Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Someone needs to get Isaac Hayes to write a song like "Shaft" for our own ELSTON GUNN. That's how good a job he does for us each week with his weekly recap... he deserves his own blaxploitation theme. No higher praise can I heap upon the man as we head into the holiday weekend...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Famke Janssen will play the female lead in I SPY, opposite Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson, for director Betty Thomas. Production begins next month in Budapest.
* Bruce Greenwood is in talks to join play role as Madonna's husband in SWEPT AWAY for director Guy Ritchie. The project is a remake of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 Italian film of the same name and is scheduled to start shooting at the end of next month in the Mediterranean.
* Joy Bryant is in talks to star opposite Derek Luke in Denzel Washington's directorial debut THE ANTWONE FISHER STORY. The Fox Searchlight pic begins production Sept. 24 in Cleveland.
* Ben Chaplin will star opposite Michelle Yeoh in the traveling circus adventure pic THE TOUCH for director Peter Pau (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON cinematographer). Production begins next month for a summer 2002 release.
* Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant will star in an untitled romantic comedy about a successful, but neurotic attorney and her charming, reckless boss. Shooting begins February in New York for a Christmas 2002 release. Marc Lawrence (MISS CONGENIALITY, MICKEY BLUE EYES) will direct from his own script.
* Tom Hanks is in talks to play FBI agent Joe Shaye in the DreamWorks pic CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, also starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
* Tom Cruise is in early talks to star in COLD MOUNTAIN for director Anthony Minghella, based on the novel by Charles Frazier. Production is expected to begin in February. The story is about a wounded Civil War soldier who is trying to make it home to his sweetheart.
* Agnes Jaoui (THE TASTE OF OTHERS) is replacing Kristin Scott Thomas in 24 HOURS IN THE LIFE OF A WOMAN, Laurent Bouhnik's adaptation of the Stefan Zweig novel. Michel Serrault (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) and Berenice Bejo (A KNIGHT'S TALE). Shooting will commence on the French Riviera Sept. 17.
* Toni Collette will star in JAPANESE STORY, set in Australia's Pilbura desert, opposite a Japanese businessman. Collette will play a geologist in the pic to be directed by Sue Brooks (ROAD TO NIHILL).
* Swoosie Kurtz and Clare Kramer join the cast of Roger Avary's THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, currently shooting in L.A.
* Jeremy London ("Party of Five") joins GODS AND GENERALS for director Ronald Maxwell. The movie also stars Mira Sorvino, Robert Duvall and Jeff Daniels.
* James Brolin will star opposite Dana Carvey in MASTER OF DISGUISE for Revolution Studios. Shooting begins Sept. 24.
* Mia Farrow, Paul Reiser and Hal Holbrook star in the dot-com drama PURPOSE for director Alan Lazar. It's about a brilliant Stanford University student who develops a software program that revolutionizes the Internet and turns him into an instant millionaire. He almost loses everything when his
company becomes the target of a hostile takeover.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Les Mayfield (BLUE STREAK, AMERICAN OUTLAWS) will direct THE NORTHMEN for Morgan Creek Prods. It's about an English monk of noble descent who gets captured by a band of vikings. He becomes a part of their culture before going back to England to claim the estate his uncle has cheated him out of. Shooting is expected to begin next year.
* Hyde Park Entertainment has picked the pitch LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY (aka PRINCE CHARMING) from David Titcher and Diane Saltzberg. Director Charles Shyer attached to direct and produce the project about Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty all finding themselves married to the same Prince Charming.
* Todd Slawsby's action script FULL THROTTLE was purchased by New Line for Zide/Perry Entertainment to possibly produce. It's about a young motorcyclist who has 20 minutes to get from the Beverly Center shopping mall to the Santa Monica Pier on his motorcycle in order to rescue his girlfriend, who is taken hostage. Meanwhile, he's being chased by cops in a case of mistaken identity.
* Ray Wright has written the screenplay YEAGER, based on the life of Chuck Yeager, to be produced as a feature film by The Zanuck Co. and Phoenix Pictures for 20th Century Fox. The script is based on the 1985 memoir YEAGER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Yeager and Leo Janos and will focus on the test pilot's life from his upbringing in West Virginia to the first successful flight to break the sound barrier.
* Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (MAN ON THE MOON, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT) will adapt Michael Paterniti's nonfiction book DRIVING MR. ALBERT: A TRIP ACROSS AMERICA WITH EINSTEIN'S BRAIN for producer Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures. It's about the true story of a cross-country road trip taken by Paterniti and pathologist Thomas Harvey, who performed Einstein's autopsy in 1955. Harvey kept Einstein's brain as a souvenir, storing it in a Tupperware bowl filled with formaldehyde.
* Ralph Sall will write the script for a feature comedy to star legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk. Revolution Studios will prdouce. The plot is being kept under wraps but the pic will focus on a road trip and will feature Hawk's skateboarding abilities to attract an extreme sports audience.
* Icon Prods. is in talks to pick up the action pic SKELETON'S COAST, about a diamond heist in Africa, in turnaround from Sony. John Frankenheimer is attached to direct from the script written by Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring.
* Sophie Marceau will write and direct PARLEZ MOI D'AMOUR (SPEAK TO ME OF LOVE), starring Judith Godreche and Jacques Dutronc.
* Miracle Pictures grabbed the comedy pitch RAZHEL WATKINS: HIP HOP DETECTIVE from writers Freddie Gutierrez, Wesley Jermaine Johnson and Scott Taylor. It's about a gadget-carrying, hip-hop detective who tries to solve the murder of a notorious white rap star.
* Jonathan Hensleigh (ARMAGEDDON writer) will direct BOUNTY KILLER from his own script for Valhalla Motion Pictures and Emmett/Furla Films. The low-budget project centers on a violent bounty hunter who comes to a rural town to collect a reward and is recruited to save the community. In the process, the bounty hunter discovers truths about his past. Shooting begins Oct. 22 in Vancouver. Hensleigh has also been chosen to rework Disney's GEMINI MAN.
* Flody Co., executive producer Andy Cohen and writer Jeff Arch (SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE) have optioned Debra Kent's THE DIARY OF V, an online serial that appeared on Redbook magazine's Web site. Arch will pen the script about a woman in American suburbia who is trying to have a career while trying to keep her family together.
* Warner Bros. has purchased the comedic script NANNEEZ by Shaina Carol about the wacky exploits of four twentysomething Hollywood nannies who work for the rich and famous.
* Ron Bass will adapt the Cynthia Voigt romantic comedy novel LOVERS LEAP for Regency Enterprises. It's about a butler who falls for an enchanting woman, who also happens to be the object of his wealthy boss's affections. The servant then tries to sabotage his employer's relationship while trying to get the girl for himself.
* Charles Randolph (upcoming THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE) will write the international political drama THE INTERPRETER for Kevin Misher and Working Title.
* Matthew Ryan Hoge will direct the drama pic UNITED STATES OF LELAND for Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Prods. Hoge also penned the script about a 15-year-old boy who murders an autistic child and claims that he committed the act out of sadness. He is sent to a juvenile facility, where a male teacher named Pearl must figure out the mystery behind Leland's murderous act and sadness while at the same time deal with how it affects the families of both the victim and the killer.
* Steve Boyum (MEET THE DEEDLES) is in talks to direct BACK OF THE NET for Crusader Entertainment. Production begins in January. It's about about two brothers separated at an early age who reunite under the arena of national soccer.
* Liv Ullmann is developing a biopic on Norwegian violinist-composer Ole
Bull, who died in 1880. The pic is expected to begin shooting in 2003.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Winona Ryder has dropped out of the indie pic LILY AND THE SECRET PLANTING after becoming ill with a stomach bug. Hettie MacDonald directs.
* Disney Co. has acquired the rights to Meg Cabot's next book ALL-AMERICAN GIRL. The book will be released next year.
* Warner Bros. Pictures has pushed back plans to make Aronofsky's sci-fi epic THE LAST MAN, starring Brad Pitt, so that the script can be polished and Cate Blanchett can co-star.
* Mark Ruffalo has had to drop out of M. Night Shyamalan's SIGNS, starring Mel Gibson, due to illness. The actor had to have an inner ear cyst removed. The pic is currently in production in Pennsylvania and replacement is immediately being sought.
* Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios will team up for a project based on the Marvel Comics property DEATHLOK. Stu Zickerman and Raven Mentzner will write the script, about a suburban family man who is made a test subject for technology research that slowly turns him into a living computer. Marvel is producing the project with Crystal Sky Prods.
A lot of big castings this week and lots o' scripts sold too. What tickles your fancy? What pisses you off? Talk Back.
Until next week... enjoy the Labor Day weekend. Happy September. Bring on the good fall flicks!
Elston Gunn
