Father Geek here posting a pretty lengthy edition for this week's effort from Elston Gunn, sooooo sit back, relax and prepare to trip through the past work-week's wheel'n & deal'n out in Hollywood USA... Oh, and a little of that from Cannes, France too...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Josh Hartnett will star in the Lakeshore Entertainment/MGM thriller WICKER PARK for director Paul McGuigan. Shooting is scheduled to begin in October. Brandon Boyce wrote the adaptation of the 1996 Giles Mimouni-directed L'APPARTEMENT and focuses on a man's obsessive search for a lost love from his past that ends up uncovering the twisted schemes of an eccentric secret admirer.
* Gwyneth Paltrow will star in an untitled biopic of the late American poet Sylvia Plath for Universal's Focus and director Pawel Pawlikowski. John Brownlow wrote the script which will center on the stormy relationship between Plath, who committed suicide in 1963, and her husband, Ted Hughes, the British writer and Poet Laureate who died in 1998.
* Jamie Foxx is in talks to join the cast of the RKO Pictures/Merv Griffin Entertainment crime thriller SHADE for writer/director Damian Nieman. Shooting begins May 30. Sylvester Stallone, Thandie Newton, Stuart Townsend and Gabriel Byrne also star.
* Penelope Cruz will star in FANFAN LA TULIPE, a French-language remake of a 1952 adventure-comedy, where she'll play a gypsy girl who trickes a handsome young peasant into joining the French army by predicting that, if he does, he will end up marrying one of the king's daughters. Luc Besson co-wrote the script with Jean Comas. Gerard Krawczyk (TAXI 2) will direct.
* Val Kilmer is in talks to star in NINE MILES DOWN for Helkon Intl. Pictures and director Anthony Waller (MUTE WITNESS). Production is set for this fall in South Africa. It's about a security expert sent to investigate strange happenings at a remote scientific research camp.
* Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in GRAND THEFT PARSONS for director David Caffrey, based on the true story of road manager Phil Kaufman's strange journey after he decided to fulfill Gram Parsons' dying wish of a burial in the desert. Jeremy Drysdale wrote the script.
* Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are in talks to reteam on Miramax Films' JERSEY GIRL for writer/director Kevin Smith. Production begins late summer or early fall. It's about a guy named Ollie Trinke and the effects a new wife and 6-year-old daughter have on his seemingly already full life. George Carlin is also negotiating to join the pic, playing Affleck's father.
* Holly Hunter will star in the drama THIRTEEN for director Catherine Hardwicke. Shooting starts in July. It's about a naive straight-A student who befriends a popular but damaged schoolmate who leads her down a course that includes sex, drugs, self mutilation, and borderline flunking. Hunter will play the girl's mother. Nikke Reed wrote the script with Hardwicke when Reed was 13-years old.
* Gabriel Mann will star in a remake of the 1945 pic THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER for RKO Pictures. It's about an actor who takes dedication to his craft a step too far: he plays a murderer in a movie and commits one in real life.
* Jennifer Love Hewitt will star in and produce the romantic comedy ONE NIGHT for Winchester Films. Stephen Dorff is also attached to star in the project that was written by Helena Kriel (KAMA SUTRA).
* Annette Bening will star in Disney's remake of FREAKY FRIDAY. She'll play a widowed mother who constantly argues with her tomboy teen. When she and her daughter reveal their desire to escape their situation, they suddenly exchange bodies.
* Sanaa Lathan will play one of the female leads opposite Denzel Washington in the MGM thriller OUT OF TIME for director Carl Franklin. Dean Cain is in talks to join the cast of the film as well.
* Javier Bardem and Anthony Hopkins are in talks to star Miramax Films' EDGARDO MORTARA for director Damien O'Donnell and Film Four. Set in June 1858, the pic is a drama based on the true story of how police in Bologna, Italy, tore a 6-year-old Jewish boy away from his parents. According to the police, he had been secretly baptized by a Gentile servant girl years before. He was removed from his family in accordance with a law forbidding "Christian" children from being raised by Jews. This began his strange odyssey, which had powerful consequences for the future of both the Italian nation and the Catholic Church. Rob Eshman wrote the script, with revisions by Jeremy Brock (CHARLOTTE GRAY).
* Will Ferrell will star in the romantic comedy ACTION NEWSMAN for Regency Enterprises about a 1970s anchorman with raging hormones, perfect hair and big ego. He's the most beloved newsman in Portland until he's threatened by the arrival of an ambitious female newscaster who, unlike Burgundy, has mastered journalism. Adam McKay, who co-wrote the project with Ferrell, will direct.
* Jay Hernandez is set and Matt Schulze is in final talks to star in Warner Bros.' motorcycle racing pic TORQUE for director Joseph Kahn. Production begins in July in L.A.
* Jeremy Sisto ("Six Feet Under") will star in and produce the indie pic QUIET LIKE SLEEP for writer/director Abe Levy. Shooting begins late summer. He'll play a recovering alcoholic with a terrible secret who is grappling with the price he must pay to rejoin his estranged family. Levy co-wrote the script with David Klagsbrun.
* James Franco (SPIDER-MAN) is in talks to join Benjamin Bratt in Mirmax's WWII pic THE GREAT RAID for director John Dahl. The pic is based on a true story about Gen. Douglas MacArthur's secret raid on a POW camp in the Philippines to free 500 Americans facing death. Hossein Amini (THE WINGS OF THE DOVE) wrote the script.
* Michael Gambon and Michael Jeter have joined Kevin Costner's western pic OPEN RANGE, starring Costner, Robert Duvall, Diego Luna and Abraham Benrubi. Costner is also hoping Annette Bening would join the cast.
* Monica Bellucci (MALENA) will join Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Laura Morante in RICORDATI DI ME (NEVER FORGET ME) for director Gabriele Muccino (THE LAST KISS). Shooting begins in July in Rome. The story centers on characters in an Italian family and their lives inside and outside the home.
* Michael Jackson may play a werewolf in WOLFED, the first feature from his Neverland Pictures.
* Pierce Brosnan will star in the romantic comedy THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION as well as the 11th century epic LEGEND OF LOCHENBAR, both of which he will produce.
* John Malkovich is being eyed to play the role of Machiavelli in the historical drama BORGIA for Neil Jordan. Ewan McGregor and Christina Ricci will star.
* Nick Nolte and Harvey Keitel will star in BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY for Sony Pictures Classics, France's TF1 and Sweden's Svensk Filmindustri, as well as producers Terrence Malick and Ed Pressman. The project digs deep into the consequences of American involvement in the Vietnam war. Hans Petter Moland (ABERDEEN) will direct. Shooting starts in September.
* Cynthia Stevenson, Judge Reinhold, Martin Henderson, Ian McShane and Arnold Vosloo are in talks to join Frankie Muniz and Hilary Duff in MGM's junior spy flick CODY BANKS for director Harald Zwart.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* New Line Cinema is in final talks to pick up the action-thriller CELLULAR from turnaround by Sony. Larry Cohen wrote the script, which Dean Devlin is attached to produce. It's about a young man who receives a random call on his cell phone from a woman who has been kidnapped. Knowing she will die unless he helps her, the man embarks on a desperate adventure to save her life.
* Radar Pictures grabbed the feature film rights to author Meghan Daum's forthcoming novel THE QUALITY OF LIFE REPORT, which Daum is set to adapt for the bigscreen. The story centers on a lifestyle correspondent on a New York City TV show who is assigned to report on the higher quality of life in the Midwest. She ends up discovering that it's her constant journalistic analysis, as opposed to the locale, that prevents her from living life to the fullest
* Paul Hernandez will write THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, a bigscreen adaptation of the early 1980s TV. It's about a teacher who becomes a reluctant superhero after extraterrestrials give him a special suit with powers he can barely understand or control when he loses its instruction manual.
* Walden Media has tapped Paul Feig ("Freaks and Geeks" creator) to adapt and direct I AM DAVID, based on the novel by Anne Holm. Shooting begins June 17. It's about an 11-year-old boy's escape and journey across post-WWII Europe.
* Columbia Pictures picked up the supernatural pitch LAKE POWELL from Lloyd Entertainment Col about a family that unintentionally desecrates some Native American burial grounds while vacationing at the Arizona lake, unleashing a terrible supernatural force that threatens their lives. Michael Kase will write the screenplay.
* Luc Besson will script, Olivier Dahan will direct and Alain Goldman will produce RP2: LES ANGES DE L'APOCALYPSE, the sequel to THE CRIMSON RIVERS. Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel are in talks to reprise the roles of the two cops. Shooting begins in January.
* Gilles Mimouni (L'APPARTEMENT) will direct THE BIRD WATCHER, based on the French novel LE VOL DES CIGOGNES for Legende.
* Vadim Perelman will direct Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley in THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, based on the book by Andre Dubus III, for Signpost Films and DreamWorks about a former Iranian colonel who wins an auction for a foreclosed house. The home was previously owned by a self-destructive alcoholic who is hellbent on getting the house back.
* Bosnian writer/director Danis Tanovic (NO MAN'S LAND) will direct a new film in Morocco early next year for Film Council and RAI Cinema. The story is being kept under wraps but the project is said to be politically current with a mystery element.
* Producers Marc and Peter Samuelson are working on projects with several directors including: Robin Swicord, who will direct THE MERMAIDS SINGING, an Irish love story adapted from Lisa Carey's novel; Luis Mandoki, who will direct NEED for Columbia Pictures, based on Larry David's novel, about a suicidal young woman who is victimized by her female psychiatrist after the patient starts an affair with the doc's husband; Paul Mazursky is attached to helm FREUD AND JUNG, based on the true story of how the founders of modern psychoanalysis fell out over a woman; and Richard Loncraine, who will direct APPASSIONATA, a romance written by Felice Fallon.
* Radar Pictures and Universal Focus are developing a feature based on Barry Sadler's CASCA novels, about a Roman legionary who killed Christ and is cursed to live forever. The companies have optioned all 22 books in the series for a possible franchise. John Turman will write the script for the first movie which is set in the present day.
* Atlantic Streamline has picked up the rights to the French-language sci-fi graphic novel THE PROPHET for writers Jason Marx and Ben Loory to adapt into an English-language script. The company also picked up the rights to the other two novels in the series, which have yet to be published. Xavier Dorson and Mathieu Lauffran created the story of a professor who returns home from a scientific expedition in the Himalayas after discovering a parallel world that is dominated by evil. He must seal the opening before the two worlds collide and evil takes over.
* Tarsem (THE CELL) is in talks to direct NAUTICA for Escape Artists. Shooting begins this fall. Richard McBrien wrote the script about a murder on a yacht in the Caribbean.
* William Diehl is writing the Ballantine novel SEVEN WAYS TO DIE while also simultaneously penning the script with Michael A. Simpson. The title of the book is textbook coroner terminology about the number of ways to kill a human being, which figures in the misdeeds of a serial killer.
* Columbia Pictures and producer Laura Ziskin will develop a feature based on the hit video game DEUS EX. The story will be set in 2052, with the world reeling from the effects of disease, economic collapse and global terrorism. It centers on J.C. Denton, a nano-tech enhanced counter-terrorist who's the government's most potent weapon. Greg Pruss will write the script.
* Dominic Sena is in final talks to direct THE COURIER for Splendid Pictures and Newman/Tooley Films. Shooting is expected to begin this year. Michael Brandt and Derek Haas wrote the script about a mythic figure who makes deliveries to anyone anywhere with no questions asked. The courier is hired to make a delivery to a legendary underworld figure considered impossible to find.
* Music video and commercial director Marcos Siega will direct the Millennium Films action-thriller NINE LIVES. It's about a former Army Special Ops soldier who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, mistaken for someone else and pumped full of an experimental mind-control drug. He then is stuck in illusionary worlds created by his foes in an effort to control him. Tom Vaughan wrote the script.
* Ice Cube is in talks to rewrite and executive produce with Matt Alvarez through their company CubeVision the MGM comedy feature RACE for Hyde Park Entertainment. Set on the NASCAR circuit, the story is about a cab driver who finds himself the only black participating in a stock-car race.
* Columbia Pictures is in talks to pick up the rights to Marvel Entertainment's GHOST RIDER in turnaround from Dimension Films. Shane Salerno (SHAFT) is in talks to rewrite the script.
* Artisan Pictures has grabbed the family action-adventure pitch NORTH SHORE NINJA from writers Bob Mittenthal and Michael Rubiner. It tells the story of a 13-year-old obsessed with the world of martial arts. He finds himself teaming up with his idol, the karate movie star Jackie Lee, to engage in a real-life battle against the Hong Kong mob.
* Vortex Pictures and Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films are teaming up to produce the revenge pic CHAIN, which is described as THE CROW with biker gangs. John Rice (WINDTALKERS) will direct from his own script.
* Nick Moran is set to direct the biopic TELSTAR, written by Moran and James Hicks, about 1960s pop music producer Joe Meek. The title comes from the instrumental hit by the Tornadoes that Meek produced in 1962 -- it was the first British single to top the U.S. charts. Paul Nicholls, Danny Dyer, Roland Manookian and Daniel Brocklebank have been cast in supporting roles. Director Marc Evans (MY LITTLE EYE) is attached to a rival Joe Meek project for producer Nik Powell.
* Brent Forrester will write THE SHADOW PROJECT, which will mix live-action with computer animation, for DreamWorks. The project explores the intersection of human and shadow worlds. When an evil force upsets the balance between the two, a shadow drags his human counterpart into the shadow realm to set things right.
* Wolfgang Petersen will bring Orson Scott Card's series of science-fiction bestsellers ENDER'S GAME and ENDER's SHADOW to the big screen for Warner Bros. Card will write the first draft. The story begins as two alien attacks have nearly wiped out the human race and a frantic world government trains children for war by teaching them a competitive game.
* Jan de Bont will develop and direct a project for Epsilon about fourth century Austrian warrior St. Nikolas. Ken Young and Dennis LeFevre have written a script about Nikolas' experiences as a heroic warrior investigating a deadly mystery when he is assigned to restore order in a town filled with corruption and violence.
* Ridley Scott is attached to direct a period Western movie to be written by Bruce C. McKenna ("Band of Brothers") for Twentieth Century Fox and his Scott Free banner.
* Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner have optioned the recent New York Times Magazine article "The Light At the End of the Chunnel," and set its writer, Peter Landesman, to pen the screenplay. The article tells how Middle Easterners illegallystow away for the speedy train's trek betweeen Paris and London. The process is dangerous; remains of unsuccesful stowaways regularly litter the tracks. Landesman also is making a deal to do a poltically charged drama at Intermedia with Oliver Stone and is collaborating with Tribeca to set up his Atlantic Monthly article about the looting and murder mystery surrounding a treasure of gold and silver found in Hungary.
* Aaron and Matthew Benay have pacted to write three pics for Miramax, the first of which is a contemporary adaptation of Louis L'Amour's Cold War bestseller LAST OF THE BREED. It's about an Air Force pilot of Native American descent who's shot down over Siberia and has to use survival instinct to elude armed captors chasing him across the frozen wilderness.
* Trudie Styler's Xingu Films has signed a production deal with Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, starting with CHEEKY, the feature directing debut of David Thewlis. It's about a widower who participates in a strange game show because he believes it was his wife's dying wish. Production begins in October.
* Larry Charles ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") will direct THE BOND, an improvisational buddy comedy feature for Gavin Polone's Pariah and Senator Entertainment. Charles will direct from a detailed outline he created, about Lenny, an uptight family man whose friend Billy is jailed for having too many parking tickets. Out of the goodness of his heart, Lenny puts his house up as collateral to make Billy's bail. When Billy is released, however, the scheming bondsman kidnaps the man, so he misses his court date, and the house goes to the bondsman.
* Miramax Films is developing a feature adaptation of Tom Eidson's novel ST. AGNES' STAND, with Asif Kapadia (THE WARRIOR) directing. It's the story of an outlaw who meets a group of nuns and orphans who have survived an Apache ambush. One of the nuns, Sister St. Agnes, believes the gunman has been sent by God to rescue them.
* Mauro Borrelli (GOODBYE CASANOVA) will direct SHE, a comedy fantasy about three men's misadventures while chasing a warrior goddess, for producer Leo Pescarolo and Salon Films.
* Universal has optioned Daniel Quinn's graphic novel THE MAN WHO GREW YOUNG for Shady Acres with Daniel Wallace attached to adapt into a feature entitled TIMELESS. It's about a guy who wakes up in a world where time has stopped and started going backward for everybody but him.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Winchester Films is developing a group of projects with Wind Dancer Films and the Donners Co. Wind Dancer's project is the Daniel Pyne (SUM OF ALL FEARS) -scripted FIFTY MICE, a thriller about a guy with amnesia who is placed in a witness protection program against his will. The Donners Co. projects are two comedies: A-HOLE, penned by Heidi Van Lier, about a man who must live up to his unfortunate nickname; and MATCH MUTTS, written by Shaina Carol, about two dogs who fall for each other and try to get their owners to do the same.
* Film & Music Entertainment and Tartan Films are teaming up to adapt James Ellroy's novel KILLER ON THE ROAD for the big screen. Originally published in 1986 as SILENT TERROR, the book gets into the mind of serial killer Martin Plunkett, whose life of crime begins during his alienated teenage years in 1960s L.A. and continues through to his capture decades later in New York. Nicknamed "Sexecutioner," Plunkett lives in a world of twisted fantasies, is tormented by terrible dreams and finds relief only from the sight, taste and feel of fresh blood.
* Columbia Pictures has purchased the film rights to Robert Littell's bestselling spy thriller THE COMPANY: A NOVEL OF THE CIA. The book is a panoramic fictional treatment of the U.S. intelligence community from the dawn of the Cold War to the fall of the Soviet Union. It weaves real-life characters into a story involving a group of CIA operatives and their counterparts in the KGB, MI6 and the Mossad.
* Legende Enterprises and Nord-Ouest Production have teamed up to co-produce an English-language remake of last year's French film UNE HIRONDELLE A FAIT LE PRINTEMPS (ONE SWALLOW BROUGHT SPRING).
* Twentieth Century Fox has shifted the opening of DAREDEVIL, based on the Marvel Comic, to President's Day weekend next Feb. 14.
* DreamWorks has picked up exclusive film rights to the Japanese horror video game FATAL FRAME about a woman's search for her mysteriously missing brother, which leads her to a haunted mansion, armed only with an antique camera that lets her see ghosts.
