Boy, this is one of Elston's longest reports of the summer. He really dug up alot of info to send Father Geek this weekend, lots of interesting casting this week, of course the biggies at the last minute were the news stories about Tobey Maguire and Natasha Henstridge. Check out their solo stories elsewhere on the front page this weekend... Also check Asia-AICN's current column for a bit of confirmed Episode 2 casting...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Martin Lawrence has committed to star in BLACK KNIGHT written by Darryl Quarles for 20th Century Fox/New Regency. Shooting may begin in November on the film which centers around a restaurant employee who is transported back to medieval times.
* Kevin Spacey will star in K-PAX for Universal and director Iain Softley (WINGS OF THE DOVE) about a patient at a mental hospital who claims he's from the planet K-PAX and has a positive effect on his fellow patients. Production begins in November. Charles Leavitt (THE MIGHTY) adapted the Gene Brewer novel.
* Molly Shannon and Chris Elliot join the live-action cast of WB's OSMOSIS JONES for directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly.
* Benjamin Bratt will star in PINERO based on the life of the late Latino playwright, actor and poet Miguel Pinero. Leon Ichaso will direct for John Leguizamo's Lower East Side Films.
* Tim Allen will star in a sequel to THE SANTA CLAUSE for Disney for a November 2001 release. Don Rhymer (BUCCANEERS) is scripting.
* Eddie Griffin and Shawn Hatosy join JOHN Q starring Denzel Washington and Robert Duvall for director Nick Cassavetes.
* Penelope Cruz and Victoria Abril will star in Spain's NO NEWS FROM GOD for writer/director Augustin Diaz Yares about a good angel and a bad angel who struggle for the soul of a boxer. Shooting begins in October.
* Leonardo DiCaprio is in talks to star in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN written by Jeff Nathanson (RUSH HOUR) about real-life criminal Frank Abagnale, who was the youngest person ever to make the FBI's most wanted list. He later became a bureau consultant. Gore Verbinski may direct.
* Ian Holm replaces Nigel Hawthorne, who had to exit the project due to illness, in the Jack the Ripper pic FROM HELL for the Hughes Bros.
* Jake Thomas (THE CELL) will play an android's human brother in A.I. for director Steven Spielberg.
* Stuart Stone (upcoming SQUELCH) joins DONNIE DARKO.
* Alexandra Holden (DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, upcoming SUGAR AND SPICE), Michael Weston (NUMBERS), Austin Pendleton (AMISTAD) and Meat Loaf will star in the thriller WISHCRAFT for director Richard Wenk (JUST THE TICKET). It's about a high school senior who gets three wishes and as he goes after his dream girl, someone starts killing his fellow students. Production begins Aug. 7.
* Sam Elliot and Jamie Kennedy will star in SEASON'S GREETINGS for director Jack Green (UNFORGIVEN director of photography). The Gebbia family is financing the project about an investigation of murder and betrayal. Elliot will play an investigator, Kennedy is a prime suspect.
* Rebecca Romijn-Stamos will play Aurora in the ROLLERBALL remake for director John McTiernan. Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Jean Reno also star.
* Parker Posey joins Fine Line's THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY for writers/directors Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, who also star. Jane Adams, Mina Badie, Jennifer Beals, Phoebe Cates, John Hickey, Kevin Kline, Denis O'Hare, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Panes and John C. Reilly round out the cast on the project which is being shot on digital video. Shooting began this week.
* Owen Wilson is set to star in ZOOLANDER for director Ben Stiller and Paramount about a fashion supermodel who is near the end of his career and is brainwashed to assassinate the president of Malaysia. Shooting begins in September. Wilson will then star with Gene Hackman in BEHIND ENEMY LINES.
* Tim Roth, Michael Clarke Duncan and Paul Giamatti have been cast in Tim Burton's remake of PLANET OF THE APES. Estella Warren is in talks to join the cast.
* Anjelina Jolie is in talks to star opposite Kevin Costner in BEYOND BORDERS for director Oliver Stone.
* Sara Gilbert joins Drew Barrymore in RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS for director Penny Marshall and Columbia Pictures.
* Maria Bello will star in the Imax pic CHINA: THE PANDA ADVENTURE.
* Jason Scott Lee and Tia Carrere will provide their vocal talents to the Disney animated film LILO AND STITCH about a Hawaiian girl whose dog turns out to be an alien. The movie is targeted for a 2003 release.
* Dylan Walsh, Dina Meyer and Michelle Hicks will star in the mystery DEVIL WORE A SKIRT.
* Terrence Howard (BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE) joins ALL THAT GLITTERS.
* Jacqueline Obradors and Hector Elizondo will star in TORTILLA SOUP, inspired by EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Stephen Surjik is in talks to direct TREE (while MGM is in talks to acquire the project from Universal) about a presidential aide and a truck driver's trip to bring a Christmas tree to the White House. Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow (TOY STORY) scripted.
* Keith Gordon (MOTHER NIGHT, WAKING THE DEAD) will develop and direct WHEN GOD DIPS for Disney and American Zoetrope. Jim Lewis is writing the script based on his short story "When God Dips His Love In My Heart" (published in Zoetrope: All-Story magazine). It follows two doctors, both friends and rivals, who become involved in a scandal.
* Katherine Dieckmann (A GOOD BABY) will direct THE SHAGGS based on the true story of the 1960s girl band of the same name. Artisan Ent. bought the life rights to the band and is fast-tracking the project.
* Disney bought Erica Rothschild's pitch BIRTHDAY BOY for producer Mike Karz about a boy who wishes for more attention after he felt family and friends gave him little.
* Theater director Matt Casella will direct IDOL for Disney, loosely based on his life as a child talent scout. Brett Ratner is attached to produce.
* Kelly Sather sold her script CHAPEL HILL to Mandalay for Halsted Pictures to produce. The script is described as a "woman-in-jeopardy psychological thriller with a strong female protagonist."
* Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser (upcoming WAKIN' UP IN RENO) will write REDNECK based on an idea by Orlando Jones ("MAD TV," THE REPLACEMENTS) who will also star. It centers on a black Alabama man raised by a white redneck family who are surprised to find out his color isn't the result of a skin condition as he'd been told.
* Dean Devlin is set to directCELLULAR written by Larry Cohen (PHONE BOOTH) about a man who gets a call on his cell phone from a woman who says she's been kidnapped. The man must find her and her daughter and rescue them before they're killed--trying not to lose the cell phone signal in the process.
* Paramount Pictures picked up THE FLIP SIDE by Emily Baer for Alphaville to produce. It tells the story of a man who is transported back to high school in the form of a teenage girl to fix some of his life's mistakes.
* Mark Bomback sold his script GODSEND to Artists Prod. Group. It's a thriller about a husband and wife who get involved in a procedure to allow their deceased son to be reborn. Bomback has also set up FIX at Warner Bros. about a homeless architect who is given a drug to help him rebuild his life, but not without some side effects.
* Frank Darabont (THE GREEN MILE) is polishing up the MINORITY REPORT script for 20th Century Fox/DreamWorks while Stephen Rivele and Chris Wilkinson (NIXON) are touching up the GEMINI script for Touchstone Pictures.
* Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (2 of SCARY MOVIE's scribes) have sold an untitled pitch which spoofs the teen flick genre to Independent Pictures producer Cary Woods.
* Larry Clark (KIDS) will direct BULLY starring Brad Renfro, Rachel Miner, Bijou Phillips and Leo Fitzpatrick for StudioCanal based on a true story about eight kids who beat the school bully to death at a swamp and get caught. Shooting begins Aug. 21 in Florida.
* Ken Hixon (INVENTING THE ABBOTTS) will write the updated version of the 1949 film A LETTER TO THREE WIVES for Fox 2000 and Edmonds Ent. about three women who receive a letter from the town flirt, who's run off with one of their husbands.
* Randy Dinzler, Derrick Borte, Todd Livingston and Nick Capetanakis have written an untitled pic about a personal injury lawyer who looks for the meaning of life. Shooting begins Sept. 6.
* Chuck Evered has written ARMY BAND for MTV Films about "a group of misfits who join the Army and become part of its storied band."
* Scott Lobdell and Adam Polina ("X-Men" comic) have written GENERATION LAST, picked up by USA Films about a group of teens who find New York deserted except for violent mutated night-dwellers--a result of a biological warfare accident.
* Pam Brady (SOUTH PARK) will write a project for Warner Bros. based on her pitch about a man and a woman who go to their planned romantic vacation spot with other people after they break up.
* Roberto Benigni's next film will be a live-action version of PINNOCHIO starring Benigni and his wife Nicoletta Braschi. Vincenzo Cerami will write the screenplay.
* Writer Budd Schulberg, sportswriter and boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar and director Spike Lee will collaborate on JOE LOUIS UNTITLED about boxing legend Louis and his rivalry with German Max Schmeling. The 1938 rematch bout will serve as the center of the story. Cameras are targeted to roll in August or September 2001.
* Christopher Thornton will write SUBURBAN BOUNTY for MTV Films/Alphaville about a 25-year old who wants to open a bounty hunting business using the same passion/energy he has for his snowboarding hobby.
* Nicholas DiBella will write a remake of A SUMMER PLACE for Warner Bros. Edmonds Entertainment will produce with Storyopolis Prods.
* Nick Marine has written CATCHING HELL for 20th Century Fox about a bounty hunter who captures a fugitive possessed by a demon.
* David Brendel is close to selling his pitch DOT.COMPTON to Imagine Ent. about the Internet gold rush.
* MGM picked up INNER BEAUTY, MY ASS written by Danny Salles about a guy who has surgery to become good looking like his friend.
* Kimberly Simi has written CASANOVA, picked up by Disney, about a fifth generation Casanova in Venice, though he manages to repulse one woman.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Gene Simmons is producing with Pacifica Entertainment the feature JON SABLE, FREELANCE. It's based on the comic book series created by Mike Grell about a war veteran who spends his time writing children's books and going on mercenary assignments.
* SeaCastle Films bought the book and script rights to Jo Franklin's political thriller THE WING OF THE FALCON about Gulf War military and intelligence operations.
* Paul Verhoeven has chosen not to direct BASIC INSTINCT 2.
* American Zoetrope will produce Hal Hartley's MONSTER for United Artists. The project is about a journalist who goes to Iceland to look for her missing fiance, but becomes involved with a mythical monster.
* Jean Claude LaMarre and rapper-actor Pras have formed Warning Films which will first produce the movie HIGHER ED written/to be directed by LaMarre and starring Pras with Hill Harper (THE SKULLS). The film follows a freshman who gets a track scholarship to a school in the South only to be the target of some city gang members. Shooting on that pic begins Aug. 7.
* Warner Bros. has put the English-language version BOB LE FLAMBEUR (Bob the Gambler) into turnaround. The project was set to be Neil Jordan's next directing effort and is expected to go to another studio.
* Revolution picked up the project STEALING STANFORD from Universal. Tom Green will star with Bruce McCullough directing.
* StudioCanal and Artists Production Group have optioned THE DISCREET CHARM OF CHARLIE MONK by David Ambrose about a government superspy who slowly learns about his true identity.
GUNN SHOTS
(not in the trades)
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
* I received an email from a source claiming to be close with the production of EPISODE II supporting the rumors that in EPISODE II Mace Windu's character may be a Sith and the film will indeed end with the wedding of Anakin and Amidala. These are RUMORS right now, but the emailer seems to sincerely stand by them.
END SPOILERS
Lots of activity happenin' this week, but I have to ask, are some of these following projects necessary? A remake of A SUMMER PLACE? Roberto Benigni's PINNOCHIO? THE SANTA CLAUSE 2? Just curious. I mean, PLANET OF THE APES revisited is conjuring up a neat cast, but I'm more intrigued by THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY, REDNECK, K-PAX and ZOOLANDER. How about you? I also think it's cool Frank Darabont is polishing up the MINORITY REPORT script. Ditto Chris Elliot and Molly Shannon joining Bill Murray in the live-action part of OSMOSIS JONES. Looking forward to it.
It seems like Martin Lawrence came to the rescue of BLACK KNIGHT, but will Anjelina Jolie finally be the actress to stick with BEYOND BORDERS? Stay tuned.
