Father Geek here posting another of Elston's columns on the past week's movie news for all of you who just may have missed some of it during your hectic work-week. Soooooo for all of you who cared, but just didn't have the extra time to surf around the web here's the confirmed news from the world of film...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Ed Harris and William Hurt are in talks to join Viggo Mortensen in A
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE for David Cronenberg and New Line. Adapted by Josh Olson
from John Wagner and Vince Locke's graphic novel, the project tells the
story of an ordinary family's life after the father receives unwanted
national attention for a seemingly vigilante-style self-defense killing at
his diner.
* Philip Baker Hall, Jesse James and Chloe Moretz have joined the cast of
the MGM/Dimension AMITYVILLE HORROR. Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George and Jimmy
Bennett also star. British commercial helmer Andrew Douglas is directing.
* Keira Knightley will star in Tony Scott's DOMINO, written by Richard
Kelly, for New Line and Scott Free Prods. The real-life story centers on
Domino Harvey, the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey. Domino ditched a
career as a Ford model to become a bounty hunter.
* Til Schweiger will play Heinz Hummer, a suave, cocky, high-ranking German
gigolo whose life is threatened before the 73rd Annual Man Whore Awards in
DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO. Rob Schneider and Eddie Griffin star in the
Happy Madison sequel, which begins shooting this month in Amsterdam.
* Laura Harring replaces Daryl Hannah in THE KING for ContentFilm and
director James Marsh. William Hurt also joins the cast, replacing Sam
Shepard.
* Julian McMahon ("Nip/Tuck") is in talks to play Dr. Doom in FANTASTIC FOUR
for director Tim Story. Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and
will star as the title characters.
* Patrick Fugit is set to star as the title character in BICKFORD
SCHMECKLER'S COOL IDEAS for writer/director Scott Lew. It's a coming-of-age
comedy about a reclusive college freshman who has been privately writing his
ingenious cool ideas in a notebook. When the journal is stolen, he goes on a
cross-campus odyssey to retrieve the book.
* Steve Carell will play bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in GET SMART,
the bigscreen adaptation of the sitcom. Steve Koren (BRUCE ALMIGHTY) will
write the script.
* Kelli Garner (upcoming THE AVIATOR and CHEER UP) has been added to the
cast of DREAMLAND, starring Rosanna Arquette, Agnes Bruckner and Justin
Long. Pic, about a love triangle in the New Mexico desert, will be directed
by first-timer Jason Matzner through Echo Lake Prods.
* Rachel Nichols joins MGM and Dimension Films' remake of THE AMITYVILLE
HORROR.
* Dagmara Dominczyk (THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO) joins the cast of Stephen
Gaghan's SYRIANA for Warner Bros. George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet
and Chris Cooper also star.
* Tim Robbins, Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo and Dax Shepard have been tapped
to star in Columbia Pictures' upcoming sci-fi adventure ZATHURA, based on
the book by Chris Van Allsburg, for director Jon Favreau. Screenplay was
written by David Koepp.
* Erika Christensen is boarding Touchstone Pictures/Imagine Entertainment's
thriller FLIGHT PLAN, opposite Jodie Foster and Peter Sarsgaard. Sean Bean
is in talks to join the cast.
* Ralph Fiennes will play Voldemort in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
for director Mike Newell.
* Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has signed on to star in GRIDIRON GANG for
Columbia Pictures based on a true story about a group of teenagers at a
juvenile detention center who gain confidence and self-respect when their
counselor puts them on a football team. Jeff Maguire is writing the script.
The story was made into a documentary in 1993, which was directed by Lee
Stanley, who will produce with Original Film.
* Rachel Weisz is set to star opposite Hugh Jackman in THE FOUNTAIN for
director Darren Aronofsky, who also is producing via his Protozoa Pictures
shingle.
* Matt Dillon and Breckin Meyer join Lindsay Lohan and Michael Keaton in
Disney's HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, which will set the mysteriously strong-willed
Volkswagen Beetle, Herbie, in the world of NASCAR. Dillon takes the role of
Trip, the bad boy of the racing circuit. Meyer would play Lohan's brother;
Keaton is playing the duo's dad.
* William Hung has returned to his Hong Kong homeland to co-star with Nancy
Sit in the action comedy WHERE IS MAMA'S BOY? for My Way Film Co. It's about
a mother searching for her lost son and will be released in Hong Kong at the
end of October. The company is developing a second pic for Hung in the vein
of SPY KIDS.
* Ewan McGregor is in talks to star in the sci-fi pic THE ISLAND for
DreamWorks and director Michael Bay. Originating as a spec script by Caspian
Tredwell-Owen, the story follows a "harvested being" who makes a bid to
escape the utopian facility where he is being kept. Alex Kurtzman and
Roberto Orci are on board as screenwriters.
* Tony Goldwyn, Melissa Leo and Christopher Marquette have joined the cast
of AMERICAN GUN for IFC Films and director/co-writer Aric Avelino.
* Ben Kingsley will play the vampire Kagan, the evil ruler of an army of
bloodsuckers, in an upcoming film adaptation of the videogame BLOODRAYNE for
director Uwe Boll. Kristanna Loken will play the heroine, who must overthrow
Kingsley's character -- who is also her father -- in order to save the world
from the living dead. Michelle Rodriguez, along with Will Sanderson and Matt
Davis, play fellow ghoul hunters in the war against vampirism.
* Al Shearer (MTV's "Punk'd") has been cast as Nevil Shed in the Disney
feature GLORY ROAD, starring Josh Lucas, who plays Don Haskins. Emily
Deschanel has been cast as Haskin's wife.
* Tom Cruise will star in WAR OF THE WORLDS for Steven Spielberg and
Paramount Pictures. Instead of beginning production on M:I-3 this summer,
Cruise will go directly into Spielberg's modern-day adaptation of the H.G.
Wells classic about a Martian invasion of Earth. Production begins in
November. Cruise will shoot M:I-3 next summer with J.J. Abrams ("Alias")
set to direct.
* Sarah Silverman has signed a deal with Interscope Records that will see
the comedienne toplining her own feature-length film based on her hit
off-Broadway show JESUS IS MAGIC with Liam Lynch set to direct and Oil
Factory producing. The film will be a combination of comedy concert, music
videos and filmic narrative digressions.
* Michael Pena has been cast in Lakeshore/Warner Bros.' MILLION DOLLAR BABY
for director Clint Eastwood. Hilary Swank also stars.
* Alana De La Garza is set to star opposite David Boreanaz in the romantic
comedy MR. FIX IT for writer/director Darin Ferriola. The film chronicles a
lovelorn Casanova who tricks women into returning to their ex-boyfriends.
His work becomes foiled when he ultimately finds himself falling for one of
his marks.
* Actor/wrestler Bob Sapp has signed on for Paramount's THE LONGEST YARD,
starring Adam Sandler. Peter Segal directs.
* Cary Elwes has been cast in JDMC and Maverick Films' SAKURA: BLUE EYED
SAMURAI for director Dean Paraskevopouklus. Elwes will play an American
counsel to Japan in 1866 and the father of Sakura, a girl learning the way
of the samurai.
* Matt Keeslar joins the cast of ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL for director Terry
Zwigoff and writer Daniel Clowes. Keeslar plays an undercover cop
investigating a series of murders on a college campus.
* Alana Austin and Aaron Carter will star in DOWNTOWN for Richard Gabai. In
the indie feature, Austin plays a normal teenager whose life gets turned
upside down when she becomes friends with her new classmate, a pop star
(Carter).
* Dustin Nguyen is joining the cast of the Cate Blanchett starrer LITTLE
FISH for director Rowan Woods and Porchlight Films. Penned by Jacqueline
Perske, follows Blanchett as a former drug addict trying to rebuild her
life. Nguyen will take on the role of Blanchett's ex-lover, a onetime
druggie-turned-stockbroker. Martin Henderson, Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill
also star in the film.
* Stark Sands joined the cast of PRETTY PERSUASION for director Marcos
Siega. It's a dark comedy about a high school girl, played by Evan Rachel
Wood, who turns her Beverly Hills private school upside down when she
accuses her English teacher of sexual harassment.
* Meg Ryan and Adam Brody ("The OC") will star in IN THE LAND OF WOMEN for
Castle Rock and director Jonathan Kasdan. The bittersweet comedy, which is
heavily influenced by Kasdan's mentors, Cameron Crowe, James L. Brooks and
his father, Lawrence, who is execexec producing, is about a screenwriter who
goes to Michigan to take care of his ill grandmother after a big breakup. He
then becomes involved with a house full of women across the street.
* Gwyneth Paltrow will portray Peggy Lee in Warner Independent Pictures'
Truman Capote biopic EVERY WORD IS TRUE, joining a cast that includes Mark
Wahlberg, Sandra Bullock and Toby Jones. Sigourney Weaver also has joined
the production, portraying one of Capote's socialite confidantes. Production
is slated to begin Jan. 1. Pic is written and will be directed by Doug
McGrath for Christine Vachon's Killer Films.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* 20th Century Fox has picked up an untitled adventure project from
screenwriter Christian Forte that Mikkel Bondesen will produce. The story is
described as a lighthearted caper about a group of men in prison who use
their incarceration as the perfect alibi when they conspire to steal a stash
of diamonds.
* Gary Fleder is in negotiations to helm FEAR OF HEIGHTS for MGM based on
Susan Eisenberg's WE'LL CALL YOU IF WE NEED YOU: EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN
WORKING CONSTRUCTION. Rob Fried is producing from a script being written by
Laura Harrington. The film will revolve around a working-class single mom
who becomes the first female to join the Ironworkers Union. She battles
intense sexism to earn the respect of her all-male co-workers and the love
of a good man.
* Melanie Coombs (HARVIE KRUMPET short) is attached to direct her first
feature film. Penned by Stella Kinsella, VERIS is a sci-fi saga set in a
world where well-off, busy folks can buy a device that allows them to clone
themselves.
* Double Features is teaming with producer Debra Hill to mount an untitled
feature about the rescue of two Port Authority cops from the World Trade
Center rubble. Andrea Berloff will write the script.
* Universal Pictures, director Stephen Sommers and his partner Bob Ducsay
will turn Sarah Dunn's novel THE BIG LOVE into a feature. It's about a woman
whose boyfriend leaves her for his ex-girlfriend. That search for her big
love leads to a series of sexual adventures.
* Justin Lin and a team of writers have climbed aboard Universal Pictures'
remake of the South Korean pic OLDBOY.
* Director Brian Dannelly (SAVED!), United Artists and Single Cell Pictures
partners Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern will team once again for an
adaptation of the upcoming Amanda Filipacchi novel LOVE CREEPS. Dannelly
will write the script with Michael Urban. It's a black comedy about sex,
love and stalking and is set in the contemporary Gotham art scene.
* Warner Bros. Pictures and Thunder Road Prods. will produce a live-action
feature adaptation of the 1967 Rankin & Bass animated special MAD MONSTER
PARTY. John Pardee and Joey Murphy will write the script, in which Baron Von
Frankenstein calls together all of cinema's classic monsters for a
conference and announces that he's turning over their leadership to his
clueless nephew.
* Nick Quested will direct BAND ON THE RUN, written by Michael Stiles and
George Oliver, about four struggling rockers who teach snowboarding by day;
they meet a femme fatale promoter and get mixed up in a crime they didn't
commit.
* Director Marcus Nispel is working to bring the tale of Germany's Red Army
Faction to the screen. Teamed with scribe Tim Schlegel, Nispel will explore
the lives of Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader, who led the RAF in the
1970s. The pair were captured in 1972 and later committed suicide.
* Danny Cannon ("CSI") will direct the soccer pic GOAL! for Icon
Entertainment. Written by Mike Jefferies with Adrian Butchart, the pic stars
Diego Luna and is the first chapter in a $100 million trilogy about a young
Latino from the barrios of East Los Angeles who becomes an international
soccer star.
* Director Stephen Sommers and his producing partner Bob Ducsay have landed
the rights to FLASH GORDON, and will adapt a feature film based on the
iconic comic book superhero for Universal. Sommers is producing the Flash
project with an eye toward scripting; Sommers has yet to helm a project he
hasn't scripted.
* Warner Bros. has acquired the remake rights to Alain Chabat's French
comedy RRRrrrr!!! and has hired Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger to adapt the
script. The caveman comedy about the first murder committed by man and its
first investigation was released in France last January.
* Out of the Blue Entertainment is producing a remake of THE TOY for
Columbia. Bob Burris and Michael Ware are penning the script. While the redo
will draw from the 1982 Richard Pryor film (which itself was adapted from
1976 French pic LE JOUET,) without the racial factor, the film will also
take elements from the script JACK AND JAY, a comedy Burris and Ware wrote a
few years ago for Out of the Blue. In the remake, the bratty son of a
powerful businessman chooses a mailroom clerk as his "toy" to keep him
company on his annual visit to see his father.
* Paramount is developing TRIGGERFISH setting Joe and Anthony Russo to
direct the thriller with Robert Evans producing. The scripting team of
Laurence Malkin and Chad Thumann are writing the pic, based on a story by
Ron Malfi. It's set in the post-9/11 world of supposed interagency
cooperation and revolves around a high-ranking Secret Service agent who
defies the FBI by harassing one of its informants with a professional
interdepartmental investigation that quickly grows into a personal hatred
that could cost the agent his life.
* Warner Bros. Pictures has grabbed the rights to Robert Morgan's MARKET
FORCES for Thunder Road to produce and Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi to adapt.
The book is set in a near future where companies and investment firms
manipulate third world countries, raise and depose tyrants, and make their
money from the spoils of war. Promotions in these companies are settled by
road races to the death. The protagonist is a man who rises out of one of
the many ghettos via these promotions, achieving a privileged life, which he
begins to question.
* Working Title Films has pre-emptively picked up the spec script WILD CHILD
from writer Lucy Dahl, daughter of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal. The teen
comedy tells the tale of a Malibu bad girl who is sent to a British boarding
school.
* Simon Kinberg has written the latest draft of KILLER'S GAME for Intermedia
and Paramount. It's about an expert assassin who takes out a contract on
himself. When he decides he'd rather live, he must match his skills against
the best hit men of the world.
* Bragi Schut has been hired to write the comic book property CRIMINAL
MACABRE for MGM and Dark Horse Entertainment. Based on the graphic novel by
Steve Niles, the story revolves around Cal McDonald, a hard-drinking,
impetuous detective who takes on the supernatural in a decidedly low-tech,
film noir style.
* Universal picked up the comedy spec script SPARTAN NEWS written by Mike
Samonek. The plot is being kept under wraps, but it's understood to be a
comedy of manners in the vein of MEAN GIRLS.
* New Line has hired writer/director James Dodson to helm the corporate
comedy THE RETREAT for Guy Walks Into A Bar. Story centers on an exec who
goes to his first company retreat on his second day at the job and finds
he's the target of sabotage by a disgruntled employee who wanted the post.
He's then forced to compete for his job by leading a ragtag group of
co-workers in a paintball contest.
* Wes Craven is set to helm the thriller RED EYE for DreamWorks and
Benderspink. The film centers on a woman held captive by a stranger on an
airliner who threatens to kill her father unless she helps him arrange the
assassination of a wealthy businessman. Carl Ellsworth wrote the script.
* Rob Reiner is stepping in to replace Ted Griffin as director of Warner
Bros. Pictures' UNTITLED TED GRIFFIN PROJECT. After just one week of
principal photography, Griffin, a screenwriter who was making his
directorial debut on the project, is being replaced, with Reiner in talks to
take over the reins on the film. The studio has shut down filming, which it
plans to resume Aug. 18. Griffin wrote the script for the romantic comedy,
starring Jennifer Aniston, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo, Mena Suvari and
Kevin Costner star. Lesley Ann Warren recently joined the cast.
* Intermedia has optioned THE FROG KING, by Bret Easton Ellis, which the
scribe adapted from the Adam Davies novel of the same name. Asif Kapadia is
in negotiations to direct. The novel centers on an Ivy League-educated peon
slaving away ingloriously at a New York publishing house. The one bright
spot in his life is his girlfriend, whom he manages to lose and then has to
win back.
* Visual effects studio Digital Domain and Barnet Bain Films have acquired
the film rights to Richard Bach's bestselling novel ILLUSIONS: THE
ADVENTURES OF A RELUCTANT MESSIAH for Yann Samuell (LOVE ME IF YOU DARE) to
direct. The project is the inspirational account of an encounter with a
modern-day messiah.
* Sam Hamm (BATMAN) and Darin Morgan have teamed on an untitled project
picked up by DreamWorks. The story concerns a marriage counselor, whose
daughter is about to get married, who discovers that his future son-in-law
is suffering from the delusion that he's a superhero.
* Mark Perez is set to pen an untitled family comedy that Diane Keaton is
attached to star in and produce for Columbia Pictures.
* Screen Gems is planning a remake of cult horror pic WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
and sequel WHEN A STRANGER RETURNS. Jake Wadewall is scripting the remake.
Wadewall sold the horror thriller spec script NEXT DOOR and is writing the
next installment in the HALLOWEEN series for Dimension.
* Revolution Studios has purchased Richard Murphy's SUPER FAN, a comedy
about the world's biggest football fan who decides to become the NFL's first
male cheerleader.
* Syntax Entertainment has optioned feature rights to a biography about
Edwin Hubble, astronomer and father to the Big Bang theory. Shawn Lawrence
Otto (THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG) will adapt the screenplay. Written by
Guggenheim fellow Gale E. Christianson, EDWIN HUBBLE: MARINER OF THE NEBULAE
is about the astronomer who, by the early 1930s, provided the observational
evidence that led Albert Einstein to endorse the model of an expanding
universe. Hubble's subsequent fame allowed him to hobnob with the likes of
William Randolph Hearst and Charlie Chaplin, but also gave rise to a
prodigious ego that wasn't above a good lie.
* Steven Spielberg has set ANGELS IN AMERICA playwright Tony Kushner to
redraft the untitled drama about the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics,
where members of the Israeli team were held hostage and slain by Palestinian
extremists. Spielberg has also pushed back his projected start date from
late this summer to June 2005. Eric Bana remains the star of the film, a
co-production between Universal and DreamWorks.
* Michael Mann and Leonardo DiCaprio will collaborate on PUBLIC ENEMIES,
based on the book by Bryan Burrough. It's a drama about the great crime wave
of 1933-34, focusing on the government's attempt to stop Depression-era
criminal legends John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.
* Sofia Coppola will write and direct MARIE-ANTOINETTE for Columbia Pictures
and American Zoetrope. Kirsten Dunst is attached to play the title role of
the French queen, with Jason Schwartzman portraying Louis XVI. Production is
scheduled to begin in February in France.
* Cartney Wearn will direct the horror pic PRAY FOR MORNING about a group of
high schoolers who break into an abandoned resort hotel that turns out to be
haunted.
* Level 1 Entertainment, a production company run by Edward Milstein and
Bill Todman Jr., has picked up HOW TO WIN BACK YOUR HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART
from writer Robert Gelber. The comedy centers on a high school student who
seeks revenge against the girl who broke his heart. The teenager concocts an
elaborate scheme to win her back just so he can break up with her.
* Emmett/Furla Prods. has picked up three specs: Roderick Taylor and Bruce
Taylor's LOVE AND HATE, Stuart Hazeldine's UNDERGROUND and Matt Reilly's
ALTITUDE RUSH. LOVE AND HATE is the story of a South Florida cop haunted by
her childhood best friend who has seemingly come back from the dead.
UNDERGROUND is the story of a former soldier who must keep terrorists from
flooding the London Underground. ALTITUDE RUSH follows a band of friends who
must thwart a plot to blackmail the President of the United States.
* Fine Line Features has hired Charley Stadler to direct the futuristic
thriller ROOFWORLD, wih Dave Mitchell on board to adapt. Based on a 1988
novel by Christopher Fowler, the feature revolves around a group of
disenfranchised people who flock to London's rooftops to form alternative
communities.
* Stigmata director Rupert Wainwright (STIGMATA) is in talks to direct BLOOD
AND CHOCOLATE, based on the book by Annette Curtis Klause, for MGM and
Lakeshore Entertainment. The pic is about a secret society of werewolves
living in modern-day society.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Hong Kong is developing a few CGI animation projects including Digital
Content Development Corp.'s DRAGONBLADE, Hong Kong's first 3-D CGI feature.
Directed by Antony Szeto, it's about a young boy who must go through a
series of tests before he can attain the legendary DragonBlade. Next up are
THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP from GDC Production and MONKEY KING, based on a
popular Hong Kong comic, from Jade Dynasty Publications and Shanghai Media
Group.
* Lucasfilm is moving forward with plans to develop its own slate of
computer-animated projects, announcing the formation of an animation
facility in Singapore. New studio, which will open by spring, will produce
digitally animated films, television and games.
* Filming has been suspended on Vincent Ward's RIVER QUEEN as actress
Samantha Morton struggles to recover from illness. Kiefer Sutherland also
stars.
* Stuart Boyd has optioned Jason Kersten's true-crime book JOURNAL OF THE
DEAD: A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP AND MURDER IN THE NEW MEXICO DESERT. Having lost
their way after embarking on a brief hikehike in the desert, Raffi Kodikian
and David Coughlin found themselves on the verge of dehydration. According
to Kodikian's journal, they decided on a mutual suicide pactpact to spare
each other excruciating pain before an inevitable death. When Kodikian
survived after stabbing his friend, he was charged with murder.
* Exec producers Tony Romano and Michel Shane have optioned the upcoming
memoir of disgraced fund-raiser Aaron Tonken: KING OF CONS: EXPOSING THE
DIRTY, ROTTEN SECRETS OF THE WASHINGTON ELITE AND HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES.
Tonken is a cooperating witness for several federal investigations into more
than $2 million in allegedly illegal campaign contributions. The state of
California also has alleged that Tonken defrauded charities and donors and
refused to account for more than $1.5 million in contributions. In addition
to detailing the inner workings of the events he produced, the book tells
Tonken's story as a high school dropout who had been a gas station attendant
and limo driver before he wound up on food stamps and living at the Chabad
Homeless Shelter in Los Angeles. From there, Tonken re-created himself as
the premier organizer and producer of celeb-oriented charitable and
political fund-raisers.
* DreamWorks has pushed back the release of THE RING 2 from November to
Thursday, March 24, due to production delays.
* United Artists has renewed its first-look deal with Crossroads Films which
is developing a slate of projects including TUPPERWARE!, based on the PBS
"American Masters" documentary, written by Jim Taylor (ELECTION, ABOUT
SCHMIDT); SNOW ANGELS with David Gordon Green adapting the novel by Stewart
O'Nan and Eric Eason set to direct; THE LITTLE THIEF, based on the French
telefilm LE PETIT VOLEUR; and SAY UNCLE, written by Bill Scheft ("The Late
Show with David Letterman").
* Ruddy Morgan is partnering with filmmaker Steve Sommers and his producing
partner Bob Ducsey to produce AIRBORN, a fantasy adventure for Universal.
Based on a children's book by Kenneth Oppel, the story tells the tale of a
15-year-old boy who works on a luxury airship that is part dirigible, part
passenger cruise ship. When air pirates attack the airship, the boy, along
with a female partner, embark on an adventure that includes strange flying
creatures, secret lairs, nasty villains and uncharted volcanic islands.
* Ronald Shusett (co-creator of the ALIEN series) is is teaming with comic
book specialist Daniel Alter to option feature rights to the upcoming
sci-fi/horror title MEGACITY. Set in the not-too-distant future, the series
follows the exploits of an elite team of soldiers called Phobia, whose job
is to stop psychic parasites known as pulses from possessing innocent people
and turning them into monsters.
* Sony Pictures Entertainment has optioned screen rights to Karen Joy
Fowler's bestselling novel THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB about five women and a
man who live in California and meet periodically to discuss Austen novels.
Using Austen as the springboard, the book delves into the life of each club
member.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* On Tuesday, August 17, Regal Entertainment Group, with DMI Entertainment
Marketing, will be announcing the launch of "Wide Screen Radio" -- a
private-labeled, customized music programming service. For more info, visit
* Galfo Films Entertainmen is producing THE HEALER, based on a story written
by Frederic Galfo. The principal photography is scheduled spring 2005.
Vincent Lyn, action star, Grand Master and World Kickboxing champion will
play the lead character. Award winning action choreographer/director Kenji
Tanigaki will direct. For more info, visit http://www.galfofilms.com or
http://www.kungfucinema.com
* The ROCKETS REDGLARE! trailer is now online at
http://www.smallplanetpictures.com/rocketsredglare Rockets Redglare! opens
in New York on Sept. 3, 2004 and expands nationally in September and
October. Rockets' story is told with a little help from Steve Buscemi,
Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Jim Jarmusch, Julian Schnanbel, Gary Ray, Nick
Zedd and Rene Heras.
* The movie BRIDES, by Greek director Pantelis Voulgaris, is being executive
produced by Barbara Defina and Martin Scorsese of Cappa productions. The
film stars British actor Damian Lewis and Greek actress Victoria
Charalambidou. The movie will definitely get a full screening at the Toronto
International Film Festival. There's a Greek-only site already up and
running and it looks good! http://www.nyfes.gr/
* DEAR PILLOW Plays at Austin's Alamo Drafthouse Starting Sept. 1st with the
International Premiere at Edinburgh Film Festival on August 20th! More info
at: http://www.drafthouse.com/downtown/frames.asp and
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/ Trailer, press coverage, reviews, pics,
online production journals and much more is available at:
http://www.dearpillow.com/
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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