Hey folks, Harry here. Sorry for the delay on Elston's regular column, but I wasn't able to get it till I got back in town. Right now... I'm in the process of fixing this, for future trips. Like I leave in the morning, though with Father Geek in place everything should work just fine. Well folks, Here's the Weekly Recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Sarah Michelle Gellar will star in HARVARD MAN for writer/director James Toback about sex, philosophy, drugs and fixing basketball games in the 1960s at Harvard.
* Lauren Holly joins WHAT WOMEN WANT opposite Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt about a man who can read women's minds. Nancy Meyers directs.
* Wes Bentley may star as Lestat in QUEEN OF THE DAMNED for Warner Bros. The story follows Lestat who wakes up the Queen of all vampires through his rock music. Meanwhile, a vampire hunter falls in love with him.
* Jodie Foster will produce and take a supporting role in THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS for director Peter Care. Jeff Stockwell and Michael Petroni scripted the story of a group of Catholic school friends who draw an obscene comic book and also plan a heist that will make them local legends. Shooting begins May 1.
* Kate Winslet is in talks to star in ENIGMA for director Michael Apted about a young man who tries to break a German code to solve a mystery. Dougray Scott and Saffron Burrows also star in the movie written by Tom Stoppard and Hanna Wegcq.
* Johnny Depp will star in CHOCOLAT opposite Juliette Binoche for director Lasse Hallstrom and Miramax Films. The story follows a woman who opens up a chocolate shop in a small village. Alfred Molina co-stars with Judi Dench possibly taking a role.
* Renee Zellweger will star in BRIDGET JONES' DIARY based on Helen Fielding's novel about a single girl in her 30s. Sharon Maguire will direct.
* Richard Gere is in talks to star in JULIA PASTRONA for director Taylor Hackford about a circus freak who falls in love with the man who exploits her.
* Steve Buscemi and Brad Renfro join Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson in GHOST WORLD for director Terry Zwigoff about best friends whose lines go in different directions as they get older.
* Penelope Cruz will join Nicolas Cage in CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN which starts shooting May 22 in Greece. John Madden directs.
* Will Smith is in talks to star in PHONE BOOTH for Fox 2000 about a man who answers a call at a phone booth and becomes a target of a sniper.
* Rachel Leigh Cook will star in the thriller CONSPIRACY for director Jay Lowi. Shooting begins in May on the Jeffrey Leiber script about the relationship between Cook and her two boyfriends after a young man is found severely beaten.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Tim Burton is in final talks to direct a remake of PLANET OF THE APES for 20th Century Fox. The studio is hoping for a July 4, 2001 release.
* Inital Entertainment Group bought the script SMOKE AND MIRRORS as a possible starring vehicle for Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Lee and Jane Scott Batchler wrote the action-adventure script based on the true story of a 19th century illusionist and his lovely assistant who are sent to France to expose a sorcerer who is inciting an anti-colonial revolution.
* David Diamond and David Weissman are writing the script to ONE TOO MANY for Columbia Pictures and producers Doug Wisk and Lucy Fisher loosely inspired by the 1940 romantic comedy TOO MANY HUSBANDS about a woman whose thought-to-be-dead husband shows up.
* Rob McKittrick sold his script WAITING to Artisan Entertainment about the experiences of waiting tables by a group of down-and-out waiters and waitresses who look for the meaning of life while working at a restaurant.
* Michael Mann has committed to direct Will Smith in the Muhammad Ali biopic ALI for Columbia Pictures and producer Jon Peters. Shooting may begin in July for a summer 2001 release. Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (NIXON) scripted. As a result, Mann has dropped out of the Brad Pitt pic SHOOTER.
* Barry Sonnenfeld will direct BIG TROUBLE for Disney instead of Warner Bros.' THE UGLY TRUTH. Tom Jacobson is producing the Disney pic which is supposed to shoot this summer in Miami.
* Mark Steven Johnson (SIMON BIRCH) is in talks to write and direct DAREDEVIL based on the Marvel Comic book for Columbia Pictures.
* Renny Harlin may be in talks to direct CHAMPS starring Sylvester Stallone, who also scripted the action pic which takes place at an open-wheel auto race track. Meanwhile, Stallone will star in an indie thriller entitled MORTON ORWELL as a bank robber on the run from the FBI and a sworn enemy. Simon Davis Barry scripted, but there is not a director yet since Kevin Reynolds left.
* Rebecca de Mornay will direct and star in LILITH, which she wrote for Filmtown Entertainment.
* Peter Hyams will diect D'ARTAGNAN about the musketeer who seeks revenge after the murder of his parents. Hyams will also direct THE PEGASUS OPTION about a group of ex-fighter pilots who are after a dictator who intends on giving plutonium to terrorists. Both films are being produced by Behaviour Worldwide.
* Robert Redford will direct A BEAUTIFUL MIND for Universal with Tom Cruise possibly starring in the true story of John Forbes Nash Jr., a math genius who suffered from schizophrenia, but recovered and later won a Nobel Prize. Shooting may begin in the fall. Redford may also star in SPY GAME for Universal.
* Disney picked up RED HOOD by Ezekiel Martinez and Lee Alford about the characters Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf ten years after he offed her grandmother. He now terrorizes the Land of Grimm.
* Columbia bought David Koepp's THE PANIC ROOM for $2m about a mother and daughter who fight for their lives in their new house.
* Oliver Stone is circling SUPERMAN with Nicolas Cage attached to star in the Warner Bros. project. Bill Wisher's new script has studio approval.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Todd Black will be producing A KNIGHT'S TALE with Brian Helgeland directing his own script. Heath Ledger stars as a jouster.
* The release date for THE FLINSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS has been moved to April 28 from May 12.
* Ken Ralston has dropped out of JUMANJI 2 due to creative differences with Columbia Pictures. The project may still begin production this fall.
* Steven Spielberg has chosen not to direct HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE. Robert Zemeckis, Chris Columbus and Brad Silberling are now potential directors for the project.
* Disney picked up the pitch FLIGHT PLAN from writer Peter Dowling, producer Robert DiNozzi and Imagine Entertainment. The picture is described as a high concept thriller.
* Harrison Ford has dropped out of TRAFFIC to star in an as-yet determined action film, but he may be replaced by Kevin Costner who is not taking a role in PEARL HARBOR.
* Julianne Moore is dropping out of M. Night Shyamalan's UNBREAKABLE to star in HANNIBAL.
* Hugh Wilson has exited the director's seat of the Sandra Bullock-starrer MISS CONGENIALITY. Shooting may still begin April 17.
* Producer Allan Kaufman (THE WHOLE NINE YARDS) is producing a pic about the superbike racing circuit as well as THE JEHOVAH CONTRACT based on the novel by Victor Korman.
* The Howard Hughes biopic to star Leonardo DiCaprio for director Michael Mann has found a new home at New Line Cinema.
GUNN SHOTS
(not from the trades)
* Road Dog Productions is producing THE RIFF a surreal story about music and ghosts. Check them out at Road-Dog-Productions.Com (HARRY NOTE: You really should check this out)
* I'm told Nick Searcy will not have a role in Joel Schumacher's TIGERLAND as the trades (and the recap) previously stated.
* Sources say a script entitled DARK HORSE, written by a Pennsylvanian social studies teacher, is rumored to be a talked-about project with Tommy Lee Wallace possibly directing. Artisan and Fine Line may be interested.
Oliver Stone doing SUPERMAN? What a way to end the week. I'm so curious. Burton doing PLANET OF THE APES? I think I'd have rather seen him do SUPERMAN. We'll see. Glad to see DAREDEVIL is in development. A lot of folks dropped out of some projects this week: Ken Ralston/JUMANJI 2, Barry Sonnenfeld/THE UGLY TRUTH, Harrison Ford/TRAFFIC, Michael Mann/THE SHOOTER, Hugh Wilson/MISS CONGENIALITY, Julianne Moore/UNBREAKABLE. CHOCOLAT and GHOST WORLD are accomplishing some good casting. Jodie Foster, Wes Bentley, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere are among the folks who seem to be taking some interesting roles. No Harry Potter for Spielberg, so what is next for him? I wonder how good David Koepp's THE PANIC ROOM really is. Hope to hear something soon.
Have a good March. Until next week...
