Hey folks, Harry here. It's nice when a weekly recap is echoing a lot of things I told y'all about two weeks ago. Makes me feel good, like I'm doing this job pretty darn well. From LORD OF THE RINGS to SHAFT to DR T AND THE WOMEN to MINORITY REPORT to X-MEN... Well, we've had it covered well in advance. Though the MINORITY REPORT/Matt Damon story goes to COMING ATTRACTIONS for a job well done! Here's Elston
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Dermot Mulroney joins TRIXIE with Emily Watson, Nick Nolte and Brittany Murphy.
* Chris Solari (upcoming JERUSALEM AVENUE) will star in Tobe Hooper's killer crocodile pic FLAT DOG for producer Frank Di Martini.
* Sir Ian McKellen and Ian Holm join THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy for New Line. Check out Harry's earlier coverage of this story.
* John Goodman joins ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL'S with Liv Tyler, Matt Dillon and Michael Douglas.
* Vanessa L. Williams has landed the female lead in John Singleton's SHAFT with Samuel L. Jackson and John Leguizamo.
* David Arquette will star in an untitled wrestling pic for Warner Bros., director Brian Robbins (VARSITY BLUES) and writer Steven Brill (THE MIGHTY DUCKS) for an Oct. production start. The story follows two wrestling fans who travel to WCW headquarters to help a humiliated wrestler regain a championship. The plan is to draft many wrestlers into the film as well as getting a top grappler to play the titleholder who falls from grace.
* John Travolta has officially signed to star in NUMBERS for director Nora Ephron about a TV weatherman who scams a local lottery.
* Matt Damon is in talks to join Tom Cruise in MINORITY REPORT for Steven Spielberg.
* Supermodel Amber Valletta joins Harrison Ford and Michelle Pheiffer in Robert Zemeckis' WHAT LIES BENEATH.
* Brad Pitt may star in DIAMONDS for director Guy Ritchie (LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS). Shooting is expected to begin this fall on the ensemble heist film. Pitt recently passed on Robert Redford's THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE.
* Ray Park (Darth Maul in EPISODE 1) will play the evil henchman Toad in Fox's X-MEN for director Bryan Singer. Bruce Davison has also joined the film as Senator Kelly, opponent of the mutant superheroes.
* Sylvester Stallone may star, write and direct ROCKY VI for MGM. The film would be low cost (around 30m) and is in the early stages of development.
* Nicolas Cage is in negotiations (again) to star in FAMILY MAN with Brett Ratner (RUSH HOUR) directing. Production is expected to begin at the end of the year. Cage is no longer attached to star in the remake of ROLLERBALL.
* Dennis Hopper is in Toronto currently shooting THE SPREADING GROUND, an indie thriller directed by James Burke about a search for a serial killer.
* Gary Oldman, Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges will star in THE CONTENDER for writer/director Rod Lurie about a vice-president (Allen) whose reputation is in shambles after a sexual scandal from her past is discovered. Bridges plays the president who is conflicted about it, but stands by her. Oldman will play the speaker of the House who believes the vice-president is unworthy of her job. Shooting starts next month in Washington D.C. and Virginia.
* Richard Gere will play a gynecologist who is having a mid-life crisis in Robert Altman's romantic comedy DR. T AND THE WOMEN written by Anne Rapp. Liv Tyler and Claire Danes may join the pic.
* Jason Biggs joins the college pic BOYS AND GIRLS with Freddie Prinze Jr. and directed by Robert Iscove (SHE'S ALL THAT).
* Charlize Theron joins NAVY DIVER as Robert DeNiro's wife for director George Tillman Jr. (SOUL FOOD). Joshua Leonard (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) nabbed a role as well.
* Molly Ringwald will play a waitress in the indie flick IN THE WEEDS for writer/director Michael Rauch.
* Ethan Erickson ("The Guiding Light") joins Mary Lambert's IN CROWD.
* Lochlyn Munro, Jonathan Abrahams, and Cheri Oteri join SCREAM IF YOU KNOW WHAT I DID LAST HALLOWEEN for director Keenan Ivory Wayans.
* Kris Kristofferson and Jamie Foxx will play an odd team looking for stolen money in the drama BAIT which starts shooting in Sept. Steven Surjik will direct the Warner Bros. project.
* Brooke Langton joins Keanu Reeves in THE REPLACEMENTS.
* Patricia Clarkson will star in the indie flick HEARTBREAK HOTEL about a deranged soap opera fan who meddles in the lives of her favorite characters.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Darryl Quarles has written BLACK KNIGHT, picked up by New Regency Prods., about a theme restaurant employee who is transported back to medieval times.
* Joe Nussbaum (GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE short) will direct ALMOST ROMANTIC for DreamWorks. It is described as "an unromantic romantic comedy" about a romantically challenged best man and a cynical maid of honor who accompany their bride and injured groom on their honeymoon at a nice resort. The non-couple fight their urges, but end up falling in love anyway and break up other couples in the process.
* Music video director McG is in talks to direct Columbia's CHARLIE'S ANGELS starring Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz.
* Raja Gosnell (NEVER BEEN KISSED) is in talks to direct BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE for 20th Century Fox starring Martin Lawrence. Shooting begins in Sept. Gosnell is also in negotiations to direct FANTASTIC FOUR for Fox.
* Ray Manzarek of the Doors will direct the indie flick LOVE HER MADLY (unrelated to the Doors song), a digitally shot film about love, madness, obsession and murder surrounding a female drama student. Jennifer Lothrop will star.
* Alexander Payne (ELECTION) is in talks to direct the biopic ESQUIVEL with John Leguizamo playing Juan Garcia Esquivel, the Mexican musician whose music during the 60s typified the "Hi Fi" sound of the time. Payne has also been developing Louis Begley's ABOUT SCHMIDT for Columbia as well as Paul Auster's THE LOCKED ROOM for Fine Line.
* Griffin Dunne is attached to direct MATRICIDE for Working Title Films, written by Patty Marx and Sarah Paley about a stand-up comic who tells his audience how horrible his mother is. When she turns up murdered, he finds himself as the prime suspect.
* Jay Roach is attached to produce and possibly direct an untitled pitch from Marc Klein and Michael Paleo about a billionaire who discovers a computer program that lets him email his former 1984 self. While trying to fix his miserable high school experience, he sets off a chain of events turning his world upside down. Roach may possibly star as well.
* Disney and Saturn Films may pick up the pitch LOVE ON THE RUN about a group of men trying to keep other young men from getting married until the group's leader gets hitched. Jeremy Miller and Dan Cohn will write the script.
* Stephen Kay (THE LAST TIME I COMMITTED SUICIDE) will direct Sylevester Stallone in GET CARTER for Warner Bros.
* David Marlett has written OF KINGS AND COWBOYS about the world or professional polo. IMMI Pictures picked up the script. Shooting should begin early next year.
* Destination Films picked up the ping pong comedy spec ANY IDIOT CAN PLAY by Robert Stevens and Dax Shelby.
* Conor McPherson has written THE ACTORS for DreamWorks about an actor who tries to dupe a gangster out of some money and must pretend to be several characters to outsmart his way out of trouble. Neil Jordan and Stephen Woolley will produce.
* Nancy Pimental ("South Park") has written an untitled comedy for Columbia Pictures about a girl who has never had any trouble attracting men, but needs to learn how to woo when she meets Mr. Right.
* Scott Lobdell will write the comic adaptation HELLHOLE and the romantic comedy THE LAST MAN ON EARTH for Dimension Films.
* Pacific Western Prods. picked up Glen Craney's script WHISPER THE WIND about a group of Navajos who developed a code used by the Marines which the Japanese never broke.
* Robert Luketic will direct the comedy THE MILE HIGH CLUB for Universal and Working Title Films about a secret prostitution ring on a major airline.
* Stephen Sommers will write/direct a sequel to THE MUMMY. Universal is in talks with Brendan Fraser to return.
* David Kirschner and Marty Katz will produce Brent Hanley's script FRAILTY about a father who eradicates evil people. One son of his thinks he's a hero, the other sees him as a demon.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Fine Line Features will distribute Julien Temple's THE FILTH AND THE FURY, a documentary about rock group The Sex Pistols.
* WB and Village Roadshow Pictures picked up Larry Golin's pitch OFFICER INVOLVED for George Clooney's Maysville Prods. for Clooney to possibly star as a PR person for the NY Police dept. who becomes a hero during a hostage situation.
* Paramount picked up the screen rights to the yet-to-be-pulbished magazine article THE ACCOUNTANT AND THE STRIPPER written by Harriet Surobell about an accountant who was recruited to run six strip clubs, ridding the joints of drug dealers in the process while developing a crush on "the panther girl."
* Harold Becker (SEA OF LOVE) may direct an adaptation of Nelson DeMille's (THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER) GOLD COAST for Castle Rock about an old couple whose lives are changed when a mob boss moves next door. Alan Ladd Jr. is developing DeMille's SPENCERVILLE while Dino DeLaurentiis is working on WORD OF HONOR being scripted by Tom Topor (THE ACCUSED).
Tobe Hooper is working on a killer croc pic, Rocky may return and there is actually a ping pong movie finally in development. Stranger things have happened, but not in a while. *** The wrestling pic was inevitable. *** Jay Roach is developing a lot of projects. I wonder which one he'll definitely do next. *** A biopic about Esquivel? Interesting. *** The cast to SCREAM IF YOU KNOW... is filling out nicely. *** Raja Gosnell is busy as is Sylvester Stallone. *** THE CONTENDER has a great cast. I wonder how it'll turn out. I look forward to it...along with several other projects. The new Pee Wee Herman pic that has been talked about hasn't hit the trades yet, but I look for it to do so soon.
Have a good August.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
