Father Geek reporting in with Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP for this weekend. You know in a week when most of the buzzzz was about the problems of a DIETER and who would be in the PHONEBOOTH it's a real relief to see that alot of other things were in fact happening out in moviedom, like the fact that a STAINLESS STEEL RAT will be going toe to toe at the box office next year with JOSIE AND THE PUSSY CATS. That's just tooo Cooool! But on to the current recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Christina Ricci will star in and co-produce ADRENALIN for Warner Bros. and
producer Joel Silver based on the cult comic by Tony Daniel about a female
Russian orphan who is half-cyborg and is programmed to destroy the U.S.
* Rapper Eminem will star in an untitled feature loosely based on his own
life for Imagine Ent. Scott Silver (THE MOD SQUAD) is writing the project
about a young rapper from Detroit. There will be three or four music
sequences for which Eminem will develop with Dr. Dre.
* Jim Carrey is in final talks to star in the thriller PHONE BOOTH for
director Joel Schumacher and 20th Century Fox. Shooting begins this summer
in New York.
* Alec Baldwin's voice will join the voices of Tobey Maguire, Susan Sarandon
and Michael Clarke Duncan in LIKE CATS AND DOGS, Warner Bros.'
live-action/animated flick with Larry Guterman (ANTZ) directing Jeff
Goldblum will play a live-action scientist.
* Laura Ceron ("ER") joins Jon Seda in the indie pic RICKIE THE PIG, based
on RICHARD III.
* Brian Cox (THE MINUS MAN) joins Jersey Films' SUPER TROOPERS.
* Cedric the Entertainer ("The Steve Harvey Show") joins the cast of KINGDOM
COME for Fox Searchlight.
* Hart Bochner (ANYWHERE BUT HERE) joins Lara Flynn Boyle, Jay Mohr, James
Spader and Bill Murray in John McNaughton's SPEAKING OF SEX.
* Robert Forster, Erik Palladino, Matthew Lillard, Ryan Reynolds and James
Earl Jones will star in FINDER'S FEE about a group of friends who find a
wallet containing a winning lottery ticket and then get trapped in an
apartment with the wallet's owner.
* Jason Lee is joining the cast of Barry Sonnenfeld's BIG TROUBLE. Tim
Allen, Rene Russo, Tom Sizemore and Katie Holmes also star.
* Jack Black and Kyle Gass' band Tenacious D is going to be part of a
feature entitled THE TENACIOUS D PROJECT for Working Title Films and Red
Hour Films. Bob Odenkirk and David Cross ("Mr. Show") will be involved in
the project.
* Matt Damon is in early talks to star in either THE BOURNE IDENTITY or Tim
Burton's remake of PLANET OF THE APES (in which Danny DeVito may play an
ape).
* Aaliyah may star in a remake of the 1976 film SPARKLE for Warner Bros.
* Christian Slater will join Nicolas Cage in John Woo's WINDTALKERS.
* Vera Farmiga (upcoming FIFTEEN MINUTES) will join Adrien Brody in DUMMY.
* Lillo Brancato Jr. will play the lead role in Abel Ferrara's R-XMAS.
* Stephanie Chao (upcoming LITTLE NICKY) and Jerry O'Connell will star in
TOMCATS.
* Brad Beyer will star in the indie pic OFF-BROADWAY for
writer/director Daniel Kay.
* Arie Verveen joins BRIAR PATCH. Zev Berman will direct the Deborah Pryor
script.
* Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Tilly, Adam Goldberg, Daniel Hugh Kelly and
Seymour Cassel will star in SHOOTING BLANKS about a hit man who wants to
change his life. While on his latest job of killing a porno director, he
goes after the wrong guy and they become friends--the guy helps him change
his ways.
* Simon Baker (RIDE WITH THE DEVIL) joins Hillary Swank and Adrien Brody in
THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE. Charles Shyer directs.
* Clea DuVall (GIRL, INTERRUPTED) is in final talks to join JOHN CARPENTER'S
GHOST OF MARS.
* Joshua Leonard (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) will join Heavy D and Michael
Lerner in LARCENY about a Midwestern man who comes to L.A. to visit his
crazy cousin and is mistaken for a successful artist. Andy Dick is in talks
to play the cousin.
* James Van Der Beek joins the cast of Todd Solondz's new untitled movie
about "fitting in" at college and high school. Heather Matarazzo,
Emmanuelle Chriqui, Selma Blair, Paul Giamatti and Mark Webber also star.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Steven Koren and Mark O'Keefe have written BRUCE ALMIGHTY which was picked
up by Universal Pictures for Tom Shadyac's Shady Acres productions. The
story follows a man who gets to be God for a day, tending to prayers every
time he's paged. If he doesn't do a better job in 24 hours, the Earth goes
back to the Dark Ages.
* Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely will write the comedy I-95 for
Rockfish Films based on an idea by Josh Pate where a rejected stock car
driver has 24 hours to ship contraband from Tennessee to New York's East
Village.
* Jan De Bont will direct a film based on the series ADVENTURES OF THE
STAINLESS STEEL RAT by Harry Harrison for Fox. The story is set in the
future and follows a conman, caught by authorities, who agrees to use his
skills as a cop in order to avoid prison. He also teams up with a ruthless
female to help him in his Robin Hood-esque ways. Eric Blakeney (GUNSHY) is
scripting.
* Tom Green will direct the comedy FREDDY GOT FINGERED which he co-wrote
with Derek Harvie for New Regency Prods. and 20th Century Fox about a man
who moves back in with his parents.
* Writer-director John Stockwell will next do AT SEVENTEEN for Disney about
a poor Latin boy who falls for a girl of a different class. Phil Hay and
Matt Manfredi scripted.
* Tim John (DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE) will adapt the Binnie Kirshenbaum
female bonding novel ON MERMAID AVENUE for Jersey Films. It'll be called
MERMAIDS IN MANHATTAN.
* Charles Stone III ("Whassup" ads) will direct Miramax's drama PAID IN FULL
about a Harlem guy in the 1980s drug scene in New York.
* Richard Loncraine will direct GODSPEED, LAWRENCE MANN about an astronaut
who is lost in space and a man who later claims he is the astronaut. Gary
Nadeau and Christopher Momenee scripted.
* Richard Kamen has written the thriller LEAVING EDEN, picked up by Miramax,
about a woman who has a fling with the wrong guy.
* Adam Glass will write HO HO BRO for USAFilms with Anthony Anderson to star
as a black guy who must fill a Santa suit for a corporation with different
motives.
* Revolution Studios picked up the pitch GIRLS by Josh Goldsmith and Cathy
Yuspa (WHAT WOMEN WANT). The story centers on a 13-year old girl who finds
herself in the body of her 28-year old self and discovers what it would be
like if she grew up too fast.
* Jeff King will adapt the Nelson DeMille thriller THE LION'S GAME about a
terrorist and an ATF agent for Columbia Pictures.
* Miramax grabbed Kayla Alpert's script OUTWARD BLONDE about a Long Island
girl sent to an Outward Bound program after getting caught stealing at Louis
Vatton.
* Gregory Hoblit (FREQUENCY) is in talks to direct HART'S WAR about a law
student, who later becomes a lieutenant as well as a POW. He then has to
defend a man who is falsely accused of murder.
* Mike Skelton has written the comedy script BABY PROOF for New Line about a
lawyer who is hypnotized to become a 2-year old baby in a grown man's body.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and his wife Tracey are producing the music for
Universal's JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS.
* Universal Pictures is suing Mike Myers for alledly breaching his contract
to produce, write and star in DIETER (aka SPROCKETS). Apparently, Myers
walked on the project when he didn't approve the script, whereas the studio
claims he already approved the script.
* Fox 2000 picked up the rights to the Dreamwave sci-fi comic book ECHO
about a government group out to kill a human-esque species. Thai director
Kaos adapted the script and will direct. Chris Lee will produce.
* Miramax/Dimension picked up the rights to the thriller THE RIGHT HAND OF
EVIL by John Saul about a troubled family.
* Harrison Ford has decided not to star in the Jack Clancy flick THE SUM OF
ALL FEARS for director Philip Noyce.
* Stan Lee Media and Mark Canton are developing a pic based on Lee's 7th
PORTAL about a group of 14 new heroes and villains.
I guess the biggest news of the week is Jim Carrey doing PHONE BOOTH.
I'm anxious to see how that all turns out. I guess the other big news was
the Myers/Universal suit. What's going on there? If no SPROCKETS/DIETER, I
wonder what Myers will do next. Same goes for Harrison Ford. Any clue to
what his next project will be? Hmm. Ah well, the cast to BIG TROUBLE looks
pretty sweet, Todd Solondz's cast is shaping up oddly and I'm curious to see
a Tom Green-directed flick. Hows about you?
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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