Well its time once more for Father Geek here to post another of Gunn's rehash reports on all the Hollywood news you possibily missed during the last busy work-week. Soooooo, with no further talk from me, here's Elston and...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's THE DREAMERS (aka PARIS '68), which is set against the backdrop of the student uprising that took place in France's capital during the late 1960s. Shooting begins July 1 in Paris.
* Jessica Lange is in talks to join Bob Dylan and Luke Wilson in MASKED & ANONYMOUS for Intermedia Films and writer/director/producer Larry Charles.
* Alan Cumming has been added to the cast of NICHOLAS NICKELBY, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, starring Jamie Bell and Jim Broadbent. Doug McGrath (EMMA) directs.
* Dylan McDermott joins Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Marilyn Manson, Chloe Sevigny and Natasha Lyonne in PARTY MONSTER, based on the true story of party promoter and convicted murderer Michael Alig. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato will direct from their own script, based on the book DISCO BLOOD BATH, for Killer Films.
* Diego Luna (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) and Abraham Benrubi ("ER") have joined the cast of Kevin Costner's OPEN RANGE, written by Craig Storper, for Disney and Tig Prods. Costner and Robert Duvall also star. Shooting on the feature is scheduled to begin in June. It's about the everyday travails of four men living in the West. Benrubi's character, Mose, is a gentle giant who doesn't start fights but finishes them. Luna will play Buttons, a troubled teen who is seen by the group as having the potential to become a truly great man.
* Jim Caviezel will star in the historical drama REBELS as American Revolutionary figure Ethan Allen. The project will focus on a young band of New England rebels who struggled to overcome the objections of fellow colonists as they stood up to British rule. Allen was the son of settlers who bought a land grant in the Green Mountains, which would one day become Vermont. David Cunningham (TO END ALL WARS) will direct from a script by John Fusco (YOUNG GUNS). Production begins in July.
* Ron Livingston ("Band of Brothers," "Office Space") has been cast in THE COOLER for director Wayne Kramer. William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello and Shawn Hatosy star.
* Carla Gugino (SPY KIDS, SNAKE EYES) joins the cast of THE SINGING DETECTIVE, starring Robert Downey Jr. Shooting begins next month.
* Nicolas Cage is in talks to star in the drama MATCHSTICK MEN for Warner Bros. and director Ridley Scott. Shooting begins this summer. The project is based on the upcoming novel by Eric Garcia and centers on a con man with an obsessive-compulsive disorder whose life is threatened by the reappearance of a daughter he never knew existed. Ted Griffin (OCEAN'S ELEVEN) and his brother Nick have written the adaptation.
* Elijah Wood will join Tilda Swinton in Good Machine's THUMBSUCKER, based on the novel by Walter Kirn. It's about a Minnesota teenager Justin Cobb -- called "the King Kong of oral obsessives" by his dentist -- whose mission to end his fixations throws his unconventional family into chaos. Scarlett Johansson is in advanced talks to join the cast.
* Gael Garcia Bernal (AMORES PERROS, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) will portray Che Guevara in THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES for director Walter Salles. The project chronicles Guevara's travels as a young medical student in South America in the early 1950s. Jose Rivera wrote the script based on Guevara's and Alberto Granado's journals.
* Eddie Izzard will join Juliette Lewis, Colm Meaney, Vincent Cassel, Michael Madsen and Tcheky Karyo in BLUEBERRY, based on the cult Western graphic novel series. Jan Kounen (DOBERMANN) directs.
* Billy Bob Thornton and Geoffrey Rush have signed on for small roles in INTOLERABLE CRUELTY for Universal, Imagine, Alphaville and the Coen brothers.
* David Hyde Pierce and Sarah Paulson will star opposite Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor in Fox 2000's romantic comedy DOWN WITH LOVE for director Peyton Reed.
* Kate Hudson and Robert Downey Jr. are in talks to star in the drama ALEX AND EMMA for Franchise Pictures and director Rob Reiner. Production is expected to begin in the fall. Jeremy Lev e project is aimed to go into production in the fall. Jeremy Leven wrote the script based on Feodor Dostoevski's short story "The Gambler" about a writer and compulsive gambler who is under pressure to deliver his next novel. He hires a stenographer to transcribe his work and they fall in love in the process.
* Gina Gershon will star in the indie pic PREY FOR ROCK & ROLL for director Alex Steyermark. Shooting begins May 16 in Los Angeles. Jennifer Esposito, Jane Adams, Shelly Cole and Marc Blucas also star. The pic is about an all-girl band and their trials and tribulations in the Los Angeles rock 'n' roll scene.
* Kelly Brook will star in Hannibal Pictures' ABSOLON opposite Christopher Lambert, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ron Perlman. It's about a detective investigating the murder of an inventor who had discovered a cure for a devastating disease. During the investigation, he's injected with the last dosage of the drug and thus becomes the hope to cure all mankind. David Barto will direct from a script by Brad Mirman.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Warner Bros. has snapped up the family comedy pitch NAUGHTY & NICE from writers Heath Siefert and Kevin Kopelow to be produced by Firm Films. It's about two brothers who surf the Net and hack into Santa Clause's mainframe, changing the list of who's been naughty or nice, with disastrous results.
* Blake Masters is in talks to write a script based on the Matt Helm action novels for DreamWorks, Team Todd and direct Robert Luketic (LEGALLY BLONDE).
* Jonathan Davis gained a two-picture blind script deal with Warner Bros. after the company read, though didn't pick up, a dark action comedy titled TO LIVE AND DRIVE IN L.A.
* Miramax picked up Leslie Dixon's comedy script ACCIDENTALLY YOURS about an accident-prone young man, who is faced with a life crisis when he falls for a woman who works in a shop that specializes in expensive delicate china. To keep a promising relationship from shattering, he tries to learn grace by taking dancing lessons.
* Richard Wenk (JUST THE TICKET) will write 16 BLOCKS for Winchester Films and the Donners Co. as a directing vehicle for Richard Donner. It's a buddy drama like 48 HOURS or MIDNIGHT RUN where a NYC cop must take a witness 16 blocks from the Sixth Precinct to 100 Centre Street, and it seems that no one wants him to get there.
* In sequel news, Tom Stoppard may write the fourth installment of INDIANA JONES for Paramount so the film may be put into production in 2004. Stoppard is also in talks to write TULIP FEVER for DreamWorks and director John Madden. Meanwhile, Chris and Paul Weitz are rewriting the Jim Herzfeld script MEET THE FOCKERS, the sequel to MEET THE PARENTS, for Universal; Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow is developing OCEAN'S TWELVE, which Ted Griffin will write, as a sequel to OCEAN'S ELEVEN; Leslie Dixon will write a sequel to THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR for MGM; Universal has hired Adam Herz to write a third installment of AMERICAN PIE; and David Goyer will write a third BLADE for New Line. That studio is also thinking about another installment of SEVEN. Also, Paramount and producers David Brown and Joe Wizan are developing a third installment of the Alex Cross franchise, starring Morgan Freeman, which they hope will continue with the James Patterson novel ROSES ARE RED.
* Marvel Enterprises and Artisan Entertainment have hired Jonathan Hensleigh (DIE HARD: WITH A VENGEANCE) to write and direct THE PUNISHER, based on the comic. It's about a vigilante obsessed with avenging the murder of his family after they witness a gangland killing.
* Vanguard Animationa has optioned Bruce Hale's children's mystery book series CHET GECKO to develop as a CGI feature franchise. Jordan Katz (INCOGNITO) has written a script based on an amalgamation of a few story lines from the series.
* William Friedkin will direct Paramount's SERPENTINE for producers Gary Lucchesi and Burt Sugarman. Production is scheduled to begin this fall in Spain. Brandon Boyce is rewriting his script about a charming European serial killer in Spain, hunting weak, helpless tourists, conning them out of jewelry and money before killing them.
* Brian Levant will direct GUAM GOES TO THE MOON for Paramount and Kerner Entertainment. It's about an ex-astronaut who missed out on a mission to the moon but gets a second chance when a millionaire from the island of Guam decides to build his own space program.
* Harrison Ford has given notes to writer Scott Frank for an adaptation of Lawrence Block's A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES. There is no director and Ford isn't attached to the picture, but his notes have given Universal/Jersey Films hope he may come aboard to play an alcoholic ex-cop private eye. In the story, the private eye tries to help a drug kingpin ransom his kidnapped wife. When she turns up dead, he devotes himself to hunting down the killers, in his belief that even drug dealers deserve justice.
* Guillermo del Toro will direct HELLBOY, the Revolution Studios adaptation of Mike Mignola's Dark Horse Comics story, from his own script. Ron Perlman is being eyed to star in the project which recently got a greenlight. It's about the title character, who was hatched by occult-obsessed Nazis planning to unleash a hellacious weapon on their enemies. The Nazis were thwarted, and the creature has become a force for good, an investigator for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Development.
* Simon Wincer (CROCODILE DUNDEE IN LOS ANGELES) is in Namibia directing Disney's THE YOUNG BLACK STALLION, a prequel to 1979's BLACK STALLION, based on the novel by Walter and Steven Farley of the same name. It's about how a young girl's life and the lives of those around her are changed when she befriends a wild Arabian stallion. Richard Romanus (CARLO'S WAKE), Biana Tamimi and Patrick Elyas star.
* Fox 2000 has grabbed a pitch by Craig Sherman and Bob Jury about legendary football coach Glenn S. "Pop" Warner and his first season at the Carlisle Indian School. Warner is credited with the double-wing formation and practicing numbered plays, coached at Carlisle from 1899 to 1903 and 1907 to 1914 and developed several outstanding players, most notably Jim Thorpe.
* Robert Evans Company has optioned the feature rights to the romantic comedy novel THE BOMBSHELL MANUAL OF STYLE by Laren Stover about a working woman who believes she's too smart to be beautiful. After she's taken under a bombshell's wing, she learns that the perfect lipstick color could be as important as her Harvard sheepskin. Alexandra Wentworth will write the adaptation of the book, a lighthearted guide to becoming a bombshell.
* Dennis Dugan (BIG DADDY) is in talks to direct a sequel to JUMANJI for Columbia Pictures based on a story he has outlined. His plan is to concentrate on tapping the full visual potential of the board game that gives the film its title. If the project is a success, Sony is also developing a script by Eric Fogel based on the picture book ZATHURA, which could become JUMANJI 3.
* Pandemonium and producer David Permut will produce a project based on the life story of Desmond T. Doss, a decorated WWII soldier who refused to fire a gun. Terry Benedict will write the script. Doss was drafted to fight in WWII, but when he told the board that his religious beliefs wouldn't allow him to carry a weapon, he was told to go home. He refused on moral grounds, and, though ridiculed by gun-toting cohorts, was sent to the South Pacific. There, he was credited with saving 75 men during the battle of Okinawa, and was awarded the Medal of Honor.
* Joel Gallen (NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) is in negotiations to direct ROMANTIC COMEDY for MGM, about a character who is in love with his best friend and tries to win her away from her boring boyfriend. He uses the romantic-comedy conventions and tricks from different movies in the genre to succeed.
* Marvel Studios and Universal Pictures have tapped David Self to adapt THE SUB-MARINER for Misher Films. It's about the adventures of Prince Namor, a half-man/half-amphibian creature from Atlantis. A short-tempered rebel, he has helped the human race and fought against it when humankind polluted his underwater kingdom with waste.
* Constantin Film has purchased Richard Regen's romantic caper script BANKROBBER about a charming bank robber and the female FBI agent who is hot on his trail.
* Paramount grabbed the pitch HARDBALL -- aka THE UNTITLED SOFTBALL PROJECT, so as not to confuse it with the Keanu Reeves pic -- by writer Rick Cleveland ("The West Wing," "Six Feet Under"). It's based on the L.A. Weekly article "Hardball," by John Albert, about a real-life amateur league baseball team in L.A. made up of former junkies and failed rock stars who all rediscover their childhood love of baseball by playing weekends in Griffith Park.
* Revolution Studios has picked up Herb Ratner's comedy pitch MR. LUCKY for Bluestar Pictures to produce. The story centers on an up-and-coming casino exec put in charge of the hotel's unluckiest high-roller, known as the Whale. In trying to continue the Whale's losing streak, he unintentionally becomes the gambler's lucky charm.
* Stephen T. Kay (GET CARTER) is in talks to take direct STATIC from a script by Brad Gann. It's about the indicted leader of L.A.'s toughest street gang who must do battle with rival mobsters as he crosses town to testify before a federal grand jury against corrupt members of a police anti-gang unit.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTTION TIDBITS
* Julia Stiles is partnering in Smithy's Films, a new film production company, with producer Eric Gitter and Steve Scavelli. The company is working on an adaptation of a book as well as a sci-fi project described as a cross between TOTAL RECALL and THE MATRIX.
* DreamWorks won the rights to make HAWAII FIVE-O, based on the classic cop series, into a feature film. Roger Towne (THE NATURAL, upcoming THE FARM) has written a script. The show centered on a specialty unit of the Hawaii State Police that answered only to the governor and focused on organized crime.
* South African production company Red Pepper and Canadian firm Partners in Motion are developing ONE STEP BEHIND MANDELA, a documentary about former South African president Nelson Mandela based on the memoirs of Rory Steyn, a one-time apartheid policeman and self-proclaimed racist who served as his bodyguard for five years. The project is ready to begin production.
* BBC Films has optioned SADDAM'S BOMBMAKER, an autobiography by Khidhir Hamza. The former head of Iraq's nuclear weapons program, Hamza defected to the United States in 1995. After studying nuclear physics at MIT, Hamza settled in the U.S. until he was forced to return to Iraq to participate in its nuclear program. While there, he had to hide from European assassins while meeting deadlines set by Saddam Hussein. Hamza eventually led Iraq's nuclear bomb-making efforts before fleeing the country with the aid of the CIA in 1995.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* With the announcement of the Hellboy movie, the director of a Hellboy stop motion pic wants you to check out his project at This Darkhorse Animation Site.
* Go to Tjis Location for info about BYROMANIA.
* For info about Troma at Cannes 2002 visit This Tromatic Site.
* THE TUNNEL will be showing at several festivals around the country. For more info, visit IMDB or, Video Fest, and Blood Shot Pictures.
* Don't forget to visit 7M Pictures at Their Site . They have over 2 dozen films and have become popular around the world.
