Harry here to bring you another of Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP. Let's see how civil the TALK BACK can be. See if you can talk about which of these projects you are excited about, terrified of and vaguely interested in. Which project is headed for doom? And I bet if you squint real hard you can write it without going off on non-related bs. Of course the mere act of bringing this up, thereby creates the desire to go wonkers. But let's see if tapping your knee, won't make you kick. Hmmmm... Great work Elston!
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER VIA REUTERS
CASTING
(signed)
CASTING
(signed)
* Claudia Schiffer joins Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Brooke Shields, Elijah Wood and Gaby Hoffman in BLACK AND WHITE about white high school teens journeying into the lives of Harlem's hip-hop crowd. James Toback (TWO GIRLS AND A GUY) directs.
* Ed Harris and Anne Heche will star in indie drama THE THIRD MIRACLE. Agnieszka Holland (WASHINGTON SQUARE) will direct with an Oct. 31 start date.
* Kathryn Erbe (HBO's "Oz") joins STIR OF ECHOES.
* Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung joins Spielberg's MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA.
* Eddie Murphy will work with Fox to do a DR. DOLITTLE sequel. Director Betty Thomas will not return.
* Tara Reid and Jerry O'Connell join JELLO SHOTS at New Line. Michael Cristofer (GIA) directs David McKenna's (AMERICAN HISTORY X) script.
* Lauren Bacall joins Kirk Douglas and Dan Aykroyd in SUNDOWNING directed by John Asher. (Douglas and Bacall worked together in 1950's YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN.)
* Michelle Pfeiffer will join Harrison Ford in the supernatural thriller WHAT LIES BENEATH for DreamWorks and director Robert Zemeckis.
(in talks)
* Christian Bale is, again, the front-runner to play a yuppie serial killer in AMERICAN PSYCHO.
* Sharon Stone, Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte are in final negotiations to star in indie drama SIMPATICO, an adaptation of the Sam Shepard play.
* French actors Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet are in talks to join Leo DiCaprio in THE BEACH.
* Kevin Costner is in talks to reunite with director Phil Alden Robinson (FIELD OF DREAMS) in 13 DAYS, a drama set during the Cuban missile crisis. Production should begin in March.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
(signed)
* Roger Corman will make history by becoming the first Hollywood filmmaker to shoot an feature entirely in India with the English-language NIGHTFALL, based on the Isaac Asimov novel, in Hyderabad in January.
* Director Simon West (CON AIR) will develop a remake of the 1971 sci-fi Bruce Dern drama SILENT RUNNING.
HARRY NOTE REGARDING 'SILENT RUNNING' REMAKE---This has got to be the wierdest remake I've heard of in a while. How many hands go up for remixes on the old Joan Baez songs?
* Scribe Todd Alcott (ANTZ) has a project set up at Dimension called ONE NECK about a serial killer worth rooting for. Adrian Lyne (LOLITA - 98) may make it his next film.
* Ken Bates (second-unit director on ARMAGEDDON) will make his feature debut with SPEED-like chase film PURSUIT at Universal Pictures.
* Mick Jagger is working on two projects with his Jagged Films: The first project is SWAP, a role-reversal comedy based on a story originated by Jagger about the lives of rock stars and roadies and the disparity between their lives. The other project is an untitled film that spans the rock'n'roll business over 30 years and is based on his own experiences. He is writing it with Rich Cohen and Martin Scorcese wants to direct it.
* Wes Craven has signed an exclusive, multimillion dollar deal with Miramax/Dimension Films. He will direct three pictures in the next four years. (SCREAM 3 will begin when he finishes 50 VIOLINS for a Christmas '99 release). He will also executive produce four genre pictures under the WES CRAVEN PRESENTS banner.
* Scribe Mark Lamprell (BABE: PIG IN THE CITY) will make his feature directing debut with MY MOTHER FRANK about a 51-year old woman entering college with her son, gets caught cheating, then discovers she has Alzheimer's.
* John Frankenheimer may next direct DIRTY WHITE BOYS at 20th Century Fox about Oklahoma patrolmen chasing two convicts.
* Warner Bros. has hired Darren Lemke to write a sequel to '96 cyclone flick TWISTER, but so far none of the primary elements of the first pic are attached.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollack's Montecito Picture Co. has landed Don Jakoby's science thriller EVOLUTION about an asteroid hit that leaves behind an alien ecosystem.
* The start date for MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA has been pushed back from January to April. No reason has been provided though speculation of Speilberg wanting to be in town around Oscar time has been circulating.
REMAKE NEWS OF THE WEEK: Danny DeVito is in talks to direct and play a supporting role in DreamWorks' remake of the 1941 comedy THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER.
Pretty decent sized recap this week. A lot of casting and writer/director attachments. Thank you to those last week who added to the recap which I rushed through. One mentioned that Greg Kinnear joined MYSTERY MEN and another caught my typing mistake of saying they were remaking Africa as opposed to HAMLET. I wasn't focused. The tidbit before the HAMLET news was about a movie with AFRICA in the title. *** Congrats Roger Corman. This flick sounds cool. *** DR DOLITTLE and TWISTER sequels? Discuss. *** Congrats Wes Craven. I look forward to his projects as well. *** GEISHA being pushed back is sure to bum some of you out, but what can you do? *** BLACK AND WHITE, SIMPATICO, WHAT LIES BENEATH and SUNDOWNING all sound intriguing. I'd like to find out more.
Until next week.
Elston Gunn
