Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP for Father's Day 2000

Well another week has flown by, and Father Geek once again finds himself with the task of posting up Elston's great summery of the week's film business activities in this column titled simply the WEEKLY RECAP.

So Dad, relax and lean back, take a long slow sip of that Father's Day mug of steamy hot Italian expresso, grab a bite of that wonderful sweet smelling almond apricot pastry resting beside the cup, open up this weekend's info filled edition of Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP and enjoy YOUR day...

It is, after all, about just a state of mind...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Vivica A. Fox will play the female lead in JUWANNA MANN. Jesse Vaughan is directing for Morgan Creek. Kim Wayans joins the cast as well.

* Mark Wahlberg is in talks to star in Paramount's CRIMINAL CONVERSATION about a teacher who is having an affair with a mobster whom her husband is trying to put away. Iain Softley (WINGS OF THE DOVE) will direct. Hanna Weg and Carl Franklin adapted Evan Hunter's novel for the big screen.

* Jet Li will star in a film written, produced and financed by Luc Besson (THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC). Shooting will start in the fall and though the plot is secretive, the film will be very visual--concentrating on Li's martial arts skills (which will be more realistic than THE MATRIX or ROMEO MUST DIE).

* Angie Harmon, Rosanna Arquette and Jon Lovitz are in final talks to join Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards in the romantic comedy GOOD ADVICE for director Steve Rash (HELD UP) about a stock broker who loses it all and tries to get it back.

* Maggie Smith is in talks to star in HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE as Professor Minerva McGonagall for Warner Bros. and director Christopher Columbus. Warner Bros. is also contemplating making Potter's nemesis a CGI character.

* Burt Reynolds will join Sylvester Stallone in CHAMPS where he'll play a former race car driver in a wheelchair. Renny Harlin directs the pic which begins shooting in July. Til Schweiger and Estella Warren also star.

* Janeane Garofalo joins the big cast of BIG TROUBLE for director Barry Sonnenfeld and Disney. Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Katie Holmes, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Farina, Jason Lee, DJ Qualls and Patrick Warburton also star. Garofalo will also star in THE SEARCH FOR JOHN GISSING for writer/director Mike Binder.

* Owen Wilson is in early talks to star in the comedy STEALING STANFORD for Universal about a guy who goes on a crime spree to fund his niece's first year at college. Bruce McCulloch may direct.

* Alba Albanese joins DEUCES WILD.

* Tyler Christopher and Jill Ritchie will star in the gender bender pic FACE THE MUSIC.

* Pat Harrington (Schneider from "One Day At a Time") joins Ice T and Tom Arnold in ABLAZE.

* Alan Gelfant, Costas Mandylor, Charles Durning will star in the indie film TURN OF FAITH.

* Greg Grunberg, Jonathan Silverman, Natasha Gregson Wagner and Kari Wuhrer will star in THE MEDICINE SHOW.

* Sascha Knopf joins Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito in WHAT'S THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN? for director Sam Weisman.

* Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Ming Na, Larry Miller and Brenda Strong will star in the feature CALL O' THE GLEN.

* Adam Goldberg (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) and Sasha Alexander (TWIN FALLS IDAHO) will star in ALL OVER THE GUY for director Don Roos.

* Jamie Pressly ("Jack & Jill") will star in the three pics: TICKER, THE ADVENTURES OF JOE DIRT and TOMCATS. John Patrick White (GALAXY QUEST) joins TOMCATS as well.

* Michael Clarke Duncan, Angus Jones (SIMPATICO) and Leslie Bibb ("Popular") join David Arquette in SEE SPOT RUN.

* Gabriel Casseus (upcoming BEDAZZLED) will star in Dimension's pic REVELATION.

* Raymond J. Barry (upcoming NEW PORT SOUTH) will star in THE DEEP END.

* Illeana Douglas joins Adrien Brody and Milla Jovovich in DUMMY for director Greg Pritkin.

* Chloe Sevigny (BOYS DON'T CRY) is in talks to star in UPRISING for director Jon Avnet about Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Paul Brickman (RISKY BUSINESS) scripted.

* Mira Sorvino will star in the mystery thriller SEMANA SANTA about an American female detective who gets involved in a double murder during Holy Week in Seville, Spain. Pepe Danquart will direct the Roy Mitchell script.

* Michelle Rodriguez (GIRLFIGHT) will have roles in both the racing pic REDLINE for director Rob Cohen and the indie feature 3 A.M. for writer/director Lee Davis.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Mark Kruger (CANDYMAN II) will write an adaptation of Christina Schwarz' upcoming novel DROWNING RUTH for director Wes Craven and Miramax about sisters in the 1930s midwest.

* Todd Komarnicki will write TONIGHT AT 11 for Phoenix Pictures about a guy who sees his death foretold on the nightly news and tries to prevent it from actually coming true.

* Kirk Wong (THE BIG HIT) will direct MAI, THE PSYCHIC GIRL for Sony based on a Japanese Manga comic book where a girl who is reluctant to learn she has psychic powers.

* Andrew Bergman may adapt/direct his own upcoming mystery novel TENDER IS LEVINE.

* Dwayne Smith has written a comedy spec script JOE'S LAST CHANCE, picked up by Intermedia, about a hit man whose life is saved by his target, then gives him two extra days to live as a thankful gesture. He takes a vacation and falls in love, but goes to the hit man on lessons on how to woo women.

* Gigi Levangie (STEPMOM) will write NATURAL MAN for Universal and producer Mark Platt about a successful man involved in a custody battle.

* Roland Joffe (VATEL) will direct and Alain Goldman will produce ANIMAL, a thriller set in the world of genetic engineering.

* Candace Bushnell (author of SEX AND THE CITY) will adapt her novella SNOW ANGELS for a full-length feature for Universal about a modern woman who as a girl wanted to marry a prince.

* Adam Rifkin (DETROIT ROCK CITY) will direct the indie drama NIGHT AT THE GOLDEN EAGLE starring Donnie Montemarano and Vinnie Argiro. Natasha Lyonne, Vinnie Jones (LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS), Ann Magnuson (SMALL SOLDIERS) and James Caan also star.

* Scott Rosenberg (CON AIR, GONE IN 60 SECONDS, DISTURBING BEHAVIOR) will rewrite David Koepp's SPIDER MAN script for director Sam Raimi and Columbia Pictures.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Warner Bros. will produce THE POWERPUFF GIRLS, a $25m pic based on the Cartoon Network series.

* Miramax grabbed the rights to the nonfiction book ICE BOUND by Gay and Laney Salisbury about a 674-mile dogsled trek in 1925 where Eskimos rushed an antidote to diptheria to Nome during the worst January recorded. Richard Gladstein (THE CIDER HOUSE RULES) will produce.

* Threshold Ent. is producing the digitally animated film FOODFIGHT! about food/household product activities during the off-hours in a grocery store. Brent Friedman and Rebecca Swanson scripted.

* Miramax picked up the rights to Charles Baxter's novel THE FEAST OF LOVE for Patricia Rozema to direct and John Pleshette to adapt. The book contains several overlapping stories of unbelievable love between ordinary people.

* Jim Carrey has dropped out of discussions for PHONE BOOTH with Joel Schumacher directing. Apparently, he just couldn't get his character down. Shooting is still expected to begin this summer.

* Steven Spielberg may get involved with the production of DIETER (aka SPROCKETS) in order to resolve the conflict between Mike Myers and Universal over the stalled status of the project after Myers pulled out due to his dissatisfaction with the script. DreamWorks might become involved with the film and Gary Ross (PLEASANTVILLE) may help out with the script.

* Miramax picked up the rights to the book RENATO'S LUCK by Jeff Shapiro about a waterworks employee from a small town in Italy who heads to Rome hoping the pope would somehow rejuvenate his hometown which may soon be destroyed by a dam.

* George Clooney has broken off discussions to star in Adrian Lyne's UNFAITHFUL. He continues to look for his next project before shooting OCEAN'S ELEVEN early next year.

The whole DIETER (aka SPROCKETS) situation got interesting this week. Spielberg, DreamWorks and Gary Ross may get involved? Odd for a pic based on a "SNL" character. Stay tuned. Well, I wonder what Jim Carrey is going to do now. Ditto George Clooney. (And, for that matter, Harrison Ford). Maybe they'll all join the cast of BIG TROUBLE...Wow, what a huge cast. Anybody read that script? Owen Wilson isn't wasting any time. Hope he's as funny in STEALING STANFORD as he was in SHANGHAI NOON. How about the Burt Reynolds/Sylvester Stallone team up on a Renny Harlin film? It's almost as interesting as Jet Li and Luc Besson cooking something up. Finally, Scott Rosenberg rewriting SPIDER MAN. I don't know. Thoughts?

Until next week...Happy Father's Day!

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com