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Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP - News from the week that has past
Hey folks, Harry here with another of Elston Gunn's Weekly Recaps which so wonderfully encapsulates the weeks 'official' news from the world of the trades. So dig in and enjoy... Some good stuff here this week....
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jennifer Grey and Johnny Galecki join Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow and
Natasha Henstridge in BOUNCE for director Don Roos (THE OPPOSITE OF SEX).
* Leslie Nielsen will star in 2001: A SPACE TRAVESTY about a marshal who
tries to rescue the president and other world leaders who have been
kidnapped by aliens and turned into mutants.
* Julie Andrews and Sophie Thompson join Jeanne Tripplehorn in RELATIVE
VALUES based on the 1951 Noel Coward play.
* Christopher Lee will co-star as Saruman in New Line's adaptation of J.R.R.
Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
* Elizabeth Hurley and Vinessa Shaw are joining Sean Penn and Sarah Polley
in THE WEIGHT OF THE WATER for director Kathryn Bigelow.
* Mel Gibson will star in WHAT WOMEN WANT for director Nancy Meyers (THE
PARENT TRAP) and Paramount about a chauvinistic executive who is able to
hear what every woman he meets is really thinking. Shooting should begin
early next year.
* Natasha Henstridge and Joe Pantoliano join the indie flick A BETTER WAY TO
DIE for writer/director Scott Wiper, who also stars with Lou Diamond
Phillips and Andre Braugher.
* Melissa Sage Miller and Eliza Dushku will star in SOUL SURVIVOR for
Artisan Entertainment and writer/director Steve Carpenter about a young
woman who is lying unconscious in an emergency room and is having trouble
telling apart reality from hallucination after she thinks she lost her
boyfriend in a car accident in which she was driving. Luke Wilson is in
talks to take a role.
* Kiandra Maycock joins BITTERSWEET currently shooting in Florida with Heath
McKnight directing.
* Nicolas Cage is back in talks to star in CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN for
director Roger Michell (NOTTING HILL). Cage may start this film in the
spring in Italy after he wraps FAMILY MAN.
* Keanu Reeves is close to signing a deal to star in two back-to-back
sequels of THE MATRIX for writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski.
They're scheduled to begin a 250-day production schedule in Fall 2000.
Reeves will most likely shoot the remake SWEET NOVEMBER before the sequels.
That film is about a tycoon who falls for a woman who takes a new lover
every month, knowing she's not long for this world.
* Kate Hudson (200 CIGARETTES) joins Robert Altman's DR. T AND THE WOMEN.
She'll play Richard Gere's daughter, a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who is
planning her wedding.
* Michael Madsen and Chad McQueen will star with Daniel Baldwin in FALL
directed by Baldwin about an FBI agent in a witness protection program after
he sent a mobster to prison. The mobster hires a hitman team of two
brothers to hunt the agent down. Ken August scripted.
* Kim Delaney ("NYPD Blue") joins Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins and Connie
Nielson in Disney's MISSION TO MARS for Disney and director Brian De Palma.
* John Goodman joins COYOTE UGLY with Piper Perabo, Maria Bello, Adam
Garcia, Melanie Lynskey and Izabella Miko. David McNally directs.
* Ed Harris is in talks to join THE PRIME GIG with Vince Vaughn about a
telemarketer who goes to work for a con man. He has second thoughts when he
discovers a plan to steal an elderly woman's life savings.
* Lisa Kudrow is in talks to play the female lead in NUMBERS starring John
Travolta and to be directed by Nora Ephron.
* Marie Matiko will star opposite Wesley Snipes in THE ART OF WAR for
director Christian Duguay about a UN translator teaming up with a spy to
uncover a conspiracy concerning the assassination of a Chinese ambassador.
Donald Sutherland also stars.
* Ruben Santiago-Hudson joins SHAFT as a detective who poses as a cop.
* Mike Epps (upcoming NEXT FRIDAY) joins BAIT with Jamie Foxx for director
Antoine Fuqua (REPLACEMENT KILLERS).
* Bill Smitrovich (AIR FORCE ONE) is now among the cast of THIRTEEN DAYS as
the head of the joint chiefs of staff.
* Liv Tyler will play the Queen of Fairies in New Line's trilogy THE LORD OF
THE RINGS.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Sony Pictures Entertainment picked up David Lesser's DANNY'S TOY about
three aliens who plan to destroy Earth but their spaceship is only 3 inches
long. They wind up under a Christmas tree where they are mistaken as toys
by a young boy.
* Music video director Nicholas Brandt will direct the thriller BLEEDING THE
LINE by Chris Boal about the relationship between a serial killer and a
comic book artist. Brandt may also direct the pics SUGAR MOUNTAIN and
KINDRED.
* New Line picked up Melissa Carter's CATCH OF THE DAY about an heir to a
perfume fortune and a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who guts fish
in Seattle for a living. Carter has also written a spec about a woman who
finds several old letters from her fiancee's past girlfriends. She goes
searching for these women because he has never told her about his past. She
finds one woman who is a model.
* Jeffrey Eastin (INCONVENIENCED) is in talks with James Cameron and Fox to
write the first draft of the TRUE LIES sequel.
HARRY NOTE: He's not in talks... He's writing it.
* Brian Robbins (VARSITY BLUES) is in final talks to direct the romantic
comedy FIRST DAUGHTER for New Regency Prods. written by and to star Jerry
O'Connell (rewritten by Rob Thomas) about the president's daughter attending
college without secret service agents. A young looking agent is secretly
hired to keep an eye on her. The two fall in love and things take a turn
when his true identity is revealed.
* Commercials director Steve Chase will direct SPECIAL for MGM about a
construction foreman who pretends to be handicapped so he can get an
autographed football for his girlfriend's son. She won's marry him unless
the 8-year old approves. He must continue his charade, however, when he
becomes the subject of a PBS documentary.
* John Madden (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE) may direct an adaptation of Tom Eidson's
novel ST. AGNES' STAND for Miramax about an outlaw who stumbles upon
survivors of an ambush--three of which are nuns who believe he has been sent
by God to rescue them.
* Kyle Cooper (opening title sequence to SEVEN) will direct NEW PORT SOUTH
for producer John Hughes. Cooper also worked on the title sequences of
BRAVEHEART, TRUE LIES, MEN IN BLACK and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE.
* Catherine Butterfield will adapt the Jenny Colgan novel AMANDA'S WEDDING
for Warner Bros. about a group of friends who plot to sabotage the wedding
of another friend who is marrying for an aristocratic title.
* Video director Kevin Kerslake will direct the actioner COSMIC FUNK AND THE
TEMPLE OF GROOVE for Artisan Ent. starring Wu Tang Clan's RZA and Shi Yan
Ming involving the reincarnation of two 13th century Shaolin monks in the
20th century.
* Rob Reiner will produce and direct an untitled thriller based on his own
idea centering on two high school students who commit a series of perfectly
planned murders and try to outsmart an FBI agent working her first case.
Tony Gayton will script.
* Sam Hamm will be scripting the romantic comedy RECONSTRUCTION for producer
Lawrence Bender about a man who feigns amnesia in order to save his failing
marriage.
* Chris Wedge (BUNNY short) will direct 20th Century Fox's first fully
computer-generated film ICE AGE.
HARRY NOTE: The above news is very exciting stuff. If you have not had a chance to see BUNNY from Wedge and crew... Try to find it. It looks COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from any CGI animation I've seen. Not photographically real... but stylized in a very cool... very groovy way. Expect good things from ICE AGE.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Miramax bought the pitch ROMANOFF from documentarians Sheri Springer Berm
and Bob Pulcini who will write and direct the story of the 1930s Hollywood
restarauteur Michael Romanoff, a Jewish immigrant who posed as the nephew of
the late Russian Czar.
* Buena Vista picked up the pitch OLD by Oliver Butcher and Eric Freiser
about teens who, after taunting the elderly, suddenly become old.
* Warner Bros. bought Andrew Osborne's pitch DRAMARAMA for Mad Chance Prods.
about a high school drama club teacher who puts on a play in a small
Massachusetts town, wins a competition and brings life to the dead town.
Well, it was a pretty straightforward week (quick too), but films like
SHAFT, THE PATRIOT, THIRTEEN DAYS, DR. T AND THE WOMEN, THE LORD OF THE
RINGS and BOUNCE are projects we've heard about for a while, but continue to
cast and soon head into production (if not already). BOUNCE has Natasha
Henstridge among its cast, you can see she is also involved with A BETTER
WAY TO DIE. It's cool to see Rob Reiner gearing up to direct a thriller
again (his first since MISERY)... the plot sounds intriguing, and timely.
His fellow director Nora Ephron is ready to direct NUMBERS with John
Travolta and Lisa Kudrow (interesting pairing). I'm curious to hear more on
that project as well as ICE AGE, WHAT WOMEN WANT and CAPTAIN CORELLI'S
MANDOLIN among others. MATRIX sequel deals are basically a done thing; and
how about Jeffrey Eastin writing a TRUE LIES sequel? Read Harry's adventure
regarding glancing at Eastin's possible plans for the story from earlier
this week.
Title of the week? How about COSMIC FUNK AND THE TEMPLE OF
GROOVE...love it.
Have a good September.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
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Hmmm ... the rumours I've heard have spoken more about Arwen than Galadriel. In either case, the title "queen of the faeries" is certainly incorrect.
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this is a really good site. i like it imenseley. rock on harry and crew and keep bringing us news on animated movies!!!
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Yep. Unhuh. It's been a week allright. You betcha. s beginning to forget the joy of it...)
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Somewhere on this planet John Easdale is ripping his hair out and screaming "Sure, *now* you like the name".
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Cosmic Funk and the Temple of Groove...damn that sounds cool! Hey, we need more neews on this one Harry! Title's up there with "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze"...heh heh *Gag Halfrunt*
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and is why I will catch "Soul Survivor".
2."What Women Want" could be so damn funny. Less is more, Mel.
3. Yay for Kyle Cooper! I don't know what "New Port South" is about but he's a real artist so I'm expecting good stuff.
4. "Danny's Toy" is an old comic book story rip-off. Yawn.
5. "Bleeding the Line" is a cynical piece of hackwork written with fanboys in mind. Yawn, again. -
Oh, man, Variety should get someone on staff who knows whereof he speaks. There are no fairies in Tolkein. None. Nada. Zip. Niente. Too cute, too Victorian. No, Arwen is an ELVEN PRINCESS. A stately, otherworldly, noble, lives-practically-forever ELF...nothing so fluffy as a (gag!) *fairy*. As to whether Tyler can pull it off...well, I have a lot of trust in Peter Jackson, so if HE thinks so that's fine with me.
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.....I'm going to say that OLD sounds like the most depressingly awful teen-oriented project since MEET THE DEEDLES. I wish I could allow myself to write this crap. I've tried, but, once I get rolling on the treatment, I become violently ill like Malcolm McDowell in CLOCKWORK ORANGE. I hate having standards, 'cause I could certainly use the scratch.
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More...more...I want more!
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I really, really want the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie to be hella cool. It shouldn't be to hard to please me... the TV series was godawful, though (except for the cool animated "book" parts). Any ideas for casting? Arthur shouldn't be too hard... Ford could be done by the fairly wierd $20-mil man Jim Carrey... Someone suggested Ben Stein's voice for Marvin, which would be cool. No idea for Trillian... someone british. For Zaphod... geez, that's a tough one. I keep picturing Nick Cage... he's not a bad actor, he can deliver cool lines with no problem (just imagine him deadpan-ing "If there's something around here more important than my ego, I want it caught and shot now."), and he can also do both crazed and ignorant (watch Face/Off and City of Angels, respectively). I'm serious. Take Nick Cage, give him a stupid outfit, some makeup, and an extra CGI head and arm, and you've got a passable Zaphod. As for the voice of the "Guide"... yes, Patrick Stewart would do fine, but somehow I think there's a better choice out there. Someone who can switch between "galactic signifigance" speech and casual conversation in a second. I keep picturing Crusade's Peter Woodward, but there's probably a better choice out there. Any thoughts? Anyone?
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Big T here. Well one interesting week we have had hear at the AICN place. First off 2001 A Space Travesty, this sounds like the perfect role for Leslie Nielson. The problem with Leslie lately has been the scripts he himself has been doing great. If your bored and got some extra dough rent Wrongfully Accused its not THAT bad. Mel Gibson in a comedy well I think he can do it and it will do it quite well. As for the new film Ice Age, I really like the way animation is coming along lately. Sure we have the whole IG thing but lets not get into that. Companies now seem to be more interested in animation and some fresh ideas with much better technology is coming around case in point Osmosis Jones. This film sounds very cool if handled right i mean chris rock, david hyde pierce. Even if Chris doesnt do a joke he's funny. Chicken run looks cool as hell too. Well thats it for me and Harry if your reading this dont listen to these people who are dying for Episode 2 News. I am glad you gave it a break i mean i love the films but I do have a life. Big T out.
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That is a GREAT title! If the movie is anything like the wonderful hip-hop Hong Kong Sprite commercial that airing these days, I'm there opening weekend.
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Any way, I was just trying out my new post to Harry's website ID and such, btw Harry, I love the site! Anyway, stop making all those hair splitting distinctions for LOTR for crying out loud!! The difference between an elf and a faerie means so little as long as they do the dialogue and the appearence right, that people who argue about these things will be the same ones who say things like "I pictured Strider wearing brown boots, not black boot.." and similiar BS....
I'm Scotty the Fag, and that's all I have to say... -
I mean, come on! I don't wish ill on anyone, but shouldn't he just die so he can quit making these embarrassing attempts at ZAZ movies? Even ZAZ can't do them well anymore! Spy Hard, Wrongfully Accused, Repossesed... blech! Throw in the towel and call it a day, Les!
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Aug 30, 1999 10:06:52 PM CDT
HARRY UPDATES AT: http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/anti-cgi.html
by harry knowles
It's True, Check It OUt!
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Thanks.
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try the Harry's World section. I just read the "Day of Mutual Misery" story and laughed tears it was so fucking funny. Tears, I tell you!
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Danny's Toy is actually a ripoff of the Twilight Zone episode, "The Invaders" with Agnes Moorhead. Good to see creativity is alive and well in Hollywood.
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Was the John Madden who directed Shakespeare in Love the same John Madden who directed the Star Wars radio drama?
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about an old crone who's terrorized by tiny aliens who turn out to be Earthlings on an expedition to another planet, which means the crone is really a super-sized E.T. "Danny's Toy" is about tiny ALIENS who plot to blow up EARTH but are mistaken for toys and I'd bet a hundred bucks it was stolen from the same great 1970s Marvel reprint I read when I was a kid --- unless the "writer" has a bitchin' collection of 1950s comics. Wish I could remember the name of the Marvel reprint, though. Anyway, I guess just because an idea is stolen doesn't mean it writes itself so I shouldn't put "writer" in quotes like that but I'm keeping the quotes because they more accurately convey my feelings on the matter. I've surprised myself by investing even this little bit of time on a movie I will probably never see because it will probably be an insignificant piece of poo. I would love to be proven wrong so if it turns out to be a real classic, feel free to rub my face in its creamy goodness.
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...Michael Madsen and Chad McQueen will star with Daniel Baldwin in FALL directed by Baldwin...
Is that the first movie Baldwin is scheduled to direct in Toronto right now or another one? Who's producing?
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