Sorry folks, due to all the technical difficulties that came up during the transfer, the Weekly Recap, normally seen on Friday or Saturday, got lost in the shuffle.... So here's this belated gem from Elston Gunn.... I updated a couple of the stories that had further official developments since last Friday, so it would be more up to date, but here is another great job done by Elston, my man, Gunn....

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Stockard Channing and Christian Campbell will star in THE PIANO MAN'S DAUGHTER adapted from Timothy Findley's novel about three generations of an Irish immigrant family in Canada. Campbell will play a young man dealing with his promiscous epileptic mother.

* Jerry O'Connell will star in BUYING THE COW for Destination Films about the transition from dating to settling down. He'll play David, whose girlfriend wants to get married or else, so he hits the dating scene with a vengeance. Walt Becker will direct the script he co-wrote with Peter Nelson.

* Lynn Redgrave joins Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright Penn in HOW TO KILL YOUR NEIGHBOR'S DOG about a playwright who has fallen on hard times. Michael Kalesniko writes/directs.

* Philip Seymour Hoffman joins David Mamet's STATE AND MAINE.

* Jenna Elfman is committed to reprise her role she performed in the play VISIONS AND LOVERS for a feature version. It's about a man whose novel about obsessive love hits home in his relationship with a supermodel. Milton Katselas wrote and directed the play and will write/direct the pic as well.

* Ethan Suplee (AMERICAN HISTORY X) joins REMEMBER THE TITANS for director Boaz Yakin (FRESH). The pic stars Denzel Washington and Will Patton as coaches of a newly integrated football team.

* Kam Heskin, Debi Mazar, Randy Spelling, Zachary Ty Bryan, Tsianina Joelson and Jordan Brewer join Dennis Hopper in HELD FOR RANSOM about a group of kidnapped teens. Lee Stanley will direct his adaptation of the Lois Duncan novel.

* Toni Collette is in negotations to replace Jennifer Esposito as the female lead in SHAFT. She is also in talks to play the villianess in CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Thandie Newton is in an imminent deal to play an Angel in the latter.

* Linda Fiorentino and Ben Kingsley are in negotiations to star in aa Georgia O'Keefe biopic titled TILL THE END OF TIME for director Marek Kanievska (LESS THAN ZERO).

* Sean Connery is committed to star in END GAME about a CIA agent who goes undercover to expose illegal arms dealing, but finds he is a pawn of a much larger setup.

* Stanley Tucci and Bridget Fonda will star in the romantic comedy in THE WHOLE SHEBANG for writer/director George Zaloom about an immigrant from Naples who meets the widow of his cousin who was killed in a fireworks accident.

* Madonna will play a philandering aristocrat in QUADRILLE, a feature adaptation of the Noel Coward play about an American industrialist who travels to France with Madonna's character to track down their spouses.

* Jennifer Tilly, Darryl Hannah and Elias Koteas will star in Michael Redford's (IL POSTINO) DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA about stories that revolve around a particular strip joint.

* Meg Ryan will star in PROOF OF LIFE about a hostage negotiatior who falls in love with the wife of the man he is hired to save. Russell Crowe is in talks to star as well.

* Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kevin Costner are in talks to star in Oliver Stone's BEYOND BORDERS for Mandalay Pictures. Stone wrote the script with Caspian Tredwell-Owen. It's a love story that takes place through many years during humanitarian efforts around the globe.

* Dave Matthews will star as a father in an indie remake of the '74 film WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS based on the classic novel. Dabney Coleman, Ned Beatty, Joseph Ashton and Renee Faia will also star. Lyman Dayton directs.

* Cate Blanchett will star in New Line's THE LORD OF THE RINGS as Galadriel. Principal photography begins Monday. Brad Dourif, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan also join.

* Harvey Keitel is in talks to play Adam Sandler's devil dad in New Line's LITTLE NICKY. Steven Brill will direct.

* Claudia Schiffer and Daniel Baldwin will star in IN PURSUIT for director Peter Pistor about an attorney who is being set up for the murder of a wealthy businessman. Dean Stockwell also stars.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Tony Goldwyn will direct Helen Hunt in THEN SHE FOUND ME for Columbia Pictures based on Elinor Lipman's book. The story follows a talk show host who bullies her way into the life of her daughter she gave up for adoption years ago. Alice Arlen scripted.

* The Vault picks up STORMY WILLIAMS by Justin Rohrlich about a white 80s-like metal rocker who must pass himself off as a soul singer to publicize an R&B album because the artist who really recorded it died.

* Kurt Wimmer will write/direct LIBRIUM for Dimension and producer Jan De Bont about the spiritual conversion of an agent who enforces a system where emotion is repressed and people are required to take a daily dose of librium.

* John Kretchmer will direct A FATE TOTALLY WORSE THAN DEATH about three high school girls who experience premature aging as a punishment for their bad behavior. Julie Benz, Monica Keena, Christopher Lloyd and Nicole Bilderback star in the Bubble Factory production.

* Dirk Wittenborn and Joe Forristal will write IF ONLY YOU for Disney about three musicians who submit their demo tapes to MTV with photos of three other guys, and when the MTV host comes to town, mayhem ensues.

* Ernie Contreras will write FORTUNE SON for Disney about a 16-year old who becomes the first teenager to go into space.

* Cary Bickley and Yuri Zeltser have written THE MYSTERY DANCE about sex and the media for DreamWorks and Reveal Entertainment.

* Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit will make his feature directorial debut with NATURE'S LURE written by Chris Kletzien about a group of youths forced to travel together because of circumstances beyond their control. Their true personalities are revealed after a series of unexpected events.

* Christopher Guest will direct DOG SHOW which he will co-write with Eugene Levy (both wrote WAITING FOR GUFFMAN). The movie will be done similar to GUFFMAN in documentary style allowing for lots of improv.

* Mark and Michael Polish (TWIN FALLS IDAHO) will write TEARGARDEN for Walt Disney Studios about an intern in a mental institution who forms a band with the inmates.

* James Hughes has written NEWPORT SOUTH to be produced by his dad John and to be directed by Kyle Cooper about four high school students who plot a revolution at their school after being censored by their teachers.

* Ted Demme will direct Johnny Depp in BLOW for New Line about 70s coke dealer George Jung, one of the biggest drug traffickers for kingpin Carlos Escobar. Penelope Cruz may be the female lead.

* Jim Stern (ALL THE RAGE) will direct the movie version of Tina Landau's SPACE about a psychiatrist who is approached by three patients claiming to be aliens.

* Andrew Fleming (DICK) will next direct ROGUES for Spyglass Entertainment aobut the first scholarship students admitted to Harvard during the Revolutionary War. Steve Bloom and Robert Rodat scripted.

* Scott Caan has written CHASING THE PARTY OR HOW HUGH HEFNER CHANGED MY LIFE and will star in the film as well for Jerry Bruckheimer and Touchstone Pictures. Caan's father, James, will have a small role. It's about two men who do everything they can to try and get into the biggest bash Playboy Hefner has ever thrown.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Sonnenfeld/Josephson optioned Don DeLillo's 1984 novel WHITE NOISE about a toxic disaster in a Midwestern town and a college professor who becomes addicted to an experimental drug where the real and unreal coexist. Barry Sonnenfeld will develop and direct the dark comedy.

* Jersey Films may develop a HEARTS OF DARKNESS type of documentary based on behind-the-scenes footage of MAN ON THE MOON shot by Lynn Margolis.

* Universal picked up the screen rights to Andrew Huebner's novel AMERICAN BY BLOOD about battles that followed the massacre at Little Big Horn with three men who have different views about the Native Americans they were sent to slaughter.

* Jerry Bruckheimer may pick up the rights to the upcoming novel BEWARE THE NIGHT about demon possession, exorcisms and werewolves in the canyonlands of New York.

* Dougray Scott was forced to exit X-MEN since his schedule on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 didn't free him up in time to do the pic. Now Hugh Jackman has taken the role.

Don't have time to ramble about the above today. Some great sounding stories though. What do you think? I hope Jersey Films definitely goes through with the MAN ON THE MOON documentary. I'm curious to see the footage. Well, the floor is yours.

Happy Columbus Day. (Due to Harry, this wish is now a day late!)

Until next week...

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com