El Cosmico here with another weekly recap from our pal Elston Gunn. Take it away, Elston...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Tobey Maguire is in final talks to play SPIDER MAN for director Sam Raimi and Columbia Pictures. Shooting begins in November.
* Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN for DreamWorks about the youngest man ever to make the FBI's Most Wanted list. Gore Verbinski may direct the Jeff Nathanson (RUSH HOUR) script.
* DMX will star in THE CROW: LAZARUS, the fourth installment of the franchise, for Dimension Films/Edward R. Pressman Film Corp. James Gibson wrote the script about a rap artist who is killed in a drive-by and comes back from the dead seeking revenge.
* Jeanne Moreau and Isabelle Huppert will star in THE PIANIST by Michael Henke.
* Jay Hernandez will star opposite Kirsten Dunst in Disney's AT SEVENTEEN for director John Stockwell.
* John Hawkes (THE PERFECT STORM) joins Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane in HARDBALL for director Brian Robbins (VARSITY BLUES) and Paramount. It's about a ticket scalper who coaches a Little League team in the housing projects of Chicago.
* Eddie Izzard (MYSTERY MEN) joins Matt LeBlanc in ALL THE QUEEN'S MEN. Stephan Ruzowitsky directs.
* Peter Berg and Chris Penn will play Chris Kattan's brothers in CORKY BONONO for Disney. Peter Falk, Vinessa Shaw ("The '70s), Dave Sheridan (SCARY MOVIE), Matthew Glave (THE WEDDING SINGER) and Richard Roundtree also star.
* Brian Van Holt (WHIPPED) joins WINDTALKERS.
* Harland Williams jwill play Tom Green's best friend in FREDDY GOT FINGERED for New Regency.
* Charlize Theron will produce and star in SWEET HOME ALABAMA for Disney and Original Films. C. Jay Cox wrote the script about a poor Alabama girl who flees to New York and reinvents herself as a socialite. She falls in love and later must choose between her Alabama past or her New York future. Production begins this spring. She'll also star with Helen Hunt in Woody Allen's fall project for DreamWorks. Shooting on that will begin in October.
* Hugh Jackman is in talks to star opposite John Travolta in WB's SWORDFISH for director Dominic Sena. He'll play a jailed computer hacker who must help a CIA agent steal billion of dollars in unused government funds. In doing so, he can regain custody of his daughter. Skip Woods scripted the project which will shoot this fall.
* Frank Adonis, Victor Colicchio, Frank Gorshin, Theo Kogan, Jason Mewes, Kim Chan, Dan Lauria and Jackie Martling will star in HIGH TIMES MAGAZINE'S POTLUCK, an indie pic financed by the magazine about a mobster who discovers the wonders of marijuana. Colicchio (SUMMER OF SAM) scripted.
* Ed Begley Jr. joins Rosanna Arquette and Nastassja Kinski in the indie dark comedy DIARY OF A SEX ADDICT.
* Michael Wincott joins THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.
* Lisa Arning ("The Sopranos") joins Jonathan Silverman and Natasha Gregson Wagner in THE MEDICINE SHOW.
* Alex Dimitriades will star in SUBTERANO for director Esben Storm.
* Ryan Browning and Lesley Ann Warren will star in the indie pic LOSING GRACE.
* Brothers Ryder and Shiloh Strong will star in the teen flick BUCK NAKED ARSON.
* Hector Elizondo and Raquel Welch will star in TORTILLA SOUP, an English-language remake of EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN. Maria Ripoll directs.
* Melora Walters (MAGNOLIA) will star in RAIN for executive producer Martin Scorsese and director Katherine Lindberg. It centers on a woman who kills her husband and has an affair with a man who turns out to be her son she gave up for adoption.
* Natasha Henstridge replaces Courtney Love in JOHN CARPENTER'S GHOSTS OF MARS. Shooting begins next week.
* Edward Norton is in talks to star in HART'S WAR for director Gregory Hoblit (FREQUENCY, PRIMAL FEAR) based on John Katzenbach's novel where a WWII POW/lawyer is asked to represent a man who is accused of a crime he didn't commit. Shooting starts in January in Prague.
* Brenda Blethyn and Catherine Keener will star in an untitled ensemble comedy for writer/director Nicole Holofcener about a mother, her daughters and the men in their lives. Shooting begins this summer.
* Mason Gamble (RUSHMORE), Phillip Baker Hall (THE INSIDER) and Dylan Baker (HAPPINESS) will star in A GENTLEMAN'S GAME for Artists Production Group about a golf prodigy who discovers intolerance and arrogance within the game.
* Helena Bonham Carter joins PLANET OF THE APES for director Tim Burton and 20th Century Fox.
* Peter Mullan, Ian Hart and Colm Meaney will star in HOW HARRY BECAME A TREE for director Goran Paskaljevic about the clash between modern and traditional culture in a 1930s Irish village.
* Jeremy Irons and Forest Whitaker will star in the British thriller THE FOURTH ANGEL about a man who struggles with an FBI agent after his family is killed by terrorists. John Irvin will direct.
* Ben Affleck is in final talks to star in CINDERELLA MAN for Miramax, who is in talks with Billy Bob Thornton to direct. It's about a man who becomes a boxing folk hero after he enters the ring to feed his family. Cliff Hollingsworth and Charlie Mitchell wrote the screenplay based on a true story.
* Ethan Hawke is in talks to star opposite Denzel Washington in Warner Bros.' cop film TRAINING DAY for director David Guggenheim (GOSSIP). Shooting begins in November.
* Katherine Heigl ("Roswell") joins VALENTINE.
* Kathryn Morris (upcoming THE CONTENDER) joins A.I.
* Joshua Leonard (BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) will star in the thriller CUBBYHOUSE, which will shoot in Australia next week. Belinda McClory (THE MATRIX), Lauren Hewett (OCEAN GIRL) and pop singe Craig McLachlan also star in the pic about a haunted playhouse.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Buddy Johnson and Phil Beauman (SCARY MOVIE) have written the teen spoof TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT CLUELESS ROADTRIPS WHEN I CAN'T HARDLY WAIT TO BE KISSED for Columbia Pictures. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (SCARY MOVIE as well) have also sold a teen spoof pitch, but to Independent Pictures.
* Columbia Pictures bought an untitled sci-fi pitch from Mike Werb and Michael Colleary (FACE/OFF). The project has only been described as AMERICAN PIE meets MEN IN BLACK. The idea for the story was inspired by a little kid who vomited what resembled worms while playing games in an electronic store.
* Michael Lehmann will direct New Line's THE WISHBONES based on the Tom Perrotta (ELECTION) novel about a rock band consisting of 30-year old men who don't want to grow up.
* Gil Junger (TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU) is in final talks to direct BLACK KNIGHT starring Martin Lawrence.
* Alan Sereboff will adapt Mario Puzo's last novel OMERTA for Miramax Films (as well as a possible OMERTA sequel).
* Harald Zwart will direct WOLFF AND BYRD based on Batton Lash's comic about lawyers who represent monsters and ghouls.
* Mark Steillen and Bennett Yellin have written REAL MEN to be produced by the Farrelly Bros. and Phoenix Pictures about a New Yorker who travels to Florida to pick up his fiance's father from the swamps for their wedding.
* Gene Laufenberg will write and direct Bubble Factory's THOU SHALT NOT about a man whose life will be saved by God if he goes a full week without breaking any of the Ten Commandments.
* Bo Welch (originally attached to direct DIETER) will direct LIVE BAIT for Universal/Imagine about two men seduced by beautiful women who are really aliens out to collect human DNA via sperm. Ryan Stiles ("Whose Line Is It Anyway?") and Sean Masterson scripted.
* Columbia Pictures picked up Roee Wiczyk's action-adventure script UNTITLED COMMERCIAL YOUTH ORIENTED ACTION FILM FOR EARLY TWENTIES HEARTTHROBS AND TV CROSSOVER ACTORS FROM POPULAR WB AND FOX NETWORK PROGRAMS for producer Cathy Konrad. It's about a group of young soldiers who stage a plane crash to find buried treasure.
* Lawrence Kasdan will write/direct an untitled cop film for Joe Roth's Revolution Studios about an elite group of city cops who deal with the most dangerous criminals.
* Ex-con screenwriter Edward Bunker (STRAIGHT TIME) is adapting his autobiographical novel DOG EAT DOG for the big screen for producers Michel Shane and Tony Romano about three criminals who target other crooks.
* Roger Michell (NOTTING HILL) will direct the thriller CHANGING LANES about a car accident in NYC that changes the lives of two men.
* Jonathan Lynn (THE WHOLE NINE YARDS) will direct Miramax's BAKER STREET, a film based on the true story of a 70s London bank heist, written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (THE COMMITMENTS, STILL CRAZY).
* Chris Leone and Laura Harkcom will write the animated pic TIME DOGS for the Henson Co. Leone will direct.
* Don Mancini will write THE FUR FILES for Sony/Centropolis Entertainment about animals in cargo bins in an airplane who must work together to save the day.
* Brent Boyd's script LOVE SIMPLE was picked up by Paramount. It follows a guy who has an unusual disease where his IQ drops farther the more he falls in love.
* Jim Uhls is in final talks with Jersey Films to adapt Elmore Leonard's novel PAGAN BABIES about a Rwonda missionary who fled the U.S. after he'd been caught in a cigarette smuggling scam.
* Bobby Smith Jr. will adapt the novel PIMP for Fine Line/Cubevision and will also write a musical drama for R&B artist Usher for Dimension Films.
* Mike Rich (upcoming FINDING FORRESTER) will write DRAGON FIRE for Revolution Entertainment. It's described as "a modern day chase movie with tanks."
* John Mattson (FREE WILLY 2, MILK MONEY) will write GAME BOY for Gone Fishing about an action-adventure hero who realizes he's the star of a computer game.
* Rudy Wurlitzer (LITTLE BUDDHA) has written AXIS MUNDI about a New York woman and a young Inuit man who travel to the Artic Circle to look for an explorer who went searching for the fountain of youth.
* Stephen Hamel has written an untitled Greek epic about a king who wishes to be a god and a god who wants to be mortal. Hamel may direct with Keanu Reeves possibly starring.
* Chris Koch (SNOW DAY) will direct EVERY SEVEN MINUTES about a 17-year old who goes after a supermodel during his summer vacation. Laurice Elehwany and Rick Copp (PRIVATE PARTS) scripted.
* Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson have written THE ROYAL TANNENBAUMS, about a New York family of geniuses, which Disney is moving for a January start. Anderson will direct, Wilson will have a role and Barry Mendel will produce with Scott Rudin and Anderson.
* Bill Paxton is set to direct the thriller FRAILTY about a single father who may be able to see demons. One son feels he's a hero, the other thinks he's a killer. Matthew McConaughey may star.
* Martin and Marjorie Sweeney have written the action/comedy/romance script LOWROADERS, picked up by Phoenix Pictures, about professional bounty hunting.
* Illeana Douglas will make direct the comedy SORORITY RULE this fall about an awkward female freshman. Ellen Rapoport scripted.
* Chris Morgan (S.W.A.T.) will rewrite CELLULAR for producer/director Dean Devlin. Larry Cohen (PHONE BOOTH) penned the original.
* Michael Petroni (QUEEN OF THE DAMNED) will write an original supernatural thriller for Revolution Studios about a woman who wakes up and finds her husband missing.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Mike Myers, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment appear to be nearing a settlement as opposed to court.
* Altavista Films has optioned the bestseller TEAR THIS HEART OUT by Angeles Mastretta for Ventanarosa Prods. to produce with Salma Hayek starring. It's set in the 1930s and follows a young woman who falls for a retired general who is also an adulterer as well as a murderer.
* Miramax outbid DreamWorks for the rights to WHAT SHE SAW, the upcoming novel by Lucinda Rosenfeld about the love life of a New Jersey woman in the 1970s and 80s.
* Jersey Films optioned the rights to the 1970-72 Saturday morning series "The Bugaloos" about insects who start a rock group. Kerry Brown and Russell Scott will script.
What a week, indeed! We gots SPIDER MAN. We gots Wes Anderson's new pic. We gots Mike Myers/Universal possibly settling. We gots THE BOOGALOOS? Leo and Affleck are picking their next while Helena Bonham Carter chooses to be an ape. Brenda Blethyn and Catherine Keener in a pic together? Sweet. A new pic based on an Elmore Leonard novel is welcome--PAGAN BABIES sounds cool. Lawrence Kasdan writing/directing a police epic might be very nice. (Though I'm awfully fond of HEAT). Illeana Douglas and Bill Paxton are going to make their feature directorial debuts. Cool. So much stuff this week. I love you all.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn elstongunn@hotmail.com
