Father Geek here along with Elston Gunn for another issue of our weekly review of all the movie news you just may have missed during the long work-week.

There's more ALAMO casting news this week, plus ol' Father Geek has heard that Santa Anna is having trouble fielding an army to take the old abandoned mission this time out... It seems that of the 500 uniformed Mexican Army extras hired at $100.00 a day for the 5 month shoot over hundred have deserted before their 3 day training period is completed, and another hundred or so are going to be canned for bad attitudes and even worst waistlines. It seems these Stateside raised Mexicans refuse to give up their daily rations of Malts, Burgers & Fries inorder to fit into the cool uniforms that the production has lined up for them to wear. You see these guys must look "Lean & Mean". They just completed (in 1836) a 900 to 1000 mile force march to get to San Antonio, not something the local Tejanos look like they could do, "they're having trouble with 900 yards," one of their professional drill trainers was overheard commenting. Soooooo, it looks like they'll be needing to enlist a few hundred more because they need that 500 number for the close-in action shots during the many battle scenes slated to be shot in the coming months. Santa Anna had 5 to 6 thousand soldiers with him in Texas... CGI can only be asked to do so much. Want to be "cannon fodder" in one of the most famous battles (13 Days of Glory) fought in North American history? If you're a skinny Mexican cross-country runner, or Mexican look-a-like living in the Austin area with 5 months to kill, then.....

John Lee Hancock NEEDS YOU!!!

Enlist Now!!! Be All That You Can!!!

Here's Elston and the regular column...

THE WEEKLY RECAP...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Jason Patric will play legendary knife fighter Jim Bowie in THE ALAMO, also starring Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton and Patrick Wilson. John Lee Hancock directs. Rumors are that Oscar-nominated Javier Bardem ("Before Night Falls) could play Bexar-born Tejano irregular cavalry commander Juan Seguin and Emilio Echevarria ("Y Tu Mama Tambien") could play the Mexican Dictator Santa Anna. Patrick Wilson, 29, has who will play Alamo Commander Col. William Barrett Travis is mostly known for his stage work such as "The Full Monty" and "Oklahoma." He will also be in HBO's "Angels in America" with Meryll Streep, Al Pacino, and Emma Thompson.

* Gary Oldman is in talks to play wizard Sirius Black in Warner Bros.' HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN for director Alfonso Cuaron. Production begins Feb. 17.

* Thomas Kretschmann (THE PIANIST) will join Natalie Portman, Penelope Cruz and Jay Rodan in John Duigan's HEAD IN THE CLOUDS. It's an epic romance set in Paris during the turbulent years leading up to World War II and culminating with the liberation of the city in 1944.

* Jennifer Lopez is in final talks to star in AN UNFINISHED LIFE for Miramax/Revolution and director Lasse Hallstrom. Shooting begins in April. Mark and Virginia Spragg wrote the script about a young woman who, down on her luck and desperate to care for her daughter, is forced to move in with her father-in-law, from whom she is estranged. Through time, they learn to forgive each other and heal old wounds.

* Bernie Mac will star in MR. 3000 for Disney about a retired baseball player for the Detroit Tigers who returns to the game when three of his past base hits are disallowed, dropping him below the 3,000-hit plateau.

* Bruce Willis will star in the crime drama ME AGAIN for director Dean Parisot (GALAXY QUEST), Intermedia Films and his own Cheyenne Enterprises. Willis plays a man who wakes up in a hotel room with no memory and a dead body in the room. He must figure out if he's a hitman or the undercover cop assigned to take down the assassin. Production begins in April.

* Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz will star in the supernatural thriller GOTHIKA for producer Joel Silver, Dark Castle and Warner Bros. Production aims to begin in March for a fall release. Sebastian Gutierrez penned the script about a female psychiatrist who wakes up as a patient in the asylum for the criminally insane where she works and finds that she is being charged with a murder she has no memory of committing. As she wrestles to regain her memory, she finds that she is the pawn of a vengeful spirit.

* Timothy Olyphant and James Remar have joined Elisha Cuthbert and Emile Hirsch in Regency Enterprises' THE GIRL NEXT DOOR for director Luke Greenfield. It's about a high school senior who falls in love with the perfect "girl next door" only to discover that she is a former porn star.

* Catherine O'Hara will star alongside Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini and Christina Applegate in SURVIVING CHRISTMAS for DreamWorks Pictures, Tall Trees Prods. and director Mike Mitchell. It's about a rich record executive who journeys back to his childhood home and persuades the family that now lives there to take him in by paying them cash to pretend they are his family for Christmas. Applegate plays the well-educated scientist daughter in the family he rents, O'Hara plays the mother while James Gandolfini is the father.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* James Foley (CONFIDENCE) will direct the sexually charged thriller HIGHER, written by Karl Gajdusek, for MDP Worldwide. It's about a young couple who seduce and blackmail wealthy couples to support their lavish lifestyle, but soon stuck in a deadly game when they pick the wrong pair to con.

* Dwight Little (MURDER AT 1600) is in talks to direct ANACONDA II for Screen Gems. The original picture starred Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube as documentary makers terrorized in the rain forest by a giant snake.

* Iain Softley (K-PAX) will direct and produce TRAP FOR CINDERELLA, an adaptation of the 1964 novel written by French author Jean-Baptiste Rossi under his pseudonym Sebastien Japrisot. The story centers on two women who are trapped in a suspicious beach house fire. One dies and the other is burned beyond recognition and left with amnesia. Plastic surgery saves her beauty, but she doesn't know if she was the killer or a victim.

* Sony Pictures Animation picked up the treatment OPEN SEASON from cartoonist Steve Moore and producer John Carls to make into a computer-animated film. It revolves around what happens in the wild when the tables are turned and the hunters become the hunted.

* Patrick Lussier (WES CRAVEN PRESENTS: DRACULA 2000) is in final talks to direct Revolution's TOTEM (aka SCARECROW) about a small-town farmer and his family who come upon a scarecrow that ends up scaring more than the crows. Todd Farmer (JASON X) wrote the script.

* John Ridley will produce and adapt his period novel A CONVERSATION WITH THE MANN for MGM and producer/director George Tillman Jr. The project traces the rise of a fictitious black standup comic who dreams of appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." His rise takes place in the late '50s and early '60s, when racism on the comedy circuit was overt. Mann's material goals become tempered after he sees the barbed comedy of Lenny Bruce and experiences the social swirl of the early '60s.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Columbia Pictures has optioned author Doug Stanton's book proposal, to be published by Little Brown, for an upcoming nonfiction work about how U.S. forces defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan. The book, which will include the U.S. takeover of the Afghan city Mazar E Sharif, was bought for producer Mace Neufeld, who is working on an untitled project about the city's takeover that director Phillip Noyce is developing with an eye to direct. Stanton's book will serve as inspiration for the project.

* Producer Laura Bickford (TRAFFIC) is developing RX, a new feature about the conflicts within the legal pharmaceuticals business. Daniel Therriault (WITNESS PROTECTION) will pen the screenplay.

GUNN SHOTS

(NOT from the trades)

* Dear Independent Filmmakers, Screenwriters, and Indie Cinema Aficionados, Announcing our *discounted* FIRST "Call For Entries" into Telluride IndieFest 2003 (August 29 - September 1)! Take advantage of the festival's *lowest* entry fees by entering *early* (January 1 - January 31, 2003) by going to: http://tellurideindiefest.com Just click on "Year 2003 Entry Forms" - and you are on your way!

* BBCAmerica and various press report that Britney Spears is being wooed to star and produce a project written for her called 221bCAUSE. Spears would play a disgraced NY cop, who is obsessed by Sherlock Holmes and sets out to prove herself by trying to find the President's kidnapped son. Ben Trebilcook (SEMPER OCCULTUS) has written the script for Spears personally.

* SCREAMFEST, the biggest Independent Horror Film Festival in Los Angeles has announced its call for entries for 2003. Now in it's third year SCREAMFEST is looking for submissions from filmmakers across the globe. http://www.screamfestla.com

* The "Fiercely Independent" Woodstock Film Festival, which will be held September 17-21, 2003 in Woodstock NY celebrates new voices of independent filmmakers with great films, seminars, workshops, concerts, parties and good people. Early Bird deadline: April 15. Final deadline: June 15 2003. Entry fees ranges from $25 - $50. http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com

Until next week.

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com