Father Geek here, annnnnd I've got the latest edition of Elston Gunn's regular weekly column that takes a look back over the confirmed news bits out of Tinseltown last week for all of you fans that may have found yourselves just a little too busy during your work-week to keep up with it all. Soooo, with nothing else to add ol' Father Geek will get out of your way and let you dive right in to...
The Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Chad Michael Murray ("One Tree Hill," FREAKY FRIDAY) will star in Dark Castle Entertainment's HOUSE OF WAX remake for Warner Bros. Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures. The film, written by Chad and Carey Hayes, will shoot in Australia.
* Tina Turner is set to play the Hindu goddess Shakti in Ismail Merchant's upcoming pic THE GODDESS. Matthew Modine will also star.
* Mackenzie Phillips ("One Day at a Time," "So Weird") joins Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch and Brad Renfro in THE JACKET for director John Maybury, Mandalay Pictures/Section Eight. Written by Massy Tadjedin, the pic centers on a soldier convicted of murder who, during his treatment in a psychiatric hospital, begins to believe that he is traveling through time. Through his time travel, he searches for a woman he met as a child and is fated to love.
* Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher and Debra Messing will lend their voices to OPEN SEASON, Sony Pictures Animation's first feature-length CGI motion picture. The pic centers on a domesticated grizzly bear, who teams up with a mule deer as the two are stranded in the woods during hunting season. Jill Culton directs, with Anthony Stacchi serving as co-director. The project is inspired by the work of syndicated cartoonist Steve Moore ("In the Bleachers"), who will serve as executive producer along with John Carls.
* Brittany Snow ("American Dreams") will star opposite Vin Diesel in THE PACIFIER for Disney/Spyglass and director Adam Shankman. Shooting is scheduled to start in mid-April on the family film, which finds Diesel starring as an undercover agent hired to protect a government scientist and his family. Snow will play the eldest daughter in the clan that Diesel is watching over. Thomas Lennon and Robert Garant wrote the script.
* Morgan Freeman joins Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy and Katie Holmes in Warner Bros.' BATMAN film for director Christopher Nolan. Freeman will play Lucius Fox, a respected businessman and the CEO of billionaire Bruce Wayne's mega-conglom, based in Gotham City. Shooting begins March 16 in London..
* Wesley Snipes will narrate the Tollin/Robbins documentary HARDWOOD DREAMS: TEN YEARS LATER, a sequel to the company's 1993 docu about five basketball players from Southern California's Morningside High School. Veteran documentary filmmaker Fredric Golding has writing, directing and producing credits for the next installment.
* Marg Helgenberger ("CSI") has joined the cast of SYNERGY for the Weitz brothers and Universal Pictures. Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, Selma Blair, Clark Gregg, Philip Baker Hall and David Paymer also star. Helgenberger will play the wife of Dennis Quaid's character and mother to Johansson's character. Shooting starts March 15. Paul Weitz will direct from his own script, with Chris Weitz handling producing chores.
* Johnny Depp is in talks to star in Universal's adaptation of the Jean-Dominique Bauby autobiography THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY for director Julian Schnabel (BEFORE NIGHT FALLS). Bauby, the editor of Elle France, suffered a stroke that left his body completely paralyzed, except for his left eye, while his mind remained unaffected. Kennedy-Marshall is producing, and Ron Harwood (THE PIANIST) wrote the script. Despite his affliction, suffered in 1995 when he was 43, Bauby used his eye to blink out a memoir, letter by letter, then died two days after it was published. The book describes his pre-stroke life, what it was like to be a prisoner inside his useless body and imagined journeys to exotic places he'd never visited.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Luis Llosa (THE SPECIALIST) will direct an adaptation of Mario Vargas Llosa's hypnotic novel LA FIESTA DEL CHIVO (THE FEAST OF THE GOAT) for producer Andres Vicente Gomez. John Hurt, Tomas Milian (TRAFFIC) and Jordi Molla (BLOW) will star.
* Jesse Dylan (AMERICAN WEDDING) will take over the directing chores of Universal's soccer comedy KICKING & SCREAMING for Marco Schnabel. Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall star. No reason was given for the switch.
* Lisandro Alonso is directing the drama LOS MUERTOS, the follow-up to LA LIBERTAD, his minimalist tale of a woodcutter. Penned by Alonso, the film is about an old man who sets out to find his family after spending half his life in prison.
* Simon Wincer (FREE WILLY) will direct CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW, an Austrailian project inspired by a key character in THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER. Patrick Edgeworth wrote the script and production is expected to begin early next year. Jack Thompson portrayed Clancy, a crack horseman, in the SNOWY RIVER pic based on the poem by "Banjo" Paterson.
* Tim Talbott will write a feature film to be produced by Maverick Films based on the real-life events surrounding the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. It follows the infamous experiment conducted by professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University to explore the psychology of evil by recruiting 12 college students to role-play prison guards and inmates. Zimbardo's experiment was discontinued when the participants began taking on their roles with harrowing results.
* Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT) will adapt and direct FUEL INJECTED DREAMS, based on the rock 'n' roll novel by James Robert Baker, for FilmEngine. Although the book is billed as a novel, it's been reported that it is loosely based on the life of Phil Spector.
* Michael Patrick King will write and direct a SEX AND THE CITY film for HBO with stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis and Kim Cattrall in negotiations to star.
* Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (2 FAST 2 FURIOUS, CATCH THAT KID) will remake the Belgian cop thriller AN HONEST TRADESMAN for Focus Features. Brandt will make his directing debut on the pic, Haas will produce, with both penning the script. The story centers on the psychological battle between a drug kingpin and police investigators after a brutal murder. In the course of the interrogation, the story emerges of how a mild-mannered tax inspector morphed into a ruthless crime figure.
* Kevin Smith will write and direct THE GREEN HORNET, based on the comic book/radio serial/TV character, for Miramax. Smith expects to have a script ready in time to begin shooting by late summer.
* Crew working on pre-production for John Madden's TULIP FEVER have been told the project could shutter at the end of this week, unless the producers get a positive signal from the British government about the status of its tax financing deal. Jude Law and Keira Knightley are set to star in the pic, which is co-financed by DreamWorks and Miramax with tax fund Inside Track putting up a third of the budget. The project is due to start principal photography April 23.
* Peter Segal (ANGER MANAGEMENT, 50 FIRST DATES) has agreed to direct Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Snoop Dogg in the remake of THE LONGEST YARD, for Paramount and Sony. Production is set to begin in June from a script by Sheldon Turner.
* Scott B. Smith (A SIMPLE PLAN) will update the 1961 Charlton Heston starrer EL CID for MGM Pictures. Martin Campbell is in talks to direct. Epic follows Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar -- "El Cid" to his soldiers -- as he seeks to rid 11th-century Spain of its Moorish invaders.
* Mark Waters (FREAKY FRIDAY) is in talks to direct WILL SEBASTIAN for Warner Bros. and 1492 Pictures. Written by David Hubbard, the story follows a guy who lives his life out of sequence and the woman with whom he's destined to fall in love.
* Raoul Peck will write, direct and co-executive produce ...SOMETIMES IN APRIL for HBO Films about Rwandan genocide, starring Idris Elba, Oris Erhuero and Debra Winger.
* Steve Carr (DADDY DAY CARE) is set to direct Martin Lawrence in RAGE CONTROL for 20th Century Fox and the Robert Simonds Co. Shooting is set for April. It's about a legendary college basketball coach who, after a public meltdown, is forced to coach a losing junior varsity team.
* Armand Mastroianni is directing THE CELESTINE PROPHECY, starring Sarah Wayne Callies and Matthew Settle, based on James Redfield's New Age novel. The adaptation was penned by Redfield with Barnet Bain.
* Aku Louhimies (THE RESTLESS, LOVERS AND LEAVERS) will helm the Finland-set pic PAHA MAA (FROZEN LAND), penned by Paavo Kouki about characters who are all connected by a counterfeit e100 bill.
* Terrence Malick will direct CHE, a biopic that will star Benicio Del Toro as Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Malick also wrote the script. The film is produced by River Road Entertainment, VIP/Rising Star, Morena Films, Laura Bickford, Steven Soderbergh and Del Toro. The film is scheduled for a four-month South American shoot to begin in July. Javier Bardem is planning to take a supporting role in the pic. Malick brings a certain firsthand experience to the project. When the Bolivian army murdered the 39-year-old Guevara in 1967, Malick was in the country to write a piece on Guevara's guerrillas for the New Yorker. Malick's pic will focus on the last part of Guevara's life.
* Salma Hayek is writing THE MAN IN THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET as a vehicle in which to topline and/or direct. The project will be produced by Anhelo Prods. Comedy deals with a Mexican woman married to an American drug dealer who is being investigated by a retired cop, himself a drug addict. Pic will shoot in Mexico and Los Angeles next fall.
* Scott Kosar (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) will write the remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR for MGM, Platinum Dunes and Dimension Films. Production is expected to begin by May or June.
* Jane Anderson (HBO's NORMAL) will helm her adaptation of THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO for Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers at DreamWorks. Pic is based on the memoir by Terry Ryan about being the sixth child of Evelyn Ryan, a Midwestern housewife and composer of ad jingles for products such as Dial soap and Kleenex. In the 1950s and '60s, the elder Ryan rescued her family from debt by entering contests for ad slogans sponsored by consumer productproduct companies. Her next directing project is THE WIFE, based on the novel by Meg Wolitzer, for Fine Line, which she is also adapting.
* Peter Buchman will adapt Fox 2000's ERAGON, the Christopher Paolini-penned best-selling fantasy novel about a farm boy whose discovery of a dragon egg leads him to become a knight and battle an evil king.
* Rob Bowman (X-FILES) is in negotations with Fox/Regency to direct ELEKTRA, a DAREDEVIL spinoff that will star Jennifer Garner, to shoot in May. Horseshoe Bay is producing with Marvel's Avi Arad. Zak Penn wrote the script. The plot will draw heavily from the graphic novels THE ELEKTRA ASSASSIN and THE ELEKTRA SAGA, as she battles the Hand, an organization of killers that trained her and then betrayed her. One major character will be Stick, a martial arts trainer who is a venerable Marvel Comics figure.
* Angela Robinson (upcoming D.E.B.S.) will direct the remake of HERBIE THE LOVE BUG for Disney and the Robert Simonds Co. Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant have rewritten the script.
* Producer/director Uwe Boll will turn German game developer Crytek's first-person shooter PC game FAR CRY into a horror movie that is planned to shoot next year.
* Peter Cattaneo (THE FULL MONTY) is set to direct the Austrailian rite-of-passage tale POBBY AND DINGAN for Renaissance Films. Shooting is scheduled for July in Australia. The story centers on the redemption of a family and a community through two children's belief in the unseen. Screenplay was adapted from Ben Rice's novella of the same title by Cattaneo, Rice and Phil Traill.
* Luke Greenfield (THE GIRL NEXT DOOR) will develop and possibly direct SPEED DATING for 20th Century Fox. Based on a treatment by Beth Buck and Courtney Booth, project's inspiration is the current craze marketed by companies like Hurry Date, Pre-Dating and QuickDate that promise their customers the equivalent of more than two dozen dates in less than two hours. In the film, the lead character quickly finds the woman of his dreams but must contend with the event's sleazebag organizer who views the biz as a scam that allows him to hit on hot chicks.
* Jon Favreau is in talks to direct ZATHURA, the follow-up to JUMANJI, at Columbia Pictures. The sequel, based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg, will be set within the confines of an intergalactic board game. David Koepp penned the script.
* Director McG is attached to Universal Pictures' Evel Knievel biopic PURE EVEL. Andrew Walker (SE7EN) will pen a new draft of the script.
* New Line Cinema picked up the William Tepper script MEN DON'T QUIT for a possible vehicle to star Ray Romano and Kevin James. Romano and James will play friends who team as door-to-door salesman of bulk quantities of frozen meat. The boys are in a slump, and if they don't move some beef on this particular day, they're dead meat.
* Michael Showalter will write/direct/star in THE BAXTER, a contemporary romantic comedy in the classic screwball vein co-starring Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Williams and Justin Theroux, for IFC Entertainment. A quirky homage to the 1950s comedies of Howard Hawks, the film chronicles the anxiety-ridden two weeks leading to the marriage of Elliot Sherman, who is the quintessential "Baxter" -- the nice guy who never gets the girl. Shooting begins in March.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* GreeneStreet Films is working on its first nonfiction feature, ONCE IN A LIFETIME to be produced by John Battsek. The project will follow the rise and fall of 1970s pro soccer team the New York Cosmos. The film also will explore New York in that famously decadent and creative era and the culture of American celebrity
* Producer Sevy Ali of Asian Pictures Intl. is developing WHITE NOISE, a love story set against the backdrop of the Bollywood film industry. He is also working with director/producer Mahesh Bhatt on the first Indian-Pakistani feature, an epic tale of valor and love set against the turmoil of India's partition in 1947, as well as an untitled Bollywood pic starring Pakistani superstar Meera. Bhatt will script and co-produce, with filming expected to start in April.
* 20th Century Fox and James Cameron's Fox-based Lightstorm Entertainment have optioned screen rights to GHOSTS OF VESUVIUS, an upcoming HarperCollins book by Charles Pellegrino about the volcanic eruption that leveled Pompeii in 79 A.D.A.D. Cameron will produce but has yet to decide on whether he will direct the fictional look at Pompeii and its destruction that will be culled from Pelligrino's nonfiction book. The volcano was estimated to have unleashed a lethal blast several times more powerful than the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* The Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) will host an exciting Wine Tasting & Silent Auction on March 8, 2004 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at The Banyan Bar & Grille at The Addison in Boca Raton. For more info, visit http://www.pbifilmfest.org
* The Florida Film Festival announces the Opening Night Film and opening weekend special guest for the 2004 event. This year's festival takes place March 5-14, 2004 in Orlando, Florida. The 10-day festival highlights the best in American independent and international film. The 2004 Florida Film Festival will open Friday, March 5 at 7:00 pm when Sterling Vineyards presents Sterling Salutes the Silver Screen with Campbell Scott's OFF THE MAP at Enzian Theater. Visit http://www.floridafilmfestival.org for details.
* Yasuaki Nakajima's AFTER THE APOCALYPSE has been invited to have its World Premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in the Emerging Visions section of in 2004 (March 12-20). It's a is a futuristic drama about five survivors trying to make sense of a New World after a devastating urban catastrophe challenges their basic human needs. Log on to the film's official website at http://www.aftertheapocalypse.com
* The Telluride Indie Fest is pleased to announce their Official "Call For Entries" into Telluride IndieFest 2004 (September 2 - 5)! The Offical "Call For Entries" deadline is: April 30 (2004). For complete information - and online entry forms - please go to: http://tellurideindiefest.com
* There will be a weeklong celebration of films made inside West Virginia by West Virginians when New York City will have its first opportunity to explore ?darkest Appalachia.? The series will consist of 15 films, dating between 1977 and 2003. Beginning with NYC filmmaker Karen Kramer?s first film, THE JOLO SERPENT HANDLERS (1977) and concluding with Robert Gates? newest film on the effects of mountaintop mining, MUCKED (2003), a wide range of good and of evil will be shown. Gates' film IN MEMORY OF THE LAND AND PEOPLE will also be shown. The film series begins on Wednesday, March 24 at the Pioneer Theater in the East Village and concludes on Tuesday, March 30th. For more info, email fesenms@wvlc.lib.wv.us
