Hey folks Harry here with another fantastic intro for Elston Gunn's 51st WEEKLY RECAP! Next week is his 52nd, so... HOLLYWOOD GET YOUR CRAP TOGETHER AND ANNOUNCE THIS WEEK THAT: Frank Darabont is co-writing STAR WARS EPISODE 2, that James Cameron is directing SPIDER-MAN, that Michael Biehn is CYCLOPS, that all plans for a HARVEY remake are off, that Arnold is making WITH WINGS AS EAGLES, that Stallone is making a badass dramatic ROCKY 6, that a SIMPSONS movie is coming soon, that Universal has Green Lit HELLBOY, that Peter Jackson has finished THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and it's due to be released in TWO WEEKS, that in a daring FBI raid the brains of many top executives were found in an Abby Normal brain clinic and are being returned to their masters skull casings, etc. (Of course this is all just a dream.) Well, here's the 51st for ol Elston Gunn....
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Courtney Love joins Norman Reedus in BEAT for writer/director Gary Walkow. Love will play Joan Burroughs wife of William Burroughs.
* Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane join George Clooney in THE PERFECT STORM for WB and director Wolfgang Petersen based on the book by Sebastian Junger.
* Michael Douglas and Frank Oz are attached to direct and star respectively in THE SCORE for Mandalay Pictures about a thief who is forced by a younger more dangerous criminal to take part in one final score.
* Taylor Mumson, a 5 1/2-year old girl from St. Louis, Mo., has been cast as Cindy Lou Who in HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS for Universal and director Ron Howard.
* Anna Paquin joins the cast of X-MEN for director Bryan Singer. She'll play the psychic, power-stealing high schooler Rogue.
* Mark Feuerstien (upcoming THE MUSE) will star with Penelope Cruz in WOMAN ON TOP, a romantic comedy set in the world of exotic cooking.
* Peter Dobson joins Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell and Jamie Lee Curtis in DROWNING MONA.
* Dylan Bruno will star opposite Natalie Portman in WHERE THE HEART IS. He'll play the boyfriend who abandons Portman's character.
* Camilla Belle (PRACTICAL MAGIC) joins Cameron Diaz in THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS.
* James DeBello will have a leading role in an untitled teen comedy to be directed by Rob Schmidt about a high school student who helps his girlfriend kill her stepfather, but finds out she loves another.
* Judge Reinhold, Vanessa Angel and Amber Smith join ENEMIES OF LAUGHTER about a writer's best friend who decides to make a documentary of his friend's life. Paul Sampson, Leila Kenzle and Rick Otto are in the film as well.
* James Caan, Juliette Lewis and Taye Diggs join the crime thriller THE WAY OF THE GUN for writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and Artisan Entertainment. Ryan Phillippe and Benecio Del Toro also star in the film as kidnappers who take a pregnant surrogate mother and end up in over their heads when they baby's parents send an aging mercenary to deliver the ransom.
* Chris Tucker will star in GUESS WHO'S PRESIDENT which he co-wrote Barryl Quayles. No studio or director is yet attached.
* Dennis Haysbert (MAJOR LEAGUE) joins LOVE AND BASKETBALL for New Line and producers Spike Lee and Sam Kitt. Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard and Sahaa Latham also star in the pic about b-ball players who ty not to let love interfere with their game. Gina Prince-Blythewood writes and directs.
* Susan May Pratt (10 THINGS...) and dancer Amanda Schull join Peter Gallagher in the Nicholas Hynter ballet film for Columbia Pictures.
* Annette O'Toole joins Leelee Sobieski in HERE ON EARTH about two young students who fall in love only to find out one has a terminal illness.
* Lin Shaye (KINGPIN, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) will star opposite Jay Thomas in SPANISH MOSS for J Films. Craig Zobel directs.
* Lesley Ann Warren joins Alan Rudolph's TRIXIE produced by Robert Altman about a second-rate lounge singer flung into a political scam.
* Scott Glenn joins Chris O'Donnell in the rock climbing thriller VERTICAL LIMIT for director Martin Campbell (MASK OF ZORRO).
* Jennifer Lopez is in talks to play the lead in ANGEL EYES about a cop who suffered from abuse when they were young for Warner Bros. as well as the remake of A STAR IS BORN with Will Smith. She will also star in THE CELL for New Line and is in talks to take the title role in THE WEDDING PLANNER.
* Tom Sizemore joins Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss in MARS.
* Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Ming Na-Wen, James Woods, Donald Sutherland, Steve Buscemi and Peri Gilpin will lend their voices to FINAL FANTASY: THE MOVIE, the CG adaptation of the video game which Columbia Pictures plans to release summer of 2001.
* Christina Ricci is in talks to take a small part in BLESS THE CHILD starring Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Film editor and composer John Ottman (THE USUAL SUSPECTS) is in final talks to score and direct URBAN LEGEND 2 for Phoenix Pictures. Ottman will also score X-MEN.
* Walter Bernstein optioned the film rights to Katharine Weber's THE MUSIC LESSON, a political romantic novel about the significance of art. He plans to direct and possibly produce. Bernstein wrote THE MOLLY MAGUIRES and FAIL SAFE and directed LITTLE MISS MARKER.
* John Cusack, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink will adapt the Ira Berkow book THE MAN WHO ROBBED THE PIERRE as a starring pic for Cusack and Woody Allen about five well-dressed thieves who robbed the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan and walked out with $10m.
* Karyn Kusama will write/direct GIRLFIGHT starring Michelle Rodriguez as a high schooler who goes to a Brooklyn gym on an errand for her father and starts secretly training to become a boxer. John Sayles will executive produce.
* Writer/actor Milo Addica (MONSTER BALL) will develop Peter Plate's book ONE FOOT OFF THE GUTTER for the big screen for Oil Factory. They story focuses on police corruption in San Francisco. John Hillcoat (TO HAVE AND TO HOLD) is attached to direct.
* Nicholas Brandt will direct SUGAR MOUNTAIN for Warner Bros. about a teenage boy in a mental institution in the 60s where he falls in love with another patient. Brandt is also attached to direct KINDRED based on the Octavia Butler novel.
* Josef Rusnak (THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR) is in final talks to direct ACE IN THE HOLE with Bruce Willis attached to star. The story follows a professional con man recently released from prison who is blackmailed to help a casino boss evade an FBI murder.
* Gore Verbinski is in final talks to direct THE BIG TICKET for DreamWorks based on an idea by Steven Spielberg. The script follows a man who is obsessed with watching car chases on the news. He winds up in the middle of a car chase as a result of a scheme involving carjacking, kidnapping, a bank heist and a million-dollar long shot. Jim Herzfeld (MEET THE DEEDLES) wrote the script.
* Tim McCanlies (DANCER, TEXAS POP. 81, also wrote THE IRON GIANT) will write/direct the dark comedy THE NIGHT WE LIBERATED PARIS about five young World War II bomb disposal specialists who are pursued to defuse some Nazi bombs over the course of one night in Paris.
* Mel Stuart will direct the documentary RUNNING ON THE SUN for Galaxy Entertainment about a group of athletes training for and running in Badwater 135, a 135-mile race in Death Valley.
* Mark Pellington (ARLINGTON ROAD) will direct ONE FOR THE AGES about a football coach whose team dies in a plane crash and vows to assemble a championship winning team.
* Tommy O'Haver (BILLY'S HOLLWOOD SCREEN KISS) will direct Gigi Levangie's screenplay WHITE TRASH CHRISTMAS for New Line. The story follows a hopeful politician who finds himself in his own hell where he decides to meet his fiancees family who live in a trailer park. O'Haver is also attached to direct ARCHIE based on the classic comic.
* Roger Spottiswoode is in talks to direct Arnold Schwarzenegger in THE SIXTH DAY about a man who returns home only to discover he's been replaced by a clone.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, Andy Garcia and Leonardo DiCaprio are in negotiations to put together a fourth installment of THE GODFATHER with DiCaprio as a young Sonny. This was later denied by several parties. DiCaprio and Michael Mann, however, have pacted to develop a film for Disney based on the life of Howard Hughes to be scripted by John Logan (ANY GIVEN SUNDAY).
* Barbara Streisand's Barwood Films picked up the rights to ROMEO AND JULE by Jeanne Ray about the rivalry between two Italian and Jewish florist families and a love affair that develops within.
* Village Roadshow Pictures picked up the screen rights to Kurt Anderson's TURN OF THE CENTURY about a couple in the center of the media universe in the year 2000.
* Disney picked up George Gallo's action-comedy script DOUBLE TAKE, a remake of the 1957 flick ACROSS THE BRIDGE. Brett Ratner (RUSH HOUR) is attached to direct.
* Universal's Lawrence Gordon Prods. picked up R.I.P.D. from writer/producer Peter Lenkov and Dark Horse Entertainment based on the comic book series about the devoted-but-dead officers of a law enforcement agency.
* Disney is teaming Jerry Bruckheimer, director Micheal Bay and writer Randal Wallace (BRAVEHEART) for TENNESSEE about two brothers getting involved with the same woman during World War II. One is in the US Army Air Corp and the other flies for the Royal Air Force. The title is names after the USS Tennessee.
HARRY NOTE: in the same article as the above, it mentioned that Randall Wallace is signed to direct WITH WINGS AS EAGLES for Paramount... no word if Arnold is still attached.
* If Jim Carrey passes on THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET, Warner Bros. may try to go with Mike Myers or Robin Williams. Carrey may star in GET SMART with Rob Reiner in talks to direct.
REMAKE NEWS OF THE WEEK: Stephen Frears (DANGEROUS LIASONS) is in talks to direct Fox 2000's remake of the French film LA FEMME INFIDELE about a married woman who has an affair that eventually leads to murder.
What to say, really. That's a lot to take in, so I won't say much. The whole GODFATHER 4 threw everyone for a loop, but the Howard Hughes thing sounds more probable. *** THE PERFECT STORM and X-MEN are starting to come together. *** Jim Carrey doing GET SMART for Rob Reiner? First I've heard of it...you? *** THE WAY OF THE GUN sounds cool. What a cast. FINAL FANTASY casting isn't too shabby either. *** GIRLFIGHT sounds fresh. There are a LOT of boxing pics in the works. *** Walter Bernstein is back in action with THE MUSIC LESSON. *** WHITE TRASH CHRISTMAS, THE NIGHT WE LIBERATED PARIS, TENNESSEE, ONE FOR THE AGES all sound fine to me. What are you looking forward to?
I just realized that ten years ago this past Wednesday BATMAN opened across the country. Wild. Summer began too this week. Enjoy it. Until next week...the one year anniversary of the weekly recap...
Elston Gunn
