Father Geek reporting in with Elston Gunn's regular retro report that reviews the different bits of confirmed news out of marvelous Hollywoodland that just may have tiptoed past you during the course of the past busy work-week. So check it all out below... your favorite writer-director-actor may have landed that incredible dream deal you've been waiting for, orrrr been attached to that dog-awful nightmare of a project you've been living in terror of... at any rate they're all chronicled right here at AICN in...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Diane Keaton will next star in MAD MONEY, a remake of the British comedy HOT MONEY. Callie Khouri directs.
* Kal Penn (MALIBU'S MOST WANTED) joins Ashton Kutcher in A LOT LIKE LOVE.
* Maz Jobrani (13 GOING ON 30) and Tsai Chin will play supporting roles in THE INTERPRETER for director Sydney Pollack.
* Keith Robinson ("American Dreams") grabbed a role in FAT ALBERT.
* Jon Abrahams (MEET THE PARENTS) has been cast in HOUSE OF WAX.
* Regina Hall and Brooke D'Orsay have been added to the cast of Anthony Anderson and Jay Mohr.
* Scott Michael Campbell joins BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN for Ang Lee.
* Miguel Ferrer has been cast alongside Samuel Jackson and Eugene Levy in THE MAN.
* Eddie Cahill, Shea Whigham and Michael Angarano join LORDS OF DOGTOWN.
* Bruce McGill joins CINDERELLA MAN, starring Russell Crowe, for director Ron Howard.
* Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard & Bryce Wilson join the cast of BEAUTY SHOP.
* James Gartner will direct Ben Affleck in the 1960s-set basketball pic GLORY ROAD.
* Randy Quaid joins John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton and Connie Nielsen in THE ICE HARVEST.
* Simon Baker joins Naomi Watts in THE RING 2.
* Felicity Huffman and David Zegers will star in the indie pic TRANSAMERICA.
* Eddie Izzard joins the cast of John Turturro's ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES.
* Kip Pardue will star in indie pic LOGGERHEADS, which revolves around three interweaving tales in North Carolina.
* Will Ferrell may star in FLY ON THE WALL about down-on-his-luck lawyer whose life starts to take a turn for the better after he innocently saves the life of a fly.
* John Cleese and Tim Curry have joined Ewan McGregor, Ben Kingsley, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Everett, Hugh Laurie, John Hurt and Ricky Gervais as part of the voice cast of Vanguard Animation's VALIANT.
* Blake Lively and Jenna Boyd will star in SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS.
* Robert Loggia, Angie Harmon, Colm Feore and John Heard have joined Christian Slater and Selma Blair in the independent thriller THE DEAL.
* Woody Harrelson will replace James Woods in THE BIG WHITE.
* John Malkovich will play Humma Kavula in THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.
* Will Smith is gearing up to play Dr. S. Allen Counter, a Harvard professor and professional explorer.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Justin Lin (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW) is developing the Naval Academy-set boxing pic ANNAPOLIS for Disney.
* Amy B. Harris ("Sex and the City") will write SWITCHED about twin separated at birth who are reunited at 18.
* Irwin Winkler will direct the upcoming novel MAN ON THIRD, about two brothers: a scientist and a baseball player.
* Landscape Entertainment has set up two comedies at New Line Cinema: MAN IN UNIFORM, by Michael Galvin & Peter Speakman, and LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR abouta marketing consultant seeks a teen who will help her predict what's hot; she finds her perfect specimen in a man who lives in his parents' basement. Larry Doyle ("The Simpsons") scripted the latter.
* Andrew Davis (HOLES) will direct Disney's THE GUARDIAN.
* David Auburn (PROOF) will write the epic WARRIOR QUEEN about the Celtic queen Boudicca and her uprising against the Romans occupying Britain in the first century A.D.
* James Foley will helm the Jim Uhls-scripted HARD HEARTS about a bounty hunting couple who are planning their wedding.
* Bobby Florsheim and Josh Stolberg's THE PASSION OF THE ARK was picked up by Columbia. It's a modern-day tale of an unmarried man approached by God to build an ark to save the world from a second flood.
* Marcus Nispel (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) is developing the sci-fi SUBTERRANEAN about what is discovered in a subterranean area of New York and how it could impact mankind.
* Jim Fall (LIZZIE MCGUIRE MOVIE) will direct JUPITER'S MOM about a successful city girl who goes to visit her freespirited younger sister in the country but finds herself stuck taking care of her 3-year-old nephew Jupiter.
* Universal picked up the comedy pitch THE DREAM FACTORY by Daniel Robert Cohn about how dreams during sleep can affect peoples' lives.
* Director Katja von Garnier, producer Lydia Dean Pilcher and screenwriter Sally Robinson (all 3 from IRON JAWED ANGELS) will reteam on Alice Hoffman's THE PROBABLE FUTURE.
* Mark Friedman is writing the script for Disney's THE WIND AND THE WILLOWS, based on the Kenneth Grahame book.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Sony options Richard Clarke's AGAINST ALL ENEMIES.
* Intermedia and DreamWorks are developing SKELETONS OF THE SAHARA, based on the nonfiction book by Dean H. King about American sailors shipwrecked in Africa in the 19th century.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* Travesty Prods.' SEEKING SALVATION will screen at The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival April 25 at 9:15 PM and April 26 at 2:00 PM. Also, the company's EDGE CODES will screen at the Hong Kong International Film Festival April 21. For more info, visit http://www.travestyproductions.com
* Petition for Quentin Tarantino to direct an adaptation of CASINO ROYALE is online at http://www.petitiononline.com/bond0408/ It's rumored that the producers have been talking about hiring Heath Ledger or Eric Bana to play James Bond in a XXX-style, videogame Bond film without Brosnan or Tarantino.
The petition is designed to let Eon Productionsl know that the fans don't want a "bad, videogame-style Bond film, but a quality Tarantino one in the spirit of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE."
