to her role in the 1973 film "Hello and Goodbye," following it with Andrei Smirnov's great "Autumn".
Also Mexican TV exec Adrian Vargas Guajardo died from injuries from an accident on an all terrain vehicle in the Valle de Bravo (Father Geek attended the Mexican scout Camp Aztec there 2 years) outside Mexico City. He was just 41 years old.
Guajardo was V.P. of MVS Comunicaciones, one of Mexico's largest television platforms as well as musical director of MVS Radio and President of internet giant Adnet. He spent his entire career with MVS companies, which was founded and run by his father, Joaquin Vargas Gomez. MVS runs the microwave transmission pay TV network Multivision, as well as a very large chain of radio stations and Internet providers.
We here at Geek World Headquarters in Austin are saddened by their loss...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Hugo Weaving is joining the cast of V for VENDETTA, playing the title
character V opposite Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Rupert Graves and Stephen
Fry. Weaving replaced James Purefoy, who originally was cast in the role but
has left the production.
* Drea de Matteo, KaDee Strickland (FEVER PITCH), Sam Shepard and Bruce Dern
are set to join Jason Patric in the independent feature film WALKER. The
gritty drama set in 1957 centers on a small-town charmer forced to make
difficult, heartbreaking decisions in his fight to save his two daughters.
Matt Williams is directing from a script he co-wrote with Alex Paraskevas.
* George Clooney will star in MICHAEL CLAYTON for writer/director Tony
Gilroy, Section Eight, Samuels Media, Mirage Enterprises and Castle Rock
Entertainment. The film is about an in-house "fixer" at a major New York law
firm. For 15 years he's worked behind the scenes to make clients' personal
problems disappear. The story takes place over the four worst and last days
in his career.
* Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher are teaming up for THE GUARDIAN, an
action-drama for Touchstone Pictures and Beacon Entertainment. The story
centers on a rebellious young man who enlists in the Coast Guard where he
forms a mentor-friendship with a legendary rescue swimmer who lost his crew
in a fatal crash. Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE) is directing.
* Hilary Duff is joining the cast of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2 for 20th Century
Fox, reprising the role she played in the 2003 hit. Duff returns as the
daughter of the characters played by Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, who are
set for the sequel. Also on board is Eugene Levy. The sequel sees Martin's
brood facing off against Levy's perfect family of eight blond children.
* Evan Rachel Wood will star in the untitled Julie Taymor musical, a love
story directed by Taymor that will use classic Beatles songs. The story
centers on an American girl and a British boy and is set against the
backdrop of the social upheaval of the 1960s. Although not about the Fab
Four, the musical will use their songs to drive the narrative, with the
actors singing and dancing to the classic tunes. Dick Clement and Ian La
Frenais wrote the script.
* Christopher Eccleston is set to star in DOUBLE LIFE for writer/director
Joe Ahearne. Pic is a non-naturalistic tale of love and obsession, set in
Budapest. Eccleston plays a man who falls in love with two women who appear
to be twins, but turn out to be the same person.
* Teri Polo, Craig Kilborn, Carmen Electra, Kate Mara, Amanda Walsh, John
Carroll Lynch and Cynthia Stevenson have joined the cast of New Line's
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. The comedy stars Ryan Pinkston as a 17-year-old
compulsive liar whose tall tales begin to come true. Christian Charles is
directing.
* Austin Nichols (WIMBLEDON) and Paul Wesley ("American Dreams") have been
tapped for roles in Jason Wiles' LENEXA, 1 MILE. The Midwestern drama also
stars William Baldwin, Michael Beach, Jennifer Hall, Timothy Ryan Hensel,
Chris Klein, Jason Ritter, Michael Rooker and Josh Stewart.
* Eion Bailey will star in MOUNT OF OLIVES, a Middle Eastern variation on
ROMEO AND JULIET, for writer/director Mitch Davis. Linda Hardy and F. Murray
Abraham also star.
* Bob Hoskins, Lois Smith, Dash Mihok and Brad William Henke have joined the
cast of Focus Features' TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY, starring Adrien
Brody, Diane Lane and Ben Affleck. Allen Coulter directs the pic about a
detective investigating the death of TV's Superman, George Reeves.
* Richard Gere and Liam Neeson are signed to star in David Von Ancken's
SERAPHIM FALLS, written by Von Ancken and Abbey Everett Jaques, for Icon
Entertainment. Billed as a psychological action movie, the film is set just
after the end of the American Civil War. Neeson plays an army colonel who
vows to kill Gere's character whatever the cost and pursues him across the
West.
* Leelee Sobieski and Donald Faison are starring in THE OPTIMIST, an indie
feature directed by Marius Balchunas and being produced by 2Loop Films. Pic
centers on a family of Russian immigrants whose home is taken over by two
local car thieves. Sobieski plays a daughter who wants out of her home and
falls for one of the thieves. Rade Serbedzija (EYES WIDE SHUT) plays
Sobieski's father again, but this time as a Russian-Jewish clarinetist.
* Sophia Bush and Brittany Snow are in final talks to star in 20th Century
Fox's JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE, described as a high school take on THE FIRST
WIVES CLUB, about a trio of girls from different social groups who band
together to seek revenge on the school's resident stud who has broken their
hearts. They set him up to fall for the new girl in town, just so she can
dump him and break his heart. Jesse Metcalfe ("Desperate Housewives")
already has been cast as the title character.
* Michelle Pfeiffer has signed on to star in I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN for
producer Scott Rudin and Bauer Martinez. Amy Heckerling is directing the
romantic comedy from her own script about a successful professional woman in
trouble with her love life.
* Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan and Woody Harrelson are set to join John C.
Reilly, Lily Tomlin and Maya Rudolph in Robert Altman's next movie, A
PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, a spin-off from Garrison Keillor's legendary U.S.
radio variety show. Keillor has written the script and will appear as
himself in the movie. Kevin Kline is in talks to join the cast. Pic is being
produced by Altman's Sandcastle 5 Prods and is based on the fictionalized
premise that Keillor's multi-award-winning show is being shut down after 30
years. As the ensemble of performers, musicians and back-stage crew prepare
for the final live broadcast, long-simmering passions boil to the surface
while an imperious stage manager struggles to hold everyone together. Streep
and Tomlin play sisters, while Lohan is a sexy ingenue. A menacing stranger,
who might just be the angel of death, stalks in the wings, but the show must
go on.
* Jordana Brewster will star in the horror/thriller WATER'S EDGE for
Constantin Film, Out of the Blue and Gruber Films. Pic follows a local girl
hired by a group of young vacationers as their designated houseboat driver
on Arizona's Lake Powell. The floating party turns into a nightmare as a
brutal murderer begins to kill the revelers one by one. Chris Applebaum will
direct.
* Former adult star Jasmin St. Claire, model Vida Guerra, Charles
Shaughnessy ("The Nanny"), Larry Drake (AMERICAN PIE 2) and Richard Riehle
(MYSTERIOUS SKIN) have signed on to NATIONAL LAMPOON PRESENTS DORM DAZE II,
now lensing on the Queen Mary. Returning from the original DORM DAZE are
Danielle Fishel, Chris Owen, James DeBello, Marieh Delfino and Tony Denman
as well as helmers David and Scott Hillenbrand.
* Lauren Lee Smith ("The L Word") joins the cast of DreamWorks and Lakeshore
Entertainment's THE LAST KISS, starring alongside Zach Braff, Jacinda
Barrett and Rachel Bilson in the Tony Goldwyn-directed remake.
* Dean Cain and Burt Young have completed voicework for indie toon FIREDOG.
Pic, about a dog with a fear of fire, also boasts the voices of Lauren
Bacall, Tom Arnold, Tony Danza, Beverly D'Angelo, Michael Madsen and the
late Frank Gorshin. Scott Duthie is directing.
* Eight-year-old Jillian Henry has been tapped for a role in Sony's THE
BENCHWARMERS for Happy Madison and Revolution. Rob Schneider, David Spade,
Jon Heder, Jon Lovitz, Craig Kilborn and Molly Sims star for director Dennis
Dugan.
* Twelve-year-old Josh Hutcherson (KICKING & SCREAMING, upcoming ZATHURA)
will play Robin Williams' son in Columbia's RV. Will Arnett, Cheryl Hines,
Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Daniels and Carly Schroeder also star in the pic,
which Barry Sonnenfeld is helming for Red Wagon. Hutcherson will also voice
a character in the English-dubbed version of Ha-yao Miyazaki's HOWL'S MOVING
CASTLE.
* Kathy Bates has signed on to star in Mary McGuckian's FUNNY FARM, joining
Malcolm McDowell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rupert Graves, Lucy Davis and Ian
Hart. Film is set in a celebrity drug and alcohol rehab clinic.
* Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are in final negotiations to star in BATHORY,
which Delpy will direct from her own script for Bauer Martinez. It's about
the legendary Elizabeth Bathory, who inspired many a vampire myth with
sadistic rituals that included bathing in the blood of virgins.
* Mike Epps has been tapped to play Richard Pryor in a feature film on the
comedian's life. Walter Hill will direct, and Caleb Kane (THESE CITY WALLS)
will pen the script. Pryor and his wife, Jennifer Lee Pryor, are producing
via their Indigo Prods. banner.
* Matthew Modine and Richard Griffiths are set to star in the romantic
comedy OPA for Cinema Seven and director Udayan Prasad. Project follows the
story of an American archeologist who arrives in Greece to fulfill his late
father's work of finding the Chalice of St. John.
* Laura Linney and Julie Walters will star with Rupert Grint (HARRY POTTER)
in DRIVING LESSONS for writer/director Jeremy Brock. Pic is the first from
production company RubberTreePlant. It's a comedy/drama about a shy teenage
boy who starts to escape from the influence of his domineering mother when
he goes to work for a retired actress.
* Colin Hanks will star in THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD for Playtone and Sidney
Kimmel Entertainment. Kevin Kline is in negotiations to also star in the
movie, which follows the foibles of a down-on-his-luck magician/illusionist
and his assistant as they re-invigorate his career. Tom Hanks will make a
special appearance in the film playing his son Colin's on-screen father. The
project is to be directed by Sean McGinly from his screenplay.
* Dennis Hopper has signed to star in AMERICA, Jerzy Skolimowski's
adaptation of Susan Sontag's 2001 novel IN AMERICA. Set in the late 19th
century, the film stars Isabelle Huppert as Polish actress Maryna
Zatezowska, who immigrates to the U.S. and travels to California to found a
utopian commune. Hopper will play an impresario who revives the actress'
career. Helen Mirren also has joined the cast and Harvey Keitel is in talks
for a role. Frederic Raphael scripted.
* Kelsey Grammer will play Beast in X-MEN 3 for 20th Century Fox, Marvel
Entertainment and director Matthew Vaughn. Vinnie Jones is set for the
bad-guy role of Juggernaut and Maggie Grace ("Lost") is in talks to play the
role of Kitty Pryde, a beauty who can walk through walls. Studio is also
searching for an actor to play Angel, a handsome winged mutant who is
ashamed of his feathery appendages.
* Jeremy Northam and Fionnula Flanagan have signed on to star in a Thelma
Production Russia and Big Star/Future Films co-production titled CHECKMATE.
The film is a psychological thriller that chronicles the lives of the
members of the Lazarov family and their dark secrets.
* Amanda Peet and Dermot Mulroney will star in GRIFFIN AND PHOENIX for
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Gold Circle. Ed Stone will direct from his
own screenplay about two lovers who are unaware of the tragic secret each
possesses.
* Kevin James will star in Sony's MONSTER HUNTER, a big-scale live-action
family adventure being written by Robert L. Baird and Daniel Gerson
(MONSTERS, INC.). He'll play a child psychologist who can actually see the
monsters that torment kids from closets and under beds. He uses that skill
to vanquish the beasts until he meets a particularly nasty one.
* Topher Grace is joining the cast of Sony's SPIDER-MAN 3 alongside
returning thesps Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco. Grace and
Thomas Haden Church will both star as Spidey nemeses, though their exact
characters are being kept under tight wraps.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Clive Barker is writing the treatment for DEMONIK with Barker and John Woo
attached as producers. Barker has the option to write, having begun a
treatment that is being shopped to studios by Woo's Tiger Hill
Entertainment. The video game already is under way from Tiger Hill, game
developer Terminal Reality and game publisher Majesco.
* Chris Robinson will direct an untitled musical ensemble comedy set in an
Atlanta hip-hop roller-skating rink. Shooting is scheduled for the summer in
Atlanta. Overbrook Entertainment will produce. Dallas Austin, Jody Gerson
and T-Boz, a member of the pop group TLC, also will take producer credits.
T-Boz and producer/songwriter Austin came up with the story, inspired by
Austin's experiences growing up. Tina Chism, Antwone Fisher, Gina Prince
Bythewood and Joe Robert Cole are on board to write the screenplay.
* Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up the spec script THE DIONAEA HOUSE by
Eric Heisserer for Heyday Films to produce. The story follows a married man
who has grown apart from his old friends. When one of them commits a
double-murder suicide, the men feel compelled to investigate, eventually
stumbling upon an evil force that perpetuates itself through tract housing.
Heisserer created a Web site last fall, www.dionaea-house.com, to build the
mythology of the project.
* David Lynch will make INLAND EMPIRE for StudioCanal. The project is being
kept top secret.
* Weinstein Co. secured rights to the new project STORMBREAKER centering on
14-year-old special agent Alex Rider, hero of Anthony Horowitz's series of
novels about a reluctant teenage superspy. Geoffrey Sax (WHITE NOISE) will
direct the project from a screenplay by Horowitz based on his own novel.
* Brian Levant will direct PLANET TERRY for New Line Cinema and Original
Film. It tells the story of a science fiction enthusiast who finds out that
he is actually an alien who has been placed on Earth as part of an
intergalactic witness protection program. Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio wrote
the screenplay, which is based on an unpublished comic book by Rob Liefeld.
* David Franzoni (GLADIATOR) has optioned rights to adapt Park Chan-wook's
2000 hit JOINT SECURITY AREA, the controversial drama about the
demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, but will instead use the
backdrop of the U.S.-Mexico border and illegal immigration. Franzoni also
will make his directing debut on the as-yet-untitled remake.
* Tim Skousen, who served as first assistant director on NAPOLEON DYNAMITE,
has written and will direct THE SASQUATCH DUMPLING GANG, a comedy about
several groups who converge as they search for the legendary apelike
creature. Trigger Street Independent and Crazy Dreams Prods. will produce.
* DreamWorks has optioned the rights to Ben Mezrich's UGLY AMERICANS: THE
TRUE STORY OF THE IVY LEAGUE COWBOYS WHO RAIDED THE ASIAN MARKETS FOR
MILLIONS. Trigger Street Prods. is set to produce. Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwright Robert Schenkkan will adapt the material. Project tells the true
story of John Malcolm, who in the mid-1990s, as a Princeton graduate, took a
job offer to be an arbitrage trader for a couple of expatriates in Japan.
There, Malcolm and his co-workers went from rags to riches and created the
American Dream half a world away until run-ins with the Yakuza and
governmental agents sent Malcolm on the run for his life.
* James Isaac will direct SKINWALKERS, a contemporary werewolf
action-thriller, for Lions Gate Films.
* David Cronenberg's next pic is PAINKILLERS, a futuristic story about a
detective who is sent undercover to save humanity in a world where surgery
is sex and pain is pleasure.
* Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group is prepping a follow-up to Stephen
Chow's KUNG FU HUSTLE. Chow and his writing team from the film, including
Tsang Kan Cheong, are working on a draft for the sequel.
* Antonio Banderas will direct a Spanish-language picture set during the
reign of Francisco Franco. Banderas also will produce the feature through
his Green Moon Prods. shingle.
* Renny Harlin will direct the action thriller RUN for Pierce/Williams
Entertainment and Arclight Films about a rookie Interpol agent who pulls
over an unsuspecting motorist for a traffic violation in Rome, triggering an
unrelenting car chase that catapults the city into chaos.
* Warren Beatty has plans for a second DICK TRACY film but is seeking a
ruling that he still owns the film and other rights.
* New Line has purchased Jango Sircus' spec script R5 about dueling snipers
and setting it up with BenderSpink. Story centers on the human chess match
played out on Los Angeles rooftops, triggered by a mysterious series of
shootings that prompt the L.A. expert to focus his suspicions on a South
African rival long presumed dead.
* MTV Films is in negotiations to pick up Andrew Cochran's comedy script
ADULT WORLD and set it up with Bona Fide Prods. Story revolves around a
Stanford coed who feels she's destined to be a poet and winds up working as
a clerk in a mom-and-pop adult bookstore.
* New Line bought the thriller spec TRAP DOOR form Sean Dickson for Smart
Entertainment to produce. Story concerns a hotshot exec who has eight hours
to tear apart his new Mulholland Drive home and find a safe that contains a
clue that will help him save his recently abducted wife.
* Crystal Sky has teamed with Screen Gems on a feature adaptation of the
vidgame TEKKEN, with plans to put the film into production in late fall.
Charles Stone (MR. 3000) will direct. He's rewriting a script by Michael
Colleary and Mike Werb (FACE/OFF). Project is one of two that Crystal Sky
picked up in turnaround at Dimension Films. The company also regained
control of the Marvel Comics title WEREWOLF BY NIGHT.
* Gerardo Olivares is shooting the ethnic soccer comedy THE GREAT MATCH, an
ironic take on globalism, for Greenlight Media and Wanda Films. It charts
the sometimes desperate efforts of Mongol nomads, Tuareg camel riders,
Greenland Eskimos and Amazon Indians to watch the 2002 World Cup soccer
final on TV. The Tuaregs, for example, have a TV set but no batteries. The
Mongols taptap into a public utility pole, but are then arrested by the
local military.
* WWE Films has acquired John Heffernan's script A CHANCE FOR BOTH BARRELS.
The hard-edged actioner about a mercenary and his quest to bring a killer to
justice will be tailored as a vehicle for an as-yet-unspecified WWE ring
star.
* John Carpenter is teaming with Titan Prods. on PSYCHOPATH, a new project
to be developed concurrently as a videogame and film. Carpenter will oversee
the game and direct its produced scenes and is attached to helm and co-write
the film, along with Todd Farmer (JASON X). It's about an ex-CIA operative
called back into action to stop a serial killer who begins to question his
own sanity.
* Lexi Alexander will direct LIFE 'N' LYRICS for Fiesta Prods. Pic, which
will star Ashley Walters, will begin shooting in June. It's described as 8
MILE meets ROMEO AND JULIET as a love story set against the backdrop of
London's urban music scene. Pic follows South London DJ Danny and his crew
as they battle onstage against their North London rivals. Danny unwittingly
falls for a singer from the rival crew, but soon realizes the danger of
their taboo relationship. Ken Williams scripted.
* Bruce Robinson (THE KILLING FIELDS) has been set to adapt and direct THE
RUM DIARY, the first novel by the late Hunter S. Thompson. Johnny Depp will
again play the gonzo journalist. It's Thompson's chronicle of journalism,
drinking and carousing in Puerto Rico in the late 1950s.
* Alfonso Arau will direct GOLD ON EAGLE STREET, an English-lingo contempo
fable set in East Los Angeles. Alejandro Fernandez will star. Pic's plot
follows a man working as a dump truck driver whose hobby is creating wrought
iron art. When he finds a cache of unusual coins, he trades them in for
scrap metal to create his art, not realizing the coins' immense value.
Ultimately he crafts a sculpture for his sister's grave out of the coins and
unwittingly achieves his goal of becoming an admired artist in the process.
Robert Dorff wrote the script.
* Jan Kounen (BLUEBERRY) will direct 99 FRANCS, a much-awaited adaptation of
Frederoc Beigbeider's Gallic bestseller, produced by Alain Goldman. Kounen
will rework an existing script penned by Gallic scribes Nicolas and Bruno,
with the aim of shooting the film early in 2006. The dark comic book caused
a sensation in Gaul with its first person diatribe against modern
consumerist society, seen through the eyes of a cynical advertising exec
whose efforts to get sacked from his job backfire as he keeps getting
promoted.
* Soccer legend Pele is in talks with writer Freddie Fields to create a
sequel to the Fields-penned soccer-war drama ESCAPE TO VICTORY. Pele starred
in the 1981 original directed by John Huston along with Sylvester Stallone,
Max Von Sydow and Michael Caine.
* Goran Paskaljevic will direct THE OPTIMIST. The new film, a black comedy,
will again star Lazar Ristovski. He will play a hypnotist traveling to
present-day Serbia who sells hope and happiness to the people. It completes
the director's Serbian trilogy that began with POWDERKEG and continued with
A MIDWINTER NIGHT'S DREAM.
* Fortress Entertainment has optioned the Stephen Marlowe novel THE
LIGHTHOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD and has hired Merritt Johnson to adapt
the dramatic thriller based on the mysterious disappearance of Edgar Allan
Poe. Story concerns the disappearance of the 19th century American author
and poet just prior to his death. In 1849, he was found in a Baltimore
gutter, drunk and dying, after having been missing for a week.
* Kevin MacDonald will direct Michael Finkel's upcoming TRUE STORY for
Paramount and Plan B. It's Finkel's story of being fired from the New York
Times for falsifying parts of a profile of young boys working on West
African cocoa plantations. He then formed a bond with murder suspect
Christian Longo, who had stolen Finkel's identity and was hiding under the
name Michael Finkel in Mexico when he was arrested for the murders of his
family.
* Universal and Working Title have acquired WORST CASE, a crime thriller
script by Rafael Yglesias and Tom Schulman.
* Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa have set up THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK, a
script by Allan Loeb, at Sony and will produce via their Bona Fide Prods.
shingle. Set in New York City, pic concerns a recent college grad who's at
loose ends, a situation that's not improved when he's seduced by his
powerful father's 30-year-old mistress.
* Dany Boon will direct LA MAISON DU BONHEUR (THE HOUSE OF HAPPINESS) for
producer Claude Berri. The comedy tells of a miser's disastrous attempt to
loosen up about spending money, when he sets about buying a house in the
country for his family.
* Ekachai Uekrongtham will direct the supernatural thriller THE COFFIN about
a young man who experiences a series of terrifying incidents after lying in
a coffin for one night. Practice is a Thai custom to try to cheat death and
rid oneself of bad luck.
* Paul Verhoeven will next direct the World War II thriller BLACK BOOK, the
story of a young Jewish woman who joins the Resistance and narrowly survives
the war in Holland, but is falsely denounced as a traitor. Entangled in a
web of someone else's deceit, she sets out to discover who betrayed her. The
Dutch, German and English characters in the story will each speak in their
native languages.
* Frank Miller is writing a sequel to SIN CITY for Robert Rodriguez and
Dimension Films.
* Writer Jim Uhls (FIGHT CLUB) has optioned film rights to David Bowker's
upcoming mystery HOW TO BE BAD for his Peculiar Films shingle. It centers on
an average guy in his 20s whose life is turned upside-down when an old flame
gives him a list with three names on it and suggests she'll be his if he
will snuff out one of them.
* New Line bought Jake Wade Wall's AMUSEMENT, purchasing the horror spec
preemptively and setting it up with producers Mike Macari and Neal
Edelstein. Wall's script centers on a traumatized woman who's questioned by
a cop and a psychiatrist about three stories -- involving a clown, a hotel
and a convoy -- that involve her and two of her female friends from
childhood.
* Barbara Kopple has inked a deal to direct digital feature THE EDGE OF
MADNESS for Green Dog Films about a female journo covering the bloody war in
Sarajevo.
* Luc Besson has started directing Mia Farrow and Freddie Highmore in his 3D
and live action English-language kid's feature ARTHUR. Highmore plays
Arthur, a little boy who turns to the help of the pixie-like Minimoys to
help save his grandfather's house. Farrow plays his mum. Madonna, David
Bowie and Snoop Dogg provide voices for the animated characters.
* Twentieth Century Fox has optioned Sam Llewellyn's trilogy of LITTLE
DARLINGS novels, for Jigsaw Films to produce. The Darlings are three bad
children who manage to chase away every nanny their parents hire. But when
Nanny Pete, who is really a burglar in drag, comes to look after them, he
sweeps them off into a series of improbable adventures. The screenplay will
be written by Joe Ballarini.
* Frederic Golchan has set up a remake of a Patrice Leconte film, INTIMATE
STRANGERS, at Paramount Pictures and romantic comedy CHAOS THEORY at Warner
Independent Pictures. STRANGERS is the story of a woman who goes into an
office that she believes is that of her new shrink and bares her soul to an
accountant. Bob Nelson, who wrote Alexander Payne's upcoming pic, NEBRASKA,
will adapt.
* Carlos Saura (SEVILLANAS, TANGO) will attack a third great melancholy
music style, directing FADOS, a celebration of Portugal's classic, lamenting
acoustic folk songs. Set against a re-creation of Lisbon's "Fados Nights"
talent competition, the film will combine fado performances from top
artists, a fictionalized story line, dance and archive footage.
* Gillies MacKinnon (HIDEOUS KINKY) will direct THE SNOW GOOSE, starring
Olivier Martinez, Emily Blunt, Billy Connolly and Jenny Agutter. Set in
England during the early years of World War II, it's the tale of an
emotionally and physically scarred outsider, his friendship with a young
woman and the injured snow goose that brings them together. James V. Hart
(SAHARA) adapted the screenplay from Paul Gallico's novel.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* DreamWorks Animation SKG and Aardman Animations announced the fourth film
on which they will collaborate, a prehistoric comedy called CROOD AWAKENING,
written by John Cleese, for 2008 release.
* The Jim Henson Co. is planning to make a sequel to its 1982 fantasy
classic THE DARK CRYSTAL, titled THE POWER OF THE DARK CRYSTAL. David Odell
and Annette Duffy have written the script. Pic, which will start shooting
this fall for delivery early in 2007, will combine live-action animatronic
characters with CG animation to represent their world. The story is set many
years after the first film. Original heroes Jen and Kira are now king and
queen, and must fight to save their kingdom when the crystal is once again
split.
* Asterix the Gaul, star of France's most successful movie franchise in
recent times, is poised to make his big screen comeback. Thomas Langmann has
come up with a new script, ASTERIX AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES with director
Frederic Forestier attached.
* Sony Pictures Entertainment has purchased THE HISTORIAN, Elizabeth
Kostova's upcoming first novel for Red Wagon to produce. The novel mixes
history and mythology to re-create the world of Dracula and vampires. A
decade in the works, the adventure tale centers around a young woman who
searches Europe for her missing father, who took on the challenge of
locating the grave of Vlad the Impaler. Along the way, she comes across a
slew of bloodsuckers who try to stop her.
* Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron are teaming up with long time
collaborators/producers Frida Torresblanco and Bertha Navarro to form a
production shingle. Still nameless, the company aims to foster Spanish and
English-language pics in Spain. First pic to fall under banner is Del Toro's
dark fairy tale PAN'S LABYRINTH. Del Toro is also developing an
English-language pic based on Alexandre Dumas' literary masterpiece, THE
COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. Company is also coproducing the ghost story EL
ORFANATO (THE ORPHANAGE) with Rodar y Rodar. Additionally, Del Toro has just
turned in the screenplay for HELLBOY II to producer Revolution Studios.
* Producers Tony Romano and Michel Shane have teamed with Italian filmmaker
Marco Bartoccioni on JOURNEY TO TULUM, which will be based on Federico
Fellini's relationship with Carlos Castaneda, the author who first wrote of
his experiences with mysticism in 1968 with THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN: A
YAQUI WAY OF KNOWLEDGE. Bartoccioni is working with Italian screenwriter
Tonino Guerra (AMARCORD, BLOWUP). Bartoccioni also plans to add an American
and a French scribe to the project. The film will be shot on HD and combined
with animation from Italian artist Milo Manara.
* Foundation 9 and Circle Of Confusion are working together on adaptations
of GIANT KILLER, a graphic novel by Dan Brereton and DEATH, JR., which will
be released for Sony's PSP in July.
* Regency Enterprises has inked a deal to remake Thai hit thriller SHUTTER
into an English-language horror pic. Original follows a young photog and his
girlfriend who find mysterious shadows in his photographs that may be tied
to their involvement in a hit-and-run accident.
* Roger Kass and Josh Braun are set to produce a big-screen adaptation of
John Wagner and Arthur Ranson's graphic novel BUTTON MAN: THE KILLING GAME
about a small group of jaded millionaires who pit their own personal
assassins against each other in a clandestine, deadly high stakes game.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* TIME magazine names their All-Time 100 Best Movies at
http://www.time.com/time/100movies/
* The official website for Adam Green's HATCHET with a cast including Joel
Moore, Mercedes McNab, Deon Richmond, Kane Hodder, Robert Englund is at
http://www.hatchetmovie.com/
* VH-1's HOLLYWOOD SECRETS REVEALED is on the air. Their website is at
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/vh1_news_presents/90947/episode.jhtml. The
first episode is "Movie Screw Ups."
* ONE LUCKY FAN, a short about Paris Hilton and celebrity culture, can be
seen at
http://www.atomfilms.com/landing/landingIndex.jsp?id=one_lucky_fan&mature=accept.
* The premiere for a highly anticipated modern day action-western entitled
JUDGES will be June 5th in Norfolk, VA. The Sergio Leone inspired film
directed by Stephen Patrick Walker, was shot in the Super 35mm format with
a direct influence from "Judges" in the bible. Three heroes led by
gunslinger Buddy Colt (DJ Perry) come to dethrone a corrupt ruler. (Paul
Ricioppo) Advanced trailer and online comics at
http://www.judgesthemovie.com. It is currently at the newly acquired
Dimension Films being considered for purchase after being screened by
producer Cecil Chambers with a 1st Look deal. They will shop wide after the
premiere on June 5th.
* Pasadena Pictures proudly announces the release of another promo spot,
this time featuring writer/director/sculptor Germán Alonso. Alonso is
represented by production and talent manager Zack Urbina. The promo can be
viewed at http://www.pasadenapictures.com/videos/G-Promo.mov
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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