Father Geek here with another of AICN's long running, fact packed, weekly
looks back into the film world of the previous week. A regular column that's put together each week for those of you too busy during the work week to surf all over the web looking for the confirmed news bits concerning your favorite projects, writers, directors, or stars. We've got it ALL each week right here in one location...
The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Christopher Walken is in talks to star in Stratus Films' drama AROUND THE BEND for writer/director Jordan Roberts about four generations of men, all of whom have had their offspring at a young age: a great-grandfather, a grandfather, a father in his twenties and a son who is about 7 years old. When the oldest member passes away, the trio hit the road together in the Southwest to search out an old family secret that connects to their past.
* Matthew McConaughey, Vincent D'Onofrio join Keanu Reeves and Tilda Swinton in THUMBSUCKER, based on Walter Kirn's novel, for Bull's Eye Entertainment and director Mike Mills. Shooting begins July 9. It's about an anxious teen with a serious thumb-sucking habit. In desperation, he turns to the only sensible people he knows: an orthodontist and a high school debate coach.
* Jolene Blalock ("Enterprise") joins Ray Liotta and James Todd Smith in GreeneStreet Films and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment's thriller SLOW BURN for writer/director Wayne Beach. It's about a politically ambitious district attorney who enters a 24-hour showdown with a powerful gang leader only to discover he's being manipulated by a beautiful assistant district attorney and a stranger.
* Alec Baldwin, Matt Ross and Danny Huston will join Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Adam Scott, Kelli Garner, Gwen Stefani and John C. Reilly in THE AVIATOR for director Martin Scorsese, IEG, Warner Bros. Pictures and Miramax Films.
* James Cromwell and Bruce Greenwood join the cast of I, ROBOT for 20th Century Fox and director Alex Proyas.
* Ben Affleck is looking at a pair of comedies in which to star: Disney's GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST and New Line's SEX TALK. Sean Bailey and Chris Moore are producing GIRLFRIENDS with producer Jon Shestack. It centers on a bachelor who goes to his younger brother's wedding, where he is visited by the ghosts of his past girlfriends. John Lucas and Scott Moore scripted. SEX TALK is about a sports reporter who finds popularity by applying sports terminology and strategy to solve the problems people have with their sex lives.
* Emily Deschanel and Barry Watson will star in BOOGEYMAN for director Stephen Kay, Screen Gems and Ghost House Pictures. It's about a young man traumatized by memories of terrible events in his childhood bedroom. Years later, he reluctantly returns home to face his fears. Shooting begins this month from a script by Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White.
* Jane Fonda has expressed interest in starring as a strident and difficult mother-in-law in opposite Jennifer Lopez in New Line's MONSTER-IN-LAW as well as potentially appearing in Cameron Crowe's new film.
* Minnie Driver joins the cast of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for director Joel Schumacher, Warner Bros. and Odyssey Entertainment.
* Michael Keaton will play the president of the United States opposite Katie Holmes in the Regency Enterprises romantic comedy FIRST DAUGHTER. Forest Whitaker directs from a Jessica Bendinger script.
* Rob Schneider joins the cast of Walden Media's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent for director Frank Coraci.
* Sam Rockwell will star in John McKay's PICCADILLY JIM, adapted by Julian Fellowes (GOSFORD PARK) from P.G. Wodehouse's comic novel. Rockwell will play an American rogue on the loose in 1930s London and New York. When his scandalous reputation upsets his social-climbing stepmother and scares off the girl of his dreams, transatlantic hijinks ensue as he tries to redeem himself. Tom Wilkinson also stars. Production is scheduled for October.
* Kristen Bell will appear in the Warner Bros./Franchise Pictures feature "Spartan," written and directed by David Mamet. It's about the kidnapping of the daughter of a senior American government official and the chaos and duplicity that ensues in trying to bring her home without scandal. William H. Macy, Val Kilmer and Derek Luke also star.
* Claire Forlani will join Barry Pepper and Tom Wilkinson in Roger Spottiswoode's WHITE ON WHITE, based on Patricia Highsmith's novel RIPLEY UNDER GROUND. Alan Cumming is in talks to take a role as well. Blake Herron adapted the book for the screen.
* Rupert Everett will star opposite Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson in A WAY THROUGH THE WOODS, based on Nigel Balchin's novel, for director Julian Fellowes.
* Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Bobby Cannavale, Lisa Ann Walter, Deborah Yates, Nick Cannon and Richard Jenkins round out the cast of Miramax's remake SHALL WE DANCE?, starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, for director Peter Chelsom. Audrey Well scripted.
* Renee Zellweger will star in and produce the Janis Joplin biopic PIECE OF MY HEART for Paramount and Lakeshore Entertainment.
* Angelina Jolie is in talks to play Catherine the Great in the historical epic LOVE AND HONOR for writer/director Randall Wallace and Disney.
* Kim Basinger and Chris Evans will star in the thriller CELLULAR for New Line about a kidnap victim who dials a number at random. When a young man answers, she tries to persuade him to believe her, then find and rescue her. David Ellis (FINAL DESTINATION 2) will direct.
* John Malkovich will star in COLOUR ME KUBRICK for Studio Hamburg Intl.
Production about the true story of a man who pretended to be the late
director Stanley Kubrick during filming of Kubrick's final pic, EYES WIDE
SHUT, despite bearing no physical resemblance to him or possessing any
knowledge of his work. Brian Cook will direct from a script by Anthony
Frewin.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Elizabeth Hunter (THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS) will write the animated pic LAFIYA for Disney. The plot is being kept under wraps, with the only known details being that it's set in Africa and centers on a young female lead character.
* Menno Meyjes (MAX) is in talks to direct the Universal/Imagine crime thriller INSIDE MAN about a tense hostage situation at a bank where a tough cop must match wits with a clever bank robber who sets out to pull off the perfect bank robbery.
* David Ranes will script two projects for Whitelight Entertainment: adapting Larry Barkdull's novel THE MOURNING DOVE and an untitled action-adventure project. The novel is a coming-of-age drama about a young boy who struggles to overcome the tragic loss of his parents through the help of his belligerent but well-meaning grandfather, his clever neighborhood friends and a reformed street-wise criminal.
* Brett Ratner is in negotiations to direct John Travolta in MGM's BE COOL, the sequel to GET SHORTY for Jersey Films.
* Matthew Vaughn (SNATCH producer) will direct with an adaptation of J.J. Connolly's London crime novel LAYER CAKE. Daniel Craig will play a savvy drug dealer who wants to quit while he's ahead. However, when his final score spins out of control, he finds out there are powerful forces with no intention of letting him go straight. Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney, Dexter Fletcher, Jason Flemyng and Sienna Miller will co-star. Production starts June 30.
* Charles Dance has written and will direct Maggie Smith, Judie Dench, Angelica Huston and Michael Gambon in LADIES IN LAVENDER, an adaptation of an early 20th-century short story by little-known writer William J. Locke, about two unmarried sisters in 1930s Cornwall whose lives and emotions are stirred up when they find a half-drowned young man washed up on a beach.
* Argentine director Lucrecia Martel (THE SWAMP) will direct LA NINA SANTA (THE HOLY GIRL) for Lita Stantic Prods. It's a coming-of-age story about a zealous girl on a mission to save the soul of a 60-year-old man.
* Craig Moss and Steve Schoenburg are in talks with Emmett/Furla Films to write the script NATIONAL LAMPOON'S BACK TO COLLEGE about two young successful bachelors who realize there are a few things that they've missed out on, especially when it comes to their college experiences. So they decide to pose as regular guys and enroll in college classes, armed with the wealth and intelligence they have gathered in their adult lives.
* New Line picked up the action/comedy pitch RIDE ALONG from writer Greg Coolidge about a risk-averse second-grade teacher who plans on marrying the girl of his dreams but first must accompany her brother -- a tough, bad-ass cop -- on a ride-along from hell.
* Writer/director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith (aka Hammer & Tongs) will work with writer Karey Kirkpatrick (CHICKEN RUN) on a feature adaptation of Douglas Adams' HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY for Spyglass Entertainment. Kirkpatrick did a polish on a script written by the author.
* Joshua Stern will write PAPER DRAGON, a family action/adventure about a boy and his ancient Chinese warrior pal, for producer Mimi Polk Gitlin.
* Juan Calvo will direct Paz Vega and Santi Millan in TAM-TAM from his own script for Columbia Films Producciones Espanolas. Production starts Aug. 4. It's about the arranged love affair and then supposed marriage between two contestants in a dating TV reality show.
* Hype Williams will direct the psychological thriller CAPTIVITY, written by Larry Cohen (PHONE BOOTH), for Fox Searchlight and Urban Entertainment. It's about two strangers who are kidnapped and manipulated by an unseen sociopath.
* Disney picked up an untitled comedy pitch by writer Dan Mazer ("Da Ali G Show") that Jack Black will star in and produce. It's a broad contemporary comedy about an ordinary man who hits hard times and is forced to sell something dear to him.
* Ronald Harwood (THE PIANIST) will adapt the Thomas Hauser novel MARK TWAIN REMEMBERS for DreamWorks. James Franco is attached to play the young author Samuel Clemens as he sets off from Missouri and meets up with a slave boxer and his master/promoter. Clemens becomes determined to free the slave, but when his scheme is successful, the slave's ex-master tries to win him back by rigging a bare-knuckle brawl against a larger, more experienced opponent. Harwood will also adapt Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, which Kennedy/Marshall will produce for Universal Pictures. The book recounts the life of the one-time editor-in-chief of French magazine Elle, who, after a 1995 stroke left him completely paralyzed, wrote his memoirs by blinking his left eye in an alphabet code.
* Bull's Eye Entertainment snapped up Brian Horiuchi's screenplay THE GLASS GUN about a man plunged into a mystery in which he must discover who is responsible for killing the friends he cares most about.
* James Mangold will direct Columbia Pictures' remake of its 1957 Western 3:10 TO YUMA with Cathy Konrad producing. Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (2 FAST 2 FURIOUS) will write the script.
* Mark Romanek (ONE HOUR PHOTO) will direct and Eric Roth will adapt A COLD CASE, starring Tom Hanks, for Universal Pictures. The fact-based drama concerns Gotham District Attorney's chief investigator Andy Rosenzweig. Before he retires, he vows to solve the 27-year-old murder of a friend, even though the case couldn't be colder. It is a crime that has haunted him his entire career.
* Beeban Kidron (TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, JULIE NEWMAR) will direct BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON for Working Title Films. The follow-up will star Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Shooting is expected to begin in November. Andrew Davies and Helen Fielding adapted from Fielding's own follow-up to her first Bridget Jones book. In it, Bridget discovers that life with Mark Darcy isn't quite as perfect as she dreamed.
* Fox 2000 purchased the Sean McGinly comedy script MULLIGAN about a portly football lover who tries to become a field goal kicker for the Washington Redskins. FilmColony will produce.
* Freestyle Pictures has optioned Valerie Frankel's comic novel THE ACCIDENTAL VIRGIN for Heather Graham to topline and produce. Nicole Eastman is penning the adaptation of the story of a young woman who hasn't had a lover in almost a year and becomes terrified that she's at risk of being "revirginized." She goes on a quest to get a man in her bed but discovers she's not as easy as she thinks.
* David Duchovny will direct HOUSE OF D from his own script for Ovation Entertainment and Bob Yari Prods. The indie pic is a drama about a man coming to terms with his past and present friendships. Duchovny will also star with his wife Tea Leoni, Robin Williams and Tyler Hoechlin.
* Christian Papierniak and Deena Berezin have set up their script THE INTERN at Mosaic Media Group, based on an idea by Nina Sadowsky. It's described as a comedy in the vein of WORKING GIRL.
* Ian Corson is writing the supernatural thriller SECOND COMING, loosely based on an original story idea by James Woods about a recently paroled thief who finds himself entrusted with guarding a boy believed to be a clone of Jesus Christ, for Castle Rock Pictures..
* Project Greenlight finalist Joe Otting will direct fellow finalist Robert Lynn's script PRISONER for Splendid Pictures. The story centers on a Hollywood director who, while scouting locations for his next film, is taken hostage in an abandoned prison.
* New Line has picked up an untitled Charles Dickens project from writer Samantha Silva with her husband, Michael Hoffman, attached to direct. The project puts a romantic dramedy about the events and inspiration surrounding Dickens as he writes A CHRISTMAS CAROL. As he struggles to write the book, he falls in love with a woman who turns out to be a ghost.
* Swedish helmer/scribe Anders Nilsson will direct Jakob Eklund, Irina Bjorklund, Marie Richardson and Nicholas Farrell in THIRD WAVE, the final episode in a popular cop thriller trilogy.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Columbia Pictures optioned the rights to Leslie Marshall's novel A GIRL COULD STAND UP for Laura Ziskin to produce. It's a coming-of-age story about a young girl who loses her parents in a freak accident at an amusement park. Surrogate parents come in the form of two uncles: a macho photographer, the other a crossdresser.
* Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman have optioned David Nicholls' first novel STARTER FOR TEN which Nicholls will adapt. It's the comedic story of a working-class student who stumbles romantically and academically through his first year at a posh private university in England.
* DreamWorks' Steven Spielberg and Walter Parkes are in talks with Stephen Sondheim to turn SWEENEY TODD into a feature.
* Revolution Studios has picked up the rights to the graphic novel ZOOM'S ACADEMY FOR THE SUPER GIFTED from Jason Lethcoe for Team Todd and Underground Films to produce. The story revolves around an unpopular high school girl who is whisked away by her mysterious father to a school for superheroes, where she discovers her talents.
* Threshold Entertainment has optioned the rights to the new-age book ONLY LOVE IS REAL, a romantic comedy about a couple who were connected in previous lives and are reunited in their current ones by a new-age therapist.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* In about a month, "theserver.tv" will be up. It's a short film about a waiter and his busboy who are superheroes protecting America from cheap tippers and hostile customers. Their weapons are pepper mills, wine openers, coffee pitchers and serving trays. The server also has his hands full at home as his wife cheats on him with other superheroes who are much stronger than him.
* South Florida's Horror, Sci fi, Rock n Roll, Toy and Film Convention Screamfest 2003 will take place November 8-9, 2003. For more info, visit http://www.screamfest2003.com.
* David Lowery's unsettling short film STILL is now available on DVD. In addition to the film, the DVD includes a 30-minute documentary, a director's commentary track, and a large number of easter eggs that offer an in depth look at the making of this independent film. For more information, visit http://www.road-dog-productions.com
* Cool Fire Technology formally launched The Actor's Checklist at http://www.actorschecklist.com The Actor's Checklist presents the viewer with a checklisted selection of the very vital areas any actor would have to implement in order to find their way into, and make a credible presentation at a casting audition. A "More Resources" page serves as a subdirectory of hyperlinked pages detailing the various related topics which are linked to areas of speciality within the acting craft.
