Father Geek here posting Elston's WEEKLY RECAP for this the 1st weekend of SunDance... My favorite bit of news this week concerns the fact that Robert Redford will executive produce THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, based on Che Guevara's diary of a motorcycle trip he took throughout South America. Brazilian Director Walter Salles should now have the necessary backing to turn out a film to do the infamous journey justice.

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Ice Cube and Mike Epps will star in the buddy action-comedy pic ALL ABOUT
THE BENJAMINS for Absolute Entertainment. Kevin Bray will direct the pic,
written by Ron Lang, about a bounty hunter in Miami who chases down a man
who skipped bail to an abandoned warehouse that turns out to be the drop-off
place in a diamond heist. The two team up to catch the diamond thieves.
Production begins March 19.

* Tim Allen and director John Pasquin (THE SANTA CLAUSE, JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE)
are in talks to star in and direct, respectively, Fox 2000's comedy JOE
SOMEBODY about a divorced corporate regular Joe at the end of his rope.
John Scott Shepherd scripted the pic which is expected to begin lensing
April 2.

* Writer Arthur Miller will make his first big-screen appearance in PLAIN
JANE, an adaptation of his short story "Homely Girl, a Life," which will be
directed by Israeli helmer Amos Gitai. Miller also co-wrote the screenplay.
Samantha Morton, Thomas Jame and Danny Huston will star. It's about a
Jewish immigrant working through her ideological and emotional struggles.

* Christian Slater and Val Kilmer are in talks to star in the indie action
action thriller IN GOD WE TRUST, which starts shooting April 9. It's about
a group of ex-cons who discover a score that turns out to be more than they
can handle. Peter Antonijevic (SAVIOR) will direct from a script by Willie
Dreyfus.

* John Malkovich and French performer Patricia Kaas will star in the love
story AND NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, about the relationship between a
gangster and a barroom singer. Shooting begins March 26 with Claude Lelouch
directing.

* Michael Clarke Duncan is set to join Dwayne ``The Rock'' Johnson in THE
SCORPION KING, a prequel to the sequel THE MUMMY RETURNS for director Chuck
Russell. Production on the Universal pic begins in March.

* Rahda Mitchell (HIGH ART, upcoming PHONE BOOTH) joins Kiefer Sutherland
and Anthony LaPaglia in the indie pic I FOUGHT THE LAW for writer/director
Mark Malone. Shooting begins next week in Vancouver.

* Elliott Gould and Andy Garcia join the ensemble cast of OCEAN'S ELEVEN
for director Steven Soderbergh. Shooting begins next month.

* Jack Black is in final talks to join Colin Hanks, Catherine O'Hara,
Schuyler Fisk and Lily Tomlin in ORANGE COUNTY for Paramount Pictures/MTV
Films and director Jake Kasdan. Shooting begins this month in L.A.

* Sandra Bullock is being eyed by Warner Bros. to star opposite Ellen
Burstyn in the movie DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD, based on the
1996 Rebecca Wells novel, for director Callie Khouri. Set in Louisiana,
it's about the relationship between a mother and her neurotic playwright
daughter. Ashley Judd may play Burstyn's character as a young woman.

* Ray Liotta and Jason Patric will star in the thriller NARC for
writer/director Joe Carnahan (BLOOD, GUTS, BULLETS & OCTANE) and Cutting
Edge Entertainment. It's about a narcotics officer who investigates the
murder of a rookie cop, teaming up with the cop's ex-partner. He ultimately
discovers that he's being set up.

* Megan Mullally joins Jason Lee and Tom Green in the Revolution Studios pic
STEALING STANFORD for director Bruce McCulloch. It's about a middle-class
man who turns to crime to finance his niece's college education. Production
begins in April.

* Robin Williams, Antonio Banderas and Renee Zellweger will star in the
romantic comedy LOVERS, LIARS AND THIEVES for writer/director Jeremy Leven
(DON JUAN DEMARCO), Victor and Grais Prods. and Act III Prods. It's based
on the true story of the Mona Lisa being stolen from the Louvre in 1911.

* Dylan McDermott is in talks to co-star with Jennifer Lopez in ENOUGH for
Columbia Pictures and director Michael Apted (42 UP, THE WORLD IS NOT
ENOUGH). He would play an abusive husband who hunts down Lopez in a deadly
confrontation. Nicholad Kazan wrote the script.

* Delroy Lindo and Jason Statham will co-star with Jet Li in THE ONE for
director James Wong (FINAL DESTINATION) and Revolution Studios. It's about
an agent who makes sure people don't travel back-and-forth between multiple
universes. Li will play a rebel who is out to kill his counterparts from
these other universes. Production begins Jan. 29 in L.A. for an Aug. 10
release. Wong co-penned the script with Glen Morgan.

* Billy Connolly will join Judy Davis in THE MAN WHO SUED GOD for director
Mark Joffe (THE MATCHMAKER), which will shoot in Australia. Don Watson
(PASSION) wrote the script about a fisherman whose boat overturns after it
is struck by lightning. The insurers refuse to pay for the damages due to
the incident being an "act of God," so the man tries to sue God.

* Allison Janney will play Meryl Streep's lesbian lover in THE HOURS, based
on the novel by Michael Cunningham, for director Stephen Daldry (BILLY
ELLIOT). Claire Danes, Ed Harris, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore also
star, while John C. Reilly is in talks to take a role.

DIRECTOR/ WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Jon Turteltaub is in talks to direct the live action/animated Disney pic
ENCHANTED, about an animated girl who falls in love with a prince and is
soon banished to the "real world" by an evil queen. Bill Kelly wrote the
original script that has since been rewritten by Rita Hsiao (MULAN, TOY
STORY 2).

* Feliks Falk will direct CODE: BALTIC STORM, a political thriller based on
the sinking of the Estonia in 1994, which killed more than 900 passengers.
The script, by J.A. Geodet, is based on the theory that the shipwreck was
not an accident, instead caused to sop an advanced weapons system from being
smuggled to the U.S.

* Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov is developing a sequel to his pic BURNT
BY THE SUN. The second installment will center on a grown-up Nadya (the
young girl in the first film) and her working as a nurse on the front line,
bringing in Russian soldiers off the battlefield. During one night, she
accidentally brings a wounded German soldier to the medical quarters.

* French helmer Jean-Paul Rappeneau (CYRANO DE BERGERAC) is working on an
epic World War II romantic drama set in Bordeaux in June 1940, when the
French government fled there from Paris. Rappeneau is writing the script
with his son Julien.

* Commercial director Peter Darley Miller is in talks to direct BLACK SHEEP
starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock for Jerry Bruckheimer. Production
begins in March.

* James Cox and Matt Miller will direct the indie documentary GUEST LIST
ONLY about the L.A. club scene. 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Shannon Elizabeth,
Scott Wolf and Ashton Kutcher are among the celebs who have participated in
the project.

* Diane English is in final talks to direct New Line's remake THE WOMEN from
her own script. It's based on the play by Clare Boothe Luce and centers on
several competitive home-wrecking women. It was made into a film by George
Cukor in 1939, starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell.

* Matt Dillon will direct the thriller BENEATH THE BANYAN TREES, to be
distributed by United Artists Films, about an American con man and a failed
insurance scam. The project will be the first movie to shoot the majority
of its photography in Cambodia. Dillon, James Caan and Natasha McElhone
(RONIN) will star.

* Joe Pantoliano will direct the indie comedy WILDLIFE INC., written by Erik
Moe, about a filmmaker and his experiences with the wacky characters of a
small fame-obsessed town in Wisconsin.

For script news, check out my weekly script report at
ScreenwritersUtopia.com

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Robert Redford will executive produce THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, based on the
Che Guevara memoir about a motorcycle trip taken by the freedom fighter
through South America. Walter Salles (CENTRAL STATION) is attached to
direct.

* Fathom Motion Picture Co. has picked up the rights to LEGEND OF THE LOST
EARTH, the 1997 Hope Campbell novel about a young government agent who
infiltrates a dangerous cult. Production on the pic won't go into
production until after the possible strikes.

* Author Rich Cohen has several of his projects in feature development. His
1998 book TOUGH JEWS was optioned by HBO with Brett Ratner attached to
direct. It centers on the Jewish mob in Chicago, featuring characters like
Tick Tock Tannenbaum and Dutch Schultz. Cohen's latest book THE AVENGERS
has Dustin Hoffman attached to produce for AMG. It's about a band of Jewish
resistance fighters in WWII, one of which was his great aunt who escaped a
Lithuanian ghetto and helped organize the Jewish migration to Palestine.
Cohen has also just finished a manuscript entitled THE LAKE EFFECT, as well
as the rock 'n' roll script THE LONG PLAY for Martin Scorsese and Mick
Jagger.

* The Oliver Stone/Mandalay Pictures pic BEYOND BORDERS is off again due to
budgetary issues, narrow prep time and the threatening strikes.

* Columbia Pictures has picked up the feature film rights to Image Comics'
SPAWN from New Line Cinema for a feature to be produced by Don Murphy. The
project has been put on the fast track, and McFarlane is working on a script
for the new movie with screenwriter Steve Niles. Sources said the new
feature will be more horror-based than the original film and will not
involve others in the original creative team.

* Universal Pictures grabbed the feature rights to the upcoming nonfiction
book GHOST SOLDIERS by Hampton Sides. It's about a group of U.S. soldiers
during WWII who risked their lives saving Americans from a Japanese POW camp
in the Phillipines.

* Jersey Films purchased the film rights to ``Sentenced to Nature,'' a story
written by Charles Siebert for the Dec. 17 issue of the New York Times
Magazine. It's about parents sending their teenagers to wilderness therapy
camps across the country. The article covers how teenagers wind up at these
camps, their efforts to escape, and the rituals they undergo while there.

* Lightstorm Entertainment has optioned the Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston
comic book series, THE COFFIN, for Guillermo del Toro to direct. It centers
on a scientist who creates a polymer suit that holds the soul after the body
dies. When he's close to death, he puts on the suit and becomes a
Frankenstein-esque monster, and tries to reconciliate with his estranged
daughter.

Lots of feature rights being sold. GHOST SOLDIERS and THE COFFIN, in
particular, sound fascinating. Also, Diane English, Matt Dillon and Joe
Pantoliano are making their feature film directorial debuts this year. Hope
the projects turn out well. I also hope BEYOND BORDERS will finally get off
the ground. And Oliver Stone may retire soon? Hmm. I'd always hoped he
would make MEMPHIS before he split.

Until next week...

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com