Man, ol' Father Geek mentioned last week that Elston sent in a long report. So how does he respond this week? Well, Father Geek is sick of typing <'s, and >'s. Mr. Gunn has put together his biggest report ever for you guys, so pour yourself a steaming triple expresso, grab a box of warm donut holes and settle back to read about a very very active week of movie news...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Vince Vaughn is in talks to star opposite John Travolta in the thriller DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE for Paramount and director Harold Becker (CITY HALL). Lewis Colick (OCTOBER SKY) scripted the story of a single parent who finds out his son's new stepfather isn't what he seems. The father tries to rescue the boy from a dangerous situation. Production begins Jan. 15 in North Carolina. Written by Lewis Colick ("October Sky").

* Billy Crudup (ALMOST FAMOUS) will star opposite Cate Blanchett in CHARLOTTE GRAY for Warner Bros. and FilmFour. Gillian Armstrong will direct the pic based on Sebastian Faulks' best-selling novel adapted by Jeremy Brock (MRS. BROWN) about a young Scottish woman who joins the French resistance to rescue her boyfriend who is in the Royal Air Force.

* Anthony Anderson (ME, MYSELF & IRENE) is in final talks to star in the action comedy DOWN AND UNDER with Jerry O'Connell for Castle Rock Entertainment and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. David McNally (COYOTE UGLY) will direct the story of a musician and a New York hairstylist who get entangled with the mob and must travel to Australia where the money they were supposed to deliver gets lost to a kangaroo.

* Mike Myers is developing a comedy with DreamWorks inspired by Isaac Mizrahi's three-part comic book THE ADVENTURES OF SANDEE THE SUPERMODEL as a possible starring vehicle for himself. The book follows the events of a blonde beauty who is "discovered" in a coffee shop by a famous designer.

* Connie Britton (``Spin City'') will join William Baldwin and Chazz Palminteri in Lions Gate's ONE EYED KING.

* Michael Jai White will star in SIX for director Kirk Wong.

* Guy Torry (PEARL HARBOR) will star opposite Rob Schneider in Revolution's ANIMAL.

* Eduardo Yanez (HELD UP) has joins Michael York and Michael Biehn in MEGIDDO: OMEGA CODE 2. Yanez will portray a Mexican general.

* Eddie Mills ("Wasteland") will star in the Wall Street pic THE TRADE for writer/director Thomas Halikias, as well as SHEER BLISS about guys after college who are trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Eddie Kaye Thomas, Milo Ventimiglia and Rachel Wilson also star.

* Nikki Webster (Olympics opening and closing ceremonies) will star in VANILLA GORILLA for director Randal Kleiser (GREASE, BIG TOP PEE WEE) about a captured albino gorilla who uses sign language to communicate to a young girl. Shooting begins in February in South Africa.

* Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Love-Hewitt will star in a contemporary retelling of the classic story THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER by Stephen Vincent Benet for Cutting Edge Entertainment and El Dorado Pictures. The film will follow a down-and-out writer who sells his soul to the devil for fame and wealth. Pete Dexter (MICHAEL) adapted the story for the screen with following drafts written by Bill Condon and Nancy Cassaro. Hopkins will play Webster while Baldwin will take the role of Jabez Stone. Hewitt dons the devil role. Baldwin will also make his directorial debut on the film. Production begins Jan. 15 in New York.

* Juliette Lewis and Gina Gershon will star in CLAIRE'S HAT for director Bruce McDonald and Alliance Atlantis about a woman on the run who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time during a period of 24 hours. Kelly Harms (THE CROSSING) will play the male lead. Shooting begins Oct. 16 in Toronto. Semi Chellas (LIFE BEFORE THIS) scripted.

* Shannon Elizabeth (AMERICAN PIE) is in final talks to star in 13 GHOSTS, Robert Zemeckis' scary remake of the 1960 horror pic, for Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures. Tony Shalhoub, F. Murray Abraham and rapper Rah Digga are also in talks to star.

* Jet Li will star in THE ONE for Revolution Studios and director James Wong (FINAL DESTINATION) Production begins in January with a targeted August release. The pic will follow a cop who has to fight his evil double from a parallel universe in order to save the world.

* Piper Perabo (COYOTE UGLY') and Jane McGregor (``Live Through This'') are in talks to star in the comedy SLAP HER, SHE'S FRENCH written by Lamar Damon and Robert Lee King (with a rewrite by Alan Ball), and to be directed by Evan Dunsky (THE ALARMIST). Shooting will begin in November in Dallas. It's about a foreign exchange student who comes to a Texas high school, befriends a fellow classmate and takes over her life.

* Christine Taylor (THE WEDDING SINGER) joins ZOOLANDER for her husband/director Ben Stiller. Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Stiller also star. It's about a male supermodel who is recruited by the CIA to be a political assassin.

* Kathy Bates is in final talks to join Kevin Costner in DRAGONFLY for director Tom Shadyac and Universal/Spyglass Entertainment. It's about a grieving doctor who suspects his deceased wife is trying to get in touch with him through his patients' near-death experiences.

* Adrien Brody will star opposite Charlotte Ayanna (DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA) and Pam Grier in the indie pic LOVE THE HARD WAY. Peter Sehr (KASPAR HAUSER) is attached to dierct. It's about a thief who meets a young woman and seduces her into his life of crime. At the same time, she teaches him life and love. Shooting begins Oct. 29 in New York.

* James Wilder (HEART OF STONE) joins Lochlyn Munro and Lou Diamond Phillips in KNIGHT CLUB.

* Desmond Askew (GO') will join Ali Landry and James Roday in REPLI-KATE for Helkon Media and director Frank Longo.

*Anton Yelchin (upcoming DELIVERING MILO) joins HEARTS OF ATLANTIS with Anthony Hopkins. Scott Hicks directs.

* Eric Close ("Now & Again") and Laurel Holloman will star in the romantic pic LIBERTY, MAINE.

* Luke Wilson and Jessica Cauffiel (upcoming VALENTINE) join Reese Witherspoon in MGM's LEGALLY BLONDE for director Robert Luketic. Matt Davis, Selma Blair, Victor Garber and Jennifer Coolidge also star in the film about a naïve blonde who goes to law school to win back her ex-boyfriend.

* Robin Williams is in talks to star in Warner Bros.' DEATH TO SMOOCHIE for director Danny DeVito, who will also star. Williams would play a costumed TV star, who is fired for taking payola and is replaced by a blue rhinoceros. He then plots to kill his rival. WB is eyeing Edward Norton for the rhino role. Adam Resnick (LUCKY NUMBERS) scripted the project which will begin production in January.

* Jeffrey Donovan (BLAIR WITCH 2: BOOK OF SHADOWS) joins Mia Farrow and Peter Coyote in PURPOSE, an indie pic to be directed by Alan Lazar. It centers on a struggling web firm and how money and power can sink it.

* Adam Sandler is eyeing a comedy written by his partner Tim Herlihy for a picture likely to be shared by both New Line Cinema and Columbia Pictures. The former owns Sandler's next film, while the latter owns the script. The pic is said to be an homage to Frank Capra's MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN.

* James Franco (WHATEVER IT TAKES) will join Robert De Niro in CITY BY THE SEA for Franchise Pictures and director Michael-Caton Jones (ROB ROY). Ken Hixon wrote script based on a true story of a policeman who investigates a murder and discovers his son is the killer. Franco is also in talks to join SPIDERMAN as Harry, son of the Green Goblin.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Sam North will write THE SEASON for Pathe Pictures based on an idea by Aasaf Ainapore, who is attached to direct. The pic will follow an American reporter who poses as a waitress during London's season of sporting and social events during the 1920s. She falls in love with an aristocrat, which leads to an incompatible marriage.

* Steven Gary Banks and Claudia Grazioso have written COEDS, picked up by Warner Bros. and Gaylord Films, for Jorge Saralegui to porduce. It centers on a college football quarterback who needs to win the homecoming game as well as the most popular girl in school, who is running for the Harvest Queen. The two meet up with a mad science professor, end up exhibiting qualities of the opposite sex, and then must search for an antidote before the big game.

* Arnold Kopelson Prods. purchased RED HOLLOW by Byron Willinger and Phillip de Blasi. It's a contemporary thriller set in a haunted prison "where only the innocent survive."

* Matt Johnson will write EIGHT BALL for Fox 2000 about two young couples who take a yacht out for an exotic vacation and get caught up with a charming drifter who turns out to be a deadly contemporary pirate.

* Tom Mantke has written and Cullen Blaine will direct the animated feature SLUSHY THE SNOWMAN for Rhino Films, created by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (ED WOOD, MAN ON THE MOON wirters), who will also produce. It's about a simple-minded snowman who wants to show kids the true meaning of Christmas during a time when businessman are quietly developing Christmas II to take place in July. However, the snowman is quickly co-opted by a liquor company. The pic is now in production and is targeted for release Christmas 2001.

* Video director Paul Hunter will direct the thriller OLD CITY about a cop who is chasing a serial killer across time and space. Jon Cohen wrote the script. Jan De Bont will produce.

* Robert Kuhn (THE CURE, MICKEY BLUE EYES) has written the action thriller RULE NUMBER THREE Fox 2000/Zucker-Netter Prods. It's about a firearms tycoon who tries to bully a lethal assassin who seems like an average Joe.

* Anthony and Joe Russo (PIECES) will write an untitled house-of-horrors thriller for Berg/Saccani Entertainment and producers Jon Berg and Damien Saccani. The pic is expected to spoof reality television and is targeted for a Halloween 2001 release.

* Marti Knoxon (JUST A LITTLE HARMLESS SEX) will write an untitled romantic comedy for Universal Pictures. The story is said to be similar to MY FAIR LADY, but with a modern twist.

* Steve Miner (HALLOWEEN H2O) is will produce and possibly direct THE AFTER KILLER for Columbia Pictures. Markus Redmond and Ivy Williams wrote the script about a group of med students who, after they let a patient die, are hunted down by a mysterious killer.

* Peter Wortmann and Bob Conte will write PARK AVENUE GHOST for Dimension Films as a possible starring vehicle for both Rupert Everett and LL Cool J. It's about a young man who is visited by a pompous ghost.

* Ken Young's and Dennis LeFevre's spy thriller script THE ALCHEMIST will be produced by Alcon Entertainment. It follows an ex-CIA agent who is sent to investigate terrorist activities perepetrated by high-ranking U.S. officers.

* Lisa Loomer (GIRL, INTERRUPTED) will adapt C.C. Medina's novel A LITTLE LOVE for Alcon Entertainment about four Hispanic women who deal with several issues involving life and love.

* Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE) will adapt Nathaneil Philbrick's bestseller IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: THE TRAGEDY OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX for Barry Levinson's Baltimore/Spring Creek and Intermedia Films. It's about the true story of a ship in 1820 that was capsized by a whale in the Pacific. Twenty men escaped in whaling boats and headed upwind to South America to avoid cannibals they thought inhabited a nearby island. However, eight men were rescued and had survived as a result of resorting to their own cannibalism. The ship's disaster inspired Melville's MOBY DICK.

* Peter Howitt will direct the action thriller MINDHUNTERS for Intermedia Films. It's about the FBI's psychological-profiling division and seven new recruits in training to track serial killers on a remote island. Their skills are tested when a killer is among them.

* Cynthia Mort ("Roseanne") is writig LET IT RIDE for Valhalla Prods., based on the pitch by Mort and Melanie Mayron ("thirtysomething") which is based on the true story of two women who start a pool to bet on a football game each week of the season and then gamble millions on the last game.

* Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert ("Strangers With Candy" creators) and David Pasquesi are writing the comedy script TRIFECTA to Artisan Entertainment for Dinello to direct. The three writers will act with "Candy" star Amy Sedaris in the project which follows two hapless brothers who join forces with a psychotic conspiracy theorist and the three resort to a disatrous life of petty crime.

* Lions Gate Films bought Karen Craig's supernatural thriller screenplay INTO THE ABYSS about a grad student who is studying criminal profiling. When a series of killings occur on campus, the student strangely becomes the focus of the investigation.

* Michael Hamilton-Wright (DANGEROUS ATTRACTION) will write the mystery-thriller RUNNING OUT OF TIME, based on his pitch purchased by Hyde Park Entertainment, about a young man who works for an Internet company who starts receiving emails from himself in the future, warning of doom. When he is accused of a murder he didn't commit, his emails become is only hope.

* Travis Wright and John Glenn will rework Jules Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH for Fox 2000. The new version will have a group of scientists setting out on a journey that leads to horror and will lead to a mission to discover the origins of vampire mythology.

* Paul Anderson (MORTAL KOMBAT) will direct the horror pic RESIDENT EVIL from his own script, based on the popular video game, for Constantin Film AG. Production is targeted to begin in January in London.

* Stuart Alexander is writing an untitled thriller for Michael Bay, as a possible directing vehicle for the helmer, about high-powered attorney whose wife has been kidnapped and the ransom for her release is his suicide. Bay is also developing the dark comedy GORY DETAILS. Both projects will unlikely go into production until after the impending SAG strike next year.

* Larry Konner and Mark Rosenthal (MIGHTY JOE YOUNG) will tweak the Bill Broyles script for PLANET OF THE APES. The two also wrote THE PRISONER for director Simon West as well as the AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS script for Fox.

* Barry Blaustein (BEYOND THE MAT) will direct RINGER for 20th Century Fox and producers Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Ricky Blitt wrote the script about a couple of guys who attempt to fix the Special Olympics to pay off their debt.

* Leslie LaPage, founder of Infinity Films, will direct the war epic UNDER THE APPLE TREE starring Olympia Dukakis.

* Warner Bros. picked up SHORT HILLS written by Craig Moss and Steve Schoenburg, about a couple of guys who try to fund their college education by producing a porno flick while their folks are out of town.

*Jay Wolpert will write an original script for Disney based on the ride the Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as adapting the Fred Rochlin book THE OLD MAN IN THE BASEBALL CAP. The latter project is set during World War II and follows a young man shot down over Yugoslavia and the female freedom fighter who helps him to safety.

* Vincent Ngo will write THE BOOK OF OWEN for Universal/Gone Fishin Prods. about a guy who finds a book that contains the story of his life, one year for every chapter. It is a week before his 36th birthday and the book only has 35 chapters, so he tries to write his own destiny. The pic will use flashbacks telling what happened early in his life to make him who he is.

* Barbet Schroeder is in final talks to direct an untitled thriller written by Tony Gayton (formerly titled MURDER BY NUMBERS) with Sandra Bullocks in negotiations to star. It's about two high school students who craft perfect murders and then take on a FBI profiler who is on her first field case.

* Mick Jackson (VOLCANO) is attached to direct a movie based on Po Bronson's novel, THE FIRST $20 MILLION IS ALWAYS THE HARDEST, for 20th Century Fox. Harold Ramis and Trevor Albert will produce while Gary Tieche will rewrite the script. The story follows a group of computer geeks who must develop the ultimate network computer.

* Valerie Breiman (LOVE & SEX) will develop and possibly direct the romantic comedy CRAZY for Universal/Imagine Entertainment about a guy with a history of mental illness who falls for a movie star's girl. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are writing the script.

* Writer Michael McGruther (TIGERLAND co-scribe) is working with Jay Russell (MY DOG SKIP) on GHOST TOWN, a coming-of-age story for Russell to direct. It centers on a boy whose father goes to jail for murder and the raising of the boy from there. And though the boy is the father's link to the outside world, he learns he must leave town to live his own life.

* Philip Railsback (THE STARS FELL ON HENRIETTA) will write THE WINDSHIELD WIPER MAN for Beacon Pictures based on the life of Robert Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper. He took the invention to Ford Motor Company while serving as a consultant for them. After he was let go, Ford continued to manufacture vehicles with his invention. He sued the company and a decade later won the case, using his family who trained themselves to act as attorneys after his own lawyers ditched him. The New Yorker article "A Flash of Genius" by John Seabrook will also serve as a basis for the film.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Miramax Films is moving ahead with the thriller DROWNING RUTH to be directed by horrormeister Wes Craven. Based on the novel written by Christina Schwartz, the story follows a 1919 rural Wisconsin family, the relationship between two sisters and the mystery of one of their deaths.

* Renaissance Films is in talks to fully finance CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND written by Charlie Kaufman (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) based on the book, a fictitious account of the supposed CIA secret life of "Gong Show" host Chuck Barris. Andrew Lazar will produce the pic with Bryan Singer possibly directing.

* Landscape Entertainment has optioned the feature rights to Nicholas Christopher's novel VERONICA about a photographer who falls for a woman whose father is trapped in another dimension. Harley Peyton ("Twin Peaks") is attached to adapt the novel for the big screen.

* The release of the Baz Luhrmann-directed 20TH Century Fox pic MOULIN ROUGE has been moved from Christmas to summer due to a need for more postproduction time.

I think this is the longest recap ever. No need for me to ramble. Everything speaks for itself (as it usually does).

Until next week...

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com