FATHER GEEK here with Elston Gunn's latest WEEKLY RECAP, check it out...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Laura Dern will play a young mother of three who's dumped by her husband in Robert Altman's DR T AND THE WOMEN.
* Josh Lucas and Ulrich Thomsen join Sean Penn and Catherine McCormack in Kathryn Bigelow's THE WEIGHT OF WATER.
* Sean William Scott (AMERICAN PIE) and Breckin Meyer (GO) nabbed roles in Todd Phillips' DreamWorks comedy ROAD TRIP.
* Nestor Serrano joins BAIT starring Jamie Foxx.
* Steven Culp (CBS' "JAG") and Tim Kelleher (THE NEGOTIATOR) will star alongside Kevin Costner in THIRTEEN DAYS. Dylan Baker (HAPPINESS) will play Robert McNamara.
* Joseph "Joey" Lawrence will star in URBAN LEGEND 2 for director John Ottoman with Matthew Davis, Jennifer Morrison, Jessica Caffiel and Anthony Anderson. Loretta Devine reprises her role as Reese.
* Dennis Farina will join Brad Pitt in Columbia's DIAMONDS for director Guy Ritchie.
* Radha Mitchell (HIGH ART) is joining the indie love story COWBOYS AND ANGELS for director Gregory Haynes (HEAVEN OR VEGAS). Adam Trese and Mia Kirshner also star.
* Miranda Richardson and Rachel Leigh Cook have been cast in WB's GET CARTER starring Sylvester Stallone. Richardson plays the widow of the slain brother. Cook plays her daughter.
* Susan Sarandon is in talks to star in Brad Silberling's BABY IN BLACK for WB and Bel Air Entertainment about a young woman's murder in the 70s and the family grief thereafter. The deceased woman's fiancee falls in love with someone else under the roof of his former in-laws to be.
* Vera Farmiga (RETURN TO PARADISE) joins Richard Gere and Winona Ryder in AUTUMN IN NEW YORK for MGM and director Joan Chen.
* Josh Marchette (FLOATING) joins David Mamet's STATE AND MAINE starring Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker and William H. Macy.
* Peter Green joins ANASAZI MOON with Skeet Ulrich and Gary Oldman. Shooting begins this month in Salt Lake City.
* Lesley Ann Warren joins DELIVERING MILO with Albert Finney and Bridget Fonda for director Nick Castle.
* Jason Biggs (AMERICAN PIE) is in final talks to star in LOSER for writer/director Amy Heckerling.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Michael Di Jiacomo will write the adaptation of THE LIGHT PRINCESS, for 20th Century Fox based on the fairy tale by George Macdonald about a princess who is cursed by a jealous witch so that she has no gravity and this affects her ability to feel real emotions. Fox is looking to update the story and set it in northern California.
* Paramount Pictures picked up Will Davies' romantic comedy pitch about two radio call-in contest winners: A million dollars is theirs, if they agree to marry and publicly suffer through the matrimonial troubles for a year.
* Jean-Jaques Annaud (SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET) will shoot ENEMY AT THE GATES about a WWII Russian sniper and a German officer set against the battle of Stalingrad. Jude Law, Ed Harris and Joseph Fiennes will star. Rachel Weisz is in talks to play a love interest.
* Tony Goldwyn (A WALK ON THE MOON) is in final talks to direct the romantic drama HANDYMAN for Warner Bros. about a handyman who is terrible at fixing things, but can mend the broken lives of his clients. Carolyn See wrote the novel.
* Andrea King will write the romantic comedy AS TOLD TO for Warner Bros. as a starring vehicle for Michael Douglas and Rene Russo about the relationship between an NBA basketball coach and his ghostwriter, a beautiful and frustrated novelist.
* Thai filmmaker Kaos will direct New Line's remake of the 1992 Hong Kong actioner FULL CONTACT with Pras attached to star. The story chronicles the secrets of survival in a murky underworld of criminals.
* Alexander Payne (ELECTION) will adapt and direct the unpublished novel SIDEWAYS by Rex Pickett about a road trip that a writer and a director take ona lark just before one of them gets married. Payne is also doing ABOUT SCHMIDT at Columbia and THE LOCKED ROOM at Fine Line.
* Veteran director Stanley Donen will direct Anthony Minghella's original script SEVEN DEADLY SINS about a man who attempts suicide and is visited by the Seven Deadly Sins, who use their powers to make him live life their way.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Dimension Films is moving the release date for SCREAM 3 from December to February of next year.
* Paramount Pictures picked up the rights to MISS PICKETT, a modernization of Nancy R. Julian's children's novel about a nanny with magical powers who takes her two young wards on a fantastical journey. Roger Avary will pen the family-friendly script for Paramount's Nickelodeon Movies.
* Universal will turn the comic strip ZITS into a live action feature to be produced by Tom Shadyac, Marc Platt and Rick Karo. ZITS follows a 15-year old freshman having trouble relating to everything from girls to parents.
* Artisan Entertainment picked up the rights to Paul Solotaro's novel GROUP, a nonfiction account of group therapy sessions that took place during a year in New York.
A lot of young folks were making deals this week to star in projects such as LOSER, ROAD TRIP and URBAN LEGEND 2. I'm curious about the plot to LOSER. Anybody know anything about it? Alexander Payne is a very busy director it seems, as is David Mamet who reportedly turned in his first draft of HANNIBAL. It's good to see 75-year old Stanley Donen still ready to crank out some films...SEVEN DEADLY SINS sounds intriguing. And after months of wondering if it would ever get made, 13 DAYS seems to be rounding out its cast. I look forward to seeing this one.
Happy October.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
