Hey folks... Harry here with this quick update from... ELSTON GUNN on what has a been agoing on in that there Hollywood Land according to them trade magazines... not real sure what you'd be trading em fer, but whatever it tis... s'got to be better than this ol site a mine. So read on through and put a smile on your face... Some cool stuff is in here this time..
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Andy Dick is joining the college comedy ROAD TRIP for DreamWorks.
* Haley Joel Osment joins Kevin Spacey in PAY IT FORWARD for director Mimi Leder. Shooting is expected to begin in February. Leslie Dixon adapted the Catherine Ryan Hyde novel. Helen Hunt may join the pic as well.
* Keanu Reeves is in final talks to star in SWEET NOVEMBER, a remake for director Pat O'Connor (CIRCLE OF FRIENDS) about a tycoon who falls for a dying girl who insists on taking a new lover each month. This will be one of two films Reeves will make before his 250-day two sequel MATRIX shoot in the winter of 2001.
* Brendan Fraser has dropped out of THE WEDDING PLANNER to star in BEDAZZLED, a remake of the 1967 film about a man who sells his soul to the devil in order to win a woman's love. Harold Ramis wrote the new script and will direct.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger will star in the thriller COLLATERAL DAMAGE for director Andrew Davis. Shooting should begin June 1 on the Ron Roose script about a man who goes after the terrorist who murdered his wife and child in a bombing. After DAMAGE, he may do TRUE LIES 2 or DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE.
* Bill Murray is back in talks to play Bosley in CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Shooting has been pushed back a month to accommodate principals' schedules.
* Claire Danes will star in FLORA PLUM this spring for director Jodie Foster.
* Tim Robbins is in talks to star opposite Ryan Phillippe in ANTI-TRUST. Robbins would play a wealthy man who is corrupt and covert when dealing with anti-trust problems.
* Katie Holmes is in negotiations to join Cate Blanchett in THE GIFT for director Sam Raimi about a woman with ESP who is asked to find a young woman who is missing. Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson wrote the script.
* Jennifer Lopez will star in Warner Bros.' ANGEL EYES after months of complicated negotiations. She'll play a female cop who befriends a grieving man.
* Jodie Foster will star in and produce THE LENI RIEFENSTAHL PROJECT about the 30s German photographer/actress/filmmaker. Ron Nyswaner (PHILADELPHIA) will script.
* Rory Cochrane joins THE PRIME GIG about scamming telemarketers. Gregory Mosher directs.
* Jo Champa (LA FAMILIGIA) and John Cassini (SEVEN, THE GAME) join George Zaloom's THE WHOLE SHEBANG with Stanley Tucci and Bridget Fonda.
* Richard Gere will star in the football drama ONE FOR THE AGES for director Mark Pellington (ARLINGTON ROAD) and New Line Cinema. David Murray wrote the script based on a true story about a college football coach who loses his entire team in an airplane crash and then tries to spend the following year returning a sense of hope to the community, the families and himself by assembling another team to take to the championship.
* Courtney Love will star in and co-produce the erotic thriller DARKER SAINTS about an FBI forensic expert who tracks down a ritualistic serial killer who targets hookers in the New Orleans French Quarter.
* Chris Tucker will star in BLACK KNIGHT about a theme restaurant employee who goes back to medieval times. F. Gary Gray will direct the comedy.
* Gregg Henry joins Steven Weber and Swoosie Kurtz in SLEEP EASY, HUTCH RIMES for director Matthew Irmas about an insurance guy who becomes involved in a murder plot.
* Heather Graham is in final talks to star in SAY IT ISN'T SO with Chris Klein (ELECTION) to be produced by the Farrelly brothers and to be directed by J.B. Rogers. Peter Gaulke wrote the story about a young bachelor who believes the love of his life is his sister.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Writer/director Zalman King will direct AMNESIA for the Bubble Factory based on the 1927 Frances Breeding novel THE HOUSE OF DR. EDWARDES. The adaptation follows a horror novelist with amnesia who is helped by a male doctor who runs an urban trauma center.
* MTV Films bought the comedy STRAY VOLTAGE by Patrick Ranahan and Todd Johnson about the true phenomenon of dairy cows contaminated by stray voltage from power lines and the investigation into such matters by a vegetarian environmentalist.
* Sam Mendes (AMERICAN BEAUTY) may direct the thriller THE LOOKOUT for DreamWorks. Scott Frank is scripting. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio have shown interest in working with Mendes. (HARRY NOTE: As has every other actor in Hollywood...)
* Jon Amiel is in talks to direct the epic romance NO MAN'S LAND for Bel-Air Ent. about a Russian agent who comes to the U.S., falls in love, marries and starts a family. Years later he is asked to take a mission that would have him betray his family. Hanna Weg scripted.
* Scorcese may direct an Angelo Pizzo (HOOSIERS) script for Disney about the witness protection program from the point of view of mobster children.
* David Capper has written the roller derby pic HELL ON WHEELS and the comedy KUNG FOOL for Touchstone Pictures. He's also writing the comedy SHAFT ON ICE with Bentley Evans.
* Daphna Kastner will write and direct CHAOS for New Line about five extremely different characters in New York City who unknowingly affect one another's lives.
* Anthony Drazen will direct FIT TO BE TIED based on the novel MADE FOR EACH OTHER by Tony Kenrick about two unhappily married couples who come face-to-face with ex-lovers in a heist and hostage situation.
* Vondie Curtis-Hall (GRIDLOCK'D) will direct ALL THAT GLITTERS for Sony about a talented young singer who is abandoned by her drug-addicted mother until she is discovered by a DJ.
* Allan Scott (REGENERATION) has written the screenplay for a feature film about the marriage between King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn to be made by FilmFour and Ecosse Films (MRS. BROWN.) The two companies are also working on CHARLOTTE GRAY.
* Lamar Damon will script THE AGE OF CONSENT based on Scott Spencer's novel ENDLESS LOVE for Universal. The new version will be darker and edgier than the film adaptation of 1981.
* Miramax has picked up CINDERELLA MAN by Charlie Mitchell about a regular guy who starts boxing during the Depression to feed his family and fights his way up the ranks becoming a hero to the commonfolk. Ben Affleck may be interested in starring and Billy Bob Thornton may direct.
* Ethan Hawke will direct the indie film LAST WORD ON PARADISE for IFC Prods.' Independent Digital Entertainment. Uma Thurman, Kevin Corrigan, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Sean Leonard, Natasha Richardson, Tuesday Weld, Frank Whaley and Steve Zahn are set to star in the film written by actress Nicole Burdette and inspired by Dylan Thomas' "Under the Milk Wood." The project will be shot on digital video in New York.
* Motor City Films has optioned Will Roko's dark comedy script THE SWEDISH JOB about a woman who steals a lot of money and heads to Sweden. However, her Scandinavian-based family proves to be her undoing.
* Pacifica Entertainment picked up David Aaron Cohen's (THE DEVIL'S OWN co-writer) script PRINCE OF GALILEE, an epic set in the 12th century about a powerful knight and his crusade from Europe to the Middle East where he is pit against the great Moslem General Saladin.
* Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE) may direct the sci-fi action drama THE TRAVEL AGENT by Gregory Hansen (HEART AND SOULS) and to be executive produced by Oliver Stone. The project follows a futuristic economist who "time jumps" to track future financial crises in order to keep the U.S. economy thriving. Unfortunately, he discovers his boss is part of a conspiracy involving the use of his time device to assassinate the president.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Rearguard Prods. has acquired film and TV rights to Black Mask, a pulp fiction magazine that published more than 2,500 stories.
* Columbia Pictures has acquired the comic book series WHITEOUT by Greg Rucka for Wolfgang Petersen to produce. The Oni Press title follows a female U.S. marshal who must track down Antartica's first murderer.
* New Line bought the pitch DAY TRADER by Jonathan Greenberg and Jonathan Lisco for Tribeca Prods. about a teenage day trader who wakes up one morning to discover he's worth millions.
* Columbia Pictures, Chris Lee Prods. and Dreamwave Prods. are developing film and TV projects based on the latter's comic book art. DARKMINDS is the first project expected to hit the big screen.
* DreamWorks picked up the screen rights to the underground comic NATHAN NEVER, which is published in Italy by Bonelli Editore and imported by Platinum Studios. Walt Becker will write the script about a 21st Century Dirty Harry who must protect the lone witness of a vicious crime. The two have a rocky relationship.
* Warner Bros. is developing a remake of the Swedish prison comedy BREAKING OUT for Spring Creek to produce. The story follows an out-of-work actor who starts an acting class at a maximum security prison. Conflicts arise when the play the plan to put on gives prisoners opportunities to escape.
Finally, a week of Hollywood news I'm personally excited about. PAY IT FORWARD has my attention because Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment working together seems like a very cool mix. Sam Raimi directing a Billy Bob Thornton co-written script THE GIFT sounds like another winner. With Cate Blanchett and Katie Holmes in it, I think it's one to look forward to. Speaking of Thornton, it seems as if he has a good script to direct for Miramax with CINDERELLA MAN. Anyone read it?
Scorcese's attached to another mobster film, but from the mobster children's vantage point written by the HOOSIERS writer. Need more info on that one--could be something big. There are a few comic book-related projects mentioned this week. Anyone familiar with the titles in development? There are also a couple of epics headed our way with PRINCE OF GALILEE and NO MAN'S LAND. Cool.
Chris Tucker finally made a decision to do BLACK KNIGHT with his FRIDAY director F. Gary Gray, but Bill Murray can't make up his mind about CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Sounds like he has a month to decide. Looks like Schwarzenegger's and Keanu Reeves' plates are full for a while. However, Sam Mendes is free to direct another flick. I'm curious to know more about THE LOOKOUT. Hope it's original. Speaking of which, STRAY VOLTAGE sounds like a fresh concept for a flick. Hope it's funny. I also hope SAY IT ISN'T SO will be funny.
Anyone know if ONE FOR THE AGES is inspired by Marshall University, whose team died in a plane crash years ago? There are other worthy-sounding projects above, but I've rambled way too much. Your turn.
Until next week... Happy December.
Elston Gunn
