Father Geek here with all the latest movie news from our man in Tinseltown Elston Gunn...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Nick Chinlund (TEARS OF THE SUN) joins Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta Jones and Rufus Sewell in THE LEGEND OF ZORRO for director Martin Campbell. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman scripted.

* Dakota Fanning will play Tom Cruise's daughter in Steven Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS.

* Nicky Hilton joins her sister, Paris, in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S PLEDGE THIS, starring Simon Rex, Alexis Thorpe, Randy Spelling, Sarai Howard, Paula Garces and Sarah Carter.

* German comedian Tom Gerhardt ("Hausmeister Krause") will play the title role in SIEGFRIED, Constantin Film's spoof based on the ancient Nibelungen saga. Siegfried is a fearless dragon slayer who wins the heart of Teutonic beauty Kriemhild. Sven Unterwaldt is directing from a script by Gerhardt and veteran writer-producer Herman Weigel.

* Jeremy Piven has joined Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo in the Morgan Creek production TWO FOR THE MONEY for director D.J. Caruso. Dan Gilroy wrote the script about a star college football player who is at the top of his sport until he blows out his knee during a game, forcing him to choose a new profession. He winds up getting into the sports gambling business only to be recruited by a guy who runs one of the best sports-booking operations in the country.

* Eddie Murphy is starring in and likely producing an untitled comedy for DreamWorks. Josh Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia have been hired to write the pic. Murphy brought the idea, described as a BLAZING SADDLES-like Western comedy, to the studio.

* Jenna Elfman and Samantha Mathis are starring in the romantic drama TOUCHED for writer/director Timothy Scott Bogart. It's the story of a man who wakes from a coma without his sense of touch and the nurse who helps save him.

* KaDee Strickland, (ANACONDAS) and Ione Skye will star opposite Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon in FEVER PITCH, based on Nick Hornby's book, for Fox 2000 and the Farrelly brothers.

* Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy will star in Wes Craven's DreamWorks thriller RED EYE about a woman held captive by a stranger on an airliner.

* Dennis Hopper has signed on to star in indie feature MEM-O-RE for 3210 Films. Hopper will play a retired doctor and the colleague of a medical researcher who taps into the genetically stored memories of a killer. Bennett Davlin will direct pic, which is being produced by Jesse Newhouse and Anthony Badalucco.

* Jeff Bridges, Janet McTeer, Brendan Fletcher (FREDDY VS. JASON), Jennifer Tilly and 9-year-old Jodelle Ferland will join the cast of Terry Gilliam's TIDELAND, adapted from Mitch Cullin's Southern gothic novel about a girl who escapes from the grim reality of her life into a world of fantasy, where she is accompanied on her adventures by four disembodied doll heads.

* Melissa George ("Alias") will join Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen in Miramax's DERAILED. Stuart Beattie penned the script, based on the novel of the same name by James Siegel about a man who misses his morning train, changing his life for the worse. Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing, and Mikael Hafstrom is directing the thriller.

* Angie Harmon is joining Tea Leoni and Jim Carrey in Columbia Pictures' FUN WITH DICK AND JANE for director Dean Parisot.

* Elisabeth Shue will star in John Gatins' DREAMER for DreamWorks, Hyde Park and Tollin/Robbins Prods. Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson and Freddy Rodriguez also star. Shooting starts this month on the project. The film will follow the story of a Kentucky horse trainer and his daughter, who rescue a horse with a broken leg. The two then help nurse the animal back to health and take it to race in the Breeders' Cup.

* Joan Plowright will star in Dan Ireland's low-budget pic MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT. Based on English author Elizabeth Taylor's 1971 novel, PALFRE is the story of an elderly woman who checks herself into a retirement hotel after her husband dies. When her family fails to visit, she befriends a young writer who is willing to pose as her grandson. Ruth Sacks adapted the novel. Anna Massey, Robert Lang and Zoe Tapper also star.

* John Leguizamo and Vanessa Bauche (AMORES PERROS) are attached to star in the docudrama TLATELOLCO for Green Dog Films about the infamous 1968 massacre of students in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, on the eve of the Mexico City Olympics. This project rivals Alfonso Cuaron's MEXICO '68.

* Vincent Gallo will star in Abel Ferrara's eclectic Bible-themed drama MARY, playing two roles in the pic, one of them the star-director of a controversial film on the life of Christ. The project is centered on the character of a movie star who becomes obsessed with Mary Magdalene after playing the follower of Christ and former prostitute. Sarah Polley is in talks to play the female lead. Script is by Ferrara and Simone Lageoles (R XMAS). Principal photography is scheduled to start in October in Rome, before moving to Jerusalem and New York.

* Ron Livingston is in talks to star in RELATIVE STRANGERS for director Greg Glienna. The story centers on an uptight professional who sets out to meet his biological parents only to discover that they are from the wrong side of the trailer park.

* Edie Falco, Camilla Belle, Shawn Ashmore and Martin Donovan will join Elisha Cuthbert in the indie dramatic thriller DOT for director Jamie Babbit and Burnt Orange Prods. Shooting starts this month. It's about an orphaned teenager sent to live with her godparents and their daughter. Unable to hear or speak, Dot's alienated existence takes a disturbing turn when she uncovers the secrets of her new family.

* Penelope Cruz has joined Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rhys Ifans, Ian Holm, Ben Chaplin, Damian Lewis and Harriet Walters in CHROMOPHOBIA, a psychological drama set in contemporary London, written and directed by Martha Fienne (ONEGIN). Probing the dilemmas of modern London life, where the old-fashioned virtues of honesty and loyalty are replaced by the new morality of success and celebrity, it's the story of a bourgeois family slowly coming apart at the seams.

* Angela Bassett and Keith David have been added to the cast of Regency Enterprise's MR. AND MRS. SMITH near the end of production shooting. Bassett is playing the boss of Brad Pitt's character while David is boss to Angelina Jolie's character.

* Toni Collette will star in LIKE MINDS for writer/director Gregory Read about a forensic psychologist appointed by police to determine whether there's enough evidence to lay murder charges against a 16-year-old boy accused of the shotgun death of a school mate.

* Heath Ledger will appear alongside Geoffrey Rush and rising star Abbie Cornish (SOMERSAULT) in CANDY, the saga of two lovers who embark on a journey of lust, addiction and self-destruction. Luke Davies adapted screenplay from his bestselling novel. It will be helmed by stage director Neil Armfield.

* Dave Chappelle is teaming up with director Michel Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) to produce and star in an untitled music/comedy feature to be directed by Gondry. Chapelle will emcee the project and do standup and scripted comedy. Pic will have a documentary aspect to it with some of the musical and comedy elements to be filmed live from the musical and comedy event that will take place in New York. Pic will start shooting later this month on location in Brooklyn.

* Robin Wright Penn has signed to star in Jeff Stanzler's untitled drama for InDigEnt. Pic is about an Arab cab driver who picks up a troubled professional woman with unexpected results. Sandra Oh co-stars in the pic, which is set against the anxieties and fears of post-9/11 America. Production is underway in New York.

* Johnny Knoxville will play Luke Duke opposite Seann William Scott's Bo Duke in THE DUKES OF HAZZARD for director Jay Chandrasekhar (BROKEN LIZARD'S CLUB DREAD) and Warner Bros./Village Roadshow. Jessica Simpson has screen tested for the role of Daisy Duke, but no deal is in place yet. Adaptation will be set in present day, but the General Lee is expected to be the same iconic orange car that was seen in the series. The Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe -- comprising Erik Stolhanske, Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Kevin Heffernan -- wrote the pic.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Kevin Smith is set to direct his own screenplay of THE PASSION OF THE CLERKS, a sequel to 1994's CLERKS, for Miramax and his View Askew Films. The sequel was written for the stars of the original film, Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson. Smith also will make an appearance with longtime sidekick Jason Mewes. Shooting begins in January.

* Michael Cuesta (L.I.E.) will direct 12 AND HOLDING for Serenade Films. Based on Anthony Cipriano's script, pic stars Linus Roache, Annabella Sciorra, Jeremy RennerJeremy Renner, Jayne Atkinson, Tom McGowan and Marcia DeBonis in the story of the accidental murder of a 12-year-old boy and the effect his death has on his three best friends and their families in a suburban town.

* Mark Waters will direct HENRY'S LIST OF WRONGS for New Line Cinema, while Harley Peyton has been tapped to rewrite it. It tells the story of a shy boy who gets dumped at the prom, with the incident shaping his life as he grows up to be a ruthless corporate magnate. Years later, when he discovers the girl who dumped him was terminally ill and wanted to spare his feelings, he sets out to rectify his own malicious behavior toward others.

* Dean Georgaris will script the thriller AREA 51, based on the popular arcade game, for Paramount Pictures and producer Christine Peters. The game has players assume the role of a specialist handling hazardous materials investigating a distress signal from Area 51, where a viral outbreak shuts down the research facility.

* Columbia Pictures has picked up OUTSOURCED, a comedy pitch from Timothy Dowling with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson attached to star. Eric Gold is producing through his Mosaic Media Group. The story focuses on an American factory that is shut down and moved to Mexico and two men from the production line who venture south of the border to get their old jobs back.

* Alan Shapiro (THE CRUSH) is in talks to direct THE NEW GIRL from his own script for Gold Circle Films. The project is described as a thriller about a teenage girl who is transformed from an ugly duckling to a swan only to encounter a nightmarish underside to her dream.

* Revolution Studios has picked up the pitch CLASS ACT, by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman, with Underground Films in final talks to produce. Project tells the true story of Tierney Cahill, a sixth-grade teacher from Reno, who in an attempt to educate her students on the political process and inspire her civics class, took on a challenge by her students and ran for Nevada's 2nd Congressional District seat in 2000. Cahill's students ended up running her campaign.

* Roberto Benigni is directing LA TIGRE E LA NEVE (THE TIGER AND THE SNOW), a comedy about a love-struck Italian poet in Iraq at the outset of last year's American-led invasion. He stars with his wife, Nicoletta Braschi, and Jean Reno.

* Ascendant Pictures has picked up the spec GROUNDED from writer Paul Davidson. It's the story of an intergalactic dictator who goes undercover as a high school science teacher after crash-landing in Nebraska.

* Gina Prince-Bythewood (LOVE & BASKETBALL) will rewrite and direct Fox 2000's I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE based on the Wally Lamb novel. The novel spans several generations and focuses on identical twins, one a paranoid schizophrenic and the other a normal house painter who is trying to get his brother released from an asylum. The story follows their family history, what led to the illness and the twins' turbulent relationship.

* Davis-Panzer Prods. and Imagi Intl. are developing a HIGHLANDER animated feature for release in spring 2006. The project, which will be animated through Madhouse of Japan (TOKYO GODFATHERS) will be written by David Abramowitz.

* Brent Forrester is being tapped to adapt THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES for director Mark Waters, Nickelodeon Movies, Atmosphere Entertainment MM and the Gotham Group.

* Filmmaker Robert Greenwald (OUTFOXED) is planning a feature film titled BUD & BILL that will explore the unlikely friendship between the father of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and the father of one of the victims in the April 1995 attack.

* Italian director Marco Tullio Giordana (BEST OF YOUTH) will return behind camera to shoot the Italy-set coming-of-age drama QUANDO SEI NATO NON PUOI PIU NASCONDERTI (ONCE YOU'RE BORN YOU JUST CAN'T HIDE). Alessio Boni and Manuela Cescon will star. Pic is based on a book by writer and journalist Maria Pace Ottieri, an expert on the plight of immigrants in Italy.

* Exodus Film Group is working on the CGI-animated comedy IGOR, written by Chris McKenna, about a hunchbacked lab assistant who has big dreams of becoming a mad scientist and winning the first place prize at the annual Evil Science Fair. Pic is intended as a franchise property for the company, which expects to develop merchandising, videogame and TV spinoffs from the feature. The CGI animation will be produced via Exodus' team, ElectroAge. Some 50-75 animators are expected to work on the pic, which is in the character development stage; basic animation is expected to start at the end of this year.

* Lisa Loomer will rewrite the Halle Berry starrer NAPPILY EVER AFTER for Universal and producer Marc Platt. Patricia Cardoso is set to direct. The story, based on Trisha Thomas' novel, follows a black woman's journey to self-discovery. On an impulse, the main character -- an advertising exec tired of fussing with her long and processed straight hair -- shaves it off and kicks out her commitment-phobic boyfriend. Discovering a newfound freedom, she is unprepared for how friends and co-workers react to her new hairdo and subsequent new life.

* Richard Linklater will direct THE BAD NEWS BEARS for Paramount. Billy Bob Thornton is set to star in the remake of the 1976 Walter Matthau feature about a group of Little League misfits who are transformed into a winning team. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (BAD SANTA) wrote the new screenplay.

* Chris Koch is set to helm RIDE ALONG for New Line and MBST Entertainment. It's an action comedy about a risk-averse teacher who plans to marry the girl of his dreams but first has to accompany his overprotective future brother-in-law, a tough cop, on a dangerous ride-along.

* Warner Bros. has picked up remake rights to HAWAII FIVE-O with George Nolfi (OCEAN'S TWELVE) writing the script. George Litto, who was the agent of series creator Leonard Freeman, will produce the film.

* Paramount snapped up a feature pitch by husband-wife team Lisa Addario and Joey Syracuse and setting up the project at Vincent Newman Entertainment. Story centers on two intensely competitive rivals on the women's beach volleyball tour who must learn to combine their vastly different playing styles to win back their honor.

* Robert and Michelle King have come onboard to adapt sci-fi thriller COSMONAUT for Warner Bros. Based on the bestselling Australian novel by Peter McAllister, the project tells the story of the first murder in space aboard the Intl. Space Station.

* Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, daughter of filmmaker Martin, will direct the screen adaptation of Sara Gran's SATURN'S RETURN TO NEW YORK for new indie film co. Bold Films. Story is about a daughter estranged from her terminally ill mother. Film will start casting next month and is slated for a late fall/early winter start.

* Andrzej Bartkowiak (CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE, ROMEO MUST DIE) is replacing Enda McCallion in the director's chair on the video game adaptation DOOM. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and John Wells are producing for Universal.

* Michael Caton-Jones is in negotiations to direct Sharon Stone in BASIC INSTINCT 2, the sequel to the 1992 murder mysterym for MGM and C-2.

* Radar Pictures has optioned Esquire senior editor A.J. Jacobs' upcoming book THE KNOW-IT-ALL: ONE MAN'S HUMBLE QUEST TO BECOME THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD, which Barry Sonnenfeld will direct and produce. Book is the real story of Jacobs' decision to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in an effort to deal with post-college intellectual decay, impending fatherhood and the fear of never amounting to anything extraordinary. The movie version will be a romantic comedy that centers on Jacobs' relationship with his wife, which is tried by Jacobs' obsessive hobby.

* Jim Sheridan has signed on to direct IKIRU, the DreamWorks remake of the 1952 Akira Kurosawa film that is being developed as a potential starring vehicle for Tom Hanks. The updated drama has been scripted by author Richard Price. Sheridan will work with the writer to hone his script and will shoot the project in New York.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* An injury Charlize Theron suffered on the set of Paramount Pictures/MTV Films' AEON FLUX has forced production to shut down on the sci-fi action pic for an indefinite number of weeks.

* Romano/Shane Prods. has optioned SOUL SURFER: A TRUE STORY OF FAITH, FAMILY AND FIGHTING TO GET BACK ON THE BOARD, the upcoming memoir from competitive teen surfer and shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton.

* Producers Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter have licensed Aftermath, a new line of comicbooks from publisher Devil's Due. They're planning to adapt the titles, set in a self-contained universe, for film, TV and vidgames. Aftermath features several new characters created by veteran comicbook talents, including BLADE OF KUMORI, DEFEX, BREAKDOWN and INFANTRY.

* Nordisk Film has picked up the rights to produce Danish fantasy writer Lene Kaarberbol's kids bestseller THE SHAMER'S DAUGHTER.

* Sony Pictures has moved the release date for XXX: STATE OF THE UNION to April 29 from May 13. On its new date, XXX goes up against New Line's THE WEDDING CRASHERS and Warner Bros.' HOUSE OF WAX. Universal's Will Ferrell soccer laffer KICKING AND SCREAMING is the only wide release skedded for the second week of May. Sony has also moved its still untitled Bernie Mac/Ashton Kutcher laffer out of the traditional summer corridor to March 18, a week before Easter, off its original June 3 date. Also slated for March 18 is CINDERELLA MAN, MISS CONGENIALITY 2, Disney's ICE PRINCESS and Fox Searchlight's Woody Allen pic MELINDA AND MELINDA.

GUNN SHOTS

(NOT from the trades)

* Screenwriting Expo 3 is back at the Los Angeles Convention Center, November 5-7, with 100 more events and speakers than last year (over 350 events total!). For more info, visit http://www.screenwritingexpo.com

* DreamWorks Animation credits mental ray (r) for helping it achieve the extremely high visual target for its new computer animated comedy, "Shark Tale", which premieres in the historic Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy on September 10th, 2004. For more info, visit http://www.mentalimages.com

* Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS is filming in New York City from mid-November to the end of the year.

* Fangoria's THE LAST HORROR MOVIE will screen in competition at the Malibu Film Festival being held at the Monica 4 Plex (1332 2nd Street, Santa Monica, CA). LAST HORROR will unspool on Sunday September 19th at 9 pm. Log on to http://www.malibufilmfestival.com for more info. An east side screening of LAST HORROR will take place at the SILVERLAKE FILM FESTIVAL being held at the Arclight Cinemas (6360 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA). LAST HORROR will unspool on Tuesday, September 28th at 5.30 pm. Log on to http://www.silverlakefilmfestival.org for more info.

Until next week...

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com