Well another week has flown by and its time once again for Father Geek to post up Elston's wonderful WEEKLY RECAP for all of you who may have missed something during the week. Boy, I wish GANGS OF NEW YORK would hurry up and get their casting settled and begin the shoot. I first read the book almost 4 decades ago and I've been hot to see it done right on the big screen ever since. I just hope that the studio's quest for "Star" power doesn't lead to endless rewrites to satisfy egos. I couldn't take a watered down version of this one again. Done right this could give GODFATHER a run for the money for the top of the mafia sub-genre. And at the very least it should play real well as an origin of sorts (although it's an unrelated story) when viewed beside the original three films, or GOODFELLAS and CASINO for that matter. Check out Sister Satan's script review if you missed it. Just Click Here to see that. Here's Elston's report...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Lukas Haas will star in LONG TIME DEAD, a horror thriller for Universal Focus about friends who use a Ouija board at a seance, causing a series of mysterious deaths. Marcus Adams will direct.
* Adam Goldberg and Rose McGowan will star in FAST SOFA, an indie pic based on the Bruce Craven novel about a comic-loving bartender who falls for his best friend's girlfriend. Salome Breziner will direct the adaptation by Craven, Peter Chase and Breziner.
* Hip hop star Sisqo joins Kirsten Dunst and Ben Foster in GETTING OVER ALLISON for director Tommy O'Haver (BILLY'S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS).
* Liam Neeson is in final talks to join Martin Scorsese's period film GANGS OF NEW YORK starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. Shooting is expected to begin next month.
* Kimberly Elise will play Denzel Washington's wife in JOHN Q for director Nick Cassavetes and New Line Cinema. Robert Duvall also stars.
* Clifton Powell joins Morris Chestnut, Jennifer Lewis and Tamala Jones in THE BROTHERS for Screen Gems.
* Lindsay Price joins the indie pic NO TURNING BACK.
* Jason Connery will star in NICOLAS, a supernatural love story to be shot entirely on the new 24P camera.
* Katharine Ross joins DONNIE DARKO starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle and Drew Barrymore.
* Zooey Deschanel (MUMFORD, upcoming untitled Cameron Crowe pic) joins Tom Sizemore, Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Janeane Garofalo, Dennis Farina, Jason Lee, DJ Qualls and Patrick Warburton in BIG TROUBLE for director Barry Sonnenfeld based on the novel by Dave Barry. Deschanel will take the role Katie Holmes was in talks to play.
* Wes Bentley joins Heath Ledger in FOUR FEATHERS for Paramount/Miramax and director Shekar Kapur (ELIZABETH). The story follows a British officer who resigns his post in 1898 and is sent four feathers (symbolizing cowardice) by his friends and fiancee. He later disguises himself and saves their lives in Sudan.
* Matthew Lawrence ("Boy Meets World"), Elden Henson (SHE'S ALL THAT) and newcomers Martin Starr ("Freaks & Geeks") and Trevor Fehrman (ODD MAN OUT) will star in Andrew Gurland's CHEATERS for New Line about a group of teens who turn cheating on tests into a science.
* Hope Davis (MUMFORD) is in final talks to join HEARTS IN ATLANTIS with Anthony Hopkins for director Scott Hicks. The story, based on a Stephen King novella, centers on an 11-year old boy, his mom and an interesting man who comes to stay with them. William Goldman wrote the screenplay adaptation.
* Emily Mortimer (THE KID) joins Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater in WINDTALKERS for director John Woo. Shooting begins Aug. 15 in Hawaii.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Commercial director Blair Hayes will helm Disney's THE BUBBLE BOY about a man forced to live in a bubble suit who tries to stop the woman he loves from marrying another man.
* Sebastian Junger (THE PERFECT STORM), along with collaborators Scott Anderson and John Falk, sold an untitled pitch to Intermedia Films based on their experiences in Sarajevo. The story follows a trio of journalists who become involved in a CIA plan to capture a Bosnian war criminal.
* Artisan picked up Alexi Hawley's thriller script CHASING SHADOWS for Morton/Hymes Films to produce about a psychic man who uses his powers to stalk and kill serial killers.
* Harry Thomason will direct RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS based on the Brewster Milton Robertson novel about a future president who tries to shut down the country's abortion clinics.
* Gregory Widen sold his thriller script BLOOD MAKES NOISE to Interlight for a possible October shoot. The story, based on a 1950s incident, centers on "a dead first lady and at stake was a national government, a division of the FBI and $100 million."
* Alfonso Arau (LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE) will direct the remake of the 1942 Orson Welles film THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS.
* Charles Sturridge has been attached to direct DISGRACE, based on J.M. Coetzee's novel about a university professor in South Africa who falls from grace after having an affair with a student.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* New Line Cinema has landed the project ABOUT SCHMIDT, the Alexander Payne/Jim Taylor (ELECTION) adaptation of the Louis Begley novel that was recently put in turnaround by Columbia. New Line may be in talks with Jack Nicholson to star.
* Imagine Entertainment has now filed suit against Mike Myers for breach of contract and are seeking punitive damages after Myers agreed to make SPROCKETS but later reneged on the deal. This comes one month after Universal Pictures filed suit against Myers.
* Laura Ziskin (TO DIE FOR) will produce SPIDERMAN for Columbia Pictures along with Ian Bryce (FORCES OF NATURE) and Marvel's Avi Arad. Shooting is still set for November with Sam Raimi directing. Wes Bentley and Tobey Maguire are said to be Columbia's and Raimi's favorites respectively.
* Director Richard Linklater has begun the computer animated portion of his upcoming film WAKING LIFE which takes live-action footage of actors shot digitally, edits it together and "paints" over that footage using animation software created by filmmaker Bob Sabiston. It's called interpolated rotoscoping and enables animator to "stretch brushstrokes across a range of frames for a unique look." Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Wiley Wiggins and many other actors from Linklater films are serving as live action templates. The film will follow a character strolling into different encuonters not unlike Linklater's SLACKER.
* FilmFour will co-finance with Odeon Film BUFFALO SOLDIERS, Gregor Jordan's adaptation of Robert O'Connors dark comedy novel about a subculture of U.S. soldiers in West Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall.
GUNN SHOTS
(not from the trades)
* An anonymous emailer had this to say about the HARVARD MAN script
[*possible spoilers*]:
"The HARVARD MAN script is pretty bad. It's the story of a white Harvard basketball player who needs money to help his parents rebuild their Kentucky house after a tordedo flattens it. His girlfriend's dad happens to be in the construction business... like the Corleone family. He asks her to ask her dad for money. She does, but he says no (we don't really know this).
But the girl makes him believe dad said yes and gives him the cash. The payback is that he has to throw the Harvard Yale basketball game. (The question possed early on is 'Who cares about Ivy league basketball scores?' and the answer is something like Vegas or the bookies.)
Bad mafia stereotypes and the mobsters daughter is a slut. And an FBI male-female team that are following all of this while having a kinky sex relationship with one of the basketball players teachers...Who he is also sleeping with. Add to all of this a sub plot involving a really bad LSD trip and you've got the whole thing."
* I received another email regarding casting for the Al Pacino project. It is indeed Andrew Niccol's film currently known as "The Hollywood Project" and casting has been taking place in Ohio as well as Texas.
