Hey, everyone. "Moriarty"here with our man Elston Gunn's weekly look at what's going on in show bidness. Man, I have been submerged in QT Quattro this week. All of this is news to me...
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TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jackie Chan is in talks to star in the action/comedy STRETCH ARMSTRONG for Disney based on the elastic CAP Toys Inc. action figure. Bill Collage and Adam Cooper will write the script about a spy who happens upon a secret formula that gives him stretching powers.
* Milla Jovovich will star opposite Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in ZOOLANDER for Paramount and Red Hour Films. Stiller will direct. Production begins in September.
* Franka Potente (RUN LOLA RUN) will play the female lead in Universal's THE BOURNE IDENTITY starring Matt Damon. Doug Liman (SWINGERS, GO) will direct.
* Lena Olin and Marguerite Moreau are in talks to join QUEEN OF THE DAMNED for Warner Bros./Village Roadshow Prods. and director Michael Rymer. Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah also star.
* Lochlyn Munro (SCARY MOVIE) will star in KNIGHT CLUB about a young actor wannabe who becomes a bouncer and is consumed by the world of L.A. nightlife. Russell Gannon will direct from a script he co-wrote with Jim Lofti. Glenn Plummer (SPEED 2) and Lou Diamond Phillips also star.
* Cameron Diaz is in talks to join Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz in the love story VANILLA SKY for writer/director Cameron Crowe.
* Linda Cardellini ("Freaks and Geeks") will play Andy Garcia's daughter in the indie thriller SINS OF THE FATHER.
* Michael Jeter joins JURASSIC PARK 3.
* Emmanuelle Chriqui (SNOW DAY) and Kirk B.R. Woller join A.I.
* Dina Spybey grabbed a role in JOHN Q starring Denzel Washington for director Nick Cassavetes.
* Dermot Mulroney joins Glenn Close, Patricia Clarkson and Timothy Olyphant in THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS for Killer Films and Rose Troche (GO FISH).
* Vinessa Shaw (EYES WIDE SHUT) is in talks to star in 40 DAYS & 40 NIGHTS opposite Josh Hartnett about a guy who vows celibacy for forty days and nights after a messy breakup with his girlfriend. Rob Perez wrote the script.
* Jay Mohr joins SIMONE with Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Jason Schwartzman for writer/director Andrew Niccol and New Line Cinema.
* Jim Carrey is in talks to star in the romantic "dramedy' THE BIJOU for Castle Rock Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros and director Frank Darabont who scripted with Michael Sloane. It follows a blacklisted screenwriter who loses his memory after a car accident and moves to a new town where he is mistaken for a deceased soldier.
* Kenneth Branagh will star in RABBIT-PROOF FENCE for director Phillip Noyce about three Aboriginal girls who escaped from Western Australian authorities after being taken from their homes in 1931 to be trained as domestic servants. Shooting begins Sept. 18 in Adelaide, Australia.
* Samuel L. Jackson is in talks to star opposite Ben Affleck in the psycho-drama CHANGING LANES for director Roger Michell (NOTTING HILL) about a fender-bender that eventually escalates to an all-out battle between a lawyer and a businessman.
* Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle join Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart in POSSESSION for director Neil Labute and USA Films/Warner Bros. Based on the 1990 A.S. Byatt novel, the story follows a pair of literary sleuths who discover the secret of two Victorian poets only to find themselves falling for each other.
* Anthony Hopkins will narrate HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS for director Ron Howard and Universal/Imagine.
* Danny DeVito is in talks to star in DEATH TO SMOOCHIE for Warner Bros. about a Barney-type big blue rhinoceros who is the target of an assassination. Adam Resnick (LUCKY NUMBERS) scripted.
* Wanda De Jesus (FLAWLESS, THE INSIDER) joins JOHN CARPENTER'S GHOST OF MARS.
* Aida Turturro (JOE GOULD'S SECRET, BRINGING OUT THE DEAD) joins CROCODILE DUNDEE IN LOS ANGELES.
* Bruce Davison (APT PUPIL, X-MEN) nabbed a role in the pic AT SEVENTEEN. He'll play Kirsten Dunst's politician father.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Garrett K. Schiff and Jim Burnstein will write an untitled comedy for MTV Films about a regular guy who is mistaken as a genius.
* Matt Cooper (CAMPFIRE TALES) will direct SEX AND THE OTHER THING for the Vault and Paradox Films. Teri Minski scripted the story about two female best friends and their loves and losses after college.
* Cynthia Mort and Melanie Mayron will write LET IT RIDE for Valhalla Prods. based on true story of two female football game bookmakers. Mort will also produce her modern love story script for Millennium Films.
* Michael Pressman (TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY) will direct NOVEMBER FILES for Interlight and producer Gene Simmons about a lawyer who must defend his innocence after being accused of murdering his family.
* Tom Gianas is in talks to direct the comedy STRAY VOLTAGE for MTV Films/Paramount Pictures and producer Paul Rosenberg (GO). It's about a vegetarian environmentalist who works for a big-city power company and is sent to a small Texas town to investigate dairy cows contaminated by stray voltage from power lines.
* Penelope Spheeris (WAYNE'S WORLD) will direct CLOSERS for Dimension Films about a guy who enlists a service to help him gets the girl he wants after which he notices her boyfriend gets flattened by a bus and later discover the girl may be a psychopath. Monica Johnson and Josh Stolberg scripted.
* David Garrett and Jason Ward (CORKY ROMANO-formerly CORKY BONONO) will write MONTY for producer Bob Simonds about a guy who falls for the perfect girl with an imperfect dog. They'll also write FIRST JOB for producers Tom Pollack and Ivan Reitman about a group of youngsters on their first job who stage a mutiny after their mysterious boss goes crazy.
* Damon Santostefano (THREE TO TANGO) is in talks to direct the live-action sci fi pic INTERSTELLAR PIG for Nickelodeon/Paramount based on a book of the same name by William Sleator. It's about a boy who discovers he's playing a board game with extraterrestrials who turn out to be competing for world domination.
* Kristen Buckley and Brian Regan are writing a comedy set in ancient Rome for Original Films and Twentieth Century Fox. It is described as "AMERICAN PIE meets GLADIATOR."
* French graphic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud will create and Frank Foster will direct the computer animated 3D film THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP set for a 2003 release. James Cox (RESCUERS DOWN UNDER) scripted the story of a son of a physicist who searches for his father in a transportation portal, following him to another planet inhabited by giants.
* Bradley Allenstein (JUWANNA MANN) and Robert Henny will write PIMP PASTY, a comedy for Paramount about a white rapper who thinks he is black.
* Luke Greenfield will direct Revolution Studios' ANIMAL starring Rob Schneider about a man who adopts different animal traits after he receives organ transplants from various animals.
*Horatio Sanz ("SNL") will co-write and star in an untitled comedy about a portly former tennis prodigy who becomes so desperate after his career fades away, he robs a convenience store, gets caught and finds himself in the news again. He returns to playing tennis, rising to new heights.
* Leif Tilden will direct REUNION which starts shooting in September and stars Billy Wirth ("Sex in the City), Jennifer Rubin (THE CRUSH), Corey Glover (PLATOON) and Rainer Judd (END OF DAYS). It takes place at a 20-year high school reunion and centers on a group of friends who are going through some changes in their lives. Ali E. Lightly wrote the script.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman will produce MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING along with Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson based on Nia Vardolos' one woman show about a young Greek-American woman's trials and tribulations when she falls in love with a non-Greek. Joel Zwick will direct from a script written by Vardolos who will also star.
* Sydney Pollack will produce THE QUIET AMERICAN starring Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine with Phillip Noyce directing.
* Dimension Films and Crystal Sky Prods. will produce GHOST RIDER based on the Marvel Comic with Stephen Norrington (BLADE) directing from a David Goyer script. This will be the most expensive film in which Dimension has ever been involved. Johnny Depp may star as the motorcycle stuntman who gets raging superpowers after selling his soul to try and save his girlfriend.
Things have calmed down a bit this week. There is quite a bit of interesting casting news however. Jackie Chan as Stretch Armstrong might be fun. Cameron Crowe's VANILLA SKY is moving pretty quickly with the Cruise/Cruz/Diaz threesome in the leads. THE BIJOU sounds cool and I look forward to the Jim Carrey/Frank Darabont collaboration. SIMONE, THE BOURNE IDENTITY, JURASSIC PARK 3 and A.I. continue to cast. Next year's gonna be interesting. DEATH TO SMOOCHIE and CLOSERS sound funny (as does PIMP PASTY), anyone read the scripts? Not much else to say.
Until next week...
Have a good Labor Day (and happy birthday to me...bleh).
