Father Geek here with the Thanksgiving Edition of Elston's regular weekly look back at the previous work-week's breaking movie news stories that may have somehow slipped thru the cracks in your cyber floor... sooooo get comphy, grab a mug of your favorite warm drink and trip back thru...
The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Sally Field is in talks to play Congresswoman Rudd opposite Reese Witherspoon in Universal's LEGALLY BLONDE 2: RED WHITE & BLONDE for director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. The story finds Field's character befriending Witherspoon's Elle Woods and serving as her mentor. The duo's relationship is tested, however, when they must battle it out over a piece of animal rights legislation. Kate Kondell wrote the script.
* Marsha Thomason will star opposite Eddie Murphy in HAUNTED MANSION, playing Murphy's wife. Rob Minkoff is directing from a script by Don Hahn. Production begins Jan. 6.
* Eric Christian Olsen and Derek Richardson will star in the prequel WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD: DUMB AND DUMBERER for New Line. They'll play adolescent versions of the characters portrayed by Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey in DUMB AND DUMBER. Rachel Nichols, Eugene Levy, Mimi Rogers and Luis Guzman will also star.
* Dennis Quaid will play Sam Houston in THE ALAMO for director John Lee Hancock (THE ROOKIE) and Disney. Billy Bob Thornton also stars. Shooting begins in January for a holiday 2003 release. Houston was an ex-governor of Tennessee who led troops to avenge the Alamo and defeat Mexican leader Santa Ana.
* Denzel Washington will reprise Frank Sinatra's role in the remake of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE for Paramount. Dan Pyne (THE SUM OF ALL FEARS) has written the new project.
* Emily Mortimer (LOVELY & AMAZING) will star in BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS for director Stephen Fry. The project, based on Evelyn Waugh's VILE BODIES, is about a beautiful young woman whose life is an endless round of parties and pleasure seeking. David Tennant, James McAvoy, and Michael Sheen also star, with cameos from Jim Broadbent, Dan Aykroyd, Simon Callow, Richard E. Grant, Stockard Channing, Helen Mirren, Hugh Laurie, Peter O'Toole, Emma Thompson and Sir John Mills.
* Morgan Freeman will star in Paramount's military thriller CIRCLE WILLIAM, based on the novel by CIA spokesman Bill Harlow. The story centers on two brothers who attempt to thwart a chemical weapons attack by Libyan terrorists. One brother commands the battleship USS Winston Churchill, while the other is the White House press secretary. Peter Iliff (PATRIOT GAMES) wrote the script.
* Christina Ricci is in negotiations to star opposite Charlize Theron in MONSTER for writer/director Patty Jenkins and MDP Worldwide. Production will start in mid-January in Florida. It's based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, whom some have called the nation's first female serial killer. She was executed Oct. 9 by the state of Florida for her crimes, but the project does not go as far as Wuornos' death, instead ending with her in jail awaiting sentencing.
* Snoop Dogg is in talks to play street informant Huggy Bear in Warner Bros. Pictures' STARSKY AND HUTCH for director Todd Phillips. Production begins in March with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson playing the title roles. Phillips and Scott Armstrong wrote the most recent draft of the script.
* Bebe Neuwirth joins the cast of the sexy noir thriller THE BIG BOUNCE, based on the novel by Elmore Leonard, for director George Armitage. Kris Kristofferson, Scott Caan, Willie Nelson and Harry Dean Stanton also are making appearances in the film. sexy noir thriller about love and betrayal. Owen Wilson, Sara Foster, Morgan Freeman and Gary Sinise star.
* Julianne Moore is in final talks to star opposite Richard Gere in the thriller WITHOUT APPARENT MOTIVE for director Bille August and Splendid Pictures. It's about an L.A. County sheriff's detective who, while investigating the murders of three high-profile businessmen, discovers that a high-society femme fatale could be a serial killer. Eric Blakeney (GUN SHY) wrote the screenplay.
* Jacqueline McKenzie (DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD) will star in the romantic mystery PEACHES, playing the guardian of a girl adopted from Vietnam, for director Craig Monahan (THE INTERVIEW).
* Leonardo DiCaprio will star in Universal's epic drama THE GOOD SHEPHERD for director Robert De Niro, Tribeca Prods. and American Zoetrope. Shooting is expected to begin in fall 2003. Eric Roth penned the script about an idealistic, patriotic young man recruited fresh out of Yale University to become one of the founding officers of the CIA. The story chronicles the history of the CIA through his 40-year career and the toll his work takes on his life and family. De Niro will also take a small role in the project.
* Ewan McGregor, Meryl Streep and Claire Danes are attached to star in FLORA PLUM for director Jodie Foster. Production will begin in either fall 2003 or January 2004 .
* James Caan is in talks to play Will Ferrell's father in the New Line Cinema comedy ELF for director Jon Favreau. It's about a man raised from infancy by elves at the North Pole. After inadvertently yet continually wreaking havoc on the elf community, Buddy is sent to New York to be reunited with his biological father. With the sincere intention of fitting in, Buddy proceeds to turn his father's life upside down.
* January Jones (BANDITS, THE GLASS HOUSE) joins the cast of AMERICAN WEDDING (AMERICAN PIE 3) for director Jesse Dylan and Universal. Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy and Alyson Hannigan star in the project written by Adam Herz. Shooting begins early January for an August release. Jones will playing Hannigan's sister and the love interest to Scott's character.
* Dakota Fanning will star opposite Denzel Washington in MAN ON FIRE, based on the A.J. Quinnell novel, for director Tony Scott, Fox 2000 and Regency Enterprises. Production starts in February. Brian Helgeland penned the adaptation about an American ex-soldier living out his days in Naples, Italy. He reluctantly agrees to protect a child, whose parents are threatened by a rash of kidnappings. Unexpectedly, the caustic loner befriends the girl only to see his life take another turn when she is kidnapped and later murdered.
* Richard Roxburgh (MOULIN ROUGE) is in talks to play Count Dracula in VAN HELSING, opposite Hugh Jackman, for director Stephen Sommers and Universal. It's about vampire hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, who travels to Eastern Europe to confront Dracula, as well as Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Carroll Ballard (FLY AWAY HOME) will direct HOW IT WAS WITH DOOMS for Warner Bros., Gaylord Films/Pandora and John Wells Prods. It's based on the book by Carol Cawthra Hopcraft and Xan Hopcraft, which follows a young boy living in Nairobi, Kenya, and the special relationship he enjoys with an orphaned cheetah named Dooms, who becomes the family pet. Carol Flint adapted, with a rewrite by Karen Janszen and a production polish to be done by Mark St. Germain.
* Fine Line Features grabbed Ruth Graham-Black's (BECOMING COLLETTE) script THE RECIPE about an aspiring chef who inherits her grandmother's "infamous aphrodisiac recipe" and travels to Italy to track down the origins of the concoction.
* Rebecca Miller (PERSONAL VELOCITY) will rewrite the adaptation of PROOF, based on the award-winning play by David Auburn, for Miramax Films and director John Madden.
* Roger Corman has optioned the novel THE MIRACLE OF EDSA, by William Newton Edwards, for his brother, Gene Corman, to produce. It's based on the story of an American nurse who goes to the Philippines in search of her son, only to get caught in the middle of a guerilla uprising. Craig Corman, Gene Corman's son, will pen the script and direct on location in the Philippines.
* Neil Tolkin (THE EMPEROR'S CLUB) is in talks to rewrite the biopic IRON MAN for Universal about Olympian athlete and track star Lou Zamperini, who withstood the cruel torture of a Japanese POW guard during two years of internment during WWII. Nicolas Cage has expressed interest to star.
* Reed Steiner ("The Shield") and Damon Lindelof ("Crossing Jordan") will write the thriller ENDGAME for MGM, Hyde Park Entertainment and Lion Rock Prods. The project is the story of a defrocked law enforcement officer who must team with the hit man who derailed his career to save the life of a kidnap victim.
* Playwright Jon Robin Baitz will adapt SILENT NIGHT, historian Stanley Weintraub's account of a WWI Christmas Eve truce, for Universal and producers Chris and Paul Weitz. It is about a temporary truce during World War I in the trenches in France when opposing sides played soccer and sang Christmas carols. Enraged officers heard about the truce and demanded the soldiers resume battle.
* Tom Brady (THE HOT CHICK) will write and direct DEUCE BIGALOW II for Disney Studios and Rob Schneider's From Out of Nowhere Prods.
* Tom Stoppard adapted Deborah Moggach's 2000 novel TULIP FEVER for DreamWorks/Miramax and director John Madden. Set in 17th century Amsterdam, it centers on a beautiful young woman who marries a wealthy elderly merchant to escape poverty. When she falls madly in love with a penniless artist hired to paint their portrait, the lovers succumb to another kind of madness: To get the money that will allow them to escape together, they invest what little they have on the high-risk tulip market.
* Paul McGuigan is in talks to direct Revolution Studios' HOSTAGE, based on the novel by Robert Crais, which Bruce Willis will star in and produce through his Cheyenne Enterprises. The story centers on a former hostage negotiator-turned-police chief who is forced into a hostage negotiation that is complicated by the fact that the family patriarch is an accountant for the mob. In an effort to protect their secrets, the mob makes him play both sides.
* Revolution Studios purchased two pitches from Keenen Ivory Wayans and his brothers Marlon and Shawn Wayans. The deal calls for all three to write the scripts to both projects, with Keenen Ivory Wayans directing them for the trio to star in. The first project is a feature that will pardoy sci fi fare such as ALIENS, SIGNS and INDEPENDENCE DAY, while the other will see Marlon and Shawn Wayans star as FBI agents who go undercover in drag in the Hamptons.
* Peter Hewitt (BILL AND TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY) will direct 20th Century Fox's live-action/CGI feature adaptation GARFIELD, based on the long-running comic strip by Jim Davis. Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow (TOY STORY) have written the script centering on the rivalry between the fat orange cat and his dim canine cohort Odie.
* Producer Arthur Sarkissian and writers Fred Lebow and Dan Sullivan (WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING) have set up the screwball comedy spec STARRING VIC at New Line Cinema. It's about an out-of-work actor who helps a young kid capture the girl of his dreams.
* Fox 2000 grabbed Ari Schlossberg's psychological thriller script HIDE AND SEEK for Barry Josephson to produce. It's about a young girl whose father moves them to another town after she witnesses her mother's death. Once settled in, the father notices that the young girl has a make-believe friend named Charlie, who apparently is a dangerously bad influence. Things take a turn for the worse when the father realizes that Charlie is not imaginary.
* Scott Burn and Stephen Gregg have written the action pic REDLINE for producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Splendid Pictures and MGM about drug-running speedboats. Production is set to begin in May.
* N. Chandra will direct Manisha Koirala in INDIRA GANDHI: A TRYST WITH DESTINY, written by former journalist Kamleshwar Gandhi, about the life and assassination of India's only woman prime minister. Production begins early next year.
* David Zucker (AIRPLANE, THE NAKED GUN) will direct SCARY MOVIE 3 for Dimension Films. Anna Faris has signed to reprise her role as Cindy Campbell. Produciton will begin in February for an early fall release.
* D.J. Caruso (THE SALTON SEA) will direct Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke in TAKING LIVES, based on the book by Michael Pye, about a female FBI profiler assigned to bring in a serial killer that has spent 20 years assuming the identities of the people he's killed.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Columbia Pictures and producer Mace Neufeld are teaming on an untitled project about a real-life U.S. takeover of an Afghanistan city that was accomplished through a cavalry battle.
* Lary Simpson Prods. has picked up the feature film rights to LaVerne Harvey's novel REPO GIRLS. The book is an action-comedy about two down-on-their-luck young women who quit their mundane jobs in a kitty-litter factory in favor of an inspired life of repossessing cars from crazy swamp rats in central Florida.
* Benderspink and 9th Floor Media have optioned Kyle McNary's book TED 'DOUBLE DUTY' RADCLIFFE: 36 YEARS OF PITCHING & CATCHING BASEBALL'S NEGRO LEAGUES. The project focuses on the 1935 Bismarck Churchills, one of the first and perhaps least-known interracial baseball teams.
* Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy will produce a TINTIN live-action feature, based on the classic comic strip, for Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. It centers on a young reporter who battled international evil with the help of his dog Snowy. His friends and allies included his mentor, Captain Haddock; police officers Thomson and Thompson; and Professor Cuthbert Calculus.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* The *selected/winning* entries from Telluride IndieFest 2002 and Key West IndieFest 2003 will be taken to the Canne Film Festival. A screening venue is already in place. To enter the Key West IndieFest 2003 visit The Fest's Site Here
* DemoReels.com the demo reel database for the creative industry launched new and improved high speed video servers to host the demo reels of every creative professional in the world for FREE. For more info log onto DemoReels.com
* Check out the film BEMUSED by Adam Cosco at Their Site
* Visit Right Here to see the trailer to CIVILIAN JUSTICE. For more info go to: www.BeyondComics.TV
* See Mortas May's 3D Cartoon at This Location
* The popular TOR horror novel written by Don and Jay Davis SINS OF THE FLESH has been optioned for the production of a motion picture by SouthPaw Films, Inc. (http://www.southpawfilms.com). The adaptation will be penned by new comers Kristoffer Aaron McGuffey and Eric Vespe. The official site is now online in a very preliminary stage at http://www.jesse-sikes-lives.com
* In observance of the holiday, 7M Pictures has only one film up this week, a very, very special message from 7M Pictures' president John W. Mader. Keep checking www.7mpictures.com for new content each week. Browse through dozens of individual films online.
* Visit This Cool Site for news on the pic JAIL BREAKERS, the record-breaking Korean feature about two prisoners who finally succeed in escaping after multiple trails only to find their names on a special pardon list in the next morning's newspaper. Kim Sang-jin (ATTACK THE GAS STATION, KICK THE MOON) directed.
