Hi, there
Well, guess it's time to forget about this grain of salt: Many French
(and Dansk websites!!) newspapers are having some stories printed
today about the announcement by Kidman herself at the latest Venice
film festival on her project with Wong Kar Wai. She added that it will
be filmed in New York by late spring 2005. Does that mean that the
storyline supposed to be in 1930's Shanghai was wrong ?
Til 'next...
Grozilla®
Now on with...
THE WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Dania Ramirez (SHE HATE ME, FAT ALBERT) is in talks to star opposite
Denzel Washington and Benicio Del Toro in AMERICAN GANGSTER (previously
known as TRU BLU) for producer Brian Grazer and director Antoine Fuqua. It's
based on a New York Magazine article by Mark Jacobson that Steve Zaillian
adapted for the screen. The story centers on real-life Harlem drug lord
Frank Lucas, who rose to power in the early 1970s by smuggling heroin into
the United States in the caskets of soldiers killed in Vietnam. After
detective Richie Roberts catches up with him, Lucas cooperates with drug
enforcement officials and aids Roberts in a dragnet operation. Ramirez would
play a former Miss Puerto Rico who is the wife of Washington's character.
* Yusuke Santa Maria will star in Japan's NEGOTIATOR MASHITA based on the
BAYSIDE SHAKEDOWN franchise. Shooting begins in Ocotober.
* D.L. Hughley stars in an untitled prison drama directed by Charles
Winkler. Written by Donald Martin, pic is the story of a high-school teacher
who must take his only job offer: teaching at a provisional school inside a
prison. Pic also stars George Stanford Brown, Barry Shabaka Henley and Jose
Pablo Cantillo.
* Winona Ryder will reunite with director Michael Lehmann (HEATHERS) on the
indie comedy MARY WARNER. Ryder will play a slacker actress who trips her
way through a series of life-changing misadventures after eating a batch of
marijuana-laced brownies made by her stoner roommate. The script was written
by actor Dylan Haggerty.
* Gale Harold ("Queer as Folk") will join Christine Baranski, Margaret Cho
and Roger Rees in B.D. Wong's directorial debut SOCIAL GRACE. Fay Ann Lee
wrote the script and will star in the romantic comedy about the cultural
complications that occur when an Asian-American woman realizes her
Cinderella fantasy by dating one of New York's most eligible blue-blood
bachelors.
* Brian Dennehy, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee, John Leguizamo, Brad
Renfro, Giovanni Ribisi and Lesley Ann Warren have joined the cast of 10th &
WOLF, also starring James Marsden and Piper Perabo. Inspired by a true story
that took place in Philadelphia from the late 1980s to early '90s, pic was
penned and will be directed by Bobby Moresco; story is by Chazz Palminteri
and undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone (DONNIE BRASCO).
* Jessica Simpson has been cast as Daisy Duke in Warner Bros. Pictures and
Village Roadshow's THE DUKES OF HAZZARD. Seann William Scott and Johnny
Knoxville already had been cast as Bo and Luke Duke, respectively, for
director Jay Chandrasekhar. John O'Brien (STARSKY & HUTCH) has written the
script with additional writing to be done by comedy troupe Broken Lizard.
* Maria Menounos ("Entertainment Tonight") nabbed a role in 20th Century
Fox's FANTASTIC FOUR for director Tim Story. Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis,
Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd and Julian McMahon also star.
* Karl Urban (THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) will star in DOOM for Universal
Pictures. The video game adaptation is being directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak,
with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and John Wells producing from a script by Dave
Callaham. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is also circling the pic.
* Uma Thurman has replaced Sandra Bullock in PRIME for director Ben Younger.
Annie Parisse has joined the cast to play Katherine, the best buddy of
Thurman's character. Thurman plays a woman who falls in love with the son,
played by Bran Greenberg, of her therapist, played by Meryl Streep.
* Johnny Knoxville is in final talks to join Juliette Lewis, Elizabeth
Banks, David Koechner and Kick Gurry in DALTRY CALHOUN for Miramax Films and
director Katrina Holden Bronson. Miramax and Quentin Tarantino's L. Driver
Prods. are co-producing. The project, penned by Bronson, is described as a
dark comedy about a father struggling to keep his once lucrative Tennessee
golfing empire intact when his estranged 14-year-old daughter -- a gifted
musician -- is unexpectedly left in his care.
* Clifton Collins Jr. will play Perry Smith in United Artists' untitled
Truman Capote film. Philip Seymour Hoffman is already on board to topline as
Capote in the project based on the book CAPOTE: A BIOGRAPHY by Gerald
Clarke.
* Kristen Stewart has signed to join Meg Ryan and Adam Brody in IN THE LAND
OF WOMEN for Warner Independent Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment.
Jonathan Kasdan will direct.
* David Boreanaz, Henry Thomas, Vera Farmiga and Bruce Dern will star in the
indie heist film THE HARD EASY for director Ari Ryan. Penned by Jon Robert
Lindstrom and Tom Schanley and produced by Will Sherak and Jason Shuman, the
story centers on two men who attempt to rob a jewelry store on the same day.
* Milla Jovovich is in negotiations to star in .45, an indie about a married
couple involved in small-time crime in New York's Hell's Kitchen during the
mid-1970s.
* Oded Fehr joins the cast of John Gatins' DREAMER at DreamWorks.
* Parker Posey and Danny DeVito will star in the romantic comedy THE OH IN
OHIO for director Billy Kent about a young woman married to her childhood
sweetheart and blessed with a perfect life -- except that she's never had an
orgasm. She leaves her husband and sets out on a climactic quest with an
unlikely destination.
* Leo Gregory will play the late Rolling Stones guitarist in THE WILD AND
WYCKED WORLD OF BRIAN JONES for director Stephen Woolley.
* Tyrese and Vicellous Shannon have joined the cast of Disney's Naval
Academy boxing drama ANNAPOLIS for director Justin Lin. James Franco and
Jordana Brewster star.
* Billy Zane has joined the cast of THE PLEASURE DRIVERS, starring Angus
MacFadyen, Lauren Holly, Lacey Chabert, Jason Mews, Rachel Dratch, Jill
Bennett, Meat Loaf and Angelo Spizzirri for director Andrzej Sekula. It's a
crime thriller penned by Adam Haynes.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Mike Clattenburg will direct a feature based on Ricky, Bubbles and Julian,
the main characters of "Trailer Park Boys," a Canadian television show about
three dope-smoking ex-convicts living among friends and family in the
fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park. Ivan Reitman will executive produce.
* Tony Grisoni adapted BROTHERS OF THE HEAD from a Brian Aldiss short story
about twins joined at the liver who form a rock band in the 1970s. Keith
Fulton and Lou Pepe (LOST IN LA MANCHA) will direct.
* Kevin Macdonald is directing an adaptation of Giles Foden's novel LAST
KING OF SCOTLAND about the relationship between Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
and a young British doctor.
* Writer/director Billy O'Brien is in pre-production on the animatronic
monster movie ISOLATION, about a genetic experiment which goes horribly
wrong on an Irish farm.
* Ondrej Hrebejk has dropped out of directing I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND,
an adaptation of one of the most beloved classics of Bohemian literature, is
again changing directorial hands. Bohumil Hrabal's ribald tale of life
behind the scenes at a glamorous old-world Prague hotel will now either be
directed by Jiri Menzel or Jan Sverak.
* New Line snapped up Jake Shapiro's father/daughter college comedy script,
WEIRDO. Pic centers on an overprotective father who's about to drop off his
daughter at college. When the dad, whose dream is to become an FBI agent,
becomes aware of all the potential temptations awaiting her, he manages to
adopt various disguises to protect her virtue.
* Universal has purchased the adventure comedy pitch DELAWARE MCCHOAD by
Josh Greenberg for the Sommers Company to produce. Pic is a spoof on
bullwhip-cracking action adventure movies centering on a wealthy but inept
archaeologist who searches for artifacts nobody wants.
* Gren Wells will script the romantic comedy HOW TO TELL HE'S NOT THE ONE IN
10 DAYS, the sequel to HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS for Paramount and
producers Lynda Obst and Christine Peters.
* Gavin and Greg O'Connor will write CLARK & LEWIS, a revisionist take on
the explorers who were sent West by Thomas Jefferson in search of the
mythical Northwest Passage. Gavion O'Connor (MIRACLE) will direct and and
Greg O'Connor will produce through their Solaris banner for Universal
Pictures.
* DreamWorks has hired Ann Peacock to script the feature ENLISTED about a
female Naval officer and a noncommissioned seaman who engage in a strictly
forbidden romance.
* Hong Kong horror directors Oxide and Danny Pang (THE EYE) will direct the
English-language SCARECROW for Blue Star Pictures and Ghost House Pictures.
Written by Stuart Beattie (COLLATERAL) from an original script by Todd
Farmer, the project is a horror tale that follows the lives of a family
moving into a run-down sunflower farm. As the farm begins to revive after
years of disrepair, the family begins to notice uncomfortable and alarming
changes in their father's behavior. Shooting begins in the spring.
* Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (creators of the new ABC drama "Life as We Know
It") are writing a remake of REVENGE OF THE NERDS for Fox Searchlight and
producers McG and Stephanie Savage of Wonderland. Stars Adam Brody and Brett
Harrison are co-producing.
* Jim Fall has signed on to direct the English-language remake of Thai
comedy-thriller 6IXTYNIN9, to be produced by Bohemian Films and
Shadowcatcher Entertainment. Story follows a young woman desperate to shake
up her uneventful life by appearing on a reality show, who returns home to
find that dead bodies are stacking up in her apartment.
* Paul Schrader is set to write the script for TORCH, a drama about the
obsessive relationship between singer Ruth Etting and Chicago bootlegger Moe
Snyder. Pic will be a reteaming of the SEA OF LOVE team of Al Pacino,
director Harold Becker and producer Martin Bregman. (Father Geek note: Sounds like a remake of an old James Cagney-Doris Day flick)
* New Line Cinema picked up HECKLED, a comedy script from the writing team
of Jeremy Haft and Ed Gonzalez. The revenge tale centers on a heckler who
causes an NBA superstar to get suspended only to find his own life in chaos
when the roles are reversed and the heckler becomes the heckled. The project
has been developed with an eye for Vince Vaughn to star as the heckler.
* Fox 2000 Pictures, 20th Century Fox Animation and Bagdasarian Prods. will
partner to produce ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, a live-action/CGI feature based
on the 1950s and '60s icons. Fox plans to use a flesh-and-blood actor for
the role of Dave Seville, the Chipmunks' "dad," with Chipmunks Alvin, Simon
and Theodore to be CGI.
* Sheldon Turner has teamed with producer Benderspink for BLOWBACK, an
action film that Turner will write about a rescue mission to free a
kidnapped engineer in Iraq.
* Alan Swyer is making the doucmentary BEISBOL for Rhino Film about the
struggles of Latinos in 1948 to become a dominant force in baseball around
the world.
* Howard Franklin will write THE BIG YEAR, a comedy being produced by Red
Hour and Deuce Three Prod. at DreamWorks. Pic, an adaptation of the
nonfiction book by Mark Obmascik, is about three rival bird-watchers who
brave hazardous weather, competitor tactics and unhappy spouses to win the
North American Big Year, an annual bird-watching competition.
* Rob Lieber has been hired to rewrite DRIVING WHILE INFATUATED for Regency
Enterprises. With Elizabeth Allen set to direct, the project follows a
love-struck girl who, after flunking her driving test, borrows her
stepfather's vintage muscle car for a wild night out with her friends. Allen
and scribe Kyle Long co-wrote the original script.
* Franc Reyes (EMPIRE) will rewrite and direct a remake of RKO's boxing
drama THE SET-UP. The original centered on over-the-hill boxer Stoker
Thompson and his battle to get back into the ring and winning form despite
complaints from his wife.
* Colin Gray and his sister, Megan Raney, are writing and directing
FREEDOM'S FURY for Cinergi Prods. and Wolo Entertainment. The film revolves
around the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the epic 1956 Olympic water polo
semifinal match between Hungary and Russia. (Father Geek note: Nothing really to do with this flick but,Back when I was in college in the 60's my varsity debate partner for a while was a beautiful and smart blond amazon in pre-law named Cyndi who recounted great firsthand stories of the 1956 uprising. Her parents were resistance fighters who died standing up to the Russian tanks that occupied their country while the rest of the world just stood by and watched on TV, and as a 10 year old her badly wounded uncle dropped her and her younger brother into the ancient city sewers where they swam out of the beseiged capital, trekked across Europe to England, and she eventually landed in Texas... great stuff... not as cool as water polo though.)
* New Line Cinema has partnered with Spyglass Entertainment to make the
ping-pong comedy BALLS OF FURY written by Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant.
Garant will direct with Lennon taking a role in the film.
* Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci ("Alias") will work on the script of
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 to be directed by J.J. Abrams.
* Fernando Leon is directing PRINCESAS (PRINCESSES) about the lives of two
prostitutes.
* Grammnet Prods. has acquired Ali Russell's ISIS pitch as a vehicle with
feature and TV potential. Family action-adventure, described as being in the
vein of ROMANCING THE STONE meets BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, centers on a
young girl who finds the bracelet of Isis and inherits her powers in
addition to awakening a dark force. Project's based on the Darren Davis
comicbook of the same name.
* Terence Winter ("The Sopranos") will script LOCKED AND LOADED, starring 50
Cent, for Paramount/MTV and producers Jimmy Iovine and Paul Rosenberg. It's
the tale of an orphaned street kid who becomes a powerful drug dealer, then
turns away from crime to pursue a promising music career.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Paramount Pictures has signed a deal with Archie Comics Entertainment to
co-produce a live-action film based on SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH.
* FilmFour is shooting ROYSTON VESSEY, a surreal movie spin-off from the BBC
TV comedy "The League of Gentlemen." The show's gallery of gothic grotesques
get wind the writers are planning to kill them off, so they escape to save
themselves and get tangled up with the new characters being written to
replace them.
* Robert Evans and Paramount have acquired film rights to NICE GIRLS DON'T
GET THE CORNER OFFICE by Lois Frankel. It's the story of four women
competing for an exec position. Trailing behind, one of the women becomes
entranced with a book that claims 100% success rate in taking female execs
to the top. Evans has also optioned the sequel novel, NICE GIRLS DON'T GET
RICH, which will be released next year.
* Nordisk Film has begun shooting KAREN BLIXEN: OUT OF THIS WORLD, a doc
about the Danish author of OUT OF AFRICA.
* Paramount Pictures has moved the release date of WAR OF THE WORLDS on
Wednesday, June 29, two days before Fox opens FANTASTIC FOUR.
* The late Don Simpson's brother Larry, two years his junior, and son Tait
and Amy Dean are readying the film FULL TITLES, a biopic on the producer.
* The drama RIVER QUEEN, which stalled last month after actress Samantha
Morton fell ill, resumes filming Oct. 4.
* James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer are in discussions to collaborate on
Warner Bros. Pictures' BATMAN BEGINS for director Christopher Nolan.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* Redfield Arts new film CHAINSAW SALLY will screen at the 2004 Shockerfest
Film Festival in Modesto, California on Sunday September 26! In attendance
will be writer-director JimmyO Burril, actor-producer Mark Redfield, actor
Jennifer Rouse and guest star Gunnar Hansen. For more info about the fest,
visit http://www.shockerfest.com or http://www.redfieldarts.com today!
* Award winning filmmaker Peter John Ross' short films are set to play at
multiple film festivals, multiple TV shows internationally, and on several
new websites. Audience favorite short ALWAYS LATE will play as a part of the
Best of Cincinnati from the 48 Hour Film Project screening on September
26th. More than ten Sonnyboo short films have begun airing on Movieola, the
short film channel, and are also set to begin airing this fall on the new
network PLUM TV. Several of these short films have also been scooped up by
DIVX, for the new video site DIVX.COM's DIVX INDIES. More info & all of his
short films are available online at http://www.sonnyboo.com
* DEAR PILLOW is Held Over at the Alamo Village. Plays at 10pm Daily from
Sep. 17-23 Alamo Village (2700 W. Anderson Ln., Austin, TX) Log on to
http://www.dearpillow.com for more on the film.
* IFP New York, Tekserve and OffHollywood Digital present an 80s Flashback
Bash in honor of the 2004 IFP Market Emerging Narrative Award Finalists
Tuesday, September 21, at 199 Bowery @ Spring St.
* This year's Anime Reactor convention, taking place from October 22-24 at
the Holiday Inn-O'Hare, has packed its roster with heavy-hitters from both
the anime and comic book arenas. In its second year, the Anime Reactor 2:
Atomic Boogaloo convention will unveil these guests as the flagship to its
weekend-long tribute to Western and Eastern pop culture. For convention and
general organization information, visit http://www.animereactor.org.
* Wo&Co is debuting I LOVE YOU TWO, a sort of unofficial sequel to I LOVE
YOU, and the second of three movies in a LOVE trilogy. Also, their entry
into the local 48-hour-film-challenge (sponsored by the Phoenix Film
Festival), GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART, is available for download. Visit
http://www.woandco.com for more.
* As part of the HDFEST 2004 World Tour, HDFEST's London event will be
taking part in collaboration with the Raindance Film Festival being held
October 1st to 10th in London. More information about The Raindance Film
Festival can be found at
http://www.raindance.co.uk/festival/programme/events/hdfest.htm. Visit
http://www.hdfest.com for more information on HDFEST Los Angeles or the
HDFEST 2004 World Tour.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
