Once again, welcome to the WEEKLY RECAP from Elston Gunn and Father Geek. As is usual Elston has put together a great summery of the week's activities out in Hollywoodland. Father Geek was especially happy to find out John Malkovich and Dougray Scott are in negotiations to co-star in
RIPLEY'S GAME one of my favorite of the Ripley novels. If anyone can do the subject justice they surely can. Furthermore I have high expectations for THE HUNTED by one of my favorite directors William Friedkin, and the Neil Jordan helmed NOT I, with the wonderful Julianne Moore. Ol' Father Geek also took great joy at the word that Anne Rice and her son, Christopher, are moving ahead with their plans to write a screenplay of Anne's novel THE WITCHING HOUR. That's something I've been wishing for several years now. We've been in need of a really good, serious, and phantastic Witch flick for adults for a long time now, maybe Anne will finally give it to us.
Well, enough of me... Here's Elston with this week's entertainment news summery...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jamie Foxx is in talks to star opposite Will Smith in the Columbia Pictures pic ALI for director Michael Mann. Foxx would play Drew "Bundini" Brown, the comic relief of Ali's entourage, who becomes an alcoholic and sells one of the boxer's championship belts.
* Johnny Knoxville (MTV's "Jackass") will star in the road comedy THE TREE for director Stephen Surjik (WAYNE'S WORLD 2) and MGM. It's about a truck driver and a presidential aide who have to haul a huge Christmas tree from Washington state to Washington D.C. Shooting is expected to begin in February. Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow (TOY STORY) scripted.
* Ving Rhames is in final talks to join Tyrese in BABY BOY for writer/director John Singleton and Columbia Pictures. Rhames will play a friend of Tyrese's mother.
* Tom Wilkinson will play a villain named Sir Nolte opposite Martin Lawrence in 20th Century Fox/New Regency's BLACK KNIGHT, Gil Younger will direct.
* Mike Myers is in final talks to join Anne Heche and Helen Hunt in the comedy TIMEPIECE. Shooting begins in February. He'll play a documentarian whose subject is a small-town woman who is going up against the big city. Myers is also in talks to reprise Peter Sellers' role of Inspector Clouseau in a remake of THE PINK PANTHER.
* Christina Applegate will star alongside Cameron Diaz in THE SWEETEST THING for director Roger Kumble (CRUEL INTENTIONS) about two club-hopping women who hunt the wrong men while looking for love. Nancy Pimental ("South Park") wrote the script.
* Sylvester Stallone will star in the black comedy AVENGING ANGELO for Franchise Pictures. Martin Burke is in talks to direct. Will Aldis and Steve Mackall wrote the script about a woman out to avenge her mafioso father's death and the help she receives from his bodyguard.
* Edward Norton and Catherine Keener will join Robin Williams in DEATH TO SMOOCHIE for director Danny DeVito about a chidren's entertainer who becomes the target of an assassination by the host he replaced. Production starts in January.
* Cuba Gooding Jr. is in talks to star in the drama WINTERDANCE for director Brian Levant (JINGLE ALL THE WAY) about the reunion of a father and son during an Alaskan dog-sled race. Shooting begins in January. The project is based on the 1994 book written by Gary Paulsen.
* Lisa Kudrow is in final talks to star in MARCI X for Paramount about a Jewish Princess who is in control of a hip-hop record label and is trying to take care of a big-selling, controversial rapper, whose single is a public relations nightmare. Richard Benjamin is in final negotiations to direct the Paul Rudnick (IN & OUT) script.
* John Malkovich and Dougray Scott are in negotiations to co-star in RIPLEY'S GAME for director Liliana Cavani and Fine Line Features. The pic is based on the third novel in Patricia Highsmith's Ripley series and follows Ripley, now married and rich, and his need for an assassin to eliminate two rivals. An English picture-framer with leukemia is in dire need of the money and takes Ripley up on the offer.
* Jennifer Lopez will play Frida Kahlo in a biopic for American Zoetrope/MGM/UA and director Luis Valdez (LA BAMBA). Shooting begins in February. The project is not to be confused with a separate biopic on the painter to be directed by Julie Taymor (TITUS) for Miramax starring Salma Hayek.
* James Woods joins RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS starring Drew Barrymore, Lorraine Bracco, Adam Garcia and Steve Zahn. He'll play Barrymore's father. Penny Marshall directs.
* Bumper Robinson ("Guys Like Us," "Living Single") has supporting roles in both BEHIND ENEMY LINES for Fox as well as THE PAINTING.
* Dylan Neal ("Dawson's Creek") joins the cast of the Miramax pic FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS starring Josh Hartnett. Neal has also been cast in LANDSPEED and XCU.
* Robert Baily Jr. will star as a cancer patient in DRAGONFLY, the Universal thriller starring Kevin Costner.
* Tommy Lee Jones is in talks to star in the drama THE HUNTED for director William Friedkin about a killer who gets his thrills by being the target of a manhunt, so the FBI sends their best tracker after him. Production will begin in February. Jones and Friedkin were poised to work together on THE SHOOTER, but the script isn't finished. However, that project may be developed as a possible sequel to THE HUNTED as the Jones character in both productions is a tracker/marksman.
* Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman will star in the romantic time-traveling comedy KATE & LEOPOLD for Miramax about a 19th century duke who falls for a contemporary city woman. James Mangold will direct his rewritten draft of a Steven Rogers (HOPE FLOATS) script.
* Ralph Fiennes is replacing Kevin Costner in the love story BEYOND BORDERS for director Oliver Stone. Costner had to exit the pic due to schedule conflicts involving his film DRAGONFLY. Angelina Jolie also stars.
* Julia Roberts is in talks to join Brad Pitt in REPLAY for Warner Bros./Village Roadshow Pictures and Revolution Studios. It's based on the novel by Ken Grimwood and centers on a man who dies of heart attack, then awakens to find himself in college to correct his mistakes. He continues to die on the same date, but keeps coming back to start over again, though the memories of his previous experiences stay in place.
* Adrien Brody is in talks to play the late Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman in THE PIANIST for director Roman Polanski. It's based on Szpilman's 1946 autobiography and follows the musician in his escape from Nazi concentration camps, his way of life in the Warsaw ghettos in the early 40s and the way music figured into his survival. The screenplay was written by Polanski and Ronald Harwood.
* Jennifer Tilly, Kirsten Dunst Edward Herrmann, Cary Elwes and Eddie Izzard will star in THE CAT'S MEOW for director Peter Bogdanovich and Lions Gate Films. It's about the murder/cover-up of a Hollywood Golden Age power broker set on William Randolph Hearst's yacht in the 1920s. Gossip columnist Louella Parsons, Marion Davies and Charlie Chaplin are all appear prominently in the script, which was written by Stephen Peros. Shooting is expected to begin Nov. 12 in Berlin and Greece.
* Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore will star in THE DUPLEX for Miramax about a young couple who has a chance to move into a beautiful duplex in the perfect neighborhood, but they must first eliminate the cute old lady who resides there. Larry Doyle is writing the script.
* Alfre Woodard joins K-PAX as Jeff Bridges' psychiatrist boss. Kevin Spacey also stars in the pic for Iain Softley (THE WINGS OF THE DOVE), who is directing from a script by Charles Leavitt (THE MIGHTY).
* Ryan Gosling (REMEMBER THE TITANS), David Morse and Clea DuVall are in final talks to star in the drama pic THE SLAUGHTER RULE for writing/directing twin brothers Alex and Andrew Smith. The story follows a young man and his relationships with a young woman and a high school football coach. Production begins in two weeks in Montana. Goslins is also in final negotiations to star opposite Sandra Bullock in an untitled Castle Rock thriller for director Barbet Schroeder, where he'll play a high school student trying to carry out the perfect murder.
* Elizabeth Hurley and Denis Leary are in final talks to star in the indie comedy DAWG for Gold Circle Films and director Victoria Hochberg ("Ally McBeal," "Sex and the City"). In order to inherit his grandmother's million bucks, a ladies' man must apologize to the women he has betrayed. Ken Hastings wrote the script.
* Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar are in talks to play Fred and Daphne in SCOOBY DOO for Warner Bros. and director Raja Gosnell.
* Rebecca Romijn-Stamos joins the cast of Andrew Niccol's SIMONE for New Line. She'll play a young woman who is mistaken for Simone, a computer-generated actress.
* Eliza Dushku is in talks to join Robert De Niro and James Franco in CITY BY THE SEA. Michael Caton-Jones directs. Shooting begins this month in New York.
* Jon Bon Jovi will star in JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES: LOS MUERTOS. Shooting begins early next year in Mexico.
* Lesley Ann Warren will star as a woman who tries to keep her family from falling apart in THE MEYERSONS. Warren stars opposite Dan Hedaya in the family drama.
* Andrew McCarthy joins the musical romance pic STANDARD TIME, also starring Cameron Bancroft, Victor Argo, Ilana Levine and Isabel Rose.
* Mika Boorem (upcoming ALONG CAME A SPIDER) joins Castle Rock's HEARTS IN ATLANTIS starring Anthony Hopkins.
* Sean Marquette ("Titus") will play a lead in BLACK MASK II, currently shooting in Bangkok.
* Shane Johnson (upcoming PUMPKIN) joins BEHIND ENEMY LINES for 20th Century Fox.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* F/x producer-director Josh Rose (INDEPENDENCE DAY f/x producer/director) will direct THE PAINTING, a romantic picture about two lovers in an interracial relationship during the civil rights movement. Charles Shaughnessy, Clifton Davis, Stacey Dash, Ben Vereen and Debbie Allen will star.
* Alan Parker will produce and possibly direct THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE for Intermedia Films and Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films. The drama follows a reporter who investigates a situation involving the death penalty. Charles Randolph penned the screenplay
* Anne Rice and her son, writer Christopher Rice, are looking to write a screenplay together and may do so by adapting the former's 1990 novel THE WITCHING HOUR. The book centers on two people with special powers who explore the mysteries of witchcraft.
* The Walt Disney Co. picked up the pitch GHOST PATROL from writers Jonathan Bernstein, Mark Blackwell and Jim Greer as a pic for a possible Halloween 2001 release. The studio is also fast-tracking the trio's script MAX KEEBLE'S BIG MOVE.
* George Nolfi (PATHFINDER) has turned in his latest draft of the script TIMELINE for Michael Ovitz and Paramount about archaeology students who have to travel back in time to 14th century France to rescue their professor. The project, based on the Michael Crichton novel, is expected to be greenlit soon.
* Adam Brooks (FRENCH KISS, BELOVED, PRACTICAL MAGIC) will write and direct a remake of Sacha Guitry's 1953 film LA VIE D'UN HONNETE HOMME (aka THE VIRTUOUS SCOUNDREL) for Universal. It's about twin brothers, a country type and a city slicker. When the more humble brother dies, the other takes his place and finally experiences true happiness.
* Tony Award-winning director Robert Falls will write, direct and executive produce three pictures for Disney. The first film project-and the only one with any details--is set in the world of competitive cooking. It will be based on an original script by Falls and his wife Cat Moynihan.
* Mike Figgis will direct an adaptation of Elizabeth Smart's novel BY GRAND CENTRAL STATION I SAT DOWN AND WEPT, a story of a love affair between a Canadian poet and a fellow writer which began through correspondence while he was away in Japan. However, the woman waits to meet him for the first time at the bus station and discovers he is married.
* Malia Scotch Marmo (HOOK) will adapt THE POLAR EXPRESS, the children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, for Castle Rock Entertainment and Playtone Co. It's about a boy who belives in Santa Claus and the journey on a train he takes to the North Pole. Tom Hanks is attached to star as the train's conductor with Rob Reiner possibly directing the project.
* Mark Brown's (HOW TO BE A PLAYER) script HOW TO MAKE YOUR MAN BEHAVE IN TEN DAYS OR LESS will be a movie produced by Screen Gems and to be directed by Brown. Vivica Fox is in talks to star as a woman who uses her own set of guidelines to straighten up her boyfriend.
* Robert Duvall will direct and star in ASSASSINATION TANGO for American Zoetrope, where he'll play a hit man sent to Argentina.
* Ross Klaven (TIGERLAND) is writing the screenplay adaptation of Tom Clancy's book WITHOUT REMORSE for Paramount Pictures, which is in talks to buy the feature film rights. The story centers on a soldier who goes on a killing spree after the woman he loves is killed by drug dealers. The U.S. government takes him in and gives him a new identity.
* James Cummings (SOUTHIE) and J.D. Shapiro (BATTLEFIELD EARTH) will write SUPERCOPS, based on 1993 Jan Golab book THE DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE: A TRUE STORY OF CORRUPTION AND MURDER IN THE LAPD about the true story of the first LAPD officers ever to face the death penalty.
* Erik Lindsay will rewrite SOUL ON ICE for Jerry Bruckheimer Films about an inner-city hockey player who travels to a small community to play in the minors.
* Hans Rodinoff will write the sequel to Universal's THE SKULLS for producer Neal Moritz and his Original Film production co.
* Neil Gaiman will write and direct the true story THE CONFESSIONS OF WILLIAM HENRY IRELAND for Miramax Films about a teenager who forged "lost" Shakespeare works. His hoax was created to please his father, but dad's reputation is ruined when one of the "missing" plays is produced and bombs. Gaiman is also adapting his novel STARDUST for Miramax/Dimension.
* Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla ("The Man Show") will write and star in a comedy feature for Montecito Films/DreamWorks about two teachers who are working at the same high school they attended and their attempts to escape an embarrassing tabloid scandal.
* McG (CHARLIE'S ANGELS) will direct the action-thriller DREADNAUGHT for Columbia Pictures. It's about an intense conflict between a captain and his commanding officer on the most high-tech warship ever built. Blake Masters wrote the original script, with Dan Gilroy penning the rewrite. Production is slated for September.
* Matt Piedmont and comedian Will Ferrell sold their action comedy pitch to Disney about hard-nosed 1970s cop who gets shot by a pimp and slips into a coma. He wakes up in the present and joins forces with his former partner's daughter to take down the pimp, who is L.A.'s biggest crime boss.
* Special effects expert Phil Tippett will produce/direct RINGWORLD based on the best-selling sci fi novel by Larry Niven. It's about the discovery and exploration of a 1 million mile wide band surrounding the sun with an inner-surface 300 times the size of Earth.
* Michael Lindsay-Hogg will direct a feature based on the Samuel Beckett play WAITING FOR GODOT as part of a yearlong plan by theater impresario Michael Colgan and producer Alan Maloney to turn Beckett's 19 plays into movies. GODOT is the 17th production. The production will star Johnny Murphy, Alan Stanford, Stephen Brennan and Barry McGovern, members of Colgan's Gate Theater in Dublin, will star. Other Beckett plays-to-film productions this year include: Atom Egoyan directed KRAPP'S LAST TAPE, starring John Hurt; Neil Jordan helmed NOT I, with Julianne Moore in the lead; and PLAY was directed by Anthony Minghella, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson.
* Fred Schepisi (ROXANNE, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION) will direct PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE for Abandon Pictures, based on the play written by actor/writer Steve Martin. It's about a fictitious meeting between Pablo Picasso an Albert Einstein in a bar on a night in 1904.
* Sheldon Turner will write the supernatural thriller THE RITUAL for Dimension Films about college kids using black magic to manipulate campus happenings.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Paramount is picking up ELEGY FOR IRIS, the Judy Dench film that was put into turnaround by Columbia Pictures. Richard Eyre will direct the feature adaptation of John Bayley's memoir from a script he will co-write the script with Charles Wood.
* Wes Craven Films has picked up the feature rights to THE DAY I WENT MISSING, the upcoming thriller novel by Jennifer Miller that centers around a young woman who regularly visits an unconventional therapist and seduction ensues.
