Well... here's Elston Gunn with another of his wonderful WEEKLY RECAPS.... So sit back... and enjoy the week that was.... click click click.... click... It's really that easy...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER VIA REUTERS
CASTING
* Allan Cumming (Tony winning "Cabaret" star) will play the Great Kazoo in VIVA ROCK VEGAS.
* Tom Sizemore and Maeve Quinlan will star in the indie thriller CUPID TATTOO.
* George Clooney will star in OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU for the Coen brothers about three escaped convicts who travel through Mississippi trying to hide from their tracker. Said to be "based on Homer's ODYSSEY"
* Mercedes Reuhl, Louise Fletcher, Whoopi Goldberg, Joe Mantegna, Peter Coyote, D.B. Woodside, Debi Mazar and Paul Hipp will star in the crime caper indie pic MORE DOGS THAN BONES for writer/director Michael Browning.
* Richard Dreyfuss will star in THE OLD MAN WHO READ LOVE STORIES about a hunt for a man-eating jaguar.
* John Turturro has signed to star in TWO THOUSAND AND NONE about a sick paleontologist.
* Rocker Billy Idol will provide the lead voice for the animated flick HEAVY METAL: F.A.K.K. 2.
HARRY NOTE: YESSSSSSSSSS!!!! What this movie needs is someone that partly embodies that great era of EIGHTIES music (which Billy Idol is perfectly suited for).... lest it wouldn't be a sequel to HEAVY METAL... instead you'd have to call it.... ALTERNATIVE or HIP HOP.... and that just doesn't have the ring....
* Kim Basinger is in talks to star in the thriller BLESS THE CHILD for Paramount and director Chuck Russell (ERASER). She'll play a psychiatric nurse who's saved a child from a Satanist.
* Donnie Wahlberg joins the cast of BULLFIGHTER.
* Jackie Chan may star in THE TUXEDO for DreamWorks written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi.
* Elizabeth Perkins will play Sandra Bullock's sister in 28 DAYS directed by Betty Thomas.
* David Spade will star and co-write THE ADVENTURES OF JOE DIRT about a white trash guy in search of his natural parents.
* Rupert Everett may play a butler who was once an English lord in a film inspired by the Ian Ross memoir SERVILE ON SUNSET.
* Dominique Swain, Meredith Monroe, Mia Kirshner and Taye Diggs will star in MARY JANE'S LAST DANCE about the relationship between two different college girls. Zoe Clark-Williams directs next month in North Carolina.
* Doug McGrath, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, Denis Leary and Anthony LaPaglia will star in COMPANY MAN co-written and co-directed by McGrath and Peter Askin.
* Robert Redford will likely star in an indie feature adaptation of Ben McIntyre's NAPOLEON OF CRIME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ADAM WORTH, MASTER THIEF. Redford would play Napoleon, a thief who started out as a pickpocket and worked his way up to running his own international organization of master thieves.
* Billy Baldwin and Brigitte Bako will star in the indie police thriller BOX.
* John Hannah (SLIDING DOORS) will play a vengeful con man in CIRCUS for Columbia Pictures.
* Michael Biehn (THE ROCK) joins Jay Mohr and Brittany Murphy in CHERRY FALLS directed by Geoffrey Wright (ROMPER STOMPER).
* Keanu Reeves is in talks to star in the football comedy THE REPLACEMENTS based on the real-life crew of players who served as replacements during the 1987 NFL players' strike.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Martin Campbell (MASK OF ZORRO) is in final talks to direct VERTICAL LIMIT written by Robert King about a rock climber who retires after his father is tragically killed, but resumes climbing to rescue his sister who is trapped in a vertical cave.
* John Turteltaub (PHENOMENON) may direct a film based on the Ben Sherwood novel THE MAN WHO ATE A 747 about a farmer who grinds up a plane that landed on his property and eats it to prove his love to a woman. She subsequently falls for a Guiness Book of World Records man who comes to authorize the event.
* Guinevere Turner (AMERICAN PSYCHO co-adapter) will adapt Jerzy Kosinki's novel PINBALL for a Gary Fleder-directed feature.
* Bill Condon (GODS & MONSTERS) will direct the biopic VICKI OBERJEUNE which he co-wrote with the Off-Broadway star Nancy Cassaro who will play the lead.
* Video director Steve Carr will direct NEXT FRIDAY, the sequel to FRIDAY, which will follow Ice Cube's character to the suburbs picking up where the last movie ended.
* David Alan Grier and Tim Hightower have pitched a comedy entitled BOOGA BEAR for October Films about a superficial executive who looks for an ugly woman that will treat him well. The Zucker Bros. will produce.
* Arne Olsen (COP & 1/2) sold his script DRAKE DIAMOND, EXORCIST FOR HIRE to Warner Bros.--described as GHOSTBUSTERS meets MEN IN BLACK.
* Michael Bay will direct PHONE BOOTH for 20th Century Fox hoping for Will Smith to star. This REAR WINDOW-esque thriller centers around a man who enters a phone booth and doesn't leave throughout the pic.
* Bob Spiers (SPICE WORLD) will direct EMPIRE STATE about a guy who kidnaps the president to get his girlfriend back.
* Deborak Kaplan and Harry Elfont (both wrote/directed CAN'T HARDLY WAIT) will work on the comedy TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS as well as a live action version of JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS.
HARRY NOTE: A 'Josie and the Pussycats' movie is the third sign of the apocalypse...
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Dimension Films has SCREAM 3 slated for a May start with Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox all but signed to return. Writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven will reteam for the project.
HARRY NOTE: Please kill Sidney.... Pretend SCREAM 2 didn't exist.... Bring back Randy. Terrible terrible decision in #2....
* Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Enterprises are agreeing to work together for a Spiderman film and TV franchise, dropping all legal matters. MGM has also agreed to a settlement which resolves its claims to a Spidey flick.
* Dimension is picking up worldwide distribution rights for O, the OTHELLO update.
* 20th Century Fox is planning on releasing Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT, starring Tom Cruise, on June 30, 2000.
* Director Steve Oedekerk is off THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET for Warner Bros. Jim Carrey is reading a new script rewritten by Rita Hsaio (MULAN) before making a decision.
* Dick Clark Prods. is working with Dodd Darin on a biopic about late singer Bobby Darin (Dodd's father). The project could end up as a feature or a TV movie.
FROM TV TO FILM NEWS: Warner Bros. is developing a big screen version of FAMILY AFFAIR. The creators of the original series Sid and Marty Krofft will produce with John Hughes. Howard Deutch (PRETTY IN PINK) will direct.
First, I would like to add a correction to last week's recap. I wrote the Ron Howard directed-HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS starring Jim Carrey would be released on Thanksgiving but failed to mention the year. That year would be 2000 as opposed to 2001 or, much less, this year.
The biggest news of the week would have to be the Spider Man news. (Even moreso than the Lewinsky interview it seems.) I never would have guessed it would be resolved so quick. Now, do we want Sony to take their time to help ensure a good flick, or do we want them to hurry up and get SOMETHING out there? Me? I choose the former. *** FAMILY AFFAIR and JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS? When are we going to see DALLAS on the big screen? Who could be J.R.? *** SCREAM 3 seems to be on track possibly ready for the December release date mentioned a couple of weeks ago. *** Michael Bay and PHONE BOOTH. Comments? *** It looks as if Jim Carrey will sooner be the Grinch as opposed to Mr. Limpet. *** NEXT FRIDAY...a sequel we should've seen comin'. Intriguing. *** George Clooney and the Coen Bros. A collaboration that may surpass the Clooney/Soderbergh adventure last year. *** John Turteltaub's plate is getting full. *** Redford's project sounds realy cool. Anyone read the book?
About two more weeks 'til spring. Woo-hoo!
Keep the emails comin'. Until next week....
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
