Father Geek here with Elston and another fact packed rehash of the past week's film business... There's alot of it all here in one spot for those of you who may need to play catch up on the events during your work-week. Check it all out below in...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER...
CASTING...
* Jessica Alba is in final talks to play the lead in Universal's HONEY for director Bille Woodruff. Alonzo Brown and Kim Watson wrote the script about a tough inner-city woman who tries to start a neighborhood dance studio and subsequently is discovered by a music mogul. After she succeeds as a new video choreographer, her futureis threatened when her mentor blackballs her for not sleeping with him.
* Cedric the Entertainer is in talks to join Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney in Universal's INTOLERABLE CRUELTY for the Coen Bros. Meanwhile, Cedric has also signed to star in and produce FAMILY FIRST, a comedy for Fox Searchlight. The latter pic is a road movie about a man who takes his family on a trip to Texas for a family reunion. Todd and Richie Jones ("The Hughleys") wrote the script.
* Angela Bassett joins Bob Dylan, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Penelope Cruz and Jeff Bridges in Intermedia's MASKED & ANONYMOUS for writer/director/producer Larry Charles. Shooting begins in July. Rene Fontaine and Sergy Petrov wrote the script based on the unpublished short story LOS VIENTOS DEL DESTINO by Enrique Morales.
* Bernie Mac will co-star in both the CHARLIE'S ANGELS sequel for Columbia Pictures and BAD SANTA for Dimension Films. Mac replaces Bill Murray in the former pic, playing the liason between the Angels and Charlie, their employer. In SANTA, Mac will star opposite Billy Bob Thornton is the comedy about a thief who masquerades as Santa Claus to knock off shopping malls. John Ritter joins BAD SANTA as a mall manager. Terry Zwigoff directs.
* Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Giovanni Ribisi, Brendan Gleeson, Charlie Hunnam and Ray Winstone are joining the cast of the Civil War drama COLD MOUNTAIN for MGM/Miramax. Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger star for director Anthony Minghella. It's about a wounded Confederate soldier who is on a journey home to reunite with his prewar sweetheart.
* Kelly Hu (THE SCORPION KING) joins X-MEN 2 as the villainous Anne for director Bryan Singer. has been added to the cast of 20th Century Fox's "X-Men 2" for director Bryan Singer.
* Ice Cube is in talks to join Jay Hernandez and Matt Schulze in Warner Bros.' TORQUE for director Joseph Kahn. Production begins next month in L.A. It's a fast-paced adventure set in the world of motorcycle racing. Cube will play Trey Wallace, the leader of the Machine, one of the most powerful and feared biker gangs in the country.
* Sam Rockwell is in early talks to star opposite Nicolas Cage in Warner Bros. Pictures' drama MATCHSTICK MEN for director Ridley Scott. Shooting begins this summer. Based on the upcoming novel by Eric Garcia, the story centers on a con man with obsessive-compulsive disorder whose orderly life is threatened by the appearance of a daughter he never knew. Ted Griffin and his brother Nick adapted the project.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Warner Bros. has grabbed the pitch GOTHIKA from writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez to be produced by Dark Castle. The project is a ghost story about a female psychiatrist who wakes up as a patient at the asylum where she works.
* John Glenn and Travis Wright have scripted a redo of THE WARRIORS for MTV and Paramount as well as JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH for Fox 2000. The duo has now been set to write a remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS for producer Adam Schroeder and Warner Bros.
* Dan Ireland (THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD) will direct THE BEAUTY OF JANE about an intelligent woman in 1912 who refuses to marry a younger man fearing he will grow weary of her. When he is blinded in a hunting accident and loses his will to live, the woman takes a job as the young man's nurse and secretary and, using an American accent, hides her identity from him. Mira Sorvino and Charlie Hunnam are attached to star in the project scripted by Lindsay Perry and Ireland. Shooting begins in the fall in London.
* Michael McCullers (UNDERCOVER BROTHER, AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER) will write the script for CURIOUS GEORGE, the all-CGI adaptation of the children's classic, for Imagine Entertainment.
* John Whitesell will direct Warner Bros. Pictures' comedy SUCKAZ, starring Jamie Kennedy. Production begins in August. The film is based on one of Kennedy's characters from the WB Network series "JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment." The story centers on Gluckman, a white would-be rap star from Malibu who thinks he is from the ghetto.
* Gavin O'Connor is in talks with Disney to direct THE MIRACLE, the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's gold medal performance. Mike Rich (THE ROOKIE) scripted.
* Universal Pictures has signed writer/director David Twohy to helm RIDDICK the sequel to PITCH BLACK, with Vin Diesel back on board to reprise the title role. Shooting will start by the end of the year.
* Artisan Pictures grabbed the urban comedy script DON'T GET IT TWISTED from D.J. Pooh and Marcus Morton, with Pooh attached to direct and produce. It's about twin brothers who are separated at birth and raised at opposite ends of the socioeconomic ladder. When they meet for the first time as adults, they end up trading places.
* Kasi Lemmons will direct THE BATTLE OF CLOVERFIELD for Columbia Pictures about a Southern town where ghosts conspire to change the future.
* Producer Mace Neufeld has snapped up Sheldon Turner's thriller screenplay BY VIRTUE FALL about a young, idealistic ATF agent who is framed for a crime he did not commit. Meanwhile, his corrupt partner is racked with guilt that he let the rookie take the fall. The framed agent is sent to prison where he sheds his idealism in order to survive. When he wins an early release, he leaves prison bent on exacting revenge on his former partner.
* Jason and Justin Heimberg along with Jeff Sank will script the untitled NATURAL HISTORY PROJECT for Touchstone Pictures. The fantasy film will center on a family who gets trapped in the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian Institute, where some of the exhibits come to life.
* Dark Castle Entertainment has optioned Brian Rousso's horror script THE REAPING about a myth disprover who tries to convince a small, religious Texas town that a small boy is not the supernatural force behind the devastation of their community.
* Peter Riegert (TRAFFIC) will direct and star in the comedy LEO SPIVAK from his own script about a middle-aged salesman losing his father to an illness, a teen daughter to adulthood and his job to an underling.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Columbia Pictures has optioned feature film rights to Rob Liefeld's Internet comic strip SHRINK! as a possible starring/producing vehicle for Jennifer Lopez. The strip centers on a beautiful female psychologist who treats superheroes.
* John Frankenheimer has voluntarily dropped out of Morgan Creek Prods.' untitled prequel to THE EXORCIST, optioning instead to begin physical therapy after undergoing back surgery. The producers will now search for a new director to make the film's Sept. 1 start date.
* DreamWorks has acquired SLEEPLESS KNIGHTS from comic book writer Grant Morrison with Guillermo del Toro attached to direct. The project is a family adventure about a time machine experiment that goes awry, leaving the planet permanently stuck on Halloween eve. Ghosts realize they have free reign and run unchecked until a young boy is recruited to an elite ghostbusting team called the Sleepless Knights.
* Paramount Pictures and Tollin/Robbins Pictures are developing ABOVE THE CLOUDS, a project based on the true story of Jayram Khadka, the first Nepalese athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics. The project will focus on the relationship between Khadka and his adoptive father, Richard Morley. While watching the 1992 Winter Olympics during a vicious adoption process, Khadka and Morley realized that there were no athletes representing Nepal. Khadka went on to become the first Nepalese Olympian and competed as a cross-country skier in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City
* Warner Bros. Pictures and Gaylord Films have optioned the rights to the Hanna-Barbera characters the Wonder Twins ("The All-New SuperFriends Hour") with plans to make a live-action family feature. The characters are two youth trainee aliens from the planet Exxor, known as the Wonder Twins. The male Zan had the power to change into any water-based form, while the female Jayna could become any animal. They also had were able to communicate telepathically and had a mischevious blue monkey named Gleek as their sidekick.
* MGM is in negotiations with writer/director Rob Zombie to pick up THE HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES that so horrified Universal execs that the rock star had to purchase it back.
* Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall's Blue Collar Comedy Tour will become a feature film presenting the show in its entirety, as well as behind-the-scenes sequences that focus on the individual performers. The project will shoot this summer.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* STRAWBERRY SPRING, shot in St. Louis, Missouri, is showing at . It's based on a Stephen King short story and was presented by Kodak at Cannes.
* Telluride IndieFest 2002 is extending their call for entries to July 1, 2002. For more info, visit This Location
* Visit This Cool Site for CUDDY ON...THE WIZARD OF OZ, a unique comic strip perspective on the classic film.
