Father Geek here alongside our hardworking "man-in-the-know" on the West Coast, Elston Gunn, with another of our long running columns that fill you in on all the important, and sometimes not so important stories that you may have missed during the past work-week out in tinseltown.
Of course the really BIG story in movie news concerns Peter Jackson and his period reworking of the 8th wonder of the world... KING KONG! This was a story 1st broke in Tamsin's Downunder Report #39 back on July 12th of 2002. Annnnnnnd followed up by persistant undercover work by our new Downunder Report editor Latauro in his report on March 21, 2003 and in more detail in his column of March 28th . Good work guys...
Now here's Elston with...
The WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTINGS
Now here's Elston with...
The WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTINGS
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTINGS
* Casey Affleck will star alongside Angelina Jolie, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in the sci-fi thriller THE WORLD OF TOMORROW for writer/director Kerry Conran.
* Steve Zahn joins Selma Blair, Blythe Danner, Logan Marshall-Green, Bridget Moynahan, Donald Sutherland, Johnny Knoxville and Maura Tierney in HATING HER for writer/director Tom Bezucha and Idiom Films & Entertainment.
* Shannon Elizabeth joins Dimension Films' horror pic CURSED as well as Fox Searchlight's comedy JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION.
* Shiri Appleby joins Dermot Mulroney, Josh Lucas and Jamie Bell in UNDERTOW for director David Gordon Green (GEORGE WASHINGTON, ALL THE REAL GIRLS). Appleby has also been cast in THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS, the Project Greenlight pic for Miramax.
* Charlize Theron stars in and is executive producing HEAD IN THE CLOUDS, a 1930s romantic drama also starring Penelope Cruz and Stuart Townsend. John Duigan (SIRENS) directs.
* Pierce Brosnan will star in New Line's AFTER THE SUNSET, written by Paul Zbyszewski, for Firm Films. When a thief sails off to an island after his last big score, his lifelong FBI agent nemesis, arrives to make sure the thief is really retired.
* Sean Astin is in final talks to star alongside Stephen Dorff in the indie pic THE MULE for director Geoffrey Wright. Production begins in June. It's based on the true story of two Hollywood stuntmen who began making supply runs of the drug Ecstasy between Amsterdam and L.A. during the actors strike in the '90s. Clayton Barber and Jack Singman scripted.
* Jamie Kennedy is in talks to star in New Line's SON OF THE MASK, a sequel to 1994's THE MASK, for director Larry Guterman.
* Piper Perabo joins the cast of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN.
* Lindsay Lohan and Alison Pill will star in CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, based on the Dyan Sheldon novel, for Disney and director Sara Sugarman. It's about a New York teen who reinvents herself when she is forced to move to a New Jersey suburb.
* Matthew Davis, Josh Charles, Jay Mohr, Julianne Nicholson, Andy Richter, Helen Slater and Nikki J. Crawford star in the indie comedy SEEING OTHER PEOPLE for director Wally Wolodarsky.
* Bridget Moynahan will star opposite Will Smith in Fox's sci-fi thriller I, ROBOT for director Alex Proyas. She'll play a psychologist in the distant future who must aid a robot-phobic police detective who's investigating a murder that seemingly violates the Laws of Robotics. Production begins in May.
* Tom Sizemore is in final talks to join Cole Hauer in PAPARAZZI for Fox/Icon Prods. It's about a movie star who plots revenge after suffering a near-tragedy due to relentless hounding by a photographer. Paul Abascal directs from a Forest Smith script.
* Michelle Yeoh stars in FEI YING NU XIA (SILVER HAWK; formerly THE MASKED CRUSADER) for director Jingle Ma, Han Entertainment, Mythical Films, Media Asia Films and Tianjin Film Studio. It's about a society woman who fights crime at night. Richie Jen, Luke Goss, Michael Jai White, Brandon Chang and Mark Hicks also star.
* Uma Thurman will star opposite Ben Affleck in PAYCHECK, based on the
Philip K. Dick short story, for Paramount/DreamWorks and director John Woo.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* William Goldman will write the feature version of DC Comics' SHAZAM! for New Line Cinema about Billy Batson and his alter ego Captain Marvel.
* Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn (PROOF) will write the English-language remake of the Korean film IL MARE for Warner Bros. and Vertigo Entertainment. It's a love story about a man and a woman who fall in love out of time and correspond while trying to figure out a way to meet.
* Richard Price is in talks with DreamWorks to pen a remake of the 1952 Akira Kurosawa film IKIRU as a starring vehicle for Tom Hanks. The story centers on a low-level bureaucrat who learns that he has terminal stomach cancer and tries to have some impact on the world.
* Patrick Daughters will write and direct the sexual thriller VOYEUR for Hyde Park and Fox Searchlight about a small suburb where two bodies are discovered in a local lake. The investigation and the town's submission to fear and suspicion are chronicled by an obsessive young videographer.
* 20th Century Fox has picked up writer Eric Barker's script PET STORE was picked up by 20th Century Fox with Adam Shankman (BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE) attached to produce through his Offspring Entertainment. It's about a group of animals who need to save their pet store from being foreclosed on by an evil bank.
* Harris Goldberg sold his comedy pitch SUMO to Revolution Studios for Mark Sternberg to produce. It revolves around an unlikely member of a Japanese sumo wrestling team.
* Dimension Films grabbed an untitled pitch from scribes Ahna Tessler and Laura Engle about an eighth-grade school trip to Washington D.C. Todd Phillips is attached to produce.
* Brad Silberling will direct and produce Paramount's LOST BOYS, a true story inspired by a "60 Minutes II" segment, for Outlaw Prods. to produce. It's about a group of young boys who 15 years ago saw their villages burn during Sudan's civil war. The boys, ages 7-11, began walking out of the region, and soon hundreds became thousands. Many died along the way as they the deserts and mountains. In 1992, they arrived at a refugee camp in Kenya, where they survived on one meal a day. In 2000, the U.S. government began bringing the boys to America, where they began new lives.
* Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (2 FAST 2 FURIOUS) will write the action pic SPY HUNTER, based on Midway Games' popular arcade game, with The Rock attached to star.
* Marleen Gorris (ANTONIA'S LINE) will direct BRONTE for Random Harvest about three Bronte sisters who between them wrote several English classics including WUTHERHING HEIGHTS, AGNES GREY and JANE EYRE. Shooting is set for the fall.
* Michael Moore is finalizing a deal with Mel Gibson's Icon Prods. to finance the documentary FAHRENHEIT 911, which will depict the allegedly murky relationship between President Bush's father and the family of Osama bin Laden as well as trace why the U.S. has become a target for hatred and terrorism.
* Kurt Wimmer (EQUILIBRIUM) will direct the thriller ULTRAVIOLET for Screen Gems from his own script abou a woman caught in a futuristic civil war between the government and a subculture of disease-modified humans.
* Writer David Goyer (BLADE) is in talks to pen a BATMAN feature, based on a take by Christopher Nolan (MEMENTO) and unrelated to BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN and BATMAN: YEAR ONE.
* Jason Ward and David Garrett (CORKY ROMANO) will write DEUCE BIGALOW: ELECTRIC GIGOLO for Touchstone Pictures. Rob Schneider will return as the title character who will attend a gigolo academy in the sequel.
* Mike Bender (NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) has sold his pitch SHOW DOG to New Line. It's a a CGI/live-action family comedy set in the world of dog shows, with a storyline following a street mutt who swaps with a pure-bred champion competitor, a la TRADING PLACES.
* Warner Bros. Pictures snapped up an untitled pitch from David Hubbard for Chris Columbus' 1492 Prods. to produce for the studio. The storyline is being kept under wraps but is described as a magical romance about a man and a woman whose destinies are intertwined.
* Scott McGehee and David Siegel (THE DEEP END) are developing an adaptation of Myla Goldberg's novel THE BEE SEASON. The story centers on an 11-year-old's sudden emergence as a national spelling prodigy which changes her place in the world and unravels her family's ties to one another.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Arenas Entertainment has three projects on its slate: The company has optioned the books MACHO! by Victor Villasenor; the autobiography of radio host Renan Almendarez Coello, known on the air as el Cucuy; and is developing a movie featuring the Mexican musical group los Tigres del Norte.
* Producer Mace Neufeld is developing COSMONAUT, based on the bestselling Australian novel by Peter McAllister, about the first murder in space aboard the Intl. Space Station.
* Columbia has moved the release date of SPIDER-MAN 2 to July 2, 2004 from May 7, 2004. Universal is now moving VAN HELSING to the May 7 slot.
* Immortal Entertainment is in talks to sign a deal with Lions Gate Entertainment to produce low-budget urban genre films that the studio will distribute. The deal would include the contemporary action film BLOOD MONEY as well as an untitled hip-hop road movie directed by Method Man.
* Lorenzo di Bonaventura will produce two projects at Revolution Studios: the live-action dog comedy CARLOS AND JEFF as well as DOOMSDAY, an action thriller to be written by Frank Spotnitz. Dana Gould ("The Simpsons") will write CARLOS AND JEFF about two talking dogs who search for Santa Claus. DOOMSDAY centers on a government strategist who comes across a conspiracy only he can stop.
* Executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (CHICAGO) have made a deal with Paramount to reinvent FOOTLOOSE as a full-scale musical. The project is not related to the stage adaptation done several years ago.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* IFP/New York announced today the line-up for its 2-day conference, From Script to Screen. Produced by IFP/New York in association with the Writers Guild of America, East, the conference will take place Saturday, April 12 - Sunday, April 13 at the Fashion Institute of Technology's Katie Murphy Theater, located at West 27th Street and 7th Avenue in New York City.
* SKETCHCETERA , an Online Sketch Comedy Show, is a series of sketches available at http://sonnyboo.com/sketch.htm
