Father Geek here welcoming our main man Gunn back into the AICN fold after his recent marriage and the resulting honeymoon. Yes, he's back! Annnnnnd he's filed a tremendous report for your weekend reading pleasure. Sooooooo get comfieeee, grab that mug of Java, and dig in... lots of info in this one folks...

CASTING
* Djimon Hounsou (GLADIATOR) will join Paddy Considine in the romantic drama EAST OF HARLEM for director Jim Sheridan (IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER). It's about a troubled artist who befriends an Irish immigrant who moves to New York with his wife and daughter to follow his acting dream.
* Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Madonna and Jason Alexander will lend their vocal talents to MADAGASCAR, a DreamWorks animated pic to be co-directed by Eric Darnell (ANTZ) and Conrad Vernon. The story centers on four zoo animals who are sent back on a ship to their native homeland by an animal rights group. However, the ship capsizes and the animals wind up in Madagascar.
* Jackie Chan is in negotiations to star in MGM's remake of the 1960 Jerry Lewis comedy THE BELLBOY to be set in Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel.
* Renee Zellweger is in talks to join Catherine Zeta-Jones as the larcenous murdering dancer-singers in CHICAGO for Miramax and director Rob Marshall. Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) wrote the feature adaptation. Zellweger would play Roxie while Zeta-Jones is in negotiations to play Velma. Kathy Bates may play Mama Morton while Kevin Spacey is being eyed for the role of lawyer Billy Flynn.
* Jennifer Bransford (MADE), John Enos ("Melrose Place"), Jack Gwaltney (G.I. JANE) and Kellie Overbey (SWEET AND LOWDOWN), Roy Scheider, Wallace Shawn, Scott Wolf, Jake Weber and Greg Zola will star in Nicholas Gregory's low-budget suburban drama LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. The digitally shot pic centers on two couples who are dealing with domestic monotony. When one of the husbands has an affair with the wife of the other man, his risky game shatters the couple's world and brings in the possibility of AIDS.
* Newcomer Derek Luke, discovered working in the Sony Pictures gift shop, will play the lead in Denzel Washington's directorial debut, THE ANTWONE FISHER STORY, for Fox Searchlight. Shooting starts Sept. 24 in Cleveland.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger is in talks to star in MGM's black comedy UMP, based on a novel by Jim Cohen, about a hitman--called the Ump due to his strict set of rules--who retreats to a town in New Jersey after eliminating two-thirds of a triplet mob boss team. The community embraces his tough ways, and the hitman ends up helping out the troubled town while he waits for the chance to take out that last mobster.
* James Gandolfini may join De Niro in Columiba's SCARED GUYS about two agorophic roommates who must venture out of an apartment for the first time in years to save a woman's life.
* Christopher Walken will lend his voice to STUART LITTLE 2 for Columbia Pictures and director Rob Minkoff.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith are in early talks to write a sequel to LEGALLY BLONDE, which they also penned, for MGM. Reese Witherspoon is in negotiations to produce and possibly star, subject to script approval.
* Karen Essex will adapt her own two-part novel, KLEOPATRA, for Warner Bros. Pictures-based producer Adam Schroeder. The book, a result of more than 10 years of the author's research, is a retelling of the cultural and sexual politics that engulfed the Egyptian queen. Essex is also writing RAMSES THE DAMNED for Lightstorm Prods.
* Kevin Bernhardt will write JOHNNY FRANKENSTEIN for Sobini Films, based on an original idea by the prod. co.'s vice chairman Mark Amin. The contemporary retelling of Frankenstein centers on Johnny, a lonely rebel who, after a failed suicide attempt, is reconstructed by a female doctor who pushes the limits of organ regeneration to turn him into a superhuman. Alive and gorgeous, Johnny becomes obsessed with improving his body and must kill to fulfill his need for perfection.
* Universal Pictures bought the comedy spec FREAKS OF THE JUNGLE, by Stuart Gibbs and Sahara Lotti, about a couple who are mistaken for jewel thieves while on a blind date. Zide/Perry Entertainment will produce.
* Disney picked up the urban adventure/comedy pitch INDIANA JACKSON from Pras and Darryl Taja about a playboy/archaeologist who travels to Ethiopia to look for a priceless relic. Tyger Williams (MENACE II SOCIETY) will write the script.
* Eric Goldberg (POCAHONTAS) will direct a computer animated adaptation of the children's classic WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE for Disney and Playtone Prods. Tom Hanks may lend his voice to the pic. David Reynolds (THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE) will write the script.
* Music video director Nick Quested is attached to helm KUNG FU THEATER, the Mandalay Pictures comedy that DreamWorks may distribute and finance. It's about a comic book artist who looks for some inspiration via the television, where he is transported inside a martial arts film.
* Russell Crowe will write, direct, produce and star in THE LONG GREEN SHORE, a WWII ensemble drama based on the novel by the late John Hepworth. It tells the story of an Australian battalion arriving on the beaches of New Guinea with orders to force back the retreating Japanese. The war against Germany in Europe is over and the Japanese resolve has weakened to the point where it's realized the end of WWII is near. Pushed by a tough commander, the battalion keeps going, engaging weak Japanese battalions in bloody battles. Shooting begins next spring in the South Pacific.
* Andrew Kevin Walker (SEVEN, SLEEPY HOLLOW) will write an untitled script for Warner Bros. that will pair Superman and Batman. Wolfgang Petersen (THE PERFECT STORM) is attached to direct.
* Danny DeVito is in talks to direct Kate Hudson in HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS for Paramount. It's about a womanizer who bets his friends that he can stay in a relationship for more than 10 days. However, the tables turn when she tries to dump him. Burr Steers wrote the latest draft of the script.
* Jake Kasdan (ZERO EFFECT, upcoming ORANGE COUNTY) is in talks to direct the comedy PUBLIC ENEMY for the Jacobson Co. and Touchstone Pictures. The story follows a New York man who leaves his fiancee at the altar after a misunderstood proposal. He realizes his mistake and goes back to win his fiancee back but discovers he has become a tabloid villain and the most hated man in town. Production is expected to begin in the spring.
* Malcolm Spellman has three projects in the works: First there is the romantic comedy pitch SWEET THING for Fox about a struggling single mother who dreams of doing something more with her life. Working as a temp, she hustles her way into a job at a Beverly Hills law firm and teams up with an old-money lawyer. Spellman is also writing CORE, an extreme-skateboarding script for Fox 2000 as well as STAGGA LEE for Urban Entertainment, based on the folk hero.
* John Scott Shepherd (upcoming JOE SOMEBODY) will script an untitled project based on the Nerve.com article by Suzi Parker entitled "Genie in a Bottle: The Sex Drink That's Rocking Little Rock" for Revolution Studios. The focus of the article is Niagra, a new wonder drink touted as the female version of Viagra.
* David Frigerio's script CRIMINAL PROCEDURE has been set up at Montecito Picture Co. and Marine Street Films. The urban comedy centers on the activities of a hip criminal.
* Jay Roach will develop and direct UP IN THE AIR for Fox 2000, based on the latest Walter Kirn novel. It's the story of a motivational coach who is nearing his millionth frequent flyer mile, a goal he pursues with zeal as the rest of his life crumbles around him because he's always traveling.
* Radical Media has hired Matthew Specktor is adapting the Shirley Hazzard novel TRANSIT TO VENUS about two orphan sisters leaving Australia to England during the Cold War.
* David Dobkin (CLAY PIGEONS) will direct Spyglass Entertainment's SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, the sequel to SHANGHAI NOON, starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. This time around, the pair get together in turn-of-the century London, where they uncover a worldwide conspiracy to overthrow the Chinese and British empires. Shooting begins in February.
* Mandolin Entertainment has purchased the dramatic script, ONE MORE DAY FOR HIROSHIMA, with Luis Mandoki (ANGEL EYES) attached to direct. It's about a Navy captain who, one day before the Hiroshima bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, was sent on a top-secret mission to drop a newly developed bomb on that city. Once he finds out it's the atom bomb, he refuses to do the mission and is court-martialed. After the bombing a day later, the captain begins his inner conflict over whether giving Hiroshima an extra day of life was worth giving up the rest of his own.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* George Lucas revealed that the next installment of his popular sci-fi franchise will be titled STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES. The title was apparently chosen because it "harkens back to the sense of pure fun, imagination and excitement that characterized the classic movie serials and pulp space fantasy adventures that inspired the 'Star Wars' saga." The pic will be released next summer and follows Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, who are assigned to protect Padme Amidala, whose life is threatened by a faction of political separatists.
* Warner Bros. grabbed Michael Punke's upcoming nonfiction manuscript THE REVENANT for Weed Road Pictures. It's the true story of Hugh Glass, a fur trapper who joined the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. on a dangerous expedition with 10 other men in 1823. During the trip, he was mauled by a grizzly bear, so the captain assigned two men to stay behind and bury Glass when his time came. Instead, the men robbed Glass, leaving him defenseless in the wilderness, awaiting certain death. Fueled by anger and adrenaline, Glass vowed to survive -- and did, traveling through 350 miles of wilderness to exact revenge.
* FilmFour picked up the rights to Elmore Leonard's novel TISHOMINGO BLUES, a contemporary crime caper that follows a carnival high-diver who witnesses a murder gets entangled with the local Dixie Mafia and a wacky group of Civil War re-enactors.
* Rob Minkoff has optioned the rights to Sidney Sheldon's Broadway play ROMAN CANDLE about the relationship between a psychic woman and a skeptic man.
* The Universal black comedy INTOLERABLE CRUELTY may be coming together with director Jonathan Demme, Will Smith and Tea Leoni possibly becoming involved in the Coen Bros.-scripted project..
* Collision Entertainment picked up the film and television rights to MAX PAYNE, the computer game set in New York's underworld, where undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent Payne seeks revenge against the Mafia drug syndicate that has killed his family and framed him for the murder of a fellow agent.
* Warner Bros. will release MATRIX RELOADED in May 2003 as opposed to the rumored fourth-quarter 2002.
* Miramax Films grabbed the feature film rights to columnist Allison Pearson's upcoming novel I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. It's based on her weekly columns in London's Daily Telegraph and follows the life of Kate Reddy, a successful investment banker who tries to balance her job with being a mother.

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