Hey folks, Harry here... recovering from about an hour and a half of 'Pop Quiz Hot Shot' in the non-moderated LIVE CHAT we just opened. Man... Talk about, rough. Whew. Well, I have to go to bed early tonight, as tomorrow I host the first SATURDAY MORNING FUN CLUB for kids here in Austin. We're gonna be showing CLASH OF THE TITANS, handing out modeling clay, toys, misc cartoons and stuff... Plus a 'How To Do Stop Motion Animation brief bit'. So, I have to sleep. Here's the weekly recap... Some things of interest popped up in the trades... give it a looksee.
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Kelly Preston will star opposite Antonio Banderas in Robert Rodriguez's SPY KIDS about kids who need to save their secret agent parents from danger.
* WWF's The Rock is in final negotiations to join the cast of THE MUMMY 2 as the ruler of all evil brought forth from the undead.
* Kevin Costner may be back in talks to star in BEYOND BORDERS for director Oliver Stone (who is also set to direct A STAR IS BORN). Costner is expect to read the new draft of the project by Caspian Tredwell-Owen.
* Rudolf Martin (HIGH ART) will play Vlad the Impaler in PASSIONS OF DRACULA: A TRUE STORY. The indie project also stars Roger Daltrey, Peter Weller and Jane March. Shooting begins April 3 in Bucharest. Joe Chappelle will direct from the Tom Baum script.
* Mili Avital (KISSING A FOOL) joins Benjamin Bratt in Trimark's AFTER THE STORM.
* Brad Pitt may join Robert Redford, who is in talks to star in SPY GAME for diretor Mike van Diem (KARAKTER). If they commit, shooting would likely begin this summer.
* Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter will star in 'TIL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US for writer/director Michael Petroni about a man who is haunted by a deceased childhood sweetheart when he returns to his hometown.
* Julianne Moore is in talks to star in the Fine Line features project I WAS AMELIA EARHART based on the 1996 fictionalized biography by Jane Mendelsohn. Fred Schepisi is directing and rewriting the script.
* Edward Furlong will star with Marco Leonardi, Kim Rossi Stewart, Raul Bova, Stanislas Merahr, F. Murray Abraham, Carlo Delle Piane and James Fox in THE KNIGHTS OF THE QUEST for writer/director Pupi Avati. The story is set in 1271 and centers on five young knights who go in search of a sacred shroud to deliver back to the French royal family. Shooting begins April 3 and continues for 16 weeks. The film is targeted for an early 2001 release.
* Adam Goldberg (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) joins Val Kilmer and Peter Sarsgaard in THE SALTON SEA for director D.J. Caruso. He'll play a speed freak.
* John Travolta is in negotiations to star in QUILLER SOLITAIRE, based on a series of novels about a British agent, for director Roger Christian (BATTLEFIELD EARTH) after passing on STEINBECK'S POINT OF VIEW. Travolta is also looking to play Moe "The Gimp" Snyder, a 1930s gangster who managed a torch singer in an untitled project. The film SWORDFISH to be directed by Dominic Sena (GONE IN 60 SECONDS) is an option as well.
* Tom Sizemore joins Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ewan Bremner, Guy Torry, James King and Kate Beckinsale in PEARL HARBOR. Sizemore will play a military base mechanic.
* Jack Black (HI-FIDELITY, THE CABLE GUY) will star in SAVING SILVERMAN for director Dennis Dugant about a couple of friends who try to save their pal from marrying the wrong woman. Jason Biggs and Steve Zahn may join the pic.
* Whoopi Goldberg is in final talks to star in Fox Searchlight's KINGDOM COME, a comedy-drama for director Justin McHenry (JASON'S LYRIC). David Dean Botrell and Jessie Jones adapted from Botrell's play about a weeken family gathering after the death of their patriarch. LL Cool J and Don Cheadle are also eyeing the pic.
* Cate Blanchett will join Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton in OUTLAWS for director Barry Levinson. Shooting begins this September on the Harley Peyton (LESS THAN ZERO, HEAVEN'S PRISONERS) script of two bank robbers who fight over the love of a woman they might have kidnapped. Blanchett is now wrapping THE GIFT for Sam Raimi and will segue into THE LORD OF THE RINGS where she'll play queen Galadriel for a month.
* LL Cool J is joining Chris Klein in ROLLERBALL for director John McTiernan. Shooting begins in mid-July from a draft written by John Pogue (THE SKULLS).
* Kara Zediker ("Action") grabbed a role in METAL GOD with Jennifer Aniston and Mark Wahlberg.
* Nadia Dajani joins Heather Graham and Ed Burns in SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK written and directed by Burns.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Ty King has sold an pitch to Warner Bros. as a vehicle for Martin Lawrence. The story follows a man who accidentally unleashes demons and monsters from ancient Greece after he comes across an art shipment.
* Philip Kaufman will direct the biopic LIBERACE for Independent Pictures from a script written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (SPY HARD) about the career of the famed pianist.
* Gary Tieche (SPEAKING OF SEX) will adapt CROSS DRESSING for Universal from the novel by Bill Fitzhugh. Director Tom Shadyac is developing the comedy about two brothers and an insurance scam.
* Rick Famuyiwa (THE WOOD) will write/direct THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS for MTV Films/Paramount about a hip hop producer who must create a successful gospel choir in order to get his inheritance.
* Fernando Trueba (BELLE EPOQUE) is directing an untitled Latin music film project for Miramax. Shooting is already underway.
* Jonathan Demme may direct the psychological thriller EYE IN THE DOOR based on the 1995 Pat Barker novel about a WWI soldier in British internal espionage, who finds himself under investigation. Ol Parker (IT WAS AN ACCIDENT) is scripting.
* Dennie Gordon ("Ally McBeal") is in talks to direct David Spade in THE ADVENTURES OF JOE DIRT for Columbia Pictures about a man's search for his parents after they ditched him at the Grand Canyon.
* Robert Katz will adapt his own novel NAKED BY THE WINDOW for producer Arielle Tepper about an artist who called the police to inform them his wife went out the window of their 34 story apartment, landing in almost the exact position of a sculpture she made.
* John Scott Shepherd has sold his scripts: THE KILL MARTIN CLUB to Warner Bros., LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT to New Regency and AMERICAN DREAM to Sony. His upcoming novel HENRY'S LIST OF WRONGS was picked up by New Line as a possible film for Jim Carrey.
* Chris Haddock has written the action comedy THE MAN INSIDE which was recently picked up by Phoenix Pictures for Jan de Bont to produce about two FBI agents who go undercover in prison to stop a ring of kidnappers.
* David Fincher is set to direct David Koepp's script THE PANIC ROOM for Columbia Pictures about a woman and her daughter who must hide in a "panic room" to steer clear of intruders. Nicole Kidman may star. Fincher is also flirting with the projects PASSENGERS for USA Films, THE BLACK DAHLIA based on the James Ellroy novel and, possibly, CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND.
* Bo Welch will direct a live-action remake of the 1974 claymation special THE YEAR WITHOUT SANTA CLAUS for Warner Bros. (who is hoping for a Christmas 2001 release) after he helms the Mike Myers pic SPROCKETS this summer for Universal/Imagine.
* Writer Susannah Grant (ERIN BROCKOVICH, 28 DAYS) will write and direct an untitled romantic comedy for Sony. Sydney Pollack and his Mirage Enterprises will produce.
* Mark Gibson and Phil Halprin are writing an untitled script for Disney as well as the Alaskan sled race comedy WINTER DANCE. The duo have also written a draft for the studio of the animated flick THE BIG BREAK.
* Daniel and Steven Altier have written THE MEDDLERS for Warner Bros. about two slackers who start to see delusions of 70s cop shows within their lives.
* Tom Rickman will write BACK TO THE MOON for Beacon Pictures based on the novel by Homer Hickam Jr. about a NASA engineer who hijacks a space shuttle and a female passenger, and heads to the moon to save life on Earth.
* Akiva Goldsman (LOST IN SPACE, BATMAN AND ROBIN) will adapt MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA for Steven Spielberg based on the book by Arthur S. Golden. Goldsman will also adapt BEAUTIFUL MIND for Robert Redford about the life of mathematician John Forbes as well as Tom Clancy's THE SUM OF ALL FEARS for Paramount.
* Tony Gilroy (upcoming PROOF OF LIFE) will script and produce an untitled dramatic project for Castle Rock about a New York attorney.
* Jesse Alexander will write the supernatural script DEAD MAN'S RUN for Centropolis Entertainment about a man who dies for a living. Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich will produce.
* Kopelson Entertainment picked up FRINGE PLAYERS by Jonathan Segal and Todd Camhe about a group of casino hosts who compete in "whale hunting"--the art of luring wealthy men into their casino to lose vast amounts of money.
* New Line Cinema has tapped Mark Andrus (AS GOOD AS IT GETS) to write an untitled romantic comedy for Adam Sandler to star in and produce.
* Cinematographer Jean de Segonzac will direct MIMIC 2 from a script by Joel Soisson (PROPHECY III). This pic will concentrate on the supporting character Remy from the first film.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Gramercy Pictures and Granada Film are bringing William Makepeace Thackeray's VANITY FAIR to the big screen about a lower-class woman who tries to make it through society in 1820's London.
* Richard Zanuck will produce the PLANET OF THE APES remake to be directed by Tim Burton this fall for a summer 2001 release. Zanuck was in charge of production at Fox when the original was made.
* New Line Cinema has picked up the remake rights to FORBIDDEN PLANET and plans to put it on the fast track.
* Columbia Pictures bought pitch CRIM LAW as a possible Michael Douglas vehicle. Stephen Peters (WILD THINGS) will adapt for the big screen the story of a professor who presents his law students a hypothetical murder case. When the defendant is found innocent, everyone realizes they've stumbled upon the perfect crime, and is actually executed by one of the students in the class.
* USA Films is developing a project based on Amanda Vaill's biography EVERYBODY WAS SO YOUNG: GERALD AND SARA MURPHY, A LOST GENERATION LOVE STORY, about two rich Americans in the 1920s who leave their wealthy lives behind to become artists. John Guare (SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION)is adapting, and Nicole Kidman and Rupert Everett are said to be eyeing the film.
* Disney has picked up the rights to the children's book THE REAL PORKY PHILLIPS by Mark Haddon about an overweight boy who wants to be liked, and is visited by a more popular version of himself.
News on SPY KIDS and SPY GAME popped up this week. Both sound cool to me. Julianne Moore as Amelia Earhart? Anxious to see that. I'm also anxious to see if Kevin Costner is going to make up his mind on BEYOND BORDERS for Oliver Stone. After going in and out of TRAFFIC, he's been quite indecisive of late. And will David Koepp's THE PANIC ROOM be the next project for David Fincher? Cate Blanchett, Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis in OUTLAWS for Barry Levinson. Anyone read the script? This already makes for an interesting movie. New Line is going to remake FORBIDDEN PLANET. Thoughts? We shall see. And how about Akiva Goldsman writing for Spielberg and Redford? Discuss.
Happy Oscar Weekend!!
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
