Well folks its ol' Father Geek here floating to the surface after this week's floods here in Austin to once again post Elston Gunn's weekend rehash of all the tinseltown news for those of you who may have missed some of it during the long (and as far as Central Texans are concerned very wet) work week. Never fear though, Geek Headquarters, with its vast collections, nested
on its hilltop perch was untouched by the lapping flood waters brought on by 24 hour rains reaching up to 14" in some parts of town (9 inches on our backyard rain gauge) and the tornados that flipped 18 wheelers and moble homes upside down across town. Sister Satan, a game little Kubla Khan, and Father Geek were indeed caught out in the worst of the super cell thunderstorms several low water crossings and many fallen trees away from the safety of our homes while arranging a surprise for Harry to be unveiled at Butt-Numb-A-Thon in a couple of weeks, but I managed to guide her on a secret backroad ridgetop route that avoided all the 3 and 4 feet deep flooded intersections as well as all the downed power lines, volks-boats, and stalled city buses. I had mapped this escape route out back during the infamous Memorial Day Floods of 1981 (100 year type) when Harry's mother's water broke and Sister Satan was born, as a result I am here at my Geek Headquarters office monitor to bring you...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Andy Garcia, Giovanni Ribisi, Cristian de la Fuente and Brian Van Holt are in talks to join John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Connie Nielsen in BASIC with John McTiernan directing.
* Damian Lewis will joins Thomas Jane, Tom Sizemore, Jason Lee and Morgan Freeman in DREAMCATCHERS, based on the novel by Steven King. Lawrence Kasdan directs.
* Orlando Jones is in talks to star in Fox 2000's DRUMLINE, set in the world of black college marching bands, for director Charles Stone. Shooting begins Dec. 3 in Atlanta.
* Tcheky Karyo (THE PATRIOT, KISS OF THE DRAGON) joins the cast of Paramount's THE CORE, starring Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank and DJ Qualls. Jon Amiel directs.
* Michael Douglas will team with his father Kirk in SMACK IN THE PUSS, a comedy that Fred Schepisi may direct for the younger Douglas' Furthur Films. Production is set to begin in February. The cast could extend to three generations, if Michael's 23-year-old son Cameron participates. Jesse Wigutow wrote the black comedy about three generations of a dysfunctional family living in New York.
* Dennis Quaid is interested in a film project about NASCAR legend Richard Petty and his complicated relationship with his father Lee, who was an up-and-coming driver until he was injured in a crash. Dan Halsted will produce.
* Cole Hauser is in talks to star opposite Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci in Revolution Studios' MAN OF WAR for director Antoine Fuqua.
* Seth Green will play Scott Evil in AUSTIN POWERS: GOLDMEMBER. Mike Myers, Michael Caine and Beyonce Knowles star.
* Roselyn Sanchez (RUSH HOUR 2) is eyeing the lead in GUNS & ROSES, a Western about five multiracial female gunslingers who must rid a town of outlaws. Jean Claude LaMarre (HIGHER ED) will direct from his own script.
* Asia Argento will play the female lead in the spy thriller XXX for Revolution Studios and director Rob Cohen. Shooting begins next month in Los Angeles and Prague for a July 26 release. Also, Germany's biggest rock stars, Rammstein, will be featured on camera during a pivotal concert scene. Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson star.
* Catherine Zeta-Jones will join George Clooney in the black comedy INTOLERABLE CRUELTY for Joel and Ethan Coen and Universal Pictures.
* Jim Carrey will produce and star in THE CHILDREN OF THE DUST BOWL, based on the nonfiction book by Jerry Stanley, for Miramax Films. The book follows the plight of migrant laborers and their children who fled Oklahoma for California in 1939 to escape the dust storms of the Midwest. The homeless kids went without school until a caring high school superintendent named Leo Hart took it upon himself to see a schoolhouse was built in a field known as Weedpatch Camp.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* J. Barton Mitchell has sold the action sci-fi script TIME SHIFT to Warner Bros. Pictures Material attached to produce. It's a thriller in which the space/time continuum can become malevolent and turn into a natural disaster.
* Stephen Falick and Ben Zook have set up their romantic comedy pitch I HATE VALENTINE'S DAY at Revolution Studios. It's about a lonely woman who falls in love on the one day of the year that she dreads most, but discovers all the elements of a relationship from chance meeting through divorce within the space of a single Feb. 14.
* Forest Whitaker is in talks to direct the live-action pic FAT ALBERT, based on Bill Cosby's popular animated series.
* Peter Hyams (THE MUSKETEER) is in talks to direct Pierce Brosnan in a feature adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story A SOUND OF THUNDER for Franchise Pictures. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer wrote the adaptation of a game hunter who heads out on a time-traveling safari to hunt dinosaurs in the prehistoric era.
* Joseph Ruben (RETURN TO PARADISE) is in early talks to direct New Line's thriller THE OTHER SIDE OF SIMPLE from a script by Eric Kmetz. The story focuses on two thieves who return to their Midwestern hometown after a long absence and hook up with one of the thieves' slow-witted younger brother. While using him as a patsy in their upcoming criminal plan, the thieves discover that the brother is not as dumb as he lets on.
* Mike Newell will develop and direct Crusader Entertainment's comedy feature PARENT WARS, written by John Richards (NURSE BETTY). It's about three couples and their attempt to get their kids into preschool, which brings out their competitive nature.
* Robert Harmon (THEY) will direct the thriller HIGHWAYMEN, written by Hans Bauer (ANACONDA) and Craig Mitchell (RAISED BY GHOSTS), where the protagonist drives a Plymouth Barracuda Hemi-head, while the villain uses a 1978 Green Cadillac Eldorado to run over pedestrians.
* Greg Coolidge and Joe Jarvis will write a sequel to their upcoming Disney comedy SORORITY BOYS. That movie, to be released in March, is the story of three college students who are kicked out of their dorm and dress in drag to live in the DOG house, a sorority home to girls deemed unattractive.
* Disney has grabbed the pitch THE FAITHFUL from from twin brothers Alex and Andrew Smith. It's a ghost story about a sharecropper who assumes the identity of his boss, a plantation owner, to serve in his place during the Civil War in return for his own plot of land. He returns to the plantation a changed man, and mysterious events soon begin to affect his family and home.
* Warner Bros. has picked up the comedy script LOVE THY NEIGHBOR from writer Matt Healy for Zide-Perry Entertainment to produce. The project is about a man who is trying to sell his house but is having a hard time because of the behavior of his white-trash lotto-winning neighbor. The man is ulitmately forced to hire a criminal to get rid of the neighbor and expedite the sale of his home.
* Philip Kaufman (QUILLS) is attached to develop and direct PERFECT STRANGER, a thriller for Julia Roberts to possibly star in. It follows an investigative journalist who goes undercover on the Internet to solve the mystery of a friend's murder.
* Miramax Films has optioned the feature rights to Jane Heller's romantic-thriller novel NAME DROPPING for screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (LEGALLY BLONDE) to adapt and produce. The story is about two women with the same name, Nancy Stern -- one a teacher who hasn't had a date in months, the other a glamorous celebrity journalist. When they both start living in the same apartment building, things get crazy, especially when one of them turns up dead.
* Alphaville has grabbed an original comedy pitch, set in the world of professional football, from writing trio Justin and Jason Heimberg and Jeff Sank.
* Nancy Pimental (upcoming THE SWEETEST THING, "Win Ben Stein's Money") has sold an untitled romantic comedy script to Sony which may help pave the way for her to star in films she writes.
* Jefery Levy (TNT's "Invincible") will write, and possibly direct, DJ for Fox 2000/Edmonds Entertainment about the world of DJs who spin at raves. Levy will also work with Warner Bros. on KUNG FU KIDS, an action comedy about an American Kung-fu team that goes to a magical island to take part in a tournament.
* Thomas Haden Church will direct ROLLING KANSAS, a pic he wrote with David Denney for Gold Circle Films. It's a road trip comedy about a group of friends who are in search of a "a magical forest of marijuana" after two of them are left a map by their absent hippie parents.
* Mickey Evans (THE SANDLOT) is directing BARELY LEGAL starring Horation Sanz, Amy Smart, Tom Arnold and Erik Von Detten for Motion Picture Corporation of America and International West Pictures. David Steinberg wrote the script about three high school friends who work together to produce a homemade porn flick.
* Disney has picked up the film rights to ALIENS FOR BREAKFAST, ALIENS FOR LUNCH and ALIENS FOR DINNER, a trilogy of young-adult books written by Jonathan Etra and Stephanie Spinner. Daniel Gerson and Robert Baird (MONSTERS, INC.) will adapt the series into live-action pics. The bookss center on an alien and a 12-year-old boy who work together to save the world from an evil invader, the most popular kid in school.
* Columbia Pictures has optioned ZATHURA, an upcoming novel by Chris Van Allsburg, with the intent of it becoming JUMANJI 2. Eric Fogel ("Celebrity Deathmatch") will write the adaptation. It's set within an intergalactic board game. Columbia was working on a sequel with writer Don Rhymer, but that project may possibly become JUMANJI 3.
* Jesse Peyronel will write and direct an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's INVISIBLE MONSTERS for Bounder Prods. about a disfigured fashion model and a transsexual on a road trip of revenge and healing. and his Bounder production company have optioned the novel. For more on Peyronel, visit http://www.bounderltd.com.
* Disney has picked up SIMEON'S CODE from writer Thomas Wheeler. The pitch is a thriller in the same vein of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and SEVEN.
* Twentieth Century Fox has tapped Adam Epstein and Andrew Jacobson (NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) to write the comedy GEN CCX, described as AMERICAN PIE set in ancient Rome.
* Donald Petrie (MISS CONGENIALITY) will now direct HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, starring Kate Hudson. He replaces Danny DeVito who dropped out earlier this fall. Production will probably begin next summer.
* Director McG will return to direct the sequel to CHARLIE'S ANGELS, while Cameron Diaz is in talks to reprise her role.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Universal Pictures has signed a deal with Clive Barker and Todd McFarlane to produce a film based on a line of action figures created by Barker. CLIVE BARKER'S TORTURED SOULS -- ANIMAE DAMNATAE were released last July by McFarlane Toys, and each were sold with a chapter of an original Barker-penned storyline. Barker is currently writing a SOULS treatment for the studio.
* Seven Arts Pictures will work with Kismet Classics to finance and distribute a remake of the 1972 Italian horror film BARON BLOOD.
* 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm have decided to open STAR WARS: EPISODE II -- ATTACK OF THE CLONES a day early on Thursday, May 16, in the United States and Canada.
* Andrew Bergman has dropped out of Fox's romantic comedy JUST MARRIED about newlyweds who experience the honeymoon from hell.
* ShinCine Films will make a movie that recreates Bruce Lee on film using digital, computer-generated images and new voice technology. The script for DRAGON WARRIOR is currently being written and may hit theaters in three years. The technology would re-create Lee's image and cause him to interact with live-action actors and actresses. An actor would tape Lee's dialogue, and computer software would change the actor's voice to make it sound like Lee.
* COLLATERAL DAMAGE, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, will now be released by Warner Bros. on Feb. 8.
