Well, Father Geek is here posting Elston's Christmas Edition of The Weekly Recap. Best Wishes to you Mr. Gunn (and family)for the holidays, and the same to all our loyal readers... even the disloyal ones. What the heck... tis the season, right? Anyway here's everything worth a hoot and a holler that happened last week in Hollywood, so pull that plate of Christmas cookies over a little closer, top off that cup of Expresso, sit back and enjoy...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Michelle Rodriguez (GIRLFIGHT) is in talks to join Milla Jovovich in
RESIDENT EVIL, based on the popular video game. Paul Anderson (SOLDIER)
will direct for Constantin Film.
* David Arquette, Ally Sheedy and Gloria Reuben are starring in the indie
pic HAPPY HERE AND NOW for writer/director Michael Almereyda and Independent
Film Channel Prods. Liane Balaban, Karl Geary, Shalom Harlow and Clarence
Williams III are also featured in the film about a 16-year old girl who
searches for her missing sister in New Orleans.
* Don Cheadle will have a cameo in RUSH HOUR 2, currently shooting for New
Line Cinema. He'll play an owner of a Chinese restaurant who has a passion
for kung fu.
Roselyn Sanchez also joins the cast as an undercover agent for the U.S.
Secret Service.
* Gerard Depardieu is in talks to star in Scandinavia's most expensive
feature film project, I AM DINA to be directed by Danish helmer Ole
Bornedal. Maria Bonnevie and Pernilla August will also star in the film..
It's about a woman who, as a child, accidentally caused the death of her
mother.
* Jack Nicholson will take a pay cut and star in ABOUT SCHMIDT for director
Alexander Payne (ELECTION) and New Line Cinema. He'll play a divorced,
retired insurance man who is losing his battle of self-deception. It's
based on the 1996 novel by Louis Begley, which has been adapted into a
screenplay by Nicholson and Jim Taylor. Shooting begins March 15 in Omaha,
Nebraska.
* Pierce Brosnan and Renny Harlin are in talks to star in and direct,
respectively, on a feature adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story A SOUND
OF THUNDER for Franchise Pictures. It's about a game hunter who travels
back in time to hunt dinosaurs and somehow manages to...
* Guy Pearce will star in the very dark comedy BLOOD & GUTS for Alibi Films
International, producer Al Clark and writer/director Scott Roberts. It's
about three brothers and the mix of sex and greed between bad cops and
"good" criminals.
* Julia Stiles will play a U.S. National Security field officer in
Universal's THE BOURNE IDENTITY, starring Matt Damon, based on the Robert
Ludlum novel. Doug Liman (GO) directs. Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive
Owen, Brian Cox and Adewale-Agabaje also star.
* Kari Wuhrer (ANACONDA) will star opposite David Arquette in the
horror/comedy ARAC ATTACK for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures,
Centropolis Entertainment and director Ellory Elkayem (LARGER THAN LIFE).
* Michelle Yeoh is in talks to star in the sequels of THE MATRIX, most
likely in the role Jet Li was once courted to play in the Warner
Bros./Village Roadshow pics.
* Michael Michele ("ER) joins Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Mario Van Peebles,
Jeffrey Wright and Mykelti Williamson in ALI for Sony Pictures and director
Michael Mann.
* Erinn Bartlett (THE IN CROWD), Chad Donella (FINAL DESTINATION) and
Jennifer Morrison (URBAN LEGENDS: THE FINAL CUT) will star in the romantic
comedy 100 WOMEN for writer/director Michael Davis (100 GIRLS, EIGHT DAYS A
WEEK).
* Bruce Campbell joins SERVICING SARAH as Elizabeth Hurley's husband for
director Reginald Hudlin, BIJOU for Frank Darabont as a handsome movie star,
and has also been added to the cast of SPIDER MAN for director Sam Raimi,
where he'll play a ring announcer. has been added to the cast of Mandalay
Pictures' "Servicing Sarah" for director Reginald Hudlin. In other SPIDER
MAN news, Cliff Robertson (Uncle Ben), Rosemary Harris (Aunt May) and J.K.
Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson) round out the cast of the Columbia Pictures pic
which stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe and James Franco.
Shooting begins next month.
* Anthony Hopkins is in talks to star opposite Chris Rock in BLACK SHEEP for
Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Hopkins would play a CIA agent who
mentors Rock's character, a man whose brother was killed by the enemy and he
is brought in to finish the mission.
* Mike Myers will put in a cameon on the comedy VIEW FROM THE TOP, Miramax's
Gwyneth Paltrow-starrer about a woman's journey to become a flight
attendant. Bruno Barreto will direct.
* Ellen Burstyn is in talks to star in DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA
SISTERHOOD, based on the novel by Rebecca Wells, for Warner Bros. and
director Callie Khouri. It's about the relationship between a mother and
her neurotic playwright daughter, who learns about her mother through mom's
three lifelong friends. Shooting begins in the spring.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Peter Antonijevic (SAVIOR) will direct IN GOD WE TRUST for Emmett/Furla
Films and Nittolo Entertainment, about a group of con men who discover that
their score from an off-track betting heist is more than they can handle.
Willie Dreyfus scripted.
* Rupert Wainwright (STIGMATA) will direct the action-thriller THE
APPRENTICE for the Canton Co. and Senator Entertainment. Ray Wright penned
the screenplay about a troubled young man recruited by the CIA. He later
discovers that his mentor in the agency is the guy who is responsible for
the death of his family.
* Norwegian director Lars Berg will direct the children's picture BROKEN
GLASS this spring. It's based on the Harald Rosenlow Eeg novel about a
12-year-old boy who doesn't know his older brother is dying from cancer,
while he spends his time pursuing girls.
* Music video director Joseph Kahn will direct DMX in THE CROW: LAZARUS for
Edward R. Pressman Film Corps. James Gibson wrote about a hard-living rap
artist killed in a drive-by shooting who comes back to seek revenge on the
biker gang who murdered him.
* Adam Shankman (THE WEDDING PLANNER) is in final talks to direct A WALK TO
REMEMBER for Warner Bros. and Gaylord Films, based on the Nicholas Sparks
1999 novel. It's set in the 1950s and follows two teens, a rich boy and a
minister's daughter, and their falling in love during the town's annual
Christmas pageant. Karen Janszen adapted the novel into a screenplay.
Production is expected to begin in March.
* Pedro Almodovar (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) will next direct LA MALA EDUCACION
(THE BAD EDUCATION), a Spanish-language film based on his school memories --
setting it in the 60s in a school run by priests.
* Alex Proyas will direct GARAGE DAYS for Fox Searchlight, Film Finance
Corp. and Mystery Clock Cinema. It's a contemporary dramatic comedy about a
garage band. Shooting will begin in the spring in Australia. Proyas wrote
the script with Dave Warner and Michael Udesky.
For script news, check out my weekly script report at
ScreenwritersUtopia.com
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Miramax seems to have the edge in a race against MGM/Zoetrope on who gets
to put out the first Frida Kahlo biopic. The former studio just sealed a
deal with Julie Taymor to direct a pic starring Salma Hayek and possibly
Antonio Banderas, Geoffrey Rush, Alfred Molina, Ashley Judd and a cameo by
Edward Norton as Nelson Rockefeller. The latter studio is apparently still
looking for a few million dollars to finance the pic as well as deal with
scheduling conflicts with its star Jennifer Lopez, who would have to
complete her other pic ENOUGH in time to star in the biopic before the
impending strikes. Luis Valdez is directing that Frida Kahlo pic.
* Producer Jon Kilik (DEAD MAN WALKING) will produce a biopic on Leonard
Peltier, the jailed Native American activist who President Clinton is
considering a clemency grant. Chris Eyre (SMOKE SIGNALS) is attached to
direct the pic entitled IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, based on the book by
Peter Matthiessen for Overseas Film Group.
* Mindfire Entertainment has optioned the rights to the video game series
DEAD OR ALIVE for a series of films. The first film, DEAD OR ALIVE:
HARDCORE--THE MOVIE, will start production early next year for a release in
late 2001. The game follows the world's greatest fighters who battle one
another in a dead-or-alive tournament.
Bruce Campbell is a busy man. Kudos to him. And how about the Anthony
Hopkins/Chris Rock team-up? Stranger things have happened, I suppose. The
casts to ALI and VIEW FROM THE TOP are pretty impressive, don't you think?
Here's hoping to a couple of good pics there. Other than that, I'm looking
forward to hearing more about Michelle Yeoh in THE MATRIX sequels and Jack
Nicholson in ABOUT SCHMIDT. How's about you?
Happy Holidays to you and yours; Eat lots, stay warm. See you next week...unless there
isn't any news, in which case I'll see you in 2001. Take care.
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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