Hey folks, Harry here with Elston Gunn's weekly roundup of the trades. Seems like everything is going pretty darn good in LaLa Land, and the best news of all is the Traffik news regarding Harrison Ford and Steven Soderbergh working together. I'm very very very jazzed about this.
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Eddie Murphy is near a deal to star in a sequel to DOCTOR DOLITTLE for
Fox. Larry Levin, who wrote the first, has written a script, but original
helmer Betty Thomas will not direct this one. Murphy will probably shoot
PLUTO NASH before he does this project.
* Terence Howard (THE BEST MAN) stars with Martin Lawrence in Fox's BIG
MOMMA'S HOUSE.
* Christina Ricci will star in and produce PROZAC NATION based on the
Elizabeth Wurtzel nonfiction book for director Erik Skjoldbjaerg about a
woman's coming of age story that involves depression and the title drug.
* Harrison Ford and Catherine Zeta Jones will star in TRAFFIC for director
Steven Soderbergh and Fox Searchlight. Ford will play a judge who is
recruited to become a U.S. drug czar, but faces conflict when his daughter
becomes a crack cocaine/heroin addict. Steven Gaghan scripted the project
based on the BBC miniseries "Traffik." Production begins April 2. Benicio
Del Toro and Don Cheadle may also join the pic.
HARRY NOTE: Expect Moriarty to take a look at the script for TRAFFIK this week on AICN... Early word is that it's brilliant.
* Lola Glaudini (upcoming GROOVE) joins BLOW.
* Nick Searcy ("Seven Days") nabbed a part in Joel Schumacher's TIGERLAND.
* Meredith Salenger (upcoming H.U.D. for NBC) will play a supporting role in
THE THIRD WHEEL with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
* Diane Lane will co-star in THE GLASS HOUSE with Leelee Sobieski for
director Daniel Sackheim and Columbia Pictures about a teenager who is taken
in by a couple after the death of her parents. She soon discovers the
couple isn't who they seemed to be and may have played a part in her
parents' deaths.
* Dana Carvey will star in and co-write an untitled comedy for Walt Disney
and producer Adam Sandler. The plot is being kept under wraps. Carvey also
has a role in Sandler's upcoming LITTLE NICKY.
* Jessica Biel ("7th Heaven") will star opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. in
SUMMER CATCH for Warner Bros. and director Mike Tollin about a romance
between a wealthy girl and a poor boy who is trying to break in to major
league baseball.
* Ed Burns, Heather Graham, Stanley Tucci, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy
and David Krumholtz are set to star in SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK which Burns
will direct from his own script. It's a tale of interwoven love stories set
in the Big Apple. Newmarket Capital Group is funding the project.
* Jude Law will star in FOUR FEATHERS for Paramount/Miramax and director
Shekar Kapur (ELIZABETH). Hossein Amini (THE WINGS OF THE DOVE) is
adapting. Shooting starts in July. Law is also looking to star in the CIA
pic THE GOOD SHEPHERD with Robert De Niro directing.
* Justin Chambers (LIBERTY HEIGHTS) joins THE WEDDING PLANNER with Jennifer
Lopez and Matthew McConaughey.
* Denzel Washington may star in Warner Bros.' cop drama TRAINING DAY about a
rough LAPD veteran who takes a rookie into the soul-destroying inner city on
his first day.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* James Mangold will co-write (with Gill Dennis) and direct CASH, a Johnny
Cash biopic for Sony. It's unclear whether or not Mangold will do this
before or after THE RICH PART OF LIFE.
* Jon Amiel (ENTRAPMENT) is near a deal to direct Paramount's NORTH OF
CHEYENNE. The original draft was written by Leslie Bohem, loosely based on
Thomas Hardy's novel FAR FROM THE MADDENING CROWD. The pic is set in the
American West and follows a young woman loved by many men. Robert Benton,
Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson have since written drafts.
* Sidney Furie will direct Casper Van Dien in GOING BACK about a group of
Marines who return to Vietnam to relive their war experiences as part of a
television show and are forced to face some hard truths.
* David Capper and Kevin Lipski have written the comedy spec MONSTER TRUCK
MADNESS for Sony's Original Films about a NASCAR driver who falls from grace
and then reinvents himself as a monster truck driver.
* Spike Lee will direct KINGS OF COMEDY for MTV Films based on the
African-American comedy tour of the same name. The docudrama will mix the
show with some backstage antics. Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric "The
Entertainer" and Bernie Mac will be the comedians featured.
* Warner Bros. picked up CRAZY SCHOOL by Andy Lieberman as a starring
vehicle for LL Cool J. It tells the story of a teacher who gets a job
teaching teenagers at Bellevue Hospital's high school.
* Martin Kunert will direct ED GEIN for Unapix Films about the serial killer
whom the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE films have been loosely based. Production
should start on July 1 with Kunert co-writing the script with Eric Manes.
* Michael Mann and Spike Lee are the final candidates for the Jon
Peters-produced project ALI with Will Smith starring as Muhammad Ali.
* Bill Wisher (T2) has turned in his draft of the SUPERMAN script to Warner
Bros. Nicolas Cage and the studio are apparently very happy with the draft.
* Warner Bros. picked up the comedy script WORD by Joe Ide about a
streetwise security guard and an uptight ad exec who work together to change
each other's images.
* Chris Gerolmo will direct RESURRECTING THE CHAMP for Phoenix Pictures and
producer Fred Zollo about a homeless man who claims he's a former boxing
great, but isn't.
* Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake have written DOWN WITH LOVE for Fox 2000 and
producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen (AMERICAN BEAUTY). The project is said
to be an twisted comic homage to the romantic films done by Rock Hudson and
Doris Day.
* Brad Silberling will direct SECOND SIGHT based on the 1999 BBC miniseries
about a homicide detective who is going blind, but is also trying to solve
the murder of a 19-year old man.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Walt Disney Co. is shopping around DUETS to other studios. The film stars
Gwyneth Paltrow and was directed by her father Bruce Paltrow.
* Industry Entertainment and Killer Films have optioned the rights to Sheila
Kohler's novel CRACKS. The suspense novel focuses on 12 women who are
brought back to a boarding school and are forced to relive the dark secret
of a 13th girl who disappeared on a hiking trip they took many years ago.
* Allied Filmmakers' Jake Eberts optioned Kien Nguyen's THE UNWANTED about
the writer's childhood in Vietnam.
* Fox picked up the remake rights to THE SEX MONSTER written and directed by
Mike Binder last year about a guy whose idea to participate in a menage a
trois to spice up his marriage, ruins his business and his life.
* Columbia Pictures is developing a remake of the 1971 thriller SEE NO EVIL
with Tony Jaswinski hired to write the screenplay. The original starred Mia
Farrow as a blind girl who moves into her aunt and uncle's home in England.
While there, her family is murdered and she is the next target, not knowing
the danger to her life.
* Centropolis Entertainment picked up the rights to an upcoming GQ article
about indie producer George Moffly and his involvement with the film THE
TAKEDOWN which was set up by the FBI as a front to nail the mafia. Tony
Bill (UNTAMED HEART) is attached to direct.
* THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT sequel's planned start has been delayed three
weeks so casting can be complete. Joe Berlinger is directing while Jon
Bodenkamp (upcoming TAKING LIVES) is polishing the script.
GUNN SHOTS
(not from the trades)
* To find out more about Heath McKnight's indie flick BITTERSWEET visit
MpsDigital.Com.
* Stax Flixburg has some script reviews of A KNIGHT'S TALE and GET CARTER
over at Flixburg,
USA.
HARRY NOTE: Stax's site is very cool folks, go check it out... He writes up tons of reviews of scripts in advance. Damn fine job there.
The Johnny Cash biopic news is pretty sweet. I hope James Mangold will
treat it right. I'm curious about several other projects: NORTH OF
CHEYENNE, KINGS OF COMEDY and MONSTER TRUCK MADNESS. TRAFFIC looks like a
film that's really shaping into something special. Soderbergh just hasn't
stopped working. I think ERIN BROKOVICH hits the theaters the same time THE
LIMEY hits video shelves and TRAFFIC starts shooting. Very cool. More
remakes headed our way: THE SEX MONSTER, SECOND SIGHT, SEE NO EVIL. Ed
Burns is writing/directing again with SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK. Bill Wisher's
SUPERMAN making everyone happy? Dana Carvey to make a comeback? ED GEIN a
MASSACRE prequel of sorts? Didn't see these coming.
Happy President's Day!! Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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