Due to Email backlogs created by BUTT-NUMB-A-THON last week Elston's Recap was lost, buuuuuut I (Father Geek) have added it to this week's Edition to create a supersized special column for this week... Enjoy!
The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Claire Bloom will star in the drama BOOK OF FIVE, based on the 1973 novel by Constance Beresford Howe, for director Claude Fournier (THE TIN FLUTE). Filming began last week in Montreal. It's about a wealthy Montreal woman who leaves her husband for a fortysomething Romanian immigrant. Daniel Lavoie, Susannah York and Julian Glover also star.
* Alfre Woodard, Bruce Greenwood, Stanley Tucci and Delroy Lindo will join Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, DJ Qualls and Tcheky Karyo in the sci-fi pic THE CORE for Paramount Pictures and director Jon Amiel. Production begins this month on the story of a group of space shuttle astronauts who discover that the Earth has stopped rotating because of a change in the planet's core temperature.
* Gregg Henry (upcoming FEMME FATALE) joins Antonio Bandaras and Lucy Liu in ECKS VS. SEVER for Franchise Pictures and Thai filmmaker Kaos (Wych Kaosayananda). Production will begin this spring in Vancouver.
* Nathan Lane will play Jackie Gleason in the biopic TO THE MOON for Mirage Enterprises, the production company run by Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella. Rob Festinger (IN THE BEDROOM) is writing the script.
* Rita Wilson and Maria Bello will play the long suffering wives of Bob Crane in AUTOFOCUS for director Paul Schrader and Sony Pictures Classics. Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe star in the biopic written by Michael Gerbosi. Shooting begins Dec. 12 in L.A. Alex Meneses ("Everybody Loves Raymond," "The Hughleys") joins the cast as well.
* Jim Carrey is in early negotiations to star in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, written by Charlie Kaufman (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION), for Michel Gondry (HUMAN NATURE) and USA Films. The story takes place partly in the recesses of the brain, showing what happens to a man when he tries to forget about a steamy relationship he had with his ex-mate.
* Rapper Eve will make her feature acting debut opposite Ice Cube in MGM's comedy BARBERSHOP for director Tim Story. Cedric the Entertainer and Anthony Anderson also star in the project while Sean Patrick Thomas may join the cast. It's about one day of events at a barbershop in Chicago's South Side. Shooting begins Jan. 15.
* Matt Dillon will play the title character in TOUGH GUY: THE EDDIE MALONEY STORY, based on the true story of "Crazy" Eddie Maloney, who realized he could make good money kidnapping and ransoming mob bosses.
* Taye Diggs joins John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Andy Garcia and Giovanni Ribisi in BASIC for director John McTiernan and Intermedia/Phoenix Pictures. James Vanderbilt wrote the script.
* Ralph Fiennes has signed to play the title role/serial killer in Universal's RED DRAGON for director Brett Ratner and producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis. The project is scheduled to go into production next month. Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Emily Watson, Harvey Keitel, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mary-Louise Parker also star.
* Cameron Diaz is near a deal to reprise her role in a sequel to CHARLIE'S ANGELS, joining star/producer Drew Barrymore, for director McG and Columbia Pictures. Production is set to begin summer 2002. Lucy Liu is in talks to return as well.
* Colin Farrell is in negotiations to play Bullseye in DAREDEVIL, starring Ben Affleck, for writer/director Mark Steven Johnson.
* Steve Irwin ("The Crocodile Hunter's Croc Files") will star in CROCODILE HUNTER: COLLISION COURSE for MGM. The pic, the plot of which is being kept under wraps, has started shooting around the northern Australian city of Brisbane. Irwin's American wife, Terri, Magda Szubanski (BABE), David Wenham (MOULIN ROUGE), Kate Behan (CHOPPER) and Steve Bastoni (HE DIED WITH A FELAFEL IN HIS HAND) also star.
* Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell are in final talks to join Luke Wilson in the comedy OLD SCHOOL for DreamWorks, director Todd Phillips and Montecito Pictures. Shooting begins Jan. 7 in Los Angeles. It's about three men who are dissatisfied with life and try to recapture their college days. I
* Christian Slater, Gerry Butler and Patricia Velazquez are in talks to join LL Cool J and Val Kilmer in Intermedia's MINDHUNTERS for director Renny Harlin. Production is slated to begin next month in the Netherlands.
* Fann Wong will star opposite Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in SHANGHAI KNIGHTS for Spyglass Entertainment and Disney. She'll play Chan's sister, Chon Lin, in SHANGHAI NOON sequel. David Dobkin (CLAY PIGEONS) will direct from a script by Miles Millar and Al Gough. Shooting may begin in February.
* Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen is heading to China to join the epic HERO, starring Jet Li. Zhang Yimou directs.
* Shea Whigham (TIGERLAND) will star alongside Patty Clarkson in the David Gordon Green-directed indie pic ALL THE REAL GIRLS.
* Danny DeVito, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey have filmed cameos for AUSTIN POWERS: GOLDMEMBER for New Line.
* Faye Dunaway, Lauren Holly, Tom Skerritt, Ian Somerhalder, Edie McClurg and Janet Carroll are starring in the indie pic COLORED EGGS for director Martin Guigui (MY EX-GIRLFRIEND'S WEDDING RECEPTION). Shooting is underway in Nashville. Penned by Daniel Wright, based on his play, it's about a beautiful idealist faced with a huge personal challenge but determined to lend her sense of hope to a disillusioned young man before it's too late.
* Spencer Breslin (DISNEY'S THE KID) and Liliana Mumy will join Tim Allen in Disney's SANTA CLAUSE II. Shooting begins February in Vancouver.
* Paul Newman is in talks to star in an adaptation of Richard Russo's book EMPIRE FALLS for director Robert Benton. Russo will adapt his own novel.
* Isaiah Washington and Gabriel Byrne will star opposite Julianna Margulies in GHOST SHIP for Warner Bros. and Dark Castle Entertainment.
* Patricia Velazquez (THE MUMMY) and Will Kemp are in final talks to join LL Cool J and Val Kilmer in MINDHUNTERS for director Renny Harlin.
* Aisha Tyler ("Talk Soup') will play Mother Nature in SANTA CLAUSE 2, opposite Tim Allen. David Krumholtz (SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK) will also star.
* Piper Perabo and Patrick Swayze are in final talks to star in GEORGE AND THE DRAGON, an action/adventure romantic comedy also starring James Purefoy and Michael Clarke Duncan. Tom Reeve will direct from a script he co-wrote with Michael Burks.
* Tom Hanks will star in TERMINAL, written by Sacha Gervasi (THE BIG TEASE), about a Balkan immigrant in the U.S. who is forced to make an airport international transit lounge his permanent home after he learns that the borders of his war-torn country have been blurred, voiding his passport and leaving him without a country. Making friends among the airport employees, he meets and falls in love with a Latin flight attendant, which prompts his bold escape a year later.
* James Franco will star in the title role of the indie pic SONNY for director Nicolas Cage, who is producing through his Saturn Films. John Carlen wrote the script about a male hustler who joins the Army in an attempt to get out of his family's gigolo lifestyle and get a real job. When he's discharged, Sonny stops by to visit his family in New Orleans and look for work, only to find that his mother is determined to bring him back to the family business.
* Tom Hanks is in talks with DreamWorks to star in and produce COMRADE ROCKSTAR, based on the life of the late rocker Dean Reed, who moved to South America, where he became known as "the Red Elvis." After several albums, movies and television appearances, he moved on to Rome and in 1966 toured the Soviet Union, where he became a megastar. Reed was also involved in leftist politics and became an active protester of the Vietnam War, which continually got him into trouble with the U.S. State Department.
* Marieh Delfino (NBC's "All About Us"') joins AUTOFOCUS, starring Willem Dafoe, Greg Kinnear, Rita Wilson and Maria Bello. Paul Schrader directs the Sony Classics biopic on Bob Crane.
* Sean Patrick Thomas and Troy Garity join Ice Cube, Eve and Cedric the Entertainer in BARBERSHOP for MGM and director Tim Story.
* Zoe Saldana joins Nick Cannon and Orlando Jones in the marching band comedy DRUMLINE for Fox 2000 and director Charles Stone III.
* Eddie Griffin will star in a feature that will mix his standup act with a cinema verite look at his personal life. EDDIE GRIFFIN -- LIVE IN CONCERT starts shooting next month in Kansas City. George Gallo will direct.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Castle Rock bought the psychological thriller pitch UNTRACEABLE as a starring vehicle for Ashley Judd. Adam Gibgot is writing the script for the Zanuck Co. about a woman with an identity disorder who re-discovers the life she had repressed.
* Bel-Air Entertainment has nabbed Brian Koppelman and David Levien's (KNOCKAROUND GUYS) script FIRST FAMILY about a young Brooklyn mobster who finds out he was adopted on the eve of becoming "made." He then must prove he's 100% Sicilian, but instead learns that his real father is the president of the United States.
* Touchstone Pictures has picked up the pitch SISTER'S KEEPER from writer Todd Graff for Jersey Films to produce. The noirish thriller is about twin sisters, one is killed and the other becomes the prime suspect in the investigation.
* New Line Cinema has acquired two romantic comedy projects, 35 TO LIFE and UNTITLED VALENTINE'S DAY PROJECT, inspired by the Charles Dickens classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The first project, written by Steven Gary Banks and Claudia Grazioso, is about a commitment-phobe visited by the ghosts of relationships past, present & future. The VALENTINE project was penned by Austin Winsberg and will be produced by Benderspink.
* Dennie Gordon (JOE DIRT) will helm Warner Bros.' coming-of-age pic AMERICAN GIRL for Gaylord Films. It's loosely based on the 1958 film THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE and follows a 19-year-old New York woman with a great singing voice who ventures to London to find her long-lost father. Once she finds him, her American ways conflict with his lifestyle. Production is set to begin in the spring.
* Matt Williams (WHERE THE HEART IS) will direct a remake of the 1950 comedy CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN for 20th Century Fox. The original pic centered on an efficiency expert and his family, which included 12 children.
* Chris Noonan (BABE) will direct the romantic comedy/fantasy pic THE DISASSOCIATE for MGM from a script by Zach Helm. The story of an ordinary man who has the opportunity to become extraordinary is expected to begin production in the spring.
* Miramax has picked up writer Gonzalo Lira's (COUNTERPARTS) unpublished novel ACROBAT with Mirage Enterprises in final talks to produce. The thriller focuses on a group of five twentysomethings who run their own elite CIA team.
* Actor-comedian Tom Green will write, direct, produce and star in an untitled feature comedy for his new production company Bob Green Films, which has a three-year, first-look film and TV deal with Regency Enterprises.
* Warner Bros. has hired Kenneth Lonergan (YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) to adapt, and possibly direct, a feature version of T.H. White's THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING for Mark Gordon to produce. The story is a retelling of the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
* Pandemonium has grabbed a pitch from writer/producer Sam Hamm (BATMAN, NEVER CRY WOLF) based on the Hong Kong action pic COP ON A MISSION. Hamm will write the screenplay based on the story of an undercover cop who loses sight of his priorities after falling for a crime lord's wife, who betrays him.
* Amy Talkington will write QUEEN OF THE RODEO, based on a Texas Monthly article, for Fox and Madonna's Maverick Entertainment. The project centers on four young women competing for the title of Rodeo Queen in a small Texas town. Dewey Nicks (SLACKERS) is attached to direct.
* Magellan Filmed Entertainment has purchased the comedy script YOU CAN'T WIN, written by Scott Yagemann (187), about a game show producer in the 1970s. Marc Fusco (upcoming RENNIE'S LANDING) will direct.
* Writer/director Tamara Jenkins (SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS) will direct a feature about photographer Diane Arbus, who captured provocative black-and-white images of society's outcasts. Jenkins adapted the Patricia Bosworth book DIANE ARBUS: A BIOGRAPHY for producers Bonnie Timmermann and Edward Pressman.
* Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir (upcoming DOUBTING THOMAS) will write a remake of the 1964 Jerry Lewis pic THE PATSY for Pandemonium. The duo will then pen a rewrite of the Steve Franks script WHEN I GROW UP about a guy who discovers each of his childhood friends, except for him, turned out to be exactly who they set out to be; as well as a rewrite of STUCK ON YOU for Fox/Conundrum and director Pete Segal (TOMMY BOY).
* Rob Bowman is in talks to direct Crusader Entertainment's adaptation of Clive Cussler's 1992 novel SAHARA for Paramount. The first installment of the author's best-selling Dirk Pitt series, centers on an intrepid adventurer and explorer searching the Sahara for a poison that is killing marine life.
* John Logan (GLADIATOR) will write two high profile DreamWorks projects that likely will be directed by two of the studio's chiefs. First is a biopic of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg to direct, Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will serve as an advisor on the project. The second is an untitled WWII project to be directed by studio production head Walter Parkes. That project is based on the true story of a team of Allied commandos who fought the Germans on the Greek island of Symi during World War II. Under siege, they sought refuge in a monastery of Eastern Orthodox monks.
* Nicolas Cage may make his directorial debut on SONNY for his own Saturn Pictures. The drama, written by John Carlen, is about a male hustler who joined the Army to escape the gigolo life. He's discharged and heads home in New Orleans with the intention of getting a legit job, but his mother wants him back in the family business.
* Comedy Central's new film division bought the script MEET JOE SIMON, MANKIND'S ONLY HOPE by Josh Stolberg. It's about a loser who somehow becomes a stud when it is realized he is the only male on the planet capable of reproducing. He tries to do his duty to womankind, while having a steady girlfriend.
* Keenen Ivory Wayans is in talks to direct Eddie Murphy in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN for Universal/Imagine. Production is expected to begin in June. Mark Burton and Billy Frolick have written the script for the remake.
* Peter Greenaway is developing THE TULSE LUPER SUITCASE, a trilogy of films that will star Isabella Rossellini, Caroline Dhavernas, Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Anson Mount, Richard Griffith, Zoe Wanamaker, Vincent Gallo, Jordi Molla, Debbie Harry, Victoria Abril, Raymond J. Barry and Hugh Bonneville, though the title character has not yet been cast. Shooting for the first installment, THE EARLY YEARS, begins next month in Europe for a September release. Greenaway is said to have been writing the project for 15 years. It begins with the discovery of uranium in 1928 and ends with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In the middle of the story is Tulse Luper, who travels to prisons throughout the world creating various forms of art. There are 92 characters in the film, 92 stories involving 92 suitcases, each containing 92 items.
* Christina Ricci is gearing up for her feature directing debut THE SPEED QUEEN, a dark comedy that will be financed and produced by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron's Monsoon Entertainment. It's based on the crime saga by novelist Stewart O'Nan.
* Neal Marshall Stevens (THIRTEEN GHOSTS) has sold his psychological thriller spec MOLLY'S WORLD to New Line.
* Paramount has grabbed the comedy pitch FORMER CHILD STAR for Fred Wolf (BLACK SHEEP) and David Spade to write as a vehicle for the actor. Wolf will direct for Happy Madison Prods. It's about a 35-year-old former child star who decides to hire an entire foster family to re-create the family he never had.
* Fox 2000 bought Craig Fernandez's action pitch FOUR DEEP about a secret government intelligence team of four female agents, each with her own deadly talents. They're sent to Europe to gather info about a suspicious medical lab and find themselves battling bad guys.
Dimension Films picked up Duane Adler's romantic comedy script A PRINCE AND A GIRL LIKE ME about a teenage girl in Baltimore who falls for a visiting prince.
* Angela Shelton will write OLD GORIOT, based on the classic French novel by Honore De Balzac, about a young man in 1819 who has recently moved into Paris and is in love with the life. While staying at a boarding house, he meets an older gentleman by the name of Old Goriot who has given up all his possessions in order for his children to live a fabulous life. When the old man passes away and nobody attends his funeral, the younger man wakes up to reality.
* New Line Cinema has grabbed the comedy pitch ZERO TO SIXTY from actor/writer/director Chazz Palminteri and writer Tony Spiridakis for Rat Entertainment to produce with an eye for Brett Ratner to direct. It's a buddy comedy about two guys -- one an egotistical actor, the other a down-on-his luck writer -- forced to live with a white-collar criminal named Zero to Sixty to write his life story in an attempt to set the record straight before the man goes to prison. The criminal happens to be extremely hot-tempered, which makes him go from zero to 60.
* Sony has purchased the script INDISCRETION, written by Robert Pucci and Alanna Hamill Newton, for producer Cathy Konrad about a woman who suddenly realizes that her husband isn't who she thought he was.
* Revolution Studios has snatched up the script LIFE AS WE KNOW IT by writers Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson about two unattached adults whose worlds are suddenly turned upside down when their mutual best friends die in a tragic accident and name the two single people as the caregivers for their orphaned daughter.
* RKO Pictures bought the comedy script GRAVY, written by Steve Esteb, about a writer/director hired by a gangsta-rap label in order to immortalize one of their hottest talents in his feature debut.
* Ed Solomon will direct the drama LEVITY, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Kirsten Dunst, Morgan Freeman and Holly Hunter, from his own script about a man who is free after serving 19 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery. After nearly two decades of staring at his victim's face on a newspaper clipping in his cell, the paroled man attempts to find redemption, in the form of a mysterious minister and two needy women.
* Anjelica Huston will direct her own adaptation of the Dawn Powell novel A TIME TO BE BORN. John Cusack and Neve Campbell are in talks to star.
* Rod and Bruce Taylor's script THE BRAVE ONE was picked up by Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver, and is described as a DEATH WISH for a female protagonist.
* Etan Cohen and Mike Judge will write UHMERICA, a live-action comedy Judge will direct with the tagline "If you think the world is dumb now, wait 1,000 years.''
* John Sayles will direct IFC Prods.' indie pic CASA DE LOS BABYS from his own script. Mary Steenburgen will star while Lili Taylor is in talks to join. The pic will shoot in Mexico in August. It's about six American women who travel to an unnamed South American country to adopt babies. Because of the local law, the women are forced to establish residency and live among the native people.
* Michael Bay is attached to direct and produce PAIN & GAIN for Paramount. The project is based on a series of articles in the Miami New Times written by Pete Collins about bodybuilders in Miami Beach who headed a kidnapping and extortion ring that went horribly awry. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely will write the first draft.
* Atlantic Streamline has picked up the comedy script JIGGLY, penned by Amy Rardin and Jessica O'Toole, about two young girls -- one a spoiled socialite, the other a sexy, sweet trailer-park resident -- who end up sharing a seedy apartment after the socialite is financially cut off by her father. Both girls begin a journey of self-realization when they end up inadvertently taking over each other's lives.
* David Silverman (MONSTERS, INC.) will develop CURIOUS GEORGE into an all computer-animated feature for Universal Pictures.
* Roland Joffe (THE KILLING FIELDS) will make THE INVADERS, a film that explores the love affair between an Indian woman and a British soldier against the backdrop of a 1779 battle, in which fierce Maratha soldiers defeated the British army in what is now the western state of Maharashtra.
* Italian director Gianni Amelio (THE WAY WE LAUGHED) is preparing his return to features with the contemporary family drama NATI DUE VOLTE (BORN TWICE), adapted from the novel by Giuseppe Pontiggia.
* Universal Pictures has purchased an untitled action-comedy pitch from Les Firestein and P.J. Pesce, with Lucy Liu and studio-based Jersey Films on board to produce. It's about a man on the run who dresses up in drag to elude a group of thugs and the authorities only to wind up being mistaken for a mail-order bride. Firestein and Pesce will write the screenplay.
* John Whitesell will direct the action-comedy THE PRICE OF THINGS for Joni Sighvatsson's Palomar Pictures and Intermedia Films. Stevie Long wrote the script about two best friends who accidentally get involved with a Latino mobster and are forced to run for their lives.
* Emilio Estevez will direct BOBBY from his own script set against the back drop of the assaassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 in the Ambassador Hotel. Production begins mid-March.
* Millennium Films has picked up the action/thriller NINE LIVES from writers Tom Vaughn and Mark James. It's about a government agent who is injected with a hallucinogenic truth serum that makes him vulnerable to his enemies.
* John Singleton will direct the epic SINBAD for Columbia Pictures targeted for a 2003 or 2004 release.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Production will begin next year on an Imax film that attempt to capture the experience of driving 190 mph in a NASCAR race. The project is expected to be released in 2003.
* Disney's comedy BIG TROUBLE will now be released on April 5. The Tim Allen-starrer was pulled from its late September slot in the wake of the attacks earlier that month. COLLATERAL DAMAGE, the Warner Bros./Arnold Schwarzenegger terrorist-themed pic, will be released on Feb. 8 from its original Oct. 8 slot.
* Billionaire investor Philip Anschutz is backing a feature film version of C.S. Lewis's THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. The project is being developed by Walden Media with plans to develop the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA collection into a live-action theatrical franchise, with the first hitting theaters in mid-2004.
* Jerry Bruckheimer has come aboard to develop PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, inspired by the Disneyland ride. Jay Wolpert wrote the script.
* Section Eight has picked up the feature rights to Maxx Barry's social satire JENNIFER GOVERNMENT, a mystery-thriller where the entire world has been privatized and every service requires a credit card.
* Anonymous Content has optioned the film rights to J. David Kuo's comedic memoir DOT.BOMB: MY DAYS AND NIGHTS AT AN INTERNET GOLIATH. It details the rise and fall of Value America, one of the many dot-com ventures beloved to investors at first.
* New Line has bought feature rights to Kirsten Buckley's upcoming novel THE PARKER GREY SHOW for Buckley and Brian Regan to adapt into a screenplay. The project is a romantic fable about a talented young woman limited by living in her fantasies to avoid facing herself. She is roused from this state when her roommate is kidnapped, whereupon she is forced to become a heroine.
* Warner Bros. has beaten out Paramount, DreamWorks and Dimension Films for the domestic distribution rights to TERMINATOR 3: THE RISE OF THE MACHINES. Shooting begins in April under the direction of Jonathan Mostow (U-571).
* Universal Pictures is remaking a feature version of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON with Gary Ross' Larger Than Life Prods. producing.
* Martin Scorsese's GANGS OF NEW YORK will now open summer 2002.
* 20th Century Fox has chosen May 2, 2003 as the release date for X-MEN 2, directed by Bryan Singer.
* Miramax Films has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the animated pic THE MAGIC BRUSH to be produced by Centro Pictures Entertainment in Hong Kong. Director John Chu is working on the project, based on a famous Chinese fairy tale about a young orphan yearning to be an artist. An old man presents him with an extraordinary paint brush that brings everything he paints to life.
* Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney have made a deal with Warner Bros. to adapt the upcoming Robert Baer memoir SEE NO EVIL: THE TRUE STORY OF A FOOT SOLDIER IN THE CIA'S COUNTER TERRORISM WAR. Steven Gaghan (TRAFFIC) is in talks to adapt the book and direct the project. The book tells how the CIA lost funding and let its guard down in the Middle East after the end of the Cold War, allowing the creation of terrorist networks.
* Goldcrest Films will finance the U.S. film GATOR PIT, written by Jason Libatore, with music video director Nick Quested helming.
* Dimension Films and Universal Pictures are developing THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, based on the 1970s TV series.
