Father Geek here with last weekend's edition of the...

WEEKLY RECAP...

by Elston Gunn

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Ben Kingsley is in final talks to star in A SOUND OF THUNDER, based on the short story by Ray Bradbury, for director Peter Hyams and Franchise Pictures. Edward Burns and Catherine McCormack also star in the film, which begins shooting next month. It's about a game hunter who goes on a time-traveling safari to hunt dinosaurs in the prehistoric era. When he kills a butterfly, he unwittingly sets off a chain reaction that will erase humanity from existence. Kingsley is also in talks to star in SUSPECT ZERO for director E. Elias Merhige, C/W Prods. and Intermedia Films. Shooting starts in August. It's about an agent who is investigating cases of murdered serial killers.

* Gene Hackman is near a deal to join John Cusack in THE RUNAWAY JURY, while Dustin Hoffman is being courted for a role. Gary Fleder directs the adaptation of John Grisham's novel. Naomi Watts was to play the female lead but has since dropped out to look at other options instead.

* Salma Hayek will star in and produce the comedy MURPHY'S LAW, based on an idea by her brother, Sami. She will play Murphy, who is a walking example of the theory that if something can go wrong, it will, and at the worst possible moment. She falls for a successful magician, whose life she's destroyed just by doing her job.

* Sylvester Stallone, Thandie Newton, Gabriel Byrne and Stuart Townsend will star in RKO Pictures' crime thriller SHADE for writer/director Damian Nieman. Shooting begins May 30. It's about poker hustlers who encounter "The Dean" and pull off a successful sting that results in their pursuit by a vengeful gangster.

* Rapper Ludacris will star in the comedy SKIP DAY for Paramount, MTV Films and Original Film which Phil Bowman will write. It's set in Atlanta and centers on a high school teenager and his buddy, who are transferred from an inner-city school to an uptight suburban prep school where they wreak havoc in their quest to initiate a skip day among the senior students.

* Matthew Perry will star in two films for Paramount Pictures. The first is the drama ONE OF US about a man who returns to his home town to run the family business after his dad dies. A pair of aliens come to town hoping to take one person for an experiment, and Perry falls in love with the female, who's cloaked in beautiful human form. Gerald Di Pego (PHENOMENON) wrote the script. The second film will be a comedy.

* Helen Mirren and Julie Walters will star in Nigel Cole's CALENDAR GIRLS about 12 English matrons who pose naked for a calendar to raise money for charity. Shooting starts June 24. Juliette Towhidi and Cole wrote the script.

* Lucy Liu is in negotiations to star as the title character in 20th Century Fox's modern-day version of the classic detective franchise CHARLIE CHAN. John Woo and Terence Chang's Lion Rock Prods. will produce. Liu will also serve as executive producer.

* Harrison Ford is in negotiations to star in A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES for director Joe Carnahan, who is in talks to direct for Universal. Ford will play a cop-turned-private eye who is hired by a drug dealer to find the men who kidnapped and butchered his wife. Production begins in January from a script by Scott Frank.

* R&B singer Tyrese is in talks to star opposite Paul Walker in Universal's sequel to TE FAST AND THE FURIOUS. Universal has also picked up a thriller pitch from Tyrese titled EXTORTION, based on a treatment he wrote that he will star in and executive produce.

* James Woods, Daryl Hannah, Anthony Edwards, Peter Coyote, Kyle MacLachlan, Michelle Hicks, Claire Forlani, Graham Beckel, Josh Barker, Jon Gries, Marshall Bell, Rick Overton and Clark Gregg will star in the ensemble cast of NORTH FORK, the final film in the Polish brothers' trilogy of pictures (TWIN FALLS, IDAHO and JACKPOT). Michael Polish modern-day fairy tale which he co-wrote with Mark Polish. The brothers are also producing the pic.

* Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke will star in an untitled film for director Richard Linklater that he'll start shooting in Texas this summer and finish in 12 years. He will frame a linear plot around the physical maturation of a child, casting 7-year-old Eller Salmon as the centerpiece of the film. Arquette and Hawke will play his artistic parents in the IFC Productions-financed film. Linklater is also working on a part-documentary, part-fictional film about Texas high school football players for Sony Pictures Classics.

* Josh Hartnett will star in FilmEngine's WISH YOU WERE HERE about four friends who make an attempt to smuggle a fortune out of Morocco. The company is also talking with Hartnett to join THE RUM DIARY, based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel, starring Johnny Depp and Nick Nolte.

* Bernie Mac is in final talks to star opposite Chris Rock in DreamWorks' HEAD OF STATE, which Rock co-wrote and will make his directorial debut on for 3 Arts Entertainment. Production begins in July. Ali Leroi co-penned the script about an unlikely alderman chosen to be the presidential nominee for one of the major political parties.

* Hayden Christensen is in final talks to star in Lions Gate's SHATTERED GLASS for writer/director Billy Ray, C/W Prods., Baumgarten Merims Prods. and Forest Park Pictures. It's about the true story of Stephen Glass, who from 1995-98 was a twentysomething whiz-kid journalist writing for publications ranging from the New Republic to Rolling Stone. It was later revealed that he made up sources and quotes, fabricating 27 of his 41 articles

* Monica Bellucci is in talks to play the female lead in THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN for 20th Century Fox.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Marcus Nispel (upcoming TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE update) will direct ALLEGIANCE, an international thriller about an undercover agent married to a spyhunter for the CIA. Patrick Lee and William Petrowitch wrote the script, which will be produced by Radar Pictures.

* Sharon Maguire (BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY) is in early discussions with Columbia Pictures to direct the romantic comedy LAST FIRST KISS, a possible Will Smith/Jennifer Lopez vehicle. It's about a date doctor who believes his service can match lifemates in three dates. A female journalist seeks his services in order to expose the doc as a scam artist but discovers things about him as well as herself.

* Jan De Bont (SPEED) is in talks with Paramount Pictures to direct Angelina Jolie in a sequel to LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER with hopes of beginning production by early fall.

* Frank Oz is in discussions to direct a remake of 1975's THE STEPFORD WIVES for Paramount from a script by Paul Rudnick. The original was adapted by William Goldman from the Ira Levin novel and released by Columbia Pictures. It's about those happy brides who a little too cheerfully go about their housework to please their husbands. But a woman finds out many wives have been replaced with cyborgs and that her husband has plans to replace her as well.

* Ron Terry and Teresa Kounin will write TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, a dramatization of the link between opera legend Richard Wagner's music and Adolf Hitler, with Uli Edel set to direct. Terry and Kounin will also pen a biopic, for Harold Becker to direct, of concert promoter Bill Graham. Terry will also produce and compose the soundtracks of both films.

* Sam Weisman will direct David Spade in DICKIE ROBERTS: FORMER CHILD STAR for Paramount Pictures and Happy Madison Prods. Shooting will begin in July. Spade and Fred Wolf co-wrote the script about a washed up former child star who hires an entire foster family to re-create the family and childhood he never had.

* DreamWorks picked up the script TOAD TRIP from writers Paul Tamasay (AIR BUD) and Eric Johnson. The project will combine live action and CGI effects with John H. Williams (SHREK) producing. It's a family comedy about a man who has a spell cast on him that turns him into a toad. He has 48 hours to reverse the spell by finding true love from a human being. If not, he is doomed to be a toad forever.

* Tobe Hooper will direct the indie dark comedy PLANNING LAWRENCE FANKHAUSER'S DEATH about career criminals attempting to move up the food chain.

* Griffin Dunne will direct Hayden Christensen and Leelee Sobieski in NAILED RIGHT IN for Intermedia. Terence Winter ("The Sopranos") wrote the script which is set in Brooklyn against the backdrop of John Gotti's rise to power in the mob and centers on a group of Catholic friends whose different ambitions threaten to shake their relationships.

* Robert Altman is in talks to direct THE COMPANY with Neve Campbell attached to produce and co-star for Killer Films. It's about a young dancer who has other interests, distracting her from the dedication the craft requires. Barbara Turner wrote the script.

* Oliver Parker is set to direct THE FANCY for Renaissance Films about a bare-knuckle boxing champion in 18th century England. The company is also working on VAPOR, a New York romance that Neil LaBute is developing; Roger Michell's THE MOTHER, a drama about a 65-year-old widow who falls in love with a man half her age; and Hettie Macdonald's BAD BLOOD, adapted by actress Emily Mortimer from Lorna Sage's autobiographical account of her tough childhood.

* Producer John Williams (SHREK) is teaming up with Ealing Studios and Ralph Kamp's Odyssey Entertainment to make the computer animated pic VALIANT about a heroic pigeon who aspires to become a messenger in the Royal Air Force during WWII. Rob Letterman will direct from a script by George Webster.

* Tom Stoppard is in talks to adapt the Philip Pullman fantasy novel HIS DARK MATERIALS for New Line. The project is expected to be the first installment of a trilogy based on the novels which consist of THE GOLDEN COMPASS, THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS. The books center on two children who live in parallel worlds surrounded by a huge cast of shape-shifting creatures and are filled with magic, theology and science

* Howard Davies is attached to direct the mystery thriller AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST, which is set in late 18th century England.

* Fred Durst will direct LORDS OF DOGTOWN for Indelible Pictures and producers Art Linson, David Fincher and John Linson. The project is an extreme look at the genesis of the teenage skateboarding revolution. Production begins this summer. Stacy Peralta (DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS) wrote the script.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Independent producer/publisher Joan Singleton has optioned the feature rights to Kate DiCamill's Newberry Medal-winning book BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE. The story follows a 10-year-old girl who moves to a small Florida town with her preacher father. The lonely girl befriends a big, ugly, suffering dog, Winn-Dixie, whom she names after the supermarket where she finds him. Singleton will adapt the book for the big screen.

* Revolution Studios and Sony have shifted the release date of the Vin Diesel-starrer XXX to open Aug.9, one week later than M. Night Shyamalan's SIGNS.

* Romano Shane Prods. has optioned Gus Russo's THE OUTFIT: THE ROLE OF CHICAGO'S UNDERWORLD IN THE SHAPING OF MODERN AMERICA. The book takes an in-depth look at the history of the Chicago crime syndicate.

* Sam Raimi is launching a new genre label with producer Rob Tapert to produce midbudget horror, sci-fi and fantasy features to be financed by Senator International. Raimi will not direct any of the films but could take on writing duties. The first horror production will be THE BOOGEYMAN. Eric Kripke wrote the script about a young man who is traumatized by memories of terrible things he experienced as a child in his own bedroom. Years later, after the loss of his father, he reluctantly returns to the house and faces his fears of a being that could be real or merely a figment of his imagination. Shooting starts this fall.

GUNN SHOTS

(NOT from the trades)

* Visit This Cool Site for info about seminars and technology workshops in Film and TV production, to be held June 7th through the 11th at the Orlando Museum of Art - running concurrently with the first weekend of the Florida Film Festival.

* The Woodstock Film Festival is looking for entries. Go to the Fest's Site for information and/or entry forms.

* Mike Medavoy and Graham Greene are appearing at The Florida Film Festival. For more information on the festival, visit Their Site.

Until next week.

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com