Father Geek here with another fact filled review by Elston Gunn of all the work week's west coast movie news for those of you that may have missed some of it...
The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Kevin Spacey will take a supporting role in his Trigger Street Prods.' UNITED STATES OF LELAND for writer/director Matthew Ryan Hoge. Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Martin Donovan, Sherilyn Fenn, Ann Magnuson and Michelle Williams also star. It's about 15-year-old Leland, who murders an autistic child and claims that he committed the act out of sadness. Leland is sent to a juvenile facility, where a male teacher named Pearl must solve the mystery behind his murderous act and sadness while dealing with how the tragic killing affects the families of both the victim and the perpetrator.
* Halle Berry is attached to star in NAPPILY EVER AFTER, based on the Trisha Thomas novel, for Universal Pictures. Berry will play Venus Johnson, a beauty who grows impatient waiting for her dream man to marry her. They break up, but her resolve is tested when he falls for someone else.
* Reese Witherspoon will star in an Intermedia Films drama set in the world of professional women's tennis. Production is expected to begin in May. The story centers on a former phenom whose intensity led her to lose her composure at the U.S. Open. She's considered washed up, and is working as the resident pro at a tennis club teaching rich people to swing a racquet. She soon meets a beautiful Anna Kournikova-esque athlete who has endorsements, but not the intensity to win major tournaments.
* Jonny Lee Miller has replaced Gerard Butler in Dimension's MINDHUNTERS for director Renny Harlin and Intermedia Films. Christian Slater, Kathryn Morris, Patricia Velazquez, LL Cool J and Val Kilmer also star. Butler had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Paramount's TIMELINE, which Richard Donner is helming.
* Edward Norton and director Spike Lee are teaming up on a feature adaptation of David Benioff's novel THE 25TH HOUR for Disney. Shooting begins in May in New York. Benioff also adapted the screenplay, which chronicles the last day of freedom for a young man before he begins serving a seven-year jail term for drug dealing. He prowls through the city until dawn with his two close male friends and his girlfriend, re-examining his life and how he got himself into his predicament, which leads to a disturbing finale.
* Michael Clarke Duncan will join Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Garner in 20th Century Fox/Regency Enterprises' DAREDEVIL, a live-action adaptation of the Marvel comic book, for writer/director Mark Steven Johnson. Shooting starts March 25.
* Jude Law is in talks to star in DIARY OF YOUNG LONDON PHYSICIAN, a new take on the Jekyll/Hyde story, for writer/director David Mamet. Penelope Cruz is also in early negotiations to play the female lead. Production is expected to begin in the late spring.
* Mark Dacascos (THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) is in talks to join DMX and Jet Li in CRADLE TO THE GRAVE for director Andrzej Bartkowiak.
* Tim Daly joins BASIC for director John McTiernan. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson star.
* Will Yun Lee ("Witchblade") has nabbed a role in the latest James Bond pic.
* Molly Shannon has landed a cameo role opposite Tim Allen in the Disney's THE SANTA CLAUSE 2.
* Ewan McGregor will join Renee Zellweger in the comedy DOWN WITH LOVE for director Peyton Reed (BRING IT ON). The twisted romantic comedy, written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake, closely follows the romantic Doris Day/Rock Hudson films and includes scenes that take place in cars, just so audiences can see the process shots of a fake background passing behind them. The film is set in New York during the '60s.
* Devon Sawa, Amanda Detmer, Ian Virgo, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Andrew Keegan will star in the indie comedy EXTREME DATING for Filmstar Prods. and director Lorena David (EASTSIDE). The story follows two friends who scheme a false kidnapping so one can get his girl. Shooting starts Monday.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Christopher McQuarrie will write the English-language remake of the 1999 Hong Kong action pic THE MISSION for Intermedia Films. It's about five elite bodyguards who form a tight bond while protecting a key Triad mob boss after an attempted assassination.
* New Line Cinema grabbed the horror script NEXT DOOR from writer Jake Wade Wall. It's set in a small town where a wraithlike serial killer comes home to roost.
* Sid Quashie will adapt Susan Kelly's 1995 book THE BOSTON STRANGLERS for Paramount and producers Gale Anne Hurd and Jesse Beaton. Carl Franklin is attached to direct. The book postulates the theory that the Boston Strangler's infamous crimes were actually committed by multiple killers rather than only confessed murderer, Albert DeSalvo.
* John Polson (upcoming SWIMFAN) will co-write and direct THE UP AND COMER for Michael Douglas' Furthur Films. Polson and Howard Roughan will adapt the screenplay from Roughan's debut novel. It's a dark comedy about a cutthroat attorney who's enjoying the high life in the big city. That changes, however, when a broke prep-school buddy comes to town and proceeds to blackmail him.
* Mike Newell will develop and direct A SEASON IN CENTRAL PARK for Warner Bros. and Outlaw Prods. The project is about a wealthy man in a relationship with a woman, but unbeknownst to him, his best friend wants to be with her. Said best friend concocts a scheme with a working-class girl -- who has her sights set on the wealthy man -- in an effort to drive a wedge between the couple. Tey do not plan on, though, is falling in love with each other. Aline Brosh-McKenna is penning the latest draft of the script.
* Brian Robbins will direct THE PERFECT SCORE, a Paramount dramatic comedy about seven high school seniors who heist the SATs.
* Francois Girard (THE RED VIOLIN, THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD) will helm THE SINGING DETECTIVE for Icon Prods. Robert Downey Jr. may star. It's about a novelist who is bedridden with a crippling disease and mentally begins to rewrite a novel with himself in the title role. Taking himself into a fantasy world set in 1945 with spies, criminals and swing music, he somehow finds the cure for his disease. The project is based on Dennis Potter's screenplay and was first produced as a BBC miniseries in 1986, starring Michael Gambon.
* Robert Harmon (GOTTI) will direct HIGHWAYMEN for New Line Cinema from a script by Hans Bauer (ANACONDA) and Craig Mitchell. Shooting may begin this summer. It's about a dehumanized villain who uses a car as an expression of his rage against the world and the hero who chases him down. An innocent woman gets caught in their game as they chase each other in 1970s muscle cars.
* Stephen Gaghan has written HAVOC, picked up by MDP Worldwide, based on the screenplay by Jessica Kaplan. The script is a multilayered drama about a gang of wealthy L.A. teens faced with the real-life gangster lifestyle they have long tried to imitate when they encounter a drug-dealing Latino gang.
* Robert Luketic (LEGALLY BLONDE) is set to direct DreamWorks' first feature film in a planned franchise based on Donald Hamilton's 27 books in the Matt Helm action/spy series. Team Todd is attached to produce. Luketic is also attached to develop and direct BOYS-R-US for 20th Century Fox and 1492 Pictures about a middle-aged woman who opens a brothel where older women can have sex.
* Ed Decter and John Strauss (THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) have rewritten THE SANTA CLAUSE 2 and Disney now has the pic on a fast track with a Feb. 13 start in Vancouver. Tim Allen stars for director Michael Lembeck. The story centers on Santa having to get married within a month, if he is to remain in the job. Decter (THE NEW GUY) will direct Disney's THE JANE PLAN about a Donald Trump-type whose empire is dependent upon Jane, his personal assistant.
* David Dobkin will direct TOY MEN for MGM from a pitch from actor/producer Vince Vaughn. The project is an ensemble piece about four reps on the road competing in the no-holds-barred arena of toy sales. When they set their sights on a housewife who has come up with what could be a new best seller, one of the reps brings his young daughter to improve his chances to land the account. Steve Pink (HIGH FIDELITY) is attached to write the script.
* Joel and Ethan Coen are in talks to write a remake of the 1966 British caper comedy GAMBIT as a potential starring vehicle for Hugh Grant. It's about a British thief who conspires with a beautiful woman to rob a rich guy of his expensive statue.
* Michael Bay's new low-budget production company, Platinum Dunes, is developing a remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Production is set to begin in the spring. Tobe Hooper, is writing a draft with his original co-writer, Kim Henkel.
* Antoine Fuqua (TRAINING DAY) will develop and direct WHITE OUT, based on Bergen County, N.J., Police Chief Jerry Speziale's untitled manuscript for Gaylord Films. It's about Speziale's real-life Pygmalion-esque experience as a New York police officer.
* Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy are working with Castle Rock on an untitled feature film about the world of folk music that Guest will direct. Three folk acts get together for a concert at Carnegie Hall after the death of a legendary folk manager. Production will begin in the spring in Los Angeles. Guest, Levy, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean will write original material as well as take roles in the pic.
* Cineville has purchased the rights to Christopher Okum's script ALPHAWAVE for Carl Colpaert to direct. The offbeat comedy centers on a misfit teen, subjected to the misguidance of adult authority figures, who finds salvation and love in an emotionally troubled young woman. Production begins this fall.
* Warner Bros. is moving forward on a live-action/CGI sequel to CATS & DOGS with Kevin Lima (102 DALMATIANS) set to direct. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra will write the script.
* Kimberly Peirce (BOYS DON'T CRY) is in final talks to direct a feature adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's novel CHILDHOOD'S END for Universal/Beacon Pictures. The book features giant spaceships that suddenly appear over every major city on Earth. The arrival of the mysterious aliens bring a half-decade of unprecedented peace and prosperity. However, this "golden era" is the precursor to a new evolution for mankind, bringing about the end of the human race as we know it.
* Paramount has picked up the thriller script THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS from writer Cristi Limm for producer Scott Rudin. The project is about a trusting woman whose life spirals out of control and suspects that her new best friend and co-worker might be behind her troubles.
* J.P. Donahue and Kevin Polay have sold their action-thriller pitch ADRENALINE to DreamWorks Pictures and the pitch BOOK OF THE DEAD to Warner Bros. Jon Shestack will produce both projects. ADRENALINE is about two detectives from different coasts who team up to solve a series of deaths, only to find out that the deaths are connected to an experimental drug funded by the government. DEAD centers on the demons and deities of the Far East and is set during the present.
* New Line Cinema has grabbed the action/comedy script ACTION ABRAMOWITZ, penned by Aaron Mendelsohn, for producer Noah Emmerich. It's about an accountant who, after getting hit on the head, begins to believe he is his favorite action star.
* Miguel Sapochnik will develop and direct the thriller WIRED, about a woman who is either experiencing schizophrenia or is about to unravel a major conspiracy. Roy Carlson wrote the script. Sapochnik will also direct HUMAN, based on his short film THE DREAMER, for Miramax.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* DreamWorks Pictures is in talks to pick up the comedy SURVIVING CHRISTMAS in turnaround from Sony with Ben Affleck attached to star. Tall Trees Prods. is producing the pic about a man faced with spending the holidays by himself, but goes back to his childhood home and persuades the family that now lives there to take him in.
* Dimension Films is picking up the comedy BAD SANTA from Working Title Films. Terry Zwigoff will direct the story of two con men who dress up as Santa and an elf, traveling from mall to mall each Christmas to rob them, until they meet a shy 8-year-old who reminds them of the true meaning of Christmas. Joel and Ethan Coen will serve as executive producers.
* RGH/Lions Share Pictures has acquired rights to SUGAR WARS, based on the life of 91-year-old Angelo Lonardo, a founding father of the Mafia, and one of the highest ranking crime figures to go the turncoat route. The Lonardo family fought the Porello family over control of corn sugar used to make bootleg whiskey during the 30s. Paul Murray (VERY MEAN MEN) will write the script. RGH/Lions Share is also working on a feature adaptation of the Ray Cooney play FUNNY MONEY from an adaptation by Harry Basil and Leslie Greif, with the latter making his directorial debut. Shooting begins in March.
* Buena Vista is in final talks to grab the remake rights to the Spanish-language thriller INTACTO about a Nazi concentration camp survivor who lives in the basement of a casino on a Spanish island. He possesses the gift of "good luck," which can be bought, sold and gambled.
* Paramount has optioned William J. Forstchen's eight-part, time-traveling sci-fi action series THE LOST REGIMENT' for C/W Prods. The first installment in the series, RALLY CRY, centered on a Civil War regiment swept in a time warp to a futuristic world where humans are slaughtered like cattle.
* The Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) denied New Line Cinema's appeal of an earlier decision blocking use of the title AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER for the third pic in their Austin Powers franchise.
* Miramax Films will finance and distribute a feature film version of David Auburn's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play PROOF. Auburn also wrote the screenplay. It's a drama about the daughter of a recently deceased mathematician who must face the legacies of brilliance and madness her father left her. Hart Sharp Prods. (BOYS DON'T CRY, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) will produce the pic with Miramax.
* Michael Mann plans to produce, in partnership with Spyglass Entertainment and Mirage Enterprises, a biopic on Enzo Ferrari, whose family redefined the concept of the high-powered Italian sports car and almost single-handedly created Formula One racing. The project is inspired by Brock Yates' 1991 book ENZO FERRARI: THE MAN, THE CARS, THE RACE, THE MACHINE. David Rayfiel (SABRINA) is writing the latest draft.
* Dimension Films has optioned the rights to the comic book/video game SHADOW MAN about a dead man powered by voodoo and capable of dwelling in both our world, Liveside, and the world beyond, Deadside.
