Cool News
Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek here to remind you that another week of 2001 has slipped by, and to present you with Elston Gunn's review of all the major news stories that may have slipped by you for one reason, or another as well. Sooooo relax, take it easy and drift through the week that was with the WEEKLY RECAP...
Buuuuuuut, First this important notice!!!
Please post a warning to folks NOT to visit the Drudge report site for a while-they have completly spoiled the ending of the new Apes film with the headline on their opening page with no spoiler warning at all! You open the site and you have the film ruined whether you want to see it or not. I guess I won't have to see it now-and I was really looking forward to that surprise..Just thought I'd let you give folks a heads up!Father Geek back... Thanks Steve for your warning... now on to Elston's report...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Kevin Spacey is in final talks to star in THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE for
Universal Pictures/Intermedia Films and director Alan Parker. Producer
Nicolas Cage is expected to take a small role. It's about a professor, who
advocates the end of capital punishment, falsely accused and convicted of
murdering an activist. He soon finds himself on death row.
* Doug Hutchison (THE GREEN MILE) joins Samuel L. Jackson, Milla Jovovich
and Stellan Skarsgard in Bob Rafelson's thriller NO GOOD DEED, written by
Christopher Canaan (creator of "Walker, Texas Ranger").
* Azura Skye (28 DAYS) will play sister to Julia Stiles' character in
CAROLINA for director Marleen Gorris. Shirley MacLaine and Alessandro
Nivola co-star.
* Alanna Ubach (LEGALLY BLONDE) joins Jamie Kennedy and Jake Busey in
CAPTURE THE FLAG.
* Renee Zellweger is in negotiations to star in the Revolution Studios
comedy 13 GOING 30, written by Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa (WHAT WOMEN
WANT). It's about a girl on her 13th birthday who gets a peek at her life
as a 30-year-old. She is excited to learn she's beautiful, rich and powerful
but is a little bummed when she finds out how she got there.
* Paul Walker is in talks to star with Scott Caan in the drama WANNA-BE for
director Fred Durst. It's based on a Mike McAlary article from New York
magazine about how the children of mobsters defy their wishes and follow in
their footsteps, breaking rules along the way. Production may begin in
October with David Fincher possibly coming aboard in some capacity.
* Jet Li and Jackie Chan will star in an action film for the first time for
Revolution Studios. The pic will begin production in fall 2002. Robert
Mark Kamen (KISS THE DRAGON, THE FIFTH ELEMENT) is working on the script.
Li and Chan are both involved in the construction of the pic and will also
serve as executive producers.
* Taye Diggs is in talks to join Sanaas Lathan in Fox Searchlight's BROWN
SUGAR for director Rick Famuyiwa about an A&R rep for a hip-hop record label
who falls for a magazine editor.
* Ice Cube and Johnny Knoxville are in talks to star in the buddy pic BIG
TICKET for DreamWorks Pictures. Jim Herzfeld wrote the script.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Jean-Marie Poire will direct an adaptation of the hit French stage comedy
MY WIFE'S NAME IS MAURICE as well as the sci-fi comedy DAMIEN AND THE
INVADER, both for Gaumont.
* Linda Mendoza ("The Chris Rock Show") will make her feature directorial
debut with PAPI CHULO, a Fox 2000 comedy about a guy who keeps girlfriends
in Miami, San Francisco and New York. They eventually meet, discover they
have the same boyfriend, and seek revenge.
* Roger Kumble (CRUEL INTENTIONS) will direct THE UGLY TRUTH, written by
Nicole Eastman and Tracey Jackson, for Bel-Air Entertainment. It's about a
female TV station general manager who hires an obnoxious late-night TV host
to help her find the perfect man. In the process, the two fall for each
other.
* Ryan Murphy ("Popular" creator/executive producer) will direct WHY CAN'T I
BE AUDREY HEPBURN for producer Joni Sighvatsson. A woman who seems to have
everything going for her is left at the altar by the wealthy man of her
dreams. She ultimately falls for someone she previously loathed because he
was everything her fiancee was not
* F. Gary Gray will direct the urban drama MAGE for Spyglass Entertainment,
based on the Matt Wagner-created comic book series about a guy who finds out
he's a major player in the fight against dark forces.
* Brazilian director Walter Salles (CENTRAL STATION) will remake the 1963
Akiro Kurosawa film HIGH AND LOW about a business tycoon who believes his
child has been abducted, but later discovers that it's his chauffeur's son
instead. He soon realizes he must choose between saving his business and
saving the life of the child of his closest confidant.
* Director Ridley Scott is on producer Dino De Laurentiis' wish list for
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, but is not yet attached. Ted Tally is writing the
script.
* Rose Troche (THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS) is now developing her next pic
LUCINDA'S CHANGED for TF1 Intl. The project is described as a "radical
reappraisal of the Frankenstein story."
* William Malone (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) will direct TEMPTING PANDORA about
a young man, rejected from Harvard's graduate psychology program, who faces
a killer on death row. The man learns a secret from the killer and though
he promises not to reveal it, the man publishes the info and gets accepted
to Harvard. Later, the killer escapes and hunts the man. Jeff Vlaming
penned the screenplay.
* Escape Artists grabbed the suspense-thriller pitch DIARY from writer Eric
Nicholas who will write the script about a married woman terrorized by a
thief who has stolen her diary containing a grave secret.
* Danny Rubin (GROUNDHOG DAY) sold his script MARTIAN TIME to Propaganda
Films for Maggie Zackheim to direct. The story is an offbeat romance about
two cynical folks who find love at an alien gathering in Arizona.
* Disney picked up the comedy pitch BOYS TOWN from Jordan Budde and Robert
Ellsworth for Lauren Lloyd to produce. It's about a redneck agent who goes
undercover as a gay man in West Hollywood to solve a murder.
* Griffin Dunne will direct NAILED RIGHT IN for Gold Circle Films and
producers Richard Lewis and Akiva Goldsman about three friends in 1980s
Brooklyn, set against the backdrop of John Gotti's rise to mob power.
* Regency's going top-shelf on the redo, hiring scribes Brandon Camp and
Mike Thompson will write a remake of the 1996 German film BROKEN SILENCE for
Regency Enterprises. It centers on monks who discover the 99-year lease on
their monastery is up. One monk is empowered to speak for them and goes out
into the world to extend the lease.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Working Title Films has picked up the feature rights to Margaret Atwood's
ALIAS GRACE as a project for Cate Blanchett. The book is based on an event
that took place in Canada in 1843 and centers on a 16-year-old housemaid,
who was convicted for the murder of her boss and his mistress. She was then
sentenced to life imprisonment, spending the next 30 years in jails and
asylums, though there is speculation whether or not she even committed the
killings.
* Production company Single Cell is developing several projects including a
movie based Douglas Coupland's book ALL FAMILIES ARE PSYCHOTIC, about a
family get-together the weekend before the first female astronaut heads to
space; Brady Udall's script THE MIRACLE LIFE OF EDGAR MINT; the black comedy
SAVED from writer/director Brian Dannelly about a pregnant girl who is
outcast at her Baptist high school; and BLONDE, written by director Everett
Lewis, about the sexual side of Bonnie and Clyde. Peter Sarsgaard is
attached to play Clyde.
* There are three feature projects in development about Alexander the Great:
Christopher McQuarrie will direct a film he wrote for the Canton Co.,
while Ted Tally is scripting a separate project, based on three historical
novles by Valerio Manfredi, for Dino De Laurentiis; finally, producer Gene
Kirkwood is developing a Norman Toy Jr. script which will focus on
Alexander's life in the bedroom as much as on the battlefield.
* DreamWorks Pictures has grabbed the rights to the PC game CRIMSON SKIES
from Microsoft for a potential live-action feature flick. The game takes
place during the depression in 1930s U.S. and follows an air adventurer who
takes on a group of evil air pirates who threaten the country.
* Famke Janssen had to bow out of MEN IN BLACK 2, due to an illness in the
family, and has been replaced by Lara Flynn Boyle.
Thanks to everyone for the kind words and well-wishes. Much appreciated.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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+ Expand All
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Jul 22, 2001 7:56:35 PM CDT
Alex The Great - Should become the greatest epic ever filmed.
by tremmor_christ
Anyone who has bothered to read anything about this Guy will understand how important justice is done to this story.
Hopefully it will involve a bit about his dear old Dad (Phil) as well. -
I had once heard Jude Law's name being kicked around as a possible Alex, which would be pretty freakin' sweet. He's the perfect age anyhow.
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Just a suggestion - discourage the dickheads from spoiling the ending of any more films by spamming the Drudge Report. Email your dissatisfaction to drudge@drudgereport.com
Stop them before they spoil Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back!
Snoogans. -
Jul 22, 2001 9:48:54 PM CDT
Buzz Maverik's Weekly Recap -- Informercial, Advertising Supplem
by buzz maverik
"Hi, I'm Senator Gary Condit, a Deomocrat from California. If you're like me, you've been the victim of people with darn suspicious minds, accusing you of things you probably didn't do. Now, we all know that our justice system is based on INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY, but when you're dealing with the media, you have to prove that you're innocent. That's why I called BUZZ MAVERIK'S LIE DETECTOR'S INC. Buzz only works for select clients, who can pay a lot of money and won't press charges, and handles each case personally with his associate, a Mr. Eriglione. I really did not know what to expect when I met them in the basement of that abandoned building. Who were these guys, who were putting on black leather gloves? And why was Mr. Eriglione pinning my arms behind me? I finally understood when Buzz punched me in the mouth and shouted, "Where is she? We know what you did so why don't you make it easy on yourself and tell us?" Before I could tell him the truth, which is that I didn't do anything, he knocked out some of my teeth. But not to worry. Buzz Maverik's Lie Detectors is a professional outfit and found ways to revive me every time I came close to blacking out. They were even prepared for when I falsely confessed to get them to stop hurting me. They started screaming that I was just telling them what they wanted to hear and I think that's when Eriglione broke some of my fingers. Finally, they threw a bucket of ice water in my face and Buzz said, "Okay, Senator. We're convinced. You didn't do anything." And I got an affidavit attesting to my passing the lie detector test, signed by both Buzz and Eriglione. They also threw in a complimentary t-shirt, tote bag and returned all of my fingernails to me. So if you need to prove you're innocent, I highly recommend Buzz Maverik's Lie Detectors. More reliable and respected by L.A. law enforcement that polygraphs. -- Senator Gary Condit." We now return to BUZZ MAVERIK'S WEEKLY RECAP, already in progress: ....and Afflek's next film will be Kevin Smith's DAN DAMMIT, PRIVATE EYE. See you in the cellar of the abandoned building.
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Jul 22, 2001 9:54:02 PM CDT
Deomocrat? I Spell That Way Because I Belong To The Keg Party My
by buzz maverik
...as well as being a card carrying Zen Fascist.
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reading this bullshit makes me feel like i'm getting stoned to death slowly and painfully. only without the blood and the death...or the stones - which are all sorely lacking from this depressing list of celluloid pain. the best piece of work they could reference for whoever the fuck was "walker: texas ranger"? it makes me cringe and i don't like cringing. like the way rubbing cloth together makes me cringe. ahh god, can't even think...but wait, what other caption-sized trainwrecks did i have the bitter misfortune to be optically raped by? could it be...the blind rage inducing pairing of scott caan and fred durst? yes. that's one of them. almost makes me wanna gouge out my eyes and swollow them. i can't even go on...there's just too many obscenely banal "films" in development for me to even attempt to make fun of them all. i'm only one man...and even i'm not that bitter. but a couple of them sound not so vomit inducing. i don't loathe the concept of a jet li/jackie chan pairing. although alexander the great does worry me. thats a film i want to see, that i want to see done well. i would say done brilliantly, but that would just be asking for my face to get smashed in by novelty sized hammer of dissapointment. and i've had my soul pushed down the steps, beaten with tennis shoes, and forced to drink the soul equivalent of urine enough times to realize movies aren't so important to me anymore. when i have things like writing poems about dying children and single tears rolling repeatedly down everyones single cheeks to make me realize life is a horrible hellhole of shattering and inevitable cruelties of nature and humanity so i'm just going to relax a bit and stare at something blank and thoughtless for awhile. preferably myself, if only i had another body to use to look at myself blank minded. or a mirror or something. but back on the topic of alexander the great: don't let Ridley Scott do it. please! i don't want to see alex walking around in a computer generated (poorly computer generated i should say) landscape with fake fucking filter happy gloss and bluescreen sunsets and drop frame speedyness and quick cut action and god damn gladiator2...whew! well, i don't. and that's just me. but jude law would make a good alexander...and i say this only because he's a fucking great actor and even though i can't quite picture him in the role, he can probably pull it off. i'd say let christopher mcquarrie do it but it seems he's already been ditched from it. its a shame. he was really enthusiastic about it and that script review from awhile back was promising. hmmm. is it too much to ask for quality filmmaking these days? where framing and composition mean something? when there isn't an edit every 5 seconds or less? when actors still had to work with "blocking"? when you didn't notice long shots were long? oh god, things such as those are why i went to film school. and films as they are today are why i quit. not to say there are no good films out there anymore or there won't be any in the future. its just that the bad "films" are spreading around like cancer filling every fucking multiplex and painting the walls of videostores the day after the names come off the marquee while good films starve to death in the two local theaters that seem to give half a fuck about quality. oh well, that's it. this is a rambling mess of madness. it was fun to write. i'm johnny, nice to meet you.
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This 'huge spoiler' as you call it was already mentioned on other sites months ago...
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Jul 22, 2001 10:46:51 PM CDT
POTA ending was Spoiled right here on AICN under the "More looks
by troy macclure
Harry was nice enough to warn Talkbackers that the twin negative reviews contained major spoilers and that perhaps they should read the reviews after they see the film. So it's really not just Drudge who by the way never says on his site that this is the surprise twist ending the way AICN reviewers did. Drudge just says Burton "makes a mockery of a fallen American president" but then that's just Drudge trying to be "patriotic" and anti-Hollywood since he's a big populist now. If you go to Drudge's site you see his big headline but even in his article he never says this is the twist ending. Just thought I'd clear that up since I am the official spokesman now for 21st Century Ape Studios.
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Fwed Duwst is making a moobie wif Jimmy Caan's widdle boy and that boy fwom that Fweddie Pwinze moobie? Boy I'd wather chug an ice cole mug of diawhea than see that one. Maybe they'll "bweak stuff" in it. Buzz Mavewick did a gweat job this week wif his week wee we cap. God Bwess Amewica.
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Always keeping it topical, current, and real! Though I do miss those movies so close to real they might as well be. Buzz Maverik. Is it real or Memorex?
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