Good ol' ELSTON GUNN has filed his WEEKLY RECAP with FATHER GEEK at Geek Headquarters this morning, sooooo here it is without further comment...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* William R. Moses ("Melrose Place") joins Karen Sillas and Shirley Knight in Hyatt Bass' indie pic 75 DEGREES IN JULY which is shooting in Texas.
* Alison Lohman (THIRTEENTH FLOOR) joins Albert Finney and Bridget Fonda in DELIVERING MILO for director Nick Castle (DENNIS THE MENACE) and exec. producer Wim Wenders.
* Hal Holbrook joins NAVY DIVER with Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. He'll play a commanding officer of the Navy Diver school.
* Tony Goldwyn and David Paymer join BOUNCE for director Don Roos.
* Joely Richardson and Hugh Laurie will star in MAYBE BABY for writer/director Ben Elton about a professional couple who have everything, except a baby.
* Sean Penn will star in New Line's THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON for director Niels Mueller who wrote the script with Kevin Kennedy about the true story of Samuel Byck, a furniture salesman who blamed his problems on President Nixon.
* Nicole Kidman will play a NYU professor who has a dangerous affair with a detective in IN THE CUT for director Jane Campion based on the erotic thriller novel by Susanna Moore. Both Kidman and Campion are producing (Kidman's producing debut). Miramax may distribute.
* Anne Archer joins Wesley Snipes in THE ART OF WAR for director Christian Duguay (CBS' "Joan of Arc").
* Mary J. Blige will star in PRISON SONG oppostie Q-Tip, who co-wrote the script with the director Darnell Martin (I LIKE IT LIKE THAT). Elvis Costello and Fat Joe will also star in the film about a young black man going through poverty and the modern correctional system.
* William Hurt will star opposite Lena Olin in SEBASTIAN'S LOVE for director Lasse Halstrom (upcoming THE CIDER HOUSE RULES) based on the 1992 Vita Andersen novel about the changing relationship between a mother and son when new man enters her life.
* Susan Sarandon, John Lithgow and Debbie Reynolds are lending their voices to RUGRATS IN PARIS for Nickelodeon Films and directors Paul Demeyer and Stig Berquist about the whole Rugrats gang going to Paris when Stu Pickles is called to work there. Meanwhile, Chas starts dating again and Chuckie wants to find a new mom.
* Michael Caine will play an English gangster in KING SWANNY, an indie drama loosely based on Shakespeare's KING LEAR. John Irvin (NBC's "Noah's Ark") will direct. Caine may also take a part in the upcoming GET CARTER remake.
* Jim Caviezel (THE THIN RED LINE) will star in the indie flick MADISON, now shooting in Indiana with William Bindley directing the story of a small town hosting the World Cup boat racing championship in 1971. Bruce Dern, Jake Lloyd, Brent Briscoe and Mary McCormack also star.
* Peter Mullan (MY NAME IS JOE) will star and Charlize Theron is in talks to star in the western KINGDOM COME for director Michael Winterbottom.
* Paul Sorvino joins Kathleen Turner in the indie pic THE AMATI GIRLS about four adult sisters and their widowed mother.
* Bruce McGill (A DOG OF FLANDERS) joins THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE.
* Matthew McConaughey is in talks to star in and co-produce RED, WHITE, BLACK AND BLUE about a war between LA cops and a local drug czar on July 4, 1976. Andrew Kevin Walker (SEVEN) scripted the Paramount project.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Brad Siberling (CITY OF ANGELS) will direct the romantic drama BABY'S IN BLACK for Bel Air Entertainment about a guy falling in love with a woman under the roof of his dead fiancee's family's home. The woman is also having trouble letting go of her partner who is presumed dead.
* Warner Bros. has picked up Susan Hoffman's romantic comedy spec GET ME TO FRANK BY 35 for Chris O'Donnell's George Street Prods. about a single mother who tries to find the biological father of her child, conceived via artificial insemination. She finds the father, who is a garbage man from Queens whom she falls for and is torn between him and a more proper suitor.
* Writer Charlie Kaufman (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) is working on several projects including CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND with Mike Myers attached; ADAPTATION with Jonathan Demme attached; and a "recovering memory" project with Nicolas Cage attached. Kaufman is also producing a pair of films with Spike Jonze for music director Michel Gondry to direct.
* Director Stephen Herek (MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS) is in talks with 20th Century Fox to direct a remake of Jules Verne's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. (This project is separate from the Warner Bros./Stephen Sommers/Brendan Fraser remake). Herek is also developing TOMB RAIDER.
* Jason Mayland's spec script CAN'T GET ARRESTED was picked up by Warner Bros. It tells the story of a has-been childhood movie star who is taken hostage during a bank robbery.
* Giuseppe Tornatore (CINEMA PARADISO) will direct MALENA with Miramax co-producing the story of the sensual obsessions of a young woman inspiring a group of adolescent boys.
* Antonio Banderas will next direct an adaptation of Gamel Woolsey's MALAGE BURNING: AN AMERICAN WOMAN'S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR. Melanie Griffith will star.
* Susan Shaffer will write the comedy BABE BEHIND BARS for Warner Bros. as a producing and possibly starring vehicle for Sandra Bullock about a Hollywood executive who is sentenced to prison after a car accident she's in leaves an elderly woman in a coma.
* Jesse Wigutow has written URBAN TOWNIE, picked up by Warner Bros., about a love triangle involving a guy living in the midwest who comes back to New York City for his father's funeral to find his old girlfriend with his best friend.
* David Fincher is in talks to direct Brad Pitt in THE MEXICAN for producer Lawrence Bender. Kevin Reynolds (WATERWORLD) had been looking at the project, but dropped out. Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have dropped out of Miramax's WAKING UP IN RENO.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay will work early next year on a big-budget Pearl Harbor flick tentatively titled TENNESSEE. Randall Wallace (BRAVEHEART) is scripting. Bay said he wants Gene Hackman to play Roosevelt and Gwyneth Paltrow to play a nurse, the romantic lead in the film about two brothers (one in the Air Force, one flies for the RAF) both involved with the same woman.
* New Line Cinema may buy an untitled pitch from Pat Proft and David Zucker (NAKED GUN series). The pitch is said to be a straight cop comedy and not a spoof with hopes for a possible franchise.
* Michael Douglas has dropped out of Mandalay Pictures' THE SCORE in order to seek out a project he can do with Catherine Zeta-Jones.
* Columbia Pictures' remake of THE SEA WOLF has been put into turnaround due to schedule conflicts. Producer Brian Grazer and director John Boorman were developing the project.
Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday greetings last weekend. I really appreciated it. The work week was shortened by Labor Day, but seemed more productive than last week as there are a lot more castings. What catches your eye? Sean Penn doing the NIXON pic sounds rather cool. Kidman and Campion reteaming for an erotic thriller? That caught a lot of eyes this week. Another reteaming includes David Fincher and Brad Pitt on THE MEXICAN. I wonder the script is like. And what about the 2 AROUND THE WORLD remakes? Is it really necessary? BABE BEHIND BARS and PRISON SONG are both projects this week that deal with the slammer, but I believe they're on two opposite sides of the spectrum. KING SWANNY, MADISON and RED, WHITE, BLACK AND BLUE also sound interesting--with the two latter set in the 70s. Know anything about these projects? Let Harry know.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
