Father Geek here with the latest edition of our longest running regular weekly column still with its original reporter in place, Elston Gunn and his 6th year and counting reviews of Movie-dom's confirmed news stories for the previous week... just in case you were too busy during the past work-week to keep up with everything yourself. Sooo, here it is...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Leslie Grossman joins the cast of MISS CONGENIALITY 2 for director John
Pasquin.
* Kenya Moore will star in CLOUD NINE for director Harry Basil. The indie
film concerns a washed-up sports promoter who gets a second shot at fame and
fortune when he puts together a women's volleyball team made up of exotic
dancers.
* Tara Mercurio will star opposite Martin Lawrence in 20th Century Fox's
RAGE CONTROL for helmer Steve Carr.
* Sam Huntington is set to star in the indie feature MOLDING CLAY for
director William Katt. Huntington plays a teenager who is mistaken for a
fugitive and the kidnapper of a teenage girl.
* Steve Culp has joined indie feature THE SISTERS, a contemporary take on
the Chekhov story, for director Arthur Allan Seidelman. Mary Stuart
Masterson, Elizabeth Banks and Chris O'Donnell also star.
* Roger Cross has snagged a part in New Line Cinema's untitled Anthony
Anderson project for director Jeff Byrd. Cross plays a pool guy who is
having an affair with Anderson's character's wife, who recruits him to
kidnap her husband.
* Larry Bagby III has booked a role in 20th Century Fox's Johnny Cash biopic
WALK THE LINE for director James Mangold. Bagby will play a bass guitarist
with a fascination with explosives who is part of Cash's inner circle. Also
joining the cast is newcomer Tyler Hilton, who will play a young Elvis
Presley.
* Anthony Mackie (upcoming SHE HATE ME) is joining the casts of Clint
Eastwood's ROPE BURNS and JC Barros' indie ensemble drama UPTOWN STORIES.
*
Alec Baldwin joins Cameron Crowe's ELIZABETHTOWN, starring Kirsten Dunst,
Orlando Bloom and Susan Sarandon. Bruce McGill and Gaillard Sartain have
also joined the cast, which includes Judy Greer, Jessica Biel, Loudon
Wainwright III, Paul Schneider and Paula Dean.
* Rap star Nelly will make his bigscreen debut in Paramount/Sony's THE
LONGEST YARD, starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds. Nelly
also plans to record a single to go along with the May 2005 release of the
movie.
* Steve Carell (ANCHORMAN) will star in FURRY VENGEANCE for New Line about a
cutthroat real estate developer who meets his match in the animals that will
be rendered homeless if he's successful in turning their forest into a
housing development. Script is from Mike Carnes and Josh Gilbert.
* Kurt Russell will star in DREAMER for DreamWorks and director John
Gaitins. Shooting will begin in September for a 2005 release. The father-son
drama concerns a down-on-his-luck trainer who restores the prestige of a
once-prizewinning racehorse while restoring the faith and commitment of his
family and friends.
* Tyler Perry will star in, write and produce an adaptation of her play THE
DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN for Lions Gate Films. Darren Grant will direct.
Cast includes Shemar Moore, Cicely Tyson, Steve Harris and Kimberly Elise.
Filming begins July 21 in Atlanta.
* Missi Pyle (SOUL PLANE, DODGEBALL) will play Ms. Beauregarde, mother of
Violet Beauregarde, in Tim Burton's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, for
Warner Bros.
*
Frances McDormand is in talks to join Charlize Theron in CLASS ACTION for
Warner Bros. Pictures and director Niki Caro (WHALE RIDER). The two are
currently shooting AEON FLUX together. McDormand would play the role of
Glory, a tough but tender iron miner who befriends and mentors Theron's
character, Josie, a harassed mine worker who becomes the key plaintiff in a
class action case.
* Maria Bello is in talks to star opposite Viggo Mortensen in A HISTORY OF
VIOLENCE for director David Cronenberg and New Line Cinema. Adapted by Josh
Olson from John Wagner and Vince Locke's graphic novel, the pic 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. Bello would play Mortensen's character's wife.
* Jessica Alba has been cast as the Invisible Girl for 20th Century Fox's
FANATASTIC FOUR, based on the Marvel comic. Tim Story directs.
* Kristin Chenoweth is in talks to voice a lead role in Walt Disney
Animation's RAPUNZEL: UNBRAIDED. She could be joined by Reese Witherspoon,
who is in negotiations to voice another role in the project.
* Lindsay Lohan is in final talks to star in the comedy LADY LUCK at New
Regency and 20th Century Fox for director Donald Petrie. Story concerns the
luckiest girl in the world who, through a chance encounter with a perennial
loser, finds her good fortune swapped for his incredibly bad luck.
* Sharon Stone is attached to star in BASIC INSTINCT 2 after her three-year
lawsuit against producers Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar has been settled in
principle. MGM is in active negotiations with the producers over financing
the pic.
* Brooke Langton will play Lucy opposite Jay Harrington in PARTNERS about a
straight guy who everyone assumes is gay. While he falls for Lucy, he
pretends to be just a friend because allowing everyone to think that he's
gay has boosted his career. Dave Diamond, who penned the project, will
executive produce and direct. Josh Cooke also stars.
* Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench and Penelope Wilton have
joined the cast of Working Title's upcoming adaptation of the classic Jane
Austen novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE for director Joe Wright. Other cast members
include Tom Hollender, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone and Simon Woods.
* Douglas Sills is set for a role in DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO for
director Mike Bigelow. Rob Schneider stars. Principal photography commenced
last week in Amsterdam.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Paramount Pictures has set up a remake of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS with Mark
Gordon on board to produce, and screenwriter Charles Randolph in talks to
script.
* Revolution Studios has picked up Greg Coolidge's comedy pitch CAMP SACHEM
for Guy Walks Into a Bar and H2F Entertainment to produce. Story centers on
a successful 35-year-old corporate raider who falters unexpectedly at a
major meeting and discovers he's still haunted by the ridicule he suffered
from having left camp two weeks early when he was 12. To resolve the
dilemma, he returns to the same bunk for two weeks and finds himself having
to lead the camp's losers.
* Antonio Banderas has acquired film rights to Antonio Soler's Spanish novel
EL CAMINO DE LOS INGLESES as his second directorial effort. It's a
coming-of-age tale charting the first loves, lusts and obsessions of a group
of Spanish friends on vacation. Banderas will shoot the pic in 2006 in his
hometown of Malaga, in southern Spain. He'll set the film in the late 1970s,
when he was in his late teens.
* "X-Files" creator Chris Carter will direct thriller A PHILOSOPHICAL
INVESTIGATION, based on the novel by Philip Kerr, at Paramount for producer
Mace Neufeld. Carter will write the project with Frank Spotnitz. The story
is set in the near future where genetic testing is mandatory to identify
individuals predisposed to violence. Plot centers on a female Scotland Yard
inspector who's drawn into a cat-and-mouse game when a sociopathic computer
expert finds himself on the list and decides to kill others on it.
* Tommy Lee Jones will direct and star in THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES
ESTRADA, written by Guillermo Arriaga (21 GRAMS). The story follows ranch
hand Pete Perkins, who attempts to keep a promise to a recently deceased
friend by making sure that he is buried in his hometown in Mexico.
Production begins in mid-September in Texas.
* Writer Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal is teaming with Sandra Bullock and her
Fortis Films on the indie biopic GRACE. It's based on the life of scribe
Grace Metalious, whose first novel was the 1956 tome PEYTON PLACE, an
inspiration for both a television show and a feature film. The success of
such a unique book for the time period brought Metalious many rewards, but
it also led to a broken marriage, family problems and alcohol addiction that
eventually took her life less than 10 years later.
* Warner Bros. has acquired THE WILD, a drama pitch by writer Tim Rollins
about an Earth left swarming with dangerous, rapidly evolving organisms in
the wake of genetic tinkering.
* Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen (CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN) will write THE
PARTRIDGE FAMILY, the big-screen adaptation of the popular television series
for Paramount Pictures.
* Bryan Barber is pacting with Regency Enterprises to develop and direct
another musical for the big screen. This one will find him directing a
hip-hop musical inspired by what's described as a classic story. It is known
that Barber will team with music multihyphenate Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds
on the soundtrack, while Edmonds' wife, Tracey, and her Edmonds
Entertainment will produce. Scribe Preston Whitmore (LOCKDOWN) will write
the script.
* Lions Gate Films picked up the feature film pitch PARTY BOYS from writer
Josh Lieb ("NewsRadio," "The Simpsons") Ithaka Entertainment's Braxton Pope
and Andrew Weiner developed the pitch and brought it to Lions Gate. The duo
will produce.
* Matthew Sand will write a feature based on BEOWULF, one of the oldest
poems in English literature, for Warner Bros. Maple Shade Films will
produce. Written in Old English and dating back to the eighth century, the
poem tells the tale of Beowulf of the Geats, who is called to slay Grendel,
a monster that is attacking a Danish kingdom. After defeating Grendel,
Beowulf slays Grendel's mother and then clashes with a dragon.
* Filmmaker Bennett Davlin, producer Jesse Newhouse and producer Anthony
Badalucco have teamed to form production company 3210 Films. Their first pic
will be the psychological thriller MEM-O-RE, which will start shooting in
Vancouver Oct. 1. It's the story of a medical expert who unlocks genetically
stored memories not his own within his brain -- memories of a killer who has
been abducting victims for the past three decades.
* George Romero will direct LAND OF THE DEAD, a horror film that picks up on
the zombie saga he began with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Romero wrote the
script which is being co-financed by Atmosphere Entertainment and Wild
Bunch. Production will begin in October in Winnipeg or Pittsburgh. In the
new pic, the zombies having taken over the world and those left alive are
confined to a walled-in city that keeps out the corpse corps. Anarchy rules
the streets, with the wealthy insulated and living in fortified skyscrapers.
Plot revolves around a group of scavengers who must thwart an attempt to
overthrow the city while the dead are evolving from brainless slow-moving
creatures into more advanced creatures. It's been described as NIGHT OF THE
LIVING DEAD meets THE ROAD WARRIOR.
* Luke Greenfield (THE GIRL NEXT DOOR) has set up three more films he'll
direct and produce with his WideAwake partners Juan Castro and Matthew
Siegel for New Regency. First up is BIG BROTHER, an edgy comedy that W.
Blake Herron (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) is in talks to write. Story concerns a
selfish businessman who's forced to participate in the Big Brother program
and is paired with a tough teen. The two loathe each other, but they develop
a twisted father/son relationship once the businessman begins teaching the
youth all of the immoral things he used to get ahead in business. Also on
deck is DESTINY, a big-budget drama-comedy about a man given the gift to see
his own future. Chris Sheridan ("Family Guy") is in talks to script.
Greenfield is also planning to direct an untitled comedy for New Regency
based on a pitch by Josh Stolberg and Robert Florsheim. Their new script is
described by Greenfield as an edgy comedy about two guys, speed dating and
loneliness in the big city.
* Yellow Bird Films has begun principal photography on the first of 13 films
about author Henning Mankell's police detective Kurt Wallander, on locations
at Ystad in southern Sweden. Swedish helmer Kjell-Ake Andersson will direct
the first two installments, while Danish director Peter Flinth has been
signed for the third. Actor Krister Henriksson stars in them all as the
lonely, slightly overweight crime investigator.
* Jessica Yu is set to direct THE CAKE EATERS, an offbeat comic drama
scripted by and starring Jayce Bartok, about two small-town dysfunctional
families thrown together by the return of one family's prodigal son, forcing
the clans' members to battle old ghosts and work through emotional issues as
they search for love at any cost.
* Clark Johnson (S.W.A.T.) will direct KILLING FLOOR for New Line Cinema.
Adapted by John Rogers (CATWOMAN) from the novel by Lee Child, the thriller
concerns an ex-military policeman who discovers corruption and danger in a
tidy Southern community.
* David Benioff (TROY) is in final talks to adapt Khaled Hosseini's novel
THE KITE RUNNER for director Sam Mendes and DreamWorks. Story concerns a man
who grows up in California but is forced as an adult to return to his native
Afghanistan to right a longstanding wrong and rescue the son of a childhood
friend.
* Bryan Singer has replaced McG as the director of Warner Bros. SUPERMAN.
X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris will work with Singer to draft a
script.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Dave Letterman and his Worldwide Pants production shingle have come aboard
as producers of the tentatively titled STRANGERS WITH CANDY: THE MOVIE. Amy
Sedaris stars and co-wrote the film based on the Comedy Central show of the
same name. Stephen Colbert ("The Daily Show") and Paul Dinello -- who
created and starred in the "Strangers" with Sedaris -- are reprising their
roles for the feature, with Dinello directing.
* Philip Anschutz's Walden Media has left Disney for Fox. Under the terms of
the deal, Fox and Walden together will develop and produce five projects,
four of which are based on celebrated children's novels, with Fox
responsible for distribution. Pic include Kate DiCamillo's BECAUSE OF
WINN-DIXIE; Katherine Paterson's BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA; Lois Lowry's THE
GIVE; Wendy Orr's NIM'S ISLAND; and Adam Mortimer's as-yet-unpublished
comicbook proposal BIBLIONAUTS.
* Ben Affleck has dropped out of GLORY ROAD for director James Gartner,
Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. Josh Lucas may take the role.
* Paramount-based John Goldwyn has optioned CITY OF WATER, David Grann's New
Yorker magazine story about the massive system of underground tunnels that
deliver New York City's water. Eric Singer will write the project with an
eye to developing a high-stakes drama set in an unknown, idiosyncratic world
far beneath New York.
* Tobey Maguire and Wendy Finerman will produce a big-screen adaptation of
the novel EVERYTHING CHANGES by Jonathan Tropper for Columbia Pictures.
Tropper's novel revolves around the twentysomething Zach, who is on the
verge of marrying the perfect girl when he undergoes a life crisis as he
faces feelings for his recently deceased best friend's wife and also deals
with the sudden arrival of his flamboyant, womanizing, estranged father.
* Benderspink has optioned the story rights to Wingwomen.net and
Miamiwingwomen.com from Sadiq Muhammed. The two Web addresses are a service
Muhammed started in which men can hire women to pose as their friends to
help them find girlfriends.
* New Line Cinema has optioned feature rights for the role-playing game
VAMPIRE: THE REQUIEM from White Wolf Publishing for producer Adam Fields.
The project introduces a contemporary horror universe that details the
night-to-night life of vampires.
* Paramount has set up a remake of the 2000 Irish dramedy WILD ABOUT HARRY
with Guy Walks Into A Bar and Vertigo Entertainment set to produce. Story
revolves around a man who's disliked by his wife and two teenage children
until he's put into a coma by a mugger and finds, when he comes to, that he
can't remember anything after his 18th year. His condition gives him the
opportunity to right the mistakes he's made in his life.
* Anonymous Content has optioned film rights to TASTY BULLET, an upcoming
graphic novel by Jonathan Vankin and Arnold Pander. Story centers on the
beverage children are guzzling worldwide; the young woman whose image
promotes the product; and her discovery that the drink is actually
brainwashing those consuming it.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* There is a gallery of 74 stills of the new Jason Flemyng and Vanessa
Paradis French horror/comedy film ATOMIK CIRCUS at http://www.dvdrama.com.
* Check out an interview with Chuck Palahniuk at
http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/squib/57.html
* Naomi Watts is in talks to take the lead role in DAISY SCARLETT: SEMPER
OCCULTUS for producers Ben Trebilcook and LA Lawyer Harris Tulchin, with the
latter securing finance and Trebilcook trying to secure Val Kilmer to take
the male villainous lead of an SAS Commando and Bruce Willis for a cameo.
* Sir Roger Moore, has expressed his support for his son, restaurant owner
Geoffrey Moore, to replace Pierce Brosnan in Bond 21. It's also rumored that
the senior Moore will replace Judi Dench as 'M'.
* Word from Australia suggests Keanu Reeves could be set to shoot a sequel
to one of his successful movies over there. Rumor is it's either POINT BREAK
or BILL & TED.
* HIQI Media, formed by former Seventh Art Releasing exec Oren Bitan, has
acquired the domestic theatrical rights to urban thriller THREAT from King's
Mob Productions. Matt Pizzolo & Katie Nisa's film is about a street riot in
New York's Lower East Side inadvertently caused by a homeless punk and a
hip-hop revolutionary. For more info, visit http://www.threatmovie.com for
more.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Leslie Grossman joins the cast of MISS CONGENIALITY 2 for director John Pasquin.
* Kenya Moore will star in CLOUD NINE for director Harry Basil. The indie film concerns a washed-up sports promoter who gets a second shot at fame and fortune when he puts together a women's volleyball team made up of exotic dancers.
* Tara Mercurio will star opposite Martin Lawrence in 20th Century Fox's RAGE CONTROL for helmer Steve Carr.
* Sam Huntington is set to star in the indie feature MOLDING CLAY for director William Katt. Huntington plays a teenager who is mistaken for a fugitive and the kidnapper of a teenage girl.
* Steve Culp has joined indie feature THE SISTERS, a contemporary take on the Chekhov story, for director Arthur Allan Seidelman. Mary Stuart Masterson, Elizabeth Banks and Chris O'Donnell also star.
* Roger Cross has snagged a part in New Line Cinema's untitled Anthony Anderson project for director Jeff Byrd. Cross plays a pool guy who is having an affair with Anderson's character's wife, who recruits him to kidnap her husband.
* Larry Bagby III has booked a role in 20th Century Fox's Johnny Cash biopic WALK THE LINE for director James Mangold. Bagby will play a bass guitarist with a fascination with explosives who is part of Cash's inner circle. Also joining the cast is newcomer Tyler Hilton, who will play a young Elvis Presley.
* Anthony Mackie (upcoming SHE HATE ME) is joining the casts of Clint Eastwood's ROPE BURNS and JC Barros' indie ensemble drama UPTOWN STORIES. *
Alec Baldwin joins Cameron Crowe's ELIZABETHTOWN, starring Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom and Susan Sarandon. Bruce McGill and Gaillard Sartain have also joined the cast, which includes Judy Greer, Jessica Biel, Loudon Wainwright III, Paul Schneider and Paula Dean.
* Rap star Nelly will make his bigscreen debut in Paramount/Sony's THE LONGEST YARD, starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds. Nelly also plans to record a single to go along with the May 2005 release of the movie.
* Steve Carell (ANCHORMAN) will star in FURRY VENGEANCE for New Line about a cutthroat real estate developer who meets his match in the animals that will be rendered homeless if he's successful in turning their forest into a housing development. Script is from Mike Carnes and Josh Gilbert.
* Kurt Russell will star in DREAMER for DreamWorks and director John Gaitins. Shooting will begin in September for a 2005 release. The father-son drama concerns a down-on-his-luck trainer who restores the prestige of a once-prizewinning racehorse while restoring the faith and commitment of his family and friends.
* Tyler Perry will star in, write and produce an adaptation of her play THE DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN for Lions Gate Films. Darren Grant will direct. Cast includes Shemar Moore, Cicely Tyson, Steve Harris and Kimberly Elise. Filming begins July 21 in Atlanta.
* Missi Pyle (SOUL PLANE, DODGEBALL) will play Ms. Beauregarde, mother of Violet Beauregarde, in Tim Burton's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, for Warner Bros. *
Frances McDormand is in talks to join Charlize Theron in CLASS ACTION for Warner Bros. Pictures and director Niki Caro (WHALE RIDER). The two are currently shooting AEON FLUX together. McDormand would play the role of Glory, a tough but tender iron miner who befriends and mentors Theron's character, Josie, a harassed mine worker who becomes the key plaintiff in a class action case.
* Maria Bello is in talks to star opposite Viggo Mortensen in A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE for director David Cronenberg and New Line Cinema. Adapted by Josh Olson from John Wagner and Vince Locke's graphic novel, the pic 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. Bello would play Mortensen's character's wife.
* Jessica Alba has been cast as the Invisible Girl for 20th Century Fox's FANATASTIC FOUR, based on the Marvel comic. Tim Story directs.
* Kristin Chenoweth is in talks to voice a lead role in Walt Disney Animation's RAPUNZEL: UNBRAIDED. She could be joined by Reese Witherspoon, who is in negotiations to voice another role in the project.
* Lindsay Lohan is in final talks to star in the comedy LADY LUCK at New Regency and 20th Century Fox for director Donald Petrie. Story concerns the luckiest girl in the world who, through a chance encounter with a perennial loser, finds her good fortune swapped for his incredibly bad luck.
* Sharon Stone is attached to star in BASIC INSTINCT 2 after her three-year lawsuit against producers Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar has been settled in principle. MGM is in active negotiations with the producers over financing the pic.
* Brooke Langton will play Lucy opposite Jay Harrington in PARTNERS about a straight guy who everyone assumes is gay. While he falls for Lucy, he pretends to be just a friend because allowing everyone to think that he's gay has boosted his career. Dave Diamond, who penned the project, will executive produce and direct. Josh Cooke also stars.
* Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench and Penelope Wilton have joined the cast of Working Title's upcoming adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE for director Joe Wright. Other cast members include Tom Hollender, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone and Simon Woods.
* Douglas Sills is set for a role in DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO for director Mike Bigelow. Rob Schneider stars. Principal photography commenced last week in Amsterdam.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Paramount Pictures has set up a remake of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS with Mark Gordon on board to produce, and screenwriter Charles Randolph in talks to script.
* Revolution Studios has picked up Greg Coolidge's comedy pitch CAMP SACHEM for Guy Walks Into a Bar and H2F Entertainment to produce. Story centers on a successful 35-year-old corporate raider who falters unexpectedly at a major meeting and discovers he's still haunted by the ridicule he suffered from having left camp two weeks early when he was 12. To resolve the dilemma, he returns to the same bunk for two weeks and finds himself having to lead the camp's losers.
* Antonio Banderas has acquired film rights to Antonio Soler's Spanish novel EL CAMINO DE LOS INGLESES as his second directorial effort. It's a coming-of-age tale charting the first loves, lusts and obsessions of a group of Spanish friends on vacation. Banderas will shoot the pic in 2006 in his hometown of Malaga, in southern Spain. He'll set the film in the late 1970s, when he was in his late teens.
* "X-Files" creator Chris Carter will direct thriller A PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATION, based on the novel by Philip Kerr, at Paramount for producer Mace Neufeld. Carter will write the project with Frank Spotnitz. The story is set in the near future where genetic testing is mandatory to identify individuals predisposed to violence. Plot centers on a female Scotland Yard inspector who's drawn into a cat-and-mouse game when a sociopathic computer expert finds himself on the list and decides to kill others on it.
* Tommy Lee Jones will direct and star in THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, written by Guillermo Arriaga (21 GRAMS). The story follows ranch hand Pete Perkins, who attempts to keep a promise to a recently deceased friend by making sure that he is buried in his hometown in Mexico. Production begins in mid-September in Texas.
* Writer Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal is teaming with Sandra Bullock and her Fortis Films on the indie biopic GRACE. It's based on the life of scribe Grace Metalious, whose first novel was the 1956 tome PEYTON PLACE, an inspiration for both a television show and a feature film. The success of such a unique book for the time period brought Metalious many rewards, but it also led to a broken marriage, family problems and alcohol addiction that eventually took her life less than 10 years later.
* Warner Bros. has acquired THE WILD, a drama pitch by writer Tim Rollins about an Earth left swarming with dangerous, rapidly evolving organisms in the wake of genetic tinkering.
* Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen (CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN) will write THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, the big-screen adaptation of the popular television series for Paramount Pictures.
* Bryan Barber is pacting with Regency Enterprises to develop and direct another musical for the big screen. This one will find him directing a hip-hop musical inspired by what's described as a classic story. It is known that Barber will team with music multihyphenate Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds on the soundtrack, while Edmonds' wife, Tracey, and her Edmonds Entertainment will produce. Scribe Preston Whitmore (LOCKDOWN) will write the script.
* Lions Gate Films picked up the feature film pitch PARTY BOYS from writer Josh Lieb ("NewsRadio," "The Simpsons") Ithaka Entertainment's Braxton Pope and Andrew Weiner developed the pitch and brought it to Lions Gate. The duo will produce.
* Matthew Sand will write a feature based on BEOWULF, one of the oldest poems in English literature, for Warner Bros. Maple Shade Films will produce. Written in Old English and dating back to the eighth century, the poem tells the tale of Beowulf of the Geats, who is called to slay Grendel, a monster that is attacking a Danish kingdom. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf slays Grendel's mother and then clashes with a dragon.
* Filmmaker Bennett Davlin, producer Jesse Newhouse and producer Anthony Badalucco have teamed to form production company 3210 Films. Their first pic will be the psychological thriller MEM-O-RE, which will start shooting in Vancouver Oct. 1. It's the story of a medical expert who unlocks genetically stored memories not his own within his brain -- memories of a killer who has been abducting victims for the past three decades.
* George Romero will direct LAND OF THE DEAD, a horror film that picks up on the zombie saga he began with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Romero wrote the script which is being co-financed by Atmosphere Entertainment and Wild Bunch. Production will begin in October in Winnipeg or Pittsburgh. In the new pic, the zombies having taken over the world and those left alive are confined to a walled-in city that keeps out the corpse corps. Anarchy rules the streets, with the wealthy insulated and living in fortified skyscrapers. Plot revolves around a group of scavengers who must thwart an attempt to overthrow the city while the dead are evolving from brainless slow-moving creatures into more advanced creatures. It's been described as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD meets THE ROAD WARRIOR.
* Luke Greenfield (THE GIRL NEXT DOOR) has set up three more films he'll direct and produce with his WideAwake partners Juan Castro and Matthew Siegel for New Regency. First up is BIG BROTHER, an edgy comedy that W. Blake Herron (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) is in talks to write. Story concerns a selfish businessman who's forced to participate in the Big Brother program and is paired with a tough teen. The two loathe each other, but they develop a twisted father/son relationship once the businessman begins teaching the youth all of the immoral things he used to get ahead in business. Also on deck is DESTINY, a big-budget drama-comedy about a man given the gift to see his own future. Chris Sheridan ("Family Guy") is in talks to script. Greenfield is also planning to direct an untitled comedy for New Regency based on a pitch by Josh Stolberg and Robert Florsheim. Their new script is described by Greenfield as an edgy comedy about two guys, speed dating and loneliness in the big city.
* Yellow Bird Films has begun principal photography on the first of 13 films about author Henning Mankell's police detective Kurt Wallander, on locations at Ystad in southern Sweden. Swedish helmer Kjell-Ake Andersson will direct the first two installments, while Danish director Peter Flinth has been signed for the third. Actor Krister Henriksson stars in them all as the lonely, slightly overweight crime investigator.
* Jessica Yu is set to direct THE CAKE EATERS, an offbeat comic drama scripted by and starring Jayce Bartok, about two small-town dysfunctional families thrown together by the return of one family's prodigal son, forcing the clans' members to battle old ghosts and work through emotional issues as they search for love at any cost.
* Clark Johnson (S.W.A.T.) will direct KILLING FLOOR for New Line Cinema. Adapted by John Rogers (CATWOMAN) from the novel by Lee Child, the thriller concerns an ex-military policeman who discovers corruption and danger in a tidy Southern community.
* David Benioff (TROY) is in final talks to adapt Khaled Hosseini's novel THE KITE RUNNER for director Sam Mendes and DreamWorks. Story concerns a man who grows up in California but is forced as an adult to return to his native Afghanistan to right a longstanding wrong and rescue the son of a childhood friend.
* Bryan Singer has replaced McG as the director of Warner Bros. SUPERMAN.
X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris will work with Singer to draft a
script.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Dave Letterman and his Worldwide Pants production shingle have come aboard as producers of the tentatively titled STRANGERS WITH CANDY: THE MOVIE. Amy Sedaris stars and co-wrote the film based on the Comedy Central show of the same name. Stephen Colbert ("The Daily Show") and Paul Dinello -- who created and starred in the "Strangers" with Sedaris -- are reprising their roles for the feature, with Dinello directing.
* Philip Anschutz's Walden Media has left Disney for Fox. Under the terms of the deal, Fox and Walden together will develop and produce five projects, four of which are based on celebrated children's novels, with Fox responsible for distribution. Pic include Kate DiCamillo's BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE; Katherine Paterson's BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA; Lois Lowry's THE GIVE; Wendy Orr's NIM'S ISLAND; and Adam Mortimer's as-yet-unpublished comicbook proposal BIBLIONAUTS.
* Ben Affleck has dropped out of GLORY ROAD for director James Gartner, Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. Josh Lucas may take the role.
* Paramount-based John Goldwyn has optioned CITY OF WATER, David Grann's New Yorker magazine story about the massive system of underground tunnels that deliver New York City's water. Eric Singer will write the project with an eye to developing a high-stakes drama set in an unknown, idiosyncratic world far beneath New York.
* Tobey Maguire and Wendy Finerman will produce a big-screen adaptation of the novel EVERYTHING CHANGES by Jonathan Tropper for Columbia Pictures. Tropper's novel revolves around the twentysomething Zach, who is on the verge of marrying the perfect girl when he undergoes a life crisis as he faces feelings for his recently deceased best friend's wife and also deals with the sudden arrival of his flamboyant, womanizing, estranged father.
* Benderspink has optioned the story rights to Wingwomen.net and Miamiwingwomen.com from Sadiq Muhammed. The two Web addresses are a service Muhammed started in which men can hire women to pose as their friends to help them find girlfriends.
* New Line Cinema has optioned feature rights for the role-playing game VAMPIRE: THE REQUIEM from White Wolf Publishing for producer Adam Fields. The project introduces a contemporary horror universe that details the night-to-night life of vampires.
* Paramount has set up a remake of the 2000 Irish dramedy WILD ABOUT HARRY with Guy Walks Into A Bar and Vertigo Entertainment set to produce. Story revolves around a man who's disliked by his wife and two teenage children until he's put into a coma by a mugger and finds, when he comes to, that he can't remember anything after his 18th year. His condition gives him the opportunity to right the mistakes he's made in his life.
* Anonymous Content has optioned film rights to TASTY BULLET, an upcoming graphic novel by Jonathan Vankin and Arnold Pander. Story centers on the beverage children are guzzling worldwide; the young woman whose image promotes the product; and her discovery that the drink is actually brainwashing those consuming it.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* There is a gallery of 74 stills of the new Jason Flemyng and Vanessa Paradis French horror/comedy film ATOMIK CIRCUS at http://www.dvdrama.com.
* Check out an interview with Chuck Palahniuk at http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/squib/57.html
* Naomi Watts is in talks to take the lead role in DAISY SCARLETT: SEMPER OCCULTUS for producers Ben Trebilcook and LA Lawyer Harris Tulchin, with the latter securing finance and Trebilcook trying to secure Val Kilmer to take the male villainous lead of an SAS Commando and Bruce Willis for a cameo.
* Sir Roger Moore, has expressed his support for his son, restaurant owner Geoffrey Moore, to replace Pierce Brosnan in Bond 21. It's also rumored that the senior Moore will replace Judi Dench as 'M'.
* Word from Australia suggests Keanu Reeves could be set to shoot a sequel to one of his successful movies over there. Rumor is it's either POINT BREAK or BILL & TED.
* HIQI Media, formed by former Seventh Art Releasing exec Oren Bitan, has acquired the domestic theatrical rights to urban thriller THREAT from King's Mob Productions. Matt Pizzolo & Katie Nisa's film is about a street riot in New York's Lower East Side inadvertently caused by a homeless punk and a hip-hop revolutionary. For more info, visit http://www.threatmovie.com for more.
