Hey folks... I'm really tired this evening... Partied too hard, so this will be a short update (with probably 2000 times the normal allotment of misspellings). But as usual, the amazing Elston Gunn has come through with another wonderful catch-ya-up report from the world of the 'legitimate press" as opposed to all of us so-called bastards... here ya go...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Morgan Fairchild joins Dennis Hopper in HELD FOR RANSOM which begins shooting this week in Florida.
* Nicole Ari Parker joins Denzel Washington in REMEMBER THE TITANS as well as Reggie Rock Bythewood's DANCING IN SEPTEMBER.
* Scott Bakula will star in the indie pic ABOVE SUSPICION alongside Annabella Sciorra and George Dzundza.
* Michael Rapaport joins John Travolta in NUMBERS and Arnold Schwarzenegger in THE SIXTH DAY.
* William H. Macy and Anne Heche will star in AUGGIE ROSE for writer/director Matt Tabak with Jamie Lee Curtis, Timothy Olyphant and Richard T. Jones also starring. The film follows a boring insurance man who assumes the life of an ex-con when a stranger dies in his arms. He keeps his new persona from his girlfriend, but things get complicated when a woman who had been corresponding with the ex-con arrives to meet him in prison for the first time.
* Robert Hays (AIRPLANE) joins Robert Altman's DR. T AND THE WOMEN.
* Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan, Julian Sands, Stellan Skarsgard, Laurie Metcalf, Stephen Weber, Saffron Burrows, Mia Maestro, Alessandro Nivola, Richard Edson, Leslie Mann, Danny Huston, Aimee Graham, Xander Berkeley, Viveka Davis and Golden Brooks join Salma Hayek in TIME CODE 2000, the improvisational intense psychodrama for director Mike Figgis.
* Jennifer Aniston is in talks to star opposite Mark Wahlberg in METAL GOD for director Stephen Herek and producer George Clooney.
* Glenn Close is in talks to play former Miss America Bess Myerson in QUEEN BESS for director Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS). John Hoffman wrote the script loosely based on Shana Alexander's WHEN SHE WAS BAD.
* Lou Diamond Phillips and Madchen Amick will star in HANGMAN. Ken Girotti directs the story of a woman targeted by a serial killer who murders someone every time Amick fails to solve a Hangman game sent over the Internet.
* Heather Donahue (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) will star in SEVEN AND A MATCH for writer/director Derek Simonds about seven friends who want to burn down their vacation house for insurance money. Adam Scott, Tina Holmes and Eion Bailey also star.
* Teri Polo ("Felicity") will star opposite Ben Stiller in MEET THE PARENTS for director Jay Roach from a script by Jim Herzfeld. A real estate agent brings her fiance home to meet her parents, played by Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner. However, her father has different plans for her beau.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Tom McLaughlin (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 6) will direct EXORCIST: DOMINION, a prequel to the 1973 classic, for Morgan Creek Prods. this spring on location in Africa. William Wisher wrote the script based on the novel by William Peter Blatty tracing the story of Father Merrin back to his first encounter with the Devil during his missionary work in Africa.
* Sidney Lumet will direct a film based on Andrzej Szczypiroski's novel THE BEAUTIFUL MS. SEIDENMANN about a blond, blue-eyed Polish Jew trying to use her looks to escape concentration camps.
* Gary Sinyor (THE BACHELOR) will direct LOVE HURTS for New Line about the most un-romantic woman in the world. David Chaskin scripted.
* Brad Bird (THE IRON GIANT) may direct CURIOUS GEORGE, based on the children's books, for Universal and Imagine Entertainment. Bird is also writing/directing THE INCREDIBLES, an animated feature about a family of superheroes for Warner Bros.
* Paul Verhoeven will direct THE SECRET ROAD for Columbia Pictures about a covert band of Palestinian Jews who posed as German troops in 1942 to sabotage the Nazi drive from North Africa to Cairo.
* Chris and Paul Weitz are writing THE MAKING OF A CHEF, based on Michael Ruhlman's nonfiction book, as a romantic comedy about aspiring chefs attending the Culinary Institute of America. They are also rewriting and will likely direct I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER with Chris Rock attached to star.
* Chris Gerolmo will write/direct RESURRECTING THE CHAMP for Phoenix Pictures about a homeless man who claims to be one of boxing's greatest fighters. It's based on a Los Angeles Times magazine piece.
* Patrick Lussier will direct DRACULA 2000 for Dimension Films and "Wes Craven Presents." Joel Soisson wrote the screenplay.
* John Irvin will direct SHINER for producer Geoffrey Reeve, starring Michael Caine and Martin Landau in a story that translates KING LEAR into the world of gangland bosses and boxing.
* Griffin Dunne will direct the indie mockumentary FAMOUS for producers Dolly Hall and Mira Sorvino about two aspiring actors.
* Columbia Pictures picked up Michael Valle's spec script SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VENGEANCE OF DRACULA for Mutual Film Co. Chris Columbus may develop and direct the action-adventure-horror film.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld have pulled out of the Muhammad Ali biopic, but Sony will continue the project's development.
* Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit) will work with DreamWorks on THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE as part of a $250 million film deal between Park and the studio. The two worked on CHICKEN RUN to be released this summer--described by Park as a cartoon THE GREAT ESCAPE.
* Baldwin/Cohen Prods. picked up the screen rights to THE GREEN by Troon McAllister about the captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team and their chances of beating the European team when a seedy Florida golf hustler joins the U.S. team where he was lured through bribery.
* Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow are developing a remake to the 1972 drama SLEUTH about a young man invited to spend the weekend at the estate of a mystery playwright. The guest has been having an affair with the author's wife, but thinks he doesn't know. Plots, counterplots, outsmarting one another and counterattacks ensue.
* Producer Scott Rudin has optioned the screen rights to THE MAN WITH TWO HEADS, a magazine article about Binjamin Wilkomirski who was heralded for his 1995 Holocaust memoirs, but is now accused of making it all up. Rudin's pic will be about the investigation of the man and his story.
* Don Murphy's Angry Films and Jim Henson Pictures will turn the Japanese Manga comic PARASYTE into a live-action/CGI feature following mysterious seeds that fall from the sky and transforms creatures into alien forces. When they land on the left hand of young Mike, he ties off the hand and creates Lefty, an alien parasite.
* Alexis Prods. bought the screen rights to the book proposal HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF by Kelley Armstrong about a female werewolf and her love triangle.
* Warner Bros. is discussing two possible scripts for the next Batman installment: BATMAN: YEAR ONE, based on the four-issue comic miniseries and BATMAN BEYOND, based on the WB series.
I realize Harry already mentioned the Batman stuff, but since it was in the trades, I included it in the recap. I, for one, wouldn't mind seeing a full-length animated (or CGI) Batman on the big screen--just for something different. Speaking of animation, it's cool to see both Brad Bird and Nick Park having projects in the works. I look forward to whatever the put out there for us. The cast for TIME CODE 2000 is huge. I'm anxious to see this project based on its improvisational style--and it's being shot on digital cameras. There are a few more WWII/Holocaust pics in development. Sidney Lumet, Paul Verhoeven and Scott Rudin are taking their turns with the subject matter. Two Dracula projects mentioned this week. Has anybody read SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VENGEANCE OF DRACULA--or, for that matter, DRACULA 2000? Details, please.
Until next week...
Happy November and have a good Veteran's Day.
Elston Gunn
