Father Geek here with a massive WEEKLY RECAP from Elston Gunn. It's going up alittle late not because of Elston, but because today we were going to have Sister Satan's Baby Shower in a local Austin park. Well we had rain desend on our town so we canceled the party for today and reset it for June 3rd instead. All well and good except some people from out of town and out of state already arrived in town so Harry took them to see ROAD TRIP this afternoon and I've been gearing up the inside of Geek Headquarters to show a brand new pristine 16mm print in superscope of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK to a small intimate group tonight. Anyway, here's lots of cool stuff Elston dug up for you this week...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is in final talks to star in the Janis Joplin biopic JOPLIN--THE MOVIE for director/producer Joel Freedman. Laura Theodore will play Joplin, Jennifer Tilly will play her best friend, Roy Scheider will play manager Albert Grossman and Austin will play a member of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang.
* Jason Schwartzman (RUSHMORE) will star in the sci fi mystical teenage romance DONNIE DARKO for Drew Barrymore's Flower Films (she'll also have a small role) and writer/director Richard Kelly.
* Jorge Rivero (RIO LOBO) joins Richard Harris and Lukas Haas in THE PEARL.
* Alexandra Paul ("Baywatch") will star in BRAINIACS starring Dom DeLuise, Rich Little and Allen Lulu.
* Elena Sahagun, Dean Cain and Lori Petty are the leads in FIRETRAP.
* Kellie Martin will star in the indie pic DIVISION OF ASSETS.
* Danny Trejo will grab a role in THE SALTON SEA with Val Kilmer after he finishes his work on SPY KIDS.
* Jeffrey Jones joins the cast of BREAKERS starring Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman and Jason Lee.
* Bruno Campos ("Jesse") will star in Miramax's HARDSHELL.
* Peter Gallagher, Griffin Dunne, Omar Epps, Harry Hamlin, Rita Wilson and Joanne Baron will star in PERFUME, an improvisational pic set in the world of fashion.
* Isabelle Adjani (DIABOLIQUE) will star in THE REPENTANT for director Laetitia Masson.
* Emily Watson joins Taye Diggs in Dimension's LIBRIUM for director Kurt Wimmer. Watson will also star in IN SEARCH OF THE ASSASSIN for director Lee Tamahori (ONCE WERE WARRIORS).
* Bruce Dern joins THE GLASS HOUSE with Leelee Sobieski and Stellan Skaarsgard.
* Christopher Walken joins Hilary Swank and Adrien Brody in THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE for director Charles Shyer (FATHER OF THE BRIDE).
* Eugene Byrd will star in the indie pic LIFT.
* Marguerite Moreau (THE MIGHTY DUCKS), Michael Ian Black and Ken Marino ("Men Behaving Badly") joins the cast of WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER.
* Corey Page will star opposite Patrick Bergin in DEVIL'S PREY.
* Timothy Paul Perez and Jon Seda will star in RIKKI THE PIG, an update of RICHARD III set in L.A.
* Will Smith has signed to play Muhammad Ali in a biopic to be directed by Michael Mann and produced by Jon Peters.
* Tim Allen and Renee Russo are in talks to star in the comedy BIG TROUBLE for director Barry Sonnenfeld based on the Dave Barry novel about a bomb in a suitcase and how it affects the lives of several different characters.
* Gary Oldman, Mena Suvari and Justin Chambers are in final talks to star in D'ARTAGNAN for director Peter Hyams (END OF DAYS). The pic takes a different look at the story of the Three Musketeers.
* James Gandolfini is in talks to join the Coen Bros. flick THE BARBER MOVIE.
* Billy Bob Thornton, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz are in talks to star in an untitled dark comedy for USA Films for producer Todd Harris. Tom Epperson, Thornton's long-time writing partner, scripted the story which has been descibed as "MIDNIGHT COWBOY for the new millenium." Pedro Almodovar may direct.
* Rosario Dawson (LIGHT IT UP) joins JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS with Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Parker Posey and Alan Cumming. Dawson will play Val.
* Patrick Malone (TWILIGHT) will star in the indie comedy FACE THE MUSIC.
* Steven Seagal, Tom Sizemore and Dennis Hopper will star in TICKER for Nu Image and Artisan about a cop who is called to the bomb squad and deals with the case of his life. Albert Pyun will direct the Paul Margolis script. (However, Variety reports the name of the film as KICKER.)
* George Clooney is in talks to star in REVELATION for director Danny DeVito and Warner Bros. about a cop who took a bullet for a cardinal and embarks on his own religious journey. Clooney will probably do this film before OCEAN'S ELEVEN which may shoot early 2001.
* Geri Halliwell will star in THERAPY for director David Green about a woman whose work and love life send her to therapy. Halliwell is also working on an album to coincide with the film.
* Russell Crowe is in talks to star in A BEAUTIFUL MIND for director Ron Howard and Universal/Imagine about John Forbes Nash Jr., the math genius who suffered from schizophrenia and later won the Nobel Prize.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* James Ivory will direct a screen adaptation of Diane Johnson's novel LE DIVORCE which Ismail Merchant will produce and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala will script the story of a film school dropout who travels to Paris to help her step-sister deal with her divorce.
* Luciano Vincenzoni (THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY) has written two scripts: CHAMPAGNE and CHRISTMAS ROBBERS which producer Arthur Sarkissian has picked up. The first is about two American soldiers in World War II who run a black market hoping to get caught and kicked out. The second script is about four Americans who pull off a heist in Europe and retreat to a hotel during a blizzard before Christmas, they are then surrounded by cops, so they throw themselves a huge party.
* David Twohy (PITCH BLACK) will write/direct PROTEUS for Miramax/Dimension.
* Joan Chen (upcoming AUTUMN IN NEW YORK) will direct FU SONG based on the novel by Geling Yan, who will script. The story centers on a Chinese writer who comes to America and falls for two men, and learns the love triangle began a century earlier.
* Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh will co-direct and co-star in Fine Line's THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY which they co-wrote. They'll play an estranged couple who reunite and hold an anniversary party, where other relationships come to the fold and threaten to break them up again.
* Jay Russell (MY DOG SKIP) will direct TUCK EVERLASTING, based on the Natalie Babbit children's book, about a little girl who discovers that her neighbors have a spring that grants immortality. Jeffrey Lieber (CONSPIRACY OF WEEDS) scripted.
* Christopher McQuarrie (THE USUAL SUSPECTS) will write a draft of THE GREEN HORNET for Universal while Michael Tolkin (THE PLAYER, DEEP IMPACT) will script THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
* Louis C.K will write and direct POOTIE TANG, based on a character from "The Chris Rock Show" who is an urban do-gooder who communicates in an indecipherable language, but everyone seems to understand him. Lance Crouther will star and Chris Rock will have a small role.
* Glen Goei (FOREVER FEVER) will direct the romantic comedy THE ESSENCE OF CHICKEN which centers around food and Chinese immigrants in America.
* Michael York will reprise his role from THE OMEGA CODE in its sequel MEGIDDO which will shoot this fall.
* Josh Hartnett (PEARL HARBOR) may play Lestat in QUEEN OF THE DAMNED for Warner Bros.
* David Hasselhoff will play himself opposite Mike Myers in DIETER (aka SPROCKETS) for Imagine/Universal and director Bo Welch. Myers scripted with Michael McCullers and Jack Handey.
* Betty Thomas is in talks to direct a low-budget flick for Fox Searchlight based on the true story of Brian Zembic, a professional gambler who took a $100,000 wager to get breast implants.
* Thomas Vinterberg (THE CELEBRATION) will direct IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE about two lovers--one a disillusioned ice skater--who reunite for a road trip to mend their relationship.
* Jonathan Fener and Josh Bycel ("Veronica's Closet") will write BASS KICKERS for MGM about a black cooking show host who is sought after to be the Tiger Woods of bass fishing.
* Nick Guthe (MINI'S FIRST TIME) will write the dark comedy AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL for Universal as a possible directing vehicle for Roger Kumble (CRUEL INTENTIONS) who will also produce. The story follows a girl from Brooklyn who moves to the suburbs and joins a baby-sitting club which is a front for the girls to seduce the men of the neighborhood and capture it on video. When the girl has had enough and wants out, she finds out leaving is hard to do.
* Jim Taylor (ELECTION) will adapt the F. Scott Fitzgerald story THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON which Spike Jonze is attached to direct.
* Jim Sheridan (IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER) is in talks to direct I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE based on the Wally Lamb book about a painter who takes care of his schizophrenic brother. Matt Damon may star.
* Agnieszka Holland (THE THIRD MIRACLE) will direct a Universal film based on the Holocaust book SEAMSTRESS: A MEMOIR OF SURVIVAL. Pamela Gray (MUSIC OF THE HEART) is scripting.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Producer Glen Tobias (THE GINGERBREAD MAN) picked up the sequel rights to the 1969 cult classic EASY RIDER with an option for two more. Shooting may begin this fall with Mikki Allen Willis (SHOE SHINE BOYS) writing/directing.
* Paramount bought the rights to THE GENERAL'S WOMAN by Micaela Gilchrist as a starring vehicle for Nicole Kidman. The book mixes truth with fiction as it's based on the diaries of a 19th century St. Louis woman who was married to a general. The novel follows the woman to India where she finds her husband dead and also uncovers letters from another woman with whom he'd corresponded.
* Julia Roberts' Shoelace Prods. and producer Joe Roth have optioned the romantic comedy novel SIS BOOB BAH by Jane Heller about a soap opera writer who moves to Florida to reside with her sick mother and her bickering wedding planner sister. Roberts may possibly star.
* Darren Aronofsky and Artisan Entertainment will again work together (after REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) on an untitled, secret sci-fi/fantasy project as his next film. Aronofsky and Eric Watson are developing the script.
* Warner Bros. is moving the release date for HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE to November 2001 as opposed to the summer.
* Mike Van Diem has exited his directing post on the film SPY GAME, but Robert Redford and Brad Pitt are still attached to star. Tony Scott is now in talks to direct.
* Artisan Entertainment and Marvel Enterprises are teaming up to develop several projects (film, TV, internet) based on several of Marvel's titles such as CAPTAIN AMERICA, BLACK PANTHER, DEADPOOL, IRON FIST, MORBIUS, LONGSHOT, POWER PACK, MORT THE DEAD TEENAGER and ANTMAN.
* Robert Rehme and Mel Pearl together bought the screen rights to the book HONOR FOR SALE by Gerald E. Kelly about narcotics distribution, and the sci-fi novel JOSHUA SON OF NONE by Nancy Freedman about a scientist planning to clone JFK. John Bishop (DROP ZONE) will script the former and is in talks to adapt the latter.
* Dimension Films picked up the supernatural thriller pitch THE RITUAL about college kids who use black magic to manipulate the campus. Tapestry Films will produce.
* Disney will finally release the Gwyneth Paltrow pic DUETS after 10 minutes of the film was cut. The film will debut at the Toronto film festival in September.
* Miramax has purchased the rights to UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, Frances Mayes' 1998 bestselling memoir of rural Italy.
* Fine Line will develop a feature based on Umberto Eco's metaphysical thriller novel FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM after the author refused offers from Stanley Kubrick and Milos Forman over the past 12 years.
GUNN SHOTS (not from the trades)
* Road Dog Productions changed the title of its upcoming production THE RIFF to LULLABY. This is so it won't be confused with another upcoming movie entitled THE RIFF.
* Christopher Eccleston (SHALLOW GRAVE) will co-star with Nicole Kidman in the horror flick THE OTHERS with Tom Cruise executive producing.
* Stax has a script review of JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS at IGN FilmForce. Check it out.
* CORRECTION: James Hughes, son of John, did not direct the upcoming NEW PORT SOUTH, he scripted. Title designer Kyle Cooper made his feature directing debut on the film.
