Hey there Yogis... Harry is now just 3hours and thirty minutes from departing the United States for parts mainly unknown. I will most likely be going bonkers trying to figure out... exactly what's going on back here with news and such. I'm so addicted to this site of mine, that.... well... since creating it.. I've never spent 8 days without looking at it and working on it. But Father Geek, RoboGeek, El Cosmico and Moriarty all seem to be claiming they can handle it... so just keep mailing away, and I'll be back faster than you can get the Holy Grail.
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER VIA REUTERS
CASTING
* Marlon Brando is in talks to join Robert De Niro and Edward Norton in THE SCORE for Mandalay Pictures and director Frank Oz, who is directing from a script by Danny Taylor and Kario Salem.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger will star in COLLATERAL DAMAGE about a man who's after a terrorist who murdered his wife and child in a bombing. Andrew Davis (A PERFECT MURDER) is directing for Warner Bros.
* Melissa Joan Hart will star in and produce, along with Radio Pictures, a remake of the classic THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER about a playboy who breaks the law and has to spend time with the judge's younger sister who is a high schooler with a major crush on the him.
* Russell Crowe will star opposite Claire Danes in FLORA PLUM for director Jodie Foster and USA Films. Crowe would play a circus "freak" in the middle of the Depression who takes Danes' poor character under his wing and falls in love with her while helping her achieve fame.
* Julia Roberts is mulling over whether or not to star in THE MEXICAN for director Gore Verbinski and DreamWorks. David Fincher and Brad Pitt passed on the film, but some say Pitt may come back if Roberts agrees to star.
* Whitney Houston is attached to star in DIVA, a remake of the 1981 French thriller which boasted a strange group of characters such as a young mail courier who loves opera, a drug kingpin and a dead hooker. Will Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment, is developing the project.
* Edward Furlong will star in the indie flick THE KNIGHT'S OF THE QUEST for Italian director Pupi Avati. The story is set in the 11th century and follows a young man who is sent to tell a French king about a sacred relic. After he discovers the king has died, he searches for the relic on his own.
* Charlize Theron joins Keanu Reeves in SWEET NOVEMBER for Warner Bros./Bel-Air Entertainment and director Pat O'Connor (CIRCLE OF FRIENDS). She'll play a woman who takes a new lover every month and is dying of cancer.
* Alex D. Linz joins James Woods in RACE TO SPACE for BWE Entertainment.
* Ron Perlman will star in ENEMY AT THE GATES with Ed Harris and Jude Law for director Jean-Jacques Annaud (SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET). Perlman is also starring with Scott Bakula and Alia Showkat in THE TRIAL OF OLD DRUM.
* Tamala Jones (NEXT FRIDAY) has featured roles in GHETTO SUPERSTAR, LADIES MAN and HOW TO KILL YOUR NEIGHBOR'S DOG.
* Ray Liotta and Monet Mazur join BLOW with Johnny Depp for director Ted Demme, based on Bruce Porter's 1970s nonfiction novel.
* Patricia Richardson will star in the indie pic VIVAL LAS NOWHERE. She'll play twins in the dark comedy about a hopeful country singer.
* Hilary Swank is in talks to star in THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE, where she'll play an 18th century Frenchwoman who searches for her royal heritage. Charles Shyer (FATHER OF THE BRIDE) directs the production which should begin in June in Prague. John Sweet scripted.
* Cuba Gooding Jr. is in final talks to be cast in Michael Bay's PEARL HARBOR. Kevin Costner has shown some interest as well.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom (Big TV!) will direct New Line's dark comedy HOW LIFE IS by Douglas Carter about a young man and his trust fund--which is abruptly cut off--and a life insurance scam that follows.
* Spike Jonze is in final negotiations to direct Paramount's BENJAMIN BUTTON, based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who ages backward. At 50, he falls in love with a woman who is 30 and must come to grips with their relationship as they grow in opposite directions. Robin Swicord (LITTLE WOMEN) wrote the adaptation, but Charlie Kaufman (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) may come aboard to develop the script. Jonze and Kaufman are also ready to make ADAPTATION, an adaptation of Susan Orlean's nonfiction novel THE ORCHID THIEF. They're planning a summer start.
* Scott Kalvert (THE BASKETBALL DIARIES) is set to direct the mob pic DEUCES WILD for United Artists about two cousins in 1950s Brooklyn and the woman who comes between them. Paul Kimatian and Chris Gambale scripted the story which has Stephen Dorff, Josh Hartnett and Fairuza Balk close to signing to star. Martin Scorcese may executive produce (or attach his Cappa Films logo to the film) as he has been creatively involved with the development of the project.
* Columbia Pictures picked up the thriller script ENOUGH by Nicholas Kazan about a woman who marries a man she thought was the man of her dreams but discovers he's abusive. After failing to escape him, she has no choice but to kill him.
* Todd Solondz is writing/directing his next project, currently untitled, for New Line Cinema. The plot is being kept under wraps, but is said to be Solodnz's "most commerical venture yet."
* Bruce Feirstein (THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH) will script the remake of the 1966 Western THE PROFESSIONALS for Columbia Pictures.
* Polish director Jerzy Stuhr is making a film based on a 1976 script by the late Kreysztof Kieslowski (BLUE; WHITE; RED).
* Carrie Fisher and Elaine Pope will adapt the romantic comic novel THE SECRET DREAM WORLD OF A SHOPOHOLIC for Jerry Bruckheimer Films about a financial journalist who deals with her stress by constantly shopping. She ends up in the hole and falls for summer she's investigating.
* Paramount picked up an untitled pitch by Susan Hoffman about a man who falls in love with the perfect woman, but discovers she doesn't exist.
* David McNally (upcoming COYOTE UGLY) will direct DOWN AND UNDER for Castle Rock and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Scott Rosenberg and Steve Bing wrote the story of two childhood friends who owe the mob some money. They are forced to go to Australia to deliver some money to a counterpart, but the money is somehow lost to a kangaroo who becomes their target.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Mutual Film Co. has optioned the rights to THE HOAX by Clifford Irving about Irving's experiences writing a fake Howard Hughes autobiography and serving time as a result.
* Lions Gate Films is re-editing AMERCIAN PSYCHO due to the NC-17 rating it was given by the MPAA. The film will still be released in April.
* Paramount picked up the screen rights to THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT BURGLING, a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth. A nerdy computer programmer becomes a jewel theif in order to keep up with the financial needs of his love, a flirty party girl.
* Producer Stephen Waterman secured the rights to George Selden's children's book THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE and its sequels. The first is about a musical cricket who sings to save a Times Square newsstand from bankruptcy.
The week started out pretty slow. Don't know if it was due to Sundance, the weather, gearing up for more award shows, but some of the news this week was rather interesting: Brando and DeNiro in a Frank Oz film, Schwarzenegger affirming COLLATERAL DAMAGE, major Spike Jonze activity, Russell Crowe and Claire Danes to be directe by Jodie Foster, Whitney Houston in DIVA, Julia Roberts possibly doing THE MEXICAN, Todd Solodnz doing his most commercial pic yet, AMERICAN PSYCHO going under the knife, some cool-sounding project titles: THE SECRET DREAM WORLD OF A SHOPOHOLIC, THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT BURGLING (I keep wanting so say JUGGLING instead--old Steve Martin routine, I think), THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE and ADAPTATION (which is an adaptation)--some cool stuff up ahead.
I also read an article in Variety that mentioned some upcoming projects for Village Roadshow/Warner Bros. They include: the OCEAN'S ELEVEN remake, Anne Rice's QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, the Eddie Murphy/Halle Berry starrer PLUTO NASH, Sandra Bullock in MISS CONGENIALITY, THE MATRIX sequels, Tony Scott's TAKING LIVES, Danny DeVito's REVELATIONS, Robert Towne-written/directed THE 39 STEPS, Jan DeBont's DUST and the James Ellroy adaptation of WHITE HEAT. That's quite a slate.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Elston Gunn
