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Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP

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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Reader Talkback

John Woo and Slater
by Larry Cucumber
Jun 10th, 2000
01:42:51 PM
test
by Mr. Mike
Jun 10th, 2000
01:43:30 PM
Hey
by SpyKidsSupporter
Jun 10th, 2000
01:56:37 PM
I believe that would be *Tom* Clancy, not Jack Clancy.
by The Garbage Man
Jun 10th, 2000
02:10:27 PM
STAINLESS STEEL RAT!
by The Gline
Jun 10th, 2000
03:34:59 PM
That's better than being pissed on by a Planet of the Apes! HAH
by SpyKidsSupporter
Jun 10th, 2000
04:19:01 PM
danny devito as a ape? haha! that's classic!
by split_finger21
Jun 10th, 2000
05:48:32 PM
"I heard tings..."
by WhoISThisGuy?
Jun 10th, 2000
06:02:06 PM
Tarantino's next?
by TomReagan
Jun 10th, 2000
07:17:10 PM
What will Mike Myers do next?...
by X-Mole
Jun 10th, 2000
07:18:20 PM
Gone In 60 Seconds was God Awful!
by Junior D-Girl
Jun 10th, 2000
07:26:16 PM
Harrison Ford as Dieter Sprocket
by Rollo Tomassi
Jun 10th, 2000
08:04:10 PM
Stainless Steel Crap...
by Spell Checker
Jun 10th, 2000
09:39:51 PM
Stainless Steel Rat -About time
by Hagi_the_Great
Jun 10th, 2000
11:53:15 PM
Eminem, GO AWAY!
by rjtapper
Jun 11th, 2000
09:30:49 AM
Not THAT "Kingdom Come" right?!?!?!?!
by vondoom
Jun 11th, 2000
11:16:33 AM
Why am I being such a nitpicker...
by vondoom
Jun 11th, 2000
11:23:00 AM
Eminem is an idiot.
by Fatal Discharge
Jun 11th, 2000
12:21:35 PM
Is anyone else frightened by the idea of DeVito as an ape in POT
by superninja
Jun 11th, 2000
02:41:51 PM
X-Mole, re: Dieter...
by superninja
Jun 11th, 2000
02:54:39 PM
About Eminem
by TheDanShadow
Jun 11th, 2000
06:20:43 PM
That bastard
by ZooTrain
Jun 11th, 2000
08:17:07 PM
quite obvious how Eminem's film will play out
by rjtapper
Jun 12th, 2000
01:32:29 AM

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