Hey Folks... Harry here with Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP... his first of 2000. And... there are actually some quite promising projects and additions below... Pretty cool. Take a look....
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Keanu Reeves will play a vicious, wife-beating murder suspect in THE GIFT for director Sam Raimi. Billy Bob Thornton co-wrote the sequel with Tom Epperson. Cate Blanchett, Ron Eldard, Katie Holmes and Giovanni Ribisi also star in the pic which will start shooting in February.
* Elizabeth Hurley and Frances O'Connor join Brendan Fraser in Fox's remake of the 1967 flick BEDAZZLED for director Harold Ramis. This version revolves around a nerdy technical adviser who is helped by a powerful temptress to win the heart of a female co-worker.
* Kurt Russell is in talks to join Kevin Costner in 3,000 MILES TO GRACELAND for director Demian Lichtenstein about a Las Vegas heist during Elvis convention week.
* Rachel Leigh Cook and Claire Forlani join Ryan Phillippe and Tim Robbins in MGM's ANTI-TRUST. Peter Howitt (SLIDING DOORS) directs the Howard Franklin (SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME) script.
* Lili Taylor is in final talks to play the title role in JULIE JOHNSON based on Wendy Hammond's play for director Bob Gosse (NIAGRA, NIAGRA.) The story centers around a cop's wife who takes a night course about computers that changes her life in ways she never expected.
* Freddie Prinze Jr. is in talks to play the lead in SUMMER CATCH for Warner Bros. and director Mike Tollin about a minor league baseball player who falls in love with a wealthy young woman whose family visits his Cape Cod hometown in the summer.
* Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn are in talks to star and direct, respectively, in the romantic comedy ANIMAL HUSBANDRY for Fox 2000.
* Helen Hunt is back in talks to join Mel Gibson in WHAT WOMEN WANT for Paramount. She would go right into the pic after she finishes PAY IT FORWARD. Both films, however, are due to start filming next month.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Documentary director Joe Berlinger (BROTHER'S KEEPER) will direct BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 2 with a Feb. start and a slated Halloween release. BLAIR WITCH 3 will be a prequel and will be made by the original BLAIR WITCH team of Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick. WITCH 3 will be shot in the fall for a summer 2001 release.
* Shekar Kapur (ELIZABETH) may direct a remake of THE FOUR FEATHERS for Paramount and Miramax. Based on the A.E. Mason novel, the plot follows a British Army officer who resigns his commission just before going to battle in Sudan. He tries to redeem himself by rescuing his comrades and fiancee after they accuse him of being a coward. Production should start by late spring.
HARRY NOTE: Just to go on the record... This is another one of those remakes of a 4 STAR movie... that just... whatever... go ahead...
* John Hoffman is writing a remake of THE LAST OF SHEILA for Warner Bros. and has written TALK OF THE TOWN about Gotham Cultural Affairs Commissioner Bess Myerson and her trial. Bill Condon may be interested in directing the latter project.
* Warren Leight (SIDE MAN playwright) will script a sequel to THE COMMITMENTS for Miramax. The idea is to bring some old faces back with a few new ones and put the band back together for a trip to America.
* Burt Reynolds will direct a remake of RKO Pictures' Boris Karloff 1945 vampire classic ISLE OF THE DEAD. There are more RKO remakes up ahead.
* John Madden is in final talks to direct CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN for Universal and Working Title Films. Roger Michell was to helm the pic, but since dropped out after suffering heart problems last year.
* Ed Zwick (THE SIEGE) will direct TOYS OF DESPERATION for Paramount based on the novel by Sean Desmond. The story follows an Ivy League student who is haunted by a ghost who wants to frame him for a murder not unlike one it committed 50 years earlier.
* Victor Nunez (ULEE'S GOLD) will direct his script THE PROFESSOR'S WIFE for The Shooting Gallery about a husband and wife who try to reinvent their relationships with their adult children who have families of their own.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Richard Brick picked up the screen rights to WHIRLGIG by Paul Fleishman about a high schooler who engages in a thoughtless act (which ultimately kills a girl) while trying to be accepted in a new town. The boy then makes a journey of self-discovery.
* Fine Line grabbed the screen rights to Julian F. Thompson's book THE GROUNDING OF GROUP 6 about a 17-year old whose brother disappeared from a mental institution. He searches to find his brother and finds romance along the way.
* Nickelodeon Movies and producer John Williams are developing ALIEN PET BOY after it was put into turnaround by Universal. The story, based on an upcoming children's book by Keith Graves, is about a boy who is mean to his pets, but learns his lesson after he is abducted by aliens and becomes a pet on their planet.
* Universal will decide within the next couple of weeks whether or not to go ahead with HANNIBAL after Jodie Foster reportedly passed on the project though Anthony Hopkins is still interested. Steve Zaillan (SCHINDLER'S LIST) rewrote David Mamet's adaptation while Ridley Scott is on board to direct.
* Daly Harris Prods. may remake CHAMPAGNE FOR CEASAR the 1950 comedy about the early days of live TV game shows.
* Miramax has landed the screen rights to THE BRIGADE, a fact-based book by Howard Blum to be published this spring. The story follows a brigade of Palestinian Jews who spearheaded a campaign to import Jewish refugees to the Middle East.
* John Travolta, Barry Pepper and screenwriter Cory Mandell are on board for a sequel to the upcoming BATTLEFIELD EARTH which will cover the second half of the L. Ron Hubbard book.
Happy New Year, all. Thanks to those who let me know some of the titles I forgot in the big end-of-the year list of future projects. Some I don't think were mentioned in the trades, but here they are: ENDER'S GAME, HIGHLANDER 4, CHICKEN RUN, THE CROW: SALVATION, OCRA COKE, Hiyazaki's new one, HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, BRUISER, FREDDY VS. JASON, THE TIME MACHINE, HONG KONG FOOEY, SEED OF CHUCKY, LANCELOT LINK, POKEMON 2, QUILLS, HUMAN NATURE, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VENGEANCE OF DRACULA, DRACULA 2000, STEAM, FORGIVEN, HELLBOY, COLLATERAL DAMAGE, Val Kilmer/Bruce Willis Western, LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY MEN and the correct title of MARILYN MANSON'S HOLY WOOD. Thanks again.
As for this week... should Universal go ahead with HANNIBAL? Will Helen Hunt make up her mind on WHAT WOMEN WANT? Is going ahead with a BATTLEFIELD EARTH sequel quite a gamble? Does anyone know what the other two RKO remakes will be? So many questions... almost as many as the number of remakes out there. Tony Goldwyn has a busy plate, acting and directing. ANTI-TRUST is starting to round out its cast. Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner together in a heist pic? What do you think about that project? And, finally, how about THE GIFT ensemble? I'm very much looking forward to that one among others. Not a bad way to start off 2000.
Have a good year. Enjoy the twenty hundredseseses.
Elston Gunn
