Welcome to the weekend and Elston's WEEKLY UPDATE from Father Geek. I'm glad to once again be posting this summery of all that was happening in Hollywood last week. Lots of familar names in this week's report. Father Geek enjoys seeing alot of "old pros" getting juicy roles like Jon Voight's part as Lord Croft in TOMB RAIDER, Armand Assante in ONE EYED KING, Michael Caine in the thriller QUICKSAND, and of course Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn who are up for THE BANGER SISTERS. Just toooooo coooooool!
But most of all I can't wait to see what John August does with his interpretation of Jean Claude Forest's as yet un-filmed BARBARELLA story THE MIRROR OF THE STORMS. It has always been one of my absolute favorites in the often abused Sexy/Sci-Fi/Comicbook sub-genre.
Father Geek feels Drew can really sink her pearly whites into this role. And speaking of "ol' pros" and Barbarella... how about John Philip Law appearing before the cameras again next month in France? It seems Pygar has regained the will to fly!
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jay Mohr will star in FAIR HOPE, USA for Katz Prods. and writer-director Anthony Di Pietro. It's about a pastor who befriends a convicted pedophile who moves to a small town after serving 25 years in prison. Although the ex-convict hopes to keep a low profile, due to "Megan's Law" he has to register as a sex offender, which keeps him in the public eye. Production begins in January.
* Christian Bale is in talks to star in the action film REIGN OF FIRE for Spyglass Entertainment and director Rob Bowman (THE X-FILES). It's about a brood of dragons that come from the earth and commence setting everything on fire. Bale would play a leader of a small group of survivors who meet an American dragon slayer whom with he joins forces to defeat the queen dragon.
* Gwyneth Paltrow is in talks to star in the comedy A VIEW FROM THE TOP for Miramax Films and director Bruno Barreto (BOSSA NOVA). It tells the story of a young woman who wants to become a flight attendant and her journey getting there from her days as trailer-park trash. Eric Wald and Roger Kumble scripted. Shooting begins in December.
* Steve Zahn will lend his voice to DR DOLITTLE 2 for 20th Century Fox. Eddie Murphy, Kevin Pollak and Jeffrey Jones will star.
* Lacey Chabert and Ian Bohen will have roles in James Anderson's pic about high school AMERICAN LEATHER.
* Eva Mendes (URBAN LEGENDS 2) joins Steven Seagal, DMX and Anthony Anderson in Warner Bros.' EXIT WOUNDS. Andrzej Bartkowiak directs.
* Elizabeth Berkeley joins Helen Hunt and Charlize Theron in Woody Allen's latest untitled film.
* Jennifer Beals and Karyn Parsons will star in the digital video-shot relationship comedy 13 MOONS for director Alexandre Rockwell (IN THE SOUP). It's about the events of people's lives as seen in a bail bondsman's office on the night of a full-moon. Steve Buscemi may also star.
* Leonardo DiCaprio will star as twins in JOHNNY ECK, based on the true story of Robert and Johnny Eck (who was born without the lower half of his body). The pic will focus on their efforts to overcome the exploitation of one of the brothers.
* Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz will star in the romance VANILLA SKY for writer/director Cameron Crowe. The film is said to be a remake of the 1997 Spanish-language romantic thriller, OPEN YOUR EYES written and directed by Alejandro Amenabar (also starring Cruz).
* WWF's The Rock will star in Universal's THE SCORPION KING, a spinoff of his character in THE MUMMY RETURNS. The Rock will reportedly receive $5.5 million for the role. Jonathan Hales wrote the script to THE SCORPION KING, which serves as a prequel to THE MUMMY RETURNS.
* Freddie Prinze Jr. is attached to star in an untitled martial arts pic to be written by Robert Mark Kamen (THE KARATE KID) for Miramax Films. It's about a young American man who is raised by monks after his parents are murdered. He travels to New York seeking revenge and searching for his parents' killers while trying to join his only living relative. Kamen also recently sold his thriller script LEAVING EDEN to Miramax.
* Michelle Williams will star opposite Anna Friel in ME WITHOUT YOU for writer/director Sandra Goldbacher (THE GOVERNESS). The pic follows two best friends outside London from ages 16 to 27, when they start having kids.
* Sarah Jessica Parker will star in LIFE WITHOUT DICK for writer/director Bix Skahill (CHAIN OF FOOLS scribe) about a woman who falls for a hit man who was hired to kill her boyfriend. Craig Ferguson and Elijah Wood may be in talks to star as well.
* Shannyn Sossamon (upcoming A KNIGHT'S TALE) will star opposite Josh Hartnett in 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS for director Michael Lehmann (THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS & DOGS) about a guy who abstains from women for 40 days, during which he meets the woman of his dreams.
* Jon Voight joins his daughter Anjelina Jolie in TOMB RAIDER as adventurer Lord Croft.
* Marley Shelton (THE BACHELOR) and Swoosie Kurtz are in talks to join Jake Gyllenhaal (OCTOBER SKY) in THE BUBBLE BOY for Disney. Blair Hayes directs.
* William Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, Armand Assante, Connie Britton, Dash Mihok and Jason Gedrick will star in the film ONE EYED KING for Cutting Edge Entertainment and writer/director Robert Moresco about family and friends living in Hell's Kitchen.
* Michael Weston (LUCKY NUMBERS) joins SIMONE as well as ANGEL'S TOUCH.
* Marisa Coughlan joins Christina Ricci in the college pic PUMPKIN for American Zoetrope and co-directors Adam Larson Broder and Tony Abrams. It's about a sorority girl who is fascinated by a young disabled man.
* Colleen Haskell ("Survivor") will join Rob Schneider in Columbia's ANIMAL about a guy who receives several organ transplants from different animals and starts exhibiting their traits. Luke Greenfield will direct from the Tom Brady script. Shooting begins Oct. 17.
* Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and Sean Penn have been offered roles in Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming untitled comedy. The pic is set up at New Line.
* Nicolas Cage is attached to star in a film that he and director Jonathan Mostow (U-571) are developing about a widower and his son. The project started out as a remake of THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER, but has since progressed into an original story.
* Billy Connolly (MRS. BROWN) is in talks to star in GAUGUIN about impressionist painter Paul Gauguin. Connolly would play French painter Camille Pissarro. Mario Andreacchio will direct.
* Michael Caine and Michael Keaton will star in the action thriller QUICKSAND for director John Mackenzie (BEYOND THE LIMIT, THE FOURTH PROTOCOL). Caine will play a has-been movie star to Keaton's New York Banker, both of whom get entangled in the underworld of Monaco.
* Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn are in talks to star in the comedy/drama THE BANGER SISTERS for Fox Searchlight and writer/director Bob Dolman (WILLOW, FAR AND AWAY scribe) about two former rock 'n' roll groupies who reunite. One sister wants to relive her wild days, while the other tries to hide her past.
* Chris Cooper (OCTOBER SKY, LONE STAR) will join Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep in ADAPTATION for director Spike Jonze, who will helm a script by Charlie Kaufman. Cooper will also star with Matt Damon in THE BOURNE IDENTITY for director Doug Liman (GO).
* Piper Perabo is in talks to star in MOLLY GUNN for director Gary Winick (THE TIC CODE) about a New York socialite who tries to regain her boyfriend's respect by becoming the nanny of a precocious child.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Columbia Pictures picked up the Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry-penned script TICK-TOCK for producer Gavin Polone. It's told in real time and follows an amnesiac who is told he is the prime suspect in a case involving several bombs being planted throughout the city, timed to go off very soon. A female FBI agent tries to jog his memory to find out the location of the bombs so they can be disarmed.
* Samantha Silva will write WHAT YOU WISH FOR to be directed by her husband Michael Hoffman (ONE FINE DAY) for Universal Pictures. It follows two sisters who travel back in time to the period of Jane Austen, where one sister adapts well and the other doesn't.
* Jon Bokenkamp (BLAIR WITCH 2) will write PERFECT STRANGERS for Revolution Studios as a starring vehicle for Julia Roberts. It's described as a FATAL ATTRACTION involving the internet.
* John Hefferman will write the thriller SNAKES ON A PLANE for Paramount/MTV Films about an assassin who releases a crate filled with lethal snakes aboard a commercial airliner high above the Pacific Ocean.
* Phil Alden Robinson (FIELD OF DREAMS) is in final talks to direct Ben Affleck in THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, based on the Tom Clancy novel. Akiva Goldsman scripted.
* Brad Anderson (NEXT STOP WONDERLAND) will direct the horror film SESSION 9 for USA Films starring David Caruso. Anderson and Stephen Gevedon wrote the script which takes place in an abandoned insane asylum. Josh Lucas (THE WEIGHT OF WATER), Peter Mullan (THE CLAIM) and Brendan Sexton III (BOYS DON'T CRY) will also star.
* Brett Ratner (RUSH HOUR) purchased the feature rights to and will develop John Lee Anderson's biography CHE GUEVARA: A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE about the Cuban revolutionary.
* Valerie Thomas and Stacy Kramer have written the script #6E, picked up by Fox Searchlight, about an apartment used by a group of women for affairs.
* Christopher Nolan will direct INSOMNIA, a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film about a cop in an Alaskan town, who accidentally kills his partner during a murder investigation. The killer blackmails the officer into arresting an innocent person for his murders. Meanwhile, a local female cop tries to uncover the truth
* Richard Regen has sold his heist thriller pitch HEATHER TALLCHIEFT to Bill Mechanic, based on a Marie Claire magazine article by Daniel Jeffries about the true story of a driver for Loomis Armored Inc. who allegedly help steal $3.1 million from an armored van, then fled to Denver.
* DreamWorks bought the romantic comedy pitch THE DOCTOR AND THE DOORMAN from writers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis (THE WEDDING PLANNER), who will write the script for producer Lindsay Doran. It's about a female cardiologist and a doorman who fall for each other. Due to their real professions getting in the way of their love lives, she tells him she's a teacher while he pretends to be a stockbroker.
* John August (GO) will script a Warner Bros./20th Century Fox film inspired by the 1960s sci fi flick BARBARELLA with Drew Barrymore attached to star. The project will be based on Jean Claude Forest's books LE SEMBLE LUNE (THE MOON LIKE) and LE MIROIR AU TEMPETES (THE MIRROR OF STORMS) from the BARBARELLA series.
* Bill Wheeler (THE PRIME GIG) will write the DreamWorks adaptation of THE MAN WHO ROBBED THE PIERRE by Ira Berkow with John Cusack, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink producing the pic as a possible starring vehicle for Cusack and Woody Allen. Wheeler is also working on THE HOAX for Mutual Film Corps and an untitled biopic for producer Casey Silver about Ken Uston, the blackjack legend.
* Kirsten ``Kiwi'' Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz will write THE MIRANDA OBSESSION for MGM and director Robert DeNiro, based on the Vanity Fair article about a mysterious female phone confidant of celebs during the 80s.
* Sam Henry Kass will direct the mockumentary JOE HEAD GOES HOLLYWOOD, a sequel to THE SEARCH FOR ONE-EYED JIMMY. Peter McAlevey will produce. Lou Diamond Phillips, Carmen Elektra, Christian Slater, Andy Dick, MTV veejay Idalis, Joe Mantegna, Rod Steiger will be among the start to participate in the film.
* Joel Schumacher will develop and direct CHASING THE DRAGON: THE VERONICA GUERNIN STORY for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It's about the true story of the Irish journalist who was killed by drug dealers about whom she had investigated and written a series of stories. Carol Doyle wrote the first draft of the script, Mary Agnes Donahue did a rewrite.
* Universal is in final talks to purchase James Vanderbilt's fantasy thriller pitch THE CAVES OF STEEL, based on the novel by Isaac Asimov-the first of the author's THE ROBOT SERIES. Simon West (CON AIR, TOMB RAIDER) is attached to direct. Vanderbilt will write the script. In an effort to prevent an intergalactic war from happening, a New York cop must team up with an humanoid robot to solve a crime within 24 hrs.
* Roman Coppola will direct CQ from his own script about a 1960s filmmaker in Paris who takes the reigns of a sci fi film that is set in the year 2000. Gerard Depardieu, Elodie Bouchez, Giancarlo Gianni, Massimo Ghini, John Philip Law, Jason Schwartzman, and newcomer Angela Lindvall will also star. Shooting begins next month in France.
* Alcon Pictures purchased Bart Baker's drama spec script THE BAKER'S SON about a swimmer who confronts his family's demons.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* The Farrelly Bros. have moved the production start date of their Fox film SHALLOW HAL up to March 22 in order to have the film in the can by July 1. Garry Shandling and Gwyneth Paltrow are in talks to star with Jack Black in the film about the world's most shallow man who falls in love with a very unattractive woman. The Farrellys will direct from a script they wrote with Sean Moynihan.
* Disney has put the 3-D animated film WILDLIFE into turnaround. The film was to be produced by Disney Feature Animation without Pixar, but has instead been shelved.
* Ed Norton has dropped out of HART'S WAR to be directed by Gregory Hoblit (PRIMAL FEAR). MGM cited "creative differences" as the reason.
* Producer Roger Corman and his brother, producer Gene Corman, will team on the indie pic WIZOFODDS.COM. It's based on the web site of Larry Trusley, a professional sports handicapper. The movie will center on a guy who picks football winners on the internet so well, Las Vegas bookies try to destroy his site. Roger Corman is developing a script.
* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have decided to award an Oscar to for feature-length animated films of at least 70 minutes in length. The first to be awarded will likely be handed out in March 2002, but will only be given when eight or more eligible films are released in a calendar year.
* Producer Don Murphy and Scottish filmmaker Susan Montford (STRANGERS) have optioned Jack Carter's book SEX AND ROCKETS: THE OCCULT WORLD OF JACK PARSONS. It's the true story of Parsons, a rocket scientist and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, who was also a Satanist who held orgies at his mansion. He was also acquainted with Scientology L. Ron Hubbard. Parsons was under investigation by the FBI and later died in an explosion at his home.
