Father Geek here with Elston once again to bring you his report of all the Hollywood business for the past week, sooo here we go... its time for...
The Weekly Recap...
Hey. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Comp troubles at home again.
Having someone look at it this weekend. Fortunately my computer at work is
doing okay...knock on wood...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
Hey. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Comp troubles at home again.
Having someone look at it this weekend. Fortunately my computer at work is
doing okay...knock on wood...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Pierce Brosnan has signed to play James Bond for a fifth time and is skeptical about a sixth.
* Benjamin Bratt will star in the Miramax World War II drama THE GREAT RAID. Based on true events, the movie will focus on Col. Henry Mucci's raid on Cabanatuan, a POW camp where 500 American prisoners were in grave danger.
* Robert Downey Jr. is in talks to star in SIX BULLETS FROM NOW for director Stephen T. Kay (GET CARTER) and producer Ridley Scott. Production will begin this spring in Montreal and New York. The project is inspired by the events of New Year's Day 1972, when five gunmen stole more than $10 million in cash and jewels from the Pierre Hotel in New York.
* Jason Isaacs (THE PATRIOT, BLACK HAWK DOWN) is in negotiations to play Lucius Malfoy in HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS. The film is currently in production in England. Isaacs would also reprise the role in the fourth HARRY POTTER installment.
* Monica Bellucci (MALENA, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) will star in LUCRETIA BORGIA, an English-language pic about the notorious illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI. According to legend, she killed three husbands and numerous lovers, poisoning them with powdered foxglove from a ring she wore on her finger.
* Jeff Bridges will star in and produce a feature film adaptation of author Lois Lowry's 1994 Newberry Award-winning novel THE GIVER for Walden Media and RCN Entertainment. The story presents a world without pain, pleasure, racial or socioeconomic differences, crime, poverty, sickness, free will or love. In the community, every member has a role, and 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Mentored by a wise old man known as the Giver, he gradually finds out the disturbing truth about his world: that its people have chosen to give up their humanity to create a more stable society.
* Gary Sinise will star opposite Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins in Miramax Films/Lakeshore Entertainment's THE HUMAN STAIN. Shooting begins March 25.
* Russell Crowe is in talks to star in 20th Century Fox's MASTER AND COMMANDER, an adaptation of the Patrick O'Brian book series, for director Peter Weir. He'll play Royal Navy Capt. Jack Aubrey, who is given his first command of a British sailing vessel sent to battle.
* Jeremy Piven and Juliette Lewis join Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Ellen Pompeo, Leah Remini, Craig Kilborn, Sarah Shahi and Terry Reeves in the DreamWorks comedy OLD SCHOOL about three disenchanted guys who try to recapture their college days.
* Fred Savage joins the casts of CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND and AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER.
* Steven Roy ("Roswell") joins the indie pic SKINWALKERS for director Rob Howard.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Mimi Leder (DEEP IMPACT, PAY IT FORWARD) is in talks to direct THE BOOSTER, based on the novel by Eugene Izzi, for Intermedia Films. It's about a former thief who comes out of retirement to partake in the biggest and most dangerous heist of his life.
* Janusz Kaminski (LOST SOULS) will direct the action thriller COLLATERAL for DreamWorks. It's about a New York cab driver who finds out he is a target that a professional assassin has not yet been contracted for. He also discovers he is chauffeuring a hit man from murder to murder.
* Simon Kinberg has written MR. AND MRS. SMITH, set up at Summit Entertainment and New Regency, about a couple who bond while escaping a coup in Columbia.
* Comedian Chris Rock will star in and direct the DreamWorks comedy HEAD OF STATE from a script he co-wrote with Ali Leroi. Production begins in April. It's about an unlikely alderman chosen to be the presidential nominee for one of the major political parties.
* Martin Campbell will develop a feature film project based on his award-winning 1985 BBC miniseries "Edge of Darkness" for Catch 23 Entertainment. The original miniseries, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, is set in England during the 1980s and follows a widowed cop and unfortunate witness to the murder of his daughter, Emma. After her death, he takes on the murder investigation, leading him down a path of haunting revelations.
* Artisan has purchased the script JEALOUSY, written and to be produced/ directed by John Herzfeld (15 MINUTES). It's an edgy comedy about two couples who fall victim to their own chaotic feelings of jealousy.
* Miramax Films has snapped up Alon Kaplan's romantic thriller script FUGUE with Eric Bross (ON THE LINE) attached to direct. It's about a brilliant medical student who mysteriously vanishes and then reappears eight years later with no memory of where he has been. During the course of investigating his missing years, he discovers that he possessed numerous identities, one of which holds the answers to his past.
* Robert Altman will direct VOLTAGE, a comedy based on Robert Grossbach's novel A SHORTAGE OF ENGINEERS. Shooting begins in May. Alan Rudolph has adapted the screenplay for the project. Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Liv Tyler, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub, Elliott Gould, Harry Belafonte and Bob Balaban have committed to star. Set in 1991 at an engineering firm in Long Island, N.Y., with a defense department subcontractor, the film centers on a group of workers and their bosses and examines their outside lives and loves.
* Audrey Wells (DISNEY'S THE KID, THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS) will adapt and direct UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN for Miramax Films, based on the bestselling novel by Frances Mayes. It's a romantic comedy about a single American lawyer who gives up everything she's worked for and moves to Italy in search of a more romantic and satisfying life.
* MGM has grabbed the comedy screenplay SWEET SWINGER about a broke pro golfer who needs to repay a debt. Desperate to earn some cash, he poses as a female, joins the ladies professional golf tour and ends up winning the big tournament. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the leading player.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Disney is developing LIZZIE MCGUIRE, a bigscreen feature based on The Disney Channel series, about the misadventures of a 13-year-old girl. Shooting is expected to begin soon for a spring 2003 release.
* Twentieth Century Fox and James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment have optioned Steven Pressfield's upcoming novel LAST OF THE AMAZONS, a story about female Amazon warriors who nearly overrun Greece. Pressfield may also write the script. The book will be published in June.
* Tom Cruise is no longer attached to the Miramax/MGM adaptation of Charles Frazier's Civil War novel COLD MOUNTAIN. Anthony Minghella will direct the film later this year.
* Tarsem has dropped out of directing CONSTANTIN, based on the comic book HELLBLAZER, for Warner Bros. The step-down is said to be due to budgetary issues.
* Henri Kessler and Joshua Pollack have formed Hudson Pictures, with an initial commitment of $1 million from Reich Brothers. The company has secured deals with Sean Gullette, Michael Nash and Josh Haygood to direct pictures for it. Gullette (PI) will direct MONOPOLIS, a sci-fi thriller. Nash will remake a low-budget pic with Hudson. Haygood has two projects in development at the shingle.
* Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium Entertainment is developing an English-language version of the Japanese horror fantasy picture DARK WATER. It's about an economically disadvantaged woman's ugly custody battle for her daughter, which descends into a supernatural maelstrom.
* Jerry B. Jenkins (LEFT BEHIND series) has formed a film production and distribution company with son Dallas. The first film from Jenkins Entertainment is an adaptation of Jenkins' novel HOMETOWN LEGEND, an inspirational football drama set in a small town in Alabama.
* Producer John Davis is developing GARFIELD, a live-action/CGI feature based on the comic strip, for Fox.
* Universal has abruptly stopped the untitled comedy that was to star Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman in a Gary Ross written/directed pic. Carrey was to play a widower who begins dating, only to find himself haunted by his deceased wife, to be played by Kidman. No reason was given, but Kidman's busy schedule may have been a factor.
* Revolution Studios is in early talks to develop a live-action feature version of PETER PAN in a co-production with Walt Disney and Columbia Pictures.
