Father Geek here with one more of Elston's weekly reports on the previous week's movie news. News that may have fallen thru the cracks for you during the busy work-week, especially with most of the traditional news outlets devoting the great bulk of their available space to the unpleasentness in the mid-east. Sooooooo get away from it all and just dive into this weeks edition of...
The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Christopher Walken is in talks to join Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning in MAN ON FIRE for Regency Enterprises, Fox 2000 and helmer Tony Scott. Brian Helgeland adapted the A.J. Quinnell about an American ex-soldier who is persuaded to protect a child, whose parents are threatened by a rash of kidnappings.
* Sean Astin is in talks to join Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore and Rob Schneider in 50 FIRST KISSES for director Peter Segal. Production begins in the spring.
* Estella Warren and Ashley Scott will join Daneil Gillies, Clayne Crawford and Jeff Davis in the horror film TRESPASSING for writer/director James Merendino and H.S.I. Entertainment/Samy Boy Pictures. It's about a grad student preparing his thesis on mythology who leads his friends on an expedition to a haunted plantation estate outside of New Orleans.
* Frankie Muniz will star in AGENT CODY BANKS 2 for MGM and director Harald Zwart. Production begins in six weeks on a script by Don Rhymer.
* Gene Hackman will play a former president running for mayor in a the political comedy MOOSEPORT for director Donald Petrie, Intermedia and 20th Century Fox. Ray Romano also stars.
* Skeet Ulrich joins Christina Ricci, Omar Epps and Scott Foley in CURSED, penned by Kevin Williamson for director Wes Craven and Dimension Films. Kristina Anapau, Scott Baio, James Brolin, Illeana Douglas, Jesse Eisenberg, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Milo Ventimiglia and Corey Feldman round out the cast.
* Jenifer Lewis, Tamala Jones, Tatyana Ali, Donn Swaby, Lil' J, Bobby Brown and Lil' Kim will star in Warning Films' feature NORA'S HAIR SALON, currently in production, for director Jerry LaMothe. At the same time, stand-up comedian Mo'Nique will star in UrbanWorks Entertainment's BEAUTY SHOP for director Leslie Small. Shooting begins in May.
* Courteney Cox Arquette will star in the psychological drama NOVEMBER for director Greg Harrison (GROOVE) and IFC's digital production arm, InDigEnt. She'll play an L.A. photographer struggling to put the tragic circumstances of her boyfriend's death behind her and to separate the boundaries of reality and fantasy. Benjamin Brand wrote the project which begins production in May. Harrison also is developing and planning to direct the dark satire **ETC, written by Garry Trudeau, for Fox Searchlight.
* Vince Vaughn will star in the comedy NO PLACE LIKE HOME for New Line, playing a cocky, successful New Yorker who has a deep aversion to his parents. But when his relationship and life fall apart, he ends up moving into their Long Island house. Margaret Heidenry scripted.
* Naomi Watts, Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern and Peter Krause are in talks to star in the indie pic ANYMORE for Front Street Pictures and director John Curran (PRAISE). Production begins April 6 in Vancouver. Based on two short stories written by Andre Dubus (IN THE BEDROOM), "Adultery" and "We Don't Live Here Anymore.," the project centers on two couples who are friends and whose relationships are intertwined. Larry Gross (PROZAC NATION) adapted the screenplay.
* Michael C. Hall ("Six Feet Under") will play an FBI agent opposite Ben Affleck in Paramount's PAYCHECK, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, for director John Woo. Aaron Eckhart also stars.
* Stanley Tucci, Dana Delany, Ryan Merriman, Paula Garces and Ruben Blades star in the pic SPIN for director Jamie Redford, son of Robert Redford. Based on the novel by Don Axinn, the project concerns the adolescence of an orphaned boy raised by an Hispanic family in the 1950s.
* Peter Boyle will appear in Dimension's SCARY MOVIE 3 in a throwback to his role in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.
* Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps are in talks to star in Paramount/Deep River Prods.' pic THE HONEYMOONERS, based on the 1950s TV series. Danny Jacobson is scripting.
* Gwyneth Paltrow and Lisa Kudrow will star in Stratus Film Co.'s indie pic HAPPY ENDINGS for writer/director Don Roos (THE OPPOSITE OF SEX, BOUNCE). Shooting begins in Los Angeles in early May. It's a contemporary comedy involving three intertwining stories with 10 characters. The first story is about a father and son who are involved with the same woman. The second centers on two couples in which one of the men may have fathered the other couple's child. The third is about a woman who gave up a baby for adoption 19 years ago and meets a blackmailing documentary filmmaker who might know where the child is.
* Andy Serkis (Gollum in THE TWO TOWERS) and Samuel Ball join Jennifer Garner in Revolution Studios' 13 GOING ON 30 for director Gary Winnick. Mark Ruffalo and Judy Greer also star.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Barry Sonnenfeld is in talks to direct Warner Bros. Pictures' action pic ANGRY WHITE MEN for Silver Pictures and Imagemovers. It's about four recently downsized corporate businessmen who rob commuter trains to get revenge on those who wronged them, becoming national heroes in the process. Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Price scripted.
* Universal grabbed the original comedy pitch ONE NATION UNDER BOB, which John Scott Shepherd (JOE SOMEBODY) will write as a vehicle for director Tom Shadyac. It's a high-concept comedy centering on an average man who inherits a plot of land only to discover that it is a country unto itself and he is now the owner of a sovereign nation.
* Writer/director David Raynr will script the golfing comedy THE CLUB for Paramount, Latham Entertainment and MBST Entertainment. The project centers on a country club in Compton, whose founders attempt to deal with the problem of back taxes by luring a pro golfing event while trying to ease out some of the club's younger members.
* Author/screenwriter William Monahan to write the script MAZAR I SHARIF about the recent war in Afghanistan for Columbia Pictures.
* New Line snapped up the THE UNTITLED WEDDING PROJECT by Henry Huang and Gregg Temkin for MBST Entertainment to produce. It's about a woman who tries to get her life back after being dumped by her fiance. She heads to the bridal salon to get the deposit on her wedding dress and ends up taking the workers hostage.
* Karyn Kusama (GIRLFIGHT) is in final talks to direct Paramount Pictures/MTV Films' AEON FLUX, a live-action pic based on the 1995 animated MTV series, for Valhalla to produce. Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay (crazy/beautiful) have written the screenplay.
* Chris Robinson is in talks to direct Columbia's STATIC for Original Films to produce. It's about an imprisoned leader of Los Angeles' toughest street gang. Under the protection of his gang, the leader must battle corrupt police and rival gangs on his way across town to testify against the cops who wrongly convicted him.
* Spyglass Entertainment bought Aline Brosh McKenna's (THREE TO TANGO) pitch 27 DRESSES for Outlaw Prods. to produce. It's about a woman fed up with always being a bridesmaid.
* Peter Howitt is stepping in to direct LAWS OF ATTRACTION, starring Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore, after Michael Caton-Jones dropped out of the project.
* Writer/director Dylan Kidd (RODGER DODGER) will direct P.S. for Hart Sharp Entertainment, based on the novel by Helen Schulman. It focuses on a 38-year-old divorced admissions director at Columbia University who gets another chance at first love when a student application bearing the same name as her deceased high school sweetheart sets off a romance with the younger man.
* Adam Shankman (BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE) is in talks to direct Warner Bros.' THE JETSONS, a live-action feature based on the 1960s cartoon series.
* Michael Elliot (LIKE MIKE) sold his pitch JUST WRIGHT to Disney as a starring and producing vehicle for Queen Latifah. She'll play Janice Wright, a physical therapist drafted by an all-star basketball player to move in and help him recover from a career-threatening injury. The hoop star then begins to fall for his therapist.
* Paul and Chris Weitz will direct the comedy drama SYNERGY, written by the former, for Universal. It's about an older advertising exec in the magazine biz who finds himself demoted and ends up with a twentysomething boss when his company is taken over by a larger corporation. The two become friends, but the relationship is jeopardized when the younger man starts an affair with the older man's daughter
* Blake Masters (THE NINTH MAN) will script the ocean rescue drama STORM WARNING for Paramount, based on Bryan Burrough's Vanity Fair story about the deadly 1999 Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race.
* Josh Olson will write the adaptation of the graphic novel A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE for New Line. Penned by John Wagner and illustrated by Vince Locke, the story follows an ordinary family's life after the father receives unwanted national attention for a seemingly vigilante self-defense killing at his diner.
* Todd Solondz (HAPPINESS, STORYTELLING) will direct PALINDROMES about an awkward 13-year-old girl and her friends, family and neighbors. Shooting begins in early July in and around New York.
* Director Wolfgang Petersen will develop a feature based on the Dennis Lehane (MYSTIC RIVER) novel SHUTTER ISLAND for Columbia Pictures. The title refers to an island in Boston's Outer Harbor that houses a federal institution for the criminally insane. Two U.S. marshals are dispatched to that facility to recapture a violent female escapee.
* Wayne Wang will direct Adam Sandler and Zhang Ziyi in New Line's GOOD COOK, LIKES MUSIC about a lovable slacker who lives with his mother in a trailer park. One drunken night, he sends away for a mail-order bride who ends up being a musical prodigy, and they change each other's lives.
* Nick Hurran (PLOTS WITH A VIEW) will direct Brittany Murphy in LITTLE BLACK BOOK for Revolution about an associate producer for a daytime talk show who goes into her boyfriend's Palm Pilot to learn more about his ex-girlfriends and ends up learning much more about herself.
* Marco Schnabel will direct the New Line comedy JUST FRIENDS, written by Adam Davis, for Benderspink. It's a romantic comedy about a guy who constantly inspires only the most platonic of feelings in women. When he finds himself falling in love, he decides this time he must succeed.
* Jeanne Rosenberg (THE BLACK STALLION) will write SCAMPER, based on the life of champion rodeo rider Charmayne James, for New Line. The script will focus on the relationship between James and her horse and culminate with her being crowned World Champion Barrel Racer for the first time in 1985 at age 15.
* Universal/Imagine grabbed the script SICK DAY by Nick Marine for Bates Entertainment to co-produce. The story follows a man who calls in sick to skip work, only to have his plans for the day off go awry.
* Tex Davis will write WE ARE FAMILY, based on his own pitch, for New Line and Benderspink. It's described as the ultimate family reunion comedy and in the vein of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION.
* Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle ("Kim Possible") have sold the family comedy pitch BIG SIR to New Line. It's about a soon-to-be stepdad who must travel cross-country with his future stepkids as they're pursued by unsavory characters.
* Mark Rosner (THE ROCK) will write RED WHITE BLACK AND BLUE for Paramount. The story is set on the bicentennial date of July 4, 1976, and follows three L.A. vice cops who are framed by a local drug czar while trying to uncover a large shipment of narcotics.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to Tom Clancy's latest thriller RED RABBIT for Robert Rodat (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) to adapt and Michael Ovitz to produce with Mark Canton. Set near the beginning of the Jack Ryan franchise, the story follows the novice CIA analyst debriefing a high-level defector who reveals that Soviet officials are planning to assassinate the pope and destabilize the West.
* Producer Gale Ann Hurd and Emmett/Furla Films are joining forces to develop the MICRONAUTS franchise into feature and television projects.
* Director Brett Ratner and actors Brendan Fraser and Matthew Bomer have dropped out of the SUPERMAN project. Ratner will now focus on RUSH HOUR 3 for New Line with Jason Richman writing the script.
* MGM is developing a contemporary hip-hop-themed musical titled COLORS STRAIGHT UP, based on the Oscar-nominated documentary by Michele Ohayon. Morgan Freeman's Revelations Entertainment is producing, with Freeman expected to take a role. Bob Doleman wrote the script about two male teachers -- one white and one black -- who overcome their personal differences to teach kids from Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood to come together using music and drama at a performing arts center for inner-city youth.
* Paramount has postponed the upcoming release of the Meg Ryan boxing pic AGAINST THE ROPES because TV coverage of the war in Iraq could make it difficult to publicize the film.
* Maverick Films has optioned feature rights to Hurricane Entertainment's graphic novel VIOLENT MESSIAHS: THE BOOK OF JOB, co-created by William O'Neill and Joshua Dysart and penciled by Tone Rodriguez. It's about two serial killers and the detective assigned to bring them down.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* The 2003 Sick Puppy Festival is April 11th-12th in San Francisco. For more info visit http://www.sickpuppyfestival.com
* Asian film company Cinema Service has made some remake deals of their pics JAIL BREAKERS and TEACHER, MR. KIM, and hit AFM with their feature THE CLASSIC. Their new releases are THE CLASSIC and THE FIRST AMENDMENT. Visit http://www.cinemaservice.com/eng for more details.
* Action Theatre at Metreon-A Sony Entertainment Center is home to an ever-changing line-up of anime and action movies, and will present features from leading anime film distributor Bandai Entertainment, in March and April. Go to http://www.metreon.com for screening times.
