Father Geek here with Elston's Weekly Recap. There's lots of interesting tidbits for us this week...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Halle Berry is in talks to join John Travolta and Hugh Jackman in SWORDFISH for director Dominic Sena (GONE IN 60 SECONDS). Berry would play an undercover agent.
* John Malkovich is in talks to play Green Goblin in SPIDERMAN opposite Tobey Maguire for director Sam Raimi and Columbia Pictures.
* Winona Ryder will have a cameo in New Line's SIMONE for writer/director Andrew Niccol. She'll play a movie star.
* Matthew Davis (TIGERLAND, URBAN LEGEND: FINAL CUT) is in final talks to star in MGM's LEGALLY BLONDE opposite Reese Witherspoon. Osgood Perkins (SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION) and Selma Blair are in talks to join as well. Robert Luketic (TITSIANA BOOBERINI) will direct from a script by Karen Lutz and Kirsten Smith based on the novel by Amanda Brown.
* Zooey Deschanel (ALMOST FAMOUS) joins Eliza Dushku and DJ Qualls in Revolution's THE NEW GUY.
* January Jones joins OUTLAW starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett. Barry Levinson is attached to direct.
* James Russo (THE NINTH GATE), Matt Battaglia and Rachel Hunter will star in PENDULUM. Shooting begins in Dallas in October.
* Bridget Fonda and Tcheky Karyo will join Jet Li in the action pic KISS OF THE DRAGON for director Chris Nahon and producer Luc Besson, who co-wrote the script with Robert Mark Kamen.
* Gabriel Macht joins Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman in BEHIND ENEMY LINES. Shooting begins Oct. 9.
* Lena Headey (GOSSIP) nabbed roles in THE PAROLE OFFICER for director John Duigan and the Neil LaBute-directed POSSESSION.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Anthony Anderson (ME, MYSELF & IRENE, SEE SPOT RUN) and Adam Glass will write an untitled urban comedy for Disney and producer Robert Simonds as a starring vehicle for Anderson. It's about Earl Washington, a public defender who is tired of having poor clients, so he tries to scam his way into a Beverly Hills law firm that is looking for a token black attorney.
* Jan Skrentny and Neal Tabachnick have written a contempory forensic thriller frame-up script entitled TRACES, picked up by Columbia Pictures, the plot of which is being kept under wraps. Mike Lobell will produce.
* Steven Soderbergh is in talks with James Cameron to write an adaptation of Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 Russian sci-fi epic SOLARIS for Cameron to produce and Soderbergh to direct. The 1972 film was based on Stanislav Lem's novel. It centers on an astronaut who journeys to a space station orbiting Solaris and finds out that the commander of an expedition studying Solaris has mysteriously died.
* Kimberly Peirce (BOYS DON'T CRY) will direct an untitled film for New Line Cinema as part of a two-year first-look production deal with the studio. The project, written by Peirce and Andy Bienen, is said to be a murder mystery based on a true story. Jersey Films will co-produce.
* Dan Myrick (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) and J.D. Shapiro will write the post-apocalyptic project SALVAGE which Myrick will direct with Shapiro starring. Kevin Foxe will produce.
* Anthony Zuiker will adapt the novel HELL'S ANGEL based on the autobiography by Ralph "Sonny" Barger-in charge of security at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in 1969-- for Fox 2000 as a producing/directing vehicle for Tony Scott.
* Timothy Scott Bogart will direct his script TOUCHED for Interlight Pictures about the relationship between a man who has lost his ability to feel and the nurse determined to save him.
* Benjamin Bratt, Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin, Giancarlo Esposito and Talisa Soto have joined PINERO for director Leon Ichaso and GreeneStreet Films. The film is about the Latino writer Miguel Pinero.
* John August will write a script for Columbia Pictures about a three-man expedition that discovers the true cause of the extinction of dinosaurs.
* Joe Gangemi has written ELIZA GRAVES based on a short story by Edgar Alan Poe. Icon Prods. May produce the pic about a medical student beginning his residency at an insane asylum where the patients have taken over not long after the Civil War. Ian McKellen and Heath Ledger are in talks to star.
* J.H. Wyman (THE MEXICAN) will write the tenatively titled thriller script PROJECT 3 for Revolution Studios for Gore Verbinski to direct and develop and Julia Roberts to star. The story is being kept under wraps but is said to be similar to GASLIGHT. Shooting wouldn't begin until mid or late 2001.
* William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterman have written the suspense thriller MERCURY to be produced by Digital Domain and Valhalla Motion Pictures for Universal. It's about a small-time criminal and the world of online gaming.
* Dennis Bartok and Tom Abrams have written AMERICAN PRINCESS, picked up by New Line Cinema, about a young English peasant who fantasizes about becoming a princess, but is sent to America after she's caught trying on the queen's clothing. There, she falls for the head of the resistance movement.
* Steven Barron (CONEHEADS) will direct THIEF OF BAGHDAD for producer Robert Halmi (MERLIN) Dominic Minghella scripted the remake of the classic tale. Shooting begins Feb. 1.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Columbia Pictures picked up the rights to Image Comics' comic title POWERS by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. Mace Neufeld will produce the project about two homicide detectives working in a city with superheroes and supervillains and therefore are in charge of the "powers" cases.
* Production on SPIDERMAN will be delayed a month by Columbia Pictures enabling "the film's creators to realize their ambitious vision." Shooting now will begin in January with the release set for May 3, 2002.
* Universal Pictures optioned the upcoming Outside magazine article "Over the Edge" by Greg Child for the Kennedy Marshall Co. to develop about four kidnapped mountain climbers who escape Muslim rebels in Central Asia by killing one of them.
Not too much to talk about this week. Soderbergh/Cameron on SOLARIS should be interesting. Soderbergh just doesn't seem to take a break. The new SPIDERMAN dates is hopefully proof they are really taking their time to make a sweet sweet movie -- can't wait to see Malkovich as Green Goblin. KISS OF THE DRAGON might be lots of fun. And SALVAGE, POWERS and THIEF OF BAGHDAD look like ones to watch.
