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Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek here posting up yet another of Elston Gunn's great weekly updates. Lots of strange and crazy stuff happened this week; AOL and TIME/Warner merge, whats that going to do to our TV's and our local theaters, Lucas Online strikes a deal with Latitude 90, whats that mean to us, only time will tell. Well, here's Elston's WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* George Clooney will reprise Frank Sinatra's role from OCEAN'S 11 in a
remake for director Steven Soderbergh and Warner Bros. The studio and the
producer want to continue casting many stars for the pic.
* Cate Blanchett may play an FBI agent (not Clarice Starling) in HANNIBAL
for producer Dino De Laurentiis and director Ridley Scott. Steve Zaillan
would have to rewrite the script to explain the new character, but can use
the basic storyline.
* Paul Hogan is readying to reprise his Australian hero character in
CROCODILE DUNDEE IN HOLLYWOOD for producer Lance Hool and Silver Lion Films.
Paramount will distribute and the script by Hogan, Matthew Berry and Eric
Abrams is said to need further development.
* Patrick Swayze and Natasha Richardson join Billy Bob Thornton and Charlize
Theron in Miramax's redneck infidelity pic WAKIN' UP IN RENO for director
Jordan Brady. Swayze is also in final talks to join PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON.
* Jane Horrocks (LITTLE VOICE) and Ian Hart will star in BORN ROMANTIC for
writer/director David Kane about three clumsy men who take dance lessons at
a salsa club in London in order to woo three women.
* Pierce Brosnan will star in and produce BURNT SIENNA for MGM based on an
upcoming novel by David Morrell (FIRST BLOOD.) The story follows an
ex-Marine pilot who is now an artist in Mexico. He refuses to paint the
portrait of a wife of an arms dealer and finds his life turning upside down
as a result. He then joins a CIA mission to bring the dealer down.
* Steve Martin is attached to star in LONG LOST for Miramax and director
Griffin Dunne. Patty Max and Sarah Piley pitched the project about a 1970s
cultural icon, a singer whose songs "made the whole world cry" and his
fallen status. He meets a woman and the two manipulate each other for their
own gains.
* John Travolta might star in TRAVEL AGENT about a man who travels back in
time six months to stop an assassination plot. Andy Davis may direct the
Gregory Hansen script.
* Tom Cruise may star in Columbia's FERTIG based on the real life of Wendell
Fertig, an American soldier who served in the Pacific Theater in WWII.
William Nicholson wrote the script.
* Jon Bon Jovi joins PAY IT FORWARD with Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey and Haley
Joel Osment.
* Julianne Moore will play a physical therapist and Bruce Willis' wife in M.
Night Shyamalan's UNBREAKABLE for Disney. Shooting will begin April 17.
* Bette Midler will star in the urban prison drama FINDERS KEEPERS also
starring Master P, Richard T. Jones and Gabriel Casseus. John Luessenhop
will direct a script he wrote with Avery Duff.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Sam Raimi is in talks with Columbia Pictures to direct SPIDER MAN after he
blew execs away in a meeting to discuss the character and David Koepp's
script. However, they must resolve scheduling conflicts with Raimi's next
pic THE GIFT.
* Jan De Bont will direct and produce DUST for Blue Tulip Prods., Village
Roadshow and Warner Bros. The ecological disaster project is based on a
novel by Charles Pellegrino, who inspired JURASSIC PARK.
* Barry Sonnenfeld may direct THE UGLY TRUTH with Ben Affleck and Gwyneth
Paltrow considering taking roles in the pic about a romantically challenged
woman who takes lessons from a sloppy, sexist TV personality.
* Markus Redmond and Ivy Williams have written the college thriller I WOULD
DIE FOR YOU, picked up by Columbia Pictures, about a college senior who has
a one night stand with his old high school sweetheart while away from
campus. She follows him back to college so she can ruin his life in order
to win back his love.
* Scott Rosenberg will rewrite his adaptation of Michael Connelly's novel
BLACK ICE for Columbia Pictures about a homicide detective who discovers his
partner dead from an apparent suicide, but finds out it may not have been
suicide, and the body may not have even been his partner's.
* Tommy O'Haver (BILLY'S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS) will direct the teen comedy
GETTING OVER ALLISON for Dimension Films. R. Lee Fleming Jr. (SHE'S ALL
THAT) wrote the script about a boy about to enter his senior year in high
school when his girlfriend dumps him. Production should begin in the
spring.
* Martyn Burke will write and direct the Bette Midler pic THE MEDDLERS about
three mothers who try to play matchmakers for each of their sons.
* Kevin Kerslake will write and direct DIZZY, a snowboarding romantic
actioner for producers Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal.
* David Fincher may direct PASSENGERS based on Robert Silverberg's short
story. It's a sci-fi drama about aliens who take human form for wild
three-day romps. A man tries to find a woman he was with while she was
under the alien influence, but when he finds her she has no recollection of
him.
* Richard LaGravenese (LIVING OUT LOUD) is in final talks to write and
direct AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN for Universal based on the Douglas Carter
Beane play about a gay man pretending to be straight so he can further his
career when a female producer pretends to take interest in him and promise
him fame and fortune.
* Chuck Leavitt will adapt Angela Amato and Joe Sharkey's novel LADY GOLD
for Icon Prods. about the friendship between a Mafia informant and a cop.
Mel Gibson may direct.
* Drew Daywalt and David Schneider will direct STARK RAVING MAD about a
group of twenty somethings who rent a restaurant to throw a rave party as a
cover for breaking into the bank next to the restaurant.
* Hugh Wilson will direct Sandra Bullock in the comedy MISS CONGENIALITY
about an FBI agent who goes undercover in a beauty pageant. Production
begins in the spring.
* Roman Polanski will adapt and direct THE PIANIST which follows the
survival of musician Wladyslaw Szpilman in Warsaw between 1939 and 1945.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Miramax picked up the feature film rights to Gail Carson Levine's novel
ELLA ENCHANTED about a young girl who is placed under a spell by a
blundering fairy so that she has to obey every command she receives. She
then tries to find out how to reverse the spell and marry the prince of her
dreams.
* Paramount picked up the rights to Robert Stone's (DOG SOLDIERS, HALL OF
MIRRORS) novel DAMASCUS GATE.
* Columbia Pictures bought Nelson DeMille's (THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER) THE
LION'S GAME and may also pick up his PLUM ISLAND. GAME is about an ex-NYPD
detective and his investigation of an Arab terrorist who comes to the U.S.
to avenge the murder of his family, who were killed n a 1986 Libya bombing.
DeMille may also write a sequel to THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER with Paul Brenner
going back to VietNam on a case. Travolta and Paramount may be interested.
* Catherine Zeta-Jones dropped out of Oliver Stone's BEYOND BORDERS starring
Kevin Costner. Julia Roberts has been offered the female lead in the pic
set against the backdrop of several humanitarian efforts around the world.
* Warner Bros. will greenlight the live-action/animated feature CATS AND
DOGS about a turf war between cats and dogs--the cats want to destroy a
vaccination for dog allergies and the dogs want try to protect it. Larry
Guterman will direct.
* Edward Norton, Milos Forman and writers Scott Alexander and Larry
Karaszewski (PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT) may collaborate on a Howard Hughes
biopic.
* David Iganatius sold his treatment TANDEM COUPLE about a marriage falling
apart to Jerry Bruckheimer. Ignatius's novel A FIRING OFFENSE was picked up
by Tom Cruise's production co. at Paramount.
* Columbia picked up the rights to DEMOLITION ANGEL by Robert Crais about a
female bomb squad detective and a male ATF agent going after a serial
bomber.
* Beacon Pictures picked up IN A DARK WOOD, a pitch by Gregg Chabut and
Kevin Peterka, inspired by a book by Michael Cadnum. The Sheriff of
Nottingham is not such a bad guy but had bad PR in Sherwood Forest and it
has ruined his life. He tries to redeem himself by teaming up with Robin
Hood (who made his life miserable) in order to save the king.
* New Line got the screen rights to the upcoming nonfiction book GEEKS about
two guys who used the Internet to escape their Idaho Mormon town.
* Warner Bros. has optioned Stan Lee's unpublished manuscript THE
GUARDIAN--BOOK ONE: THE UNBOUND written by Larry Shultz and Dave Smeds and
follows 18-year old John Porter who holds the key to defeat an evil
organization.
* Billy Bob Thornton has dropped out of THE SHIPPING NEWS and will likely
next direct CINDERELLA MAN in which Ben Affleck is in talks to star as a
Depression-era boxer who became a national hero.
Clooney/Soderberg doing OCEAN'S 11? Is this a welcome remake? Cate
Blanchett and HANNIBAL and Sam Raimi and SPIDER MAN all have one problem:
THE GIFT. Let's hope all is worked out. (I'm anxious to see THE GIFT.)
CROCODILE DUNDEE IN HOLLYWOOD? We'll see. Bette Midler is busy with THE
MEDDLERS and FIDERS KEEPERS. Billy Bob Thornton is busy with WAKIN' UP IN
RENO (which added the interesting combo of Patrick Swayze and Natasha
Richardson) and CINDERELLA MAN (he also co-wrote THE GIFT.) Ben Affleck is
mulling his next with CINDERELLA MAN and THE UGLY TRUTH. We got another
high school flick coming with GETTING OVER ALLISON. That Steve Martin
project sounds funny. David Fincher and PASSENGERS? Need more info. Same
with Jan De Bont and DUST. Julia Roberts doing an Oliver Stone pic?
Different. How many Howard Hughes biopics are there in the works? The Stan
Lee stuff sounds cool. Jon Bon Jovi joins a good cast in PAY IT FORWARD.
Roman Polanski, Hugh Wilson and Mel Gibson look to be directing again soon.
I wonder what will happen now to THE SHIPPING NEWS. Any takers?
Have a good one. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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O man, this really sounds like Fincher could do something great with this one. But how many projects is that guy currently attached to do? I guess we will see one great film after another from Fincher in the next 7-10 years. Just hope The Black Dahlia will be the first one. But that's just me. Or is it...?
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Why waste the dough it would take to make this picture now? The book was wildly uneven, both silly and remarkable, with a completely ridiculous ending. Jodie says no and three-quarters of your audience leaves with her because now the flick has no credibility. Hopkins stays on because the original role was the start of his renaissance, but there's little here for him to gnaw on. By changing the role to a different FBI agent, you're removing the spine of the original film and the Hannibal novel itself, the relationship between Starling and Lecter. YOU CANNOT WIN! Ridley, kiss this thing off despite Dino's money. There's no way to win this one. You're about to reap the whirlwind on Gladiator, so ditch Hannibal and grab something more worthwhile.
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Seriously Hannibal was a good book and a perfect ending (beginnning) to the Lecter Saga. Hollywood doesnt have the balls to make the ending but atleast make the movie. If Jodie "The Bitch" Foster doesnt wanna make Hannibal and would rather make shit like Anna and the King, then screw her !!! Bring on Cate Blanchett and make her Clarice Starling otherwise you have to make a whole new movie. Screw Foster and Bring on Blanchett!!!!! She was awesome in Elizabeth and Ripley, bring her on !!!!!!
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I really hope Sony will annouche this week whether Raimi will direct or not. I love Raimi, but I also love Fincher too. Who ever directs is fine with me. I just hope that Raimi has something to say when it comes to the casting. He's a great working with talented actors, but bad when working with bad actors. I really hope he'll cast an unknown actor in the role of Spiderman. Just like with Christopher Reeve, I want someone who has no baggage and plays that role to perfection. I had actors like Jesse Bradford, Nathan Bexton or Chad Christ in mind, but whoever plays the part, if he's great and plays the role as it should be played, I'm one happy Dutchman. BTW I think the plot of Unbreakable sounds like Peter Weir's great film Fearless. Great cast! Boat Drinks! Jimmy the Saint
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If anyone cares, this FERTIG movie should be pretty good - it's got a great plot. It's based on the book THEY FOUGHT ALONE by John Keats. It's about Colonel Wendell W. Fertig, who led the Americans and allies in guerrilla warfare in the Philippines AFTER MacArthur left. It's a great book and will make a great movie. (Although I haven't seen the script.) The book is a true story. I know this because Fertig is my great-grandfather. Will give news as it comes.
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Okay, this has to be the stupidist idea to continue a series that I have heard yet. If Paul Hogan had any talent beyond the first CD film and doing Isizu commercials, he would have shed his embarrasing Austrailian-stereotype image long ago (okay, I admit he produced MURIEL'S WEDDING). Why can't Hollywood take a chance on an original idea?
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Gee, that's a lot of information. Don't know what to do with it though. A lot is speculation, and most of it doesn't sound all that great. But hey, who the hell am I to judge the Hollywood machine.
Oh, this just in.... I HATE REMAKES!!! Cheers -
A new animated/live action film from Warner Brothers could be the break THE IRON GAINT has been waiting for. If you are going to have a film about a battle between Cats and Dogs, it does not take a genius to guess what the out come of such a war would be. The dogs would win paws down. They are stronger, larger, and have that advantage of hunting in packs. The cats need an edge. That edge could be the cats finding THE IRON GIANT. With Him on the side of those cats, the war would be matched more evenly, thus creating a film with more realistic possibilities. Those dogs would be so devastated that their only allergy would be to IRON. It is my hope then that this film title could be changed to reflect the inclusion of THE IRON GIANT.
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I really don't care for most remakes, not because they're usually bad, but because they usually don't live up to the first movie and are really superficial in their storytelling. Look at "Sabrina" (not the "Teenage Witch")...the original had Bogey and Audrey Hepburn...it had chemistry...it had a connectedness to all the little details...and you look at the one made in 1995 and it sucks in comparison! It doesn't have the chemistry the first did and it doesn't have the connectedness. Where is the beautiful imagery? Where is the music imagery? Where are Hepburn and Bogart? I actually had a friend tell me they like the new one better because it's in color...how depressing. That some of these new, crappy remakes (I admit there are good remakes and most remakes are worth a try, but not welcome in my book, for the record) take place of the older movies sickens me. The only hope is someone will watch the new version, find out it's a remake and decide to check out the original. If they do, they expose themselves to great cinema masterpieces with the hope of expanding their movie-watching horizons. Or maybe that's too deep for AICN.
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C'mon! Not one word about the Hong Kong Phooey production? Don't string us along Gunn, we need some answers!
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I just went to imdb.com,where I always go when I'm bored,and I wandered into the Monkeybone section,and who do I see in the cast but everyone's favorite life-size love doll,Harry Knowles!It turns out the big lummox was in The Faculty ,TOO,as well as The Ballad of thre Sad Cafe,where he played a guy named Fat Boy.I had no idea!I just thought he was a guy with a site.What a retard I am.
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I would love to see Fincher do The Black Dahlia next and for a while it seemed like he would until all this Spider Man talk came up and now Passengers. I woudl like to see him do all three of these projects but if I had to pick one, it'd be Black Dahlia. Who better than Fincher to translate that novel to the screen? And with Morgan Freeman supposedly attached, it would be even better.
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Even with Soderberg and Clooney aboard, why remake a film that is fondly remembered for its camp value only? The movie is irrelevant without the presence of The Rat Pack. Soderberg's too much of a genius to waste his time on this stuff; although, he's far better than Brett Ratner. Then again, who isn't? On another matter, some asshole already gave away the ending to UNBREAKABLE for me, but it doesn't add up when I put it together with Moriarty's review, and what M. Knight has said in recent interviews. If what I was told is the actual ending, it has the potential to have audiences rolling in the aisles, or demanding their money back.
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I never really complain about the AICN website itself, so I suppose I should just say that the following is simply a rant agianst Hollywood: this week has yielded absolutely nothing of interest to me whatsoever. All we've heard about are idiotic ideas for sequels and remakes. Of course, that could just be your typical January-February news. I feel so depressed right now, I need a Gene Kelly movie. Desperately. Unless they remake that, too.
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PASSENGERS sounds pretty weak to me. Fincher needs to get to work on BLACK DAHLIA instead. And I'll say it again: SILENCE OF THE LAMBS had a perfect ending and needs no sequel.
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OK, What crappy things to talk about...Crocodile Dundee III? Worst idea ever. Does anyone on the planet care? Of all the things that should have died in the 80's that I thought really died it's those movies. And another thing. They should REALLY dump Hannibal, because.....well you all know why, it will be terrible. If they do insist on making it, without Jodie...with or without the Starling character they are wrecking the first film for me. Remember how the first 2 Batman movies were tainted by the second 2? remember how the first 2 Superman movies were tainted by the second 2? remember how the Star Wars movies were ALMOST tainted by Episode 1? (Not quite though....) but you know what I mean.
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I hate you!!!!You are deleting my posts!My beautiful posts!You deleted mine in the Dinosaur sounds forum!It was first!!!I WAS FIRST!!!!!DAMN YOU!!!!!Frasier
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I don't think HKP is tired or unfunny at all. Ever since I heard of this project I have been looking for info on it. I can only hope it's not a rumor. Perhaps if Fincher attaches himself to it you'll lend it some credence. Until then let us dream.
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LEAVE OCEAN 11 ALONE YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!!!!! We don't need you to shit on an already perfect original by making some stupid fucking pointless remake. There, I'll shut up now.
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Jan 16, 2000 5:33:01 PM CST
I don't have a subject. How about The Iron Giant, Hong Kong Pho
by lester diamond
BRING ON THE SWAYZE! I watched FATHERHOOD yesterday. And I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm going to rent BLACK DOG. The Swayze rules!
I prefer Steven Soderbergh much more than Brett Ratner. I'm not hog wild about this movie. But if they keep that kickass opening credits sequence with the lights and casino stuff, I'm ready. I saw the trailer for ERIN BROKOVICH last night. Very cool stuff.
If Master P wants to do movies so bad, let him do his own. Everyone knows they're bad, so they just stay away. I don't want to see him dicking up potentially good projects.
I am getting really sick of Ben Affleck. Like the cover of Premeire says, "Who the hell does Ben Affleck think he is?" Slow down, Benny. He's doing, like, six movies this year someone said. Although BOILER ROOM looks cool. Even though I'm getting sick of Affleck, I wouldn't wish Sonnenfeld on anyone.
A snowboarding romantic actioner? Nobody learned their lesson with AIRBORN?
I thought that everyone was finally laying off, but it looks like we have a teen movie resurgence again. Let's all pray that DOWN TO YOU bombs, so I don't have to sit through anymore crappy teen movies.
Change the title of STARK RAVING MAD double-espresso. You will lose nine-tenths of your audience by having the same title as a Neil Patrick Harris TV show.
Haven't people been trying to get Howard Hughes movies done since he died? This one has promise though.
GEEKS!
All in all, a pretty bad week. Just forget about HANNIBAL already. De Laurentis jumped the gun. I thought Julianne Moore was sort of flat in MAGNOLIA too, although I loved the movie. That pharmacist was great though. "You can really have a party with this stuff." -
Lester, Hong Kong Phooey is an animated character based on an organic biological life form. Harry is a real human life form open to variations in biological mass and content. In both cases it very well may be appropriate to use the term
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