Well, Elston was late this week, bummer, hope it didn't put any of you out, but he was busy moving into his spacious new quarters and just couldn't get it in any quicker. Father Geek can tell you this though, the wait was worth it tons of cool info here... Check it out...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Johnny Depp will play 16th century poet/playwright Christopher Marlowe in Natural Nylon's film production MARLOWE. It's about Marlowe's relationship with William Shakespeare and will address the theory that Marlowe may have written some of Shakespeare's plays. Jude Law will also star in the pic to be directed by John Maybury (LOVE IS THE DEVIL). Production begins in March.
* Mars Callahan, Chazz Palminteri, Christopher Walken, Rick Schroder, Rod Steiger and Bill Cobbs will star in POOLHALL JUNKIES about a gambler who straightens himself up, but is pulled back into the world of pool-shooting to save his brother. Callahan will direct from a script he co-wrote with Chris Corso.
* Ving Rhames and Wesley Snipes are negotiating to co-star in the prison drama UNDISPUTED for director Walter Hill (48 HRS., LAST MAN STANDING), who wrote the script with David Giler (ALIEN 3), and Millenium Films. It centers on a boxing champion who is accused of raping a woman and then gets sent to prison, where he is to spar with the prison boxing champ.
* Katie Holmes is in final talks to star in Paramount's ABANDONED, the psychological horror pic to be directed by Ed Zwick (THE SIEGE). The story centers on a college undergrad who is haunted by visions of her ex-boyfriend who mysteriously disappeared. She also gets the sense that she may have been involved in another similar vanishing.
* Colin Farrell (TIGERLAND) is in talks to replace Matt Damon in MINORITY REPORT for director Steven Spielberg. Farrell will also star in HART'S WAR opposite Bruce Willis and PHONE BOOTH for Joel Schumacher. Ray Liotta, Ron Eldard, Radha Mitchell and Katie Holmes will also star in PHONE BOOTH.
* Teri Polo (MEET THE PARENTS) and Matthew O'Leary (upcoming HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES) will star opposite John Travolta and Vince Vaughn in DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE for Paramount and director Harold Becker.
* Erin Daniels joins ONE HOUR PHOTO starring Robin Williams and Michael Vartan. Mark Romanek directs.
* Barbara Hershey will join Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia in LANTANA for director Ray Lawrence. The pic is an adaptation of Anderw Bovell's SPEAKING IN TONGUES.
* Tsianina Joelson (BRING IT ON) will star in A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND for Flixer and director Jin Ishimoto.
* Tom Sizemore is in talks to starin BLACK HAWK DOWN, the Revolution Studios pic about a U.S. military mission in Somalia. Ridley Scott will direct the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced pic. Sizemore is also in talks to play Al Capone in DreamWorks' THE ROAD TO PERDITION for director Sam Mendes.
* Johnny Galecki ("Roseanne," SUICIDE KINGS) joins Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz and Jason Lee in the dramatic thriller VANILLA SKY for Cameron Crowe.
* Mario Van Peebles will play Malcolm X in ALI opposite Will Smith. Michael Mann directs the Columbia Pictures biopic. Jamie Foxx also stars.
* Julia Roberts will star in the untitled pic, currently known as PROJECT 3, for Revolution Studios and director Gore Verbinski. J.H. Wyman penned the script which is supposed to be in the vein of the 1944 classic GASLIGHT. Shooting begins April 1.
* Mike Myers and Bryan Singer are in talks to star in and direct CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND for Renaissance Films, based on the book by "Gong Show" host Chuck Barris which is a fictitious account of his secret life as a CIA hitman. Production is expected to begin in February or March.
* Ami Dolenz and Steve Parlavecchio (BANDWAGON) will star in MR. ID, an indie pic about crack addicts, one is a streetwalker and the other is a writer/hit man. Alec Cicak directs.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Miramax Films has picked up Michael Caleo's pitch MR. ETIQUETTE as a possible Chris Rock vehicle. It's about a New York tour guide who tries to turn the city's bad people into respectful citizens in order to win back his girlfriend.
* Michael Apted is in talks to direct Jennifer Lopez in ENOUGH, the Columbia Pictures domestic violence thriller written by Nick Kazan. Production begins in March.
* Kyle Bergersen will direct the black comedy LOVE COMES TO THE EXECUTIONER from his own script about an executioner--at a prison where his brother is scheduled to die--and his falling in love with his brother's incarcerated ex-girlfriend. Shooting begins in the spring. Sandra Bullock will produce along with Shooting Gallery Entertainment and Evolution Management.
* Ted Tally will adapt the 1981 Tom Harris novel RED DRAGON, the first book to introduce Hannibal Lecter, into a screenplay for producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis and Universal Pictures.
* Sydney Pollack is in talks to direct FREEDOMLAND for Paramount based on the novel by Richard Price. The story centers on a single mom who blames a black man for the death of her son. Meanwhile, a black detective and a white newspaper reporter investigate the woman's story.
* Hyde Park and Film Roman have purchased Simon Kinberg's pitch HEIST about two master thieves after the same prize. Kinberg will write the script.
* Allen Coulter will direct HILLBILLY HEIST for Miramax Films based on the Charlotte Observer article by Paige Williams that tells the true story of a the second biggest cash theft in U.S. history in Charlotte, N.C. and the humorous gang behind it. Jennifer Hoppe and Nancy Fichman will pen a rewrite from an original draft by Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser (upcoming WAKIN' UP IN RENO).
* Luis Mandoki will direct Greg Iles' thriller script 24 HOURS for Propaganda Films in which Mandoki will also produce with Mimi Polk under their Mandolin Entertainment banner. It's based on Iles' novel about a family who must rely on their resourcefulness to escape a dangerous situation within 24 hours.
* Chazz Palminteri will direct the romantic comedy DANTE AND THE DEBUTANTE for Alcon Entertainment about a con artist who is the inside man on a heist that targets the art collection belonging to a wealthy family. Things get interesting when the con and the debutante of the family fall in love. Palminteri co-wrote the script with Tony Spiridakis.
* Todd Phillips (ROAD TRIP) will direct, produce and cowrite with Scot Armstrong OLD SCHOOL for DreamWorks and Montecito Picture Co. Production is slated to start in March in North Carolina.
* Jason Rothenberg's pitch 59 STORY CRISIS was sold to Paramount Pictures. Based on the New Yorker article by Joe Morgenstern, the story follows a young architecture student who finds a major flaw in a design of a New York skyscraper and tries to alert the right people while a storm is brewing toward the city.
* James Orr and Jim Cruickshank will write the comedy ALIEN BABY PROJECT for Stan Winston Prods. and Revolution Studios about a family that adopts an alien baby boy and the events following his puberty and desire to join the world of wrestling.
* John Milius will write and direct a feature for Warner Bros. based on CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Schwarzenegger may come back in some capacity, though the story is still being worked out. Larry and Andy Wachowski are co-creating the concept with Milius and may direct the second unit on the pic.
* Dennis Dugan (BIG DADDY) is in negotiations to direct the Martin Lawrence action comedy NATIONAL SECURITY for Columbia Pictures. It's about a white cop who is booted off the force after being falsely accused of beating a black man. The two ultimately find themselves targets for murder.
* Michael Tabb's script TROY was nabbed by producer Mark Canton and German entertainment/exhibition company Senator. The story is a romance set during the Trojan War. Tabb is also writing 7th PORTAL based on the Stan Lee property.
* David Diamond and David Weissman (FAMILY MAN) have written the comedy MINUTE MEN, picked up by Disney, about three techie geeks who build a time machine that can only go back 10 minutes.
* David Cronenberg is in advanced talks to direct MGM's BASIC INSTINCT 2 starring Sharone Stone. Production begins in February.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Leonardo DiCaprio has temprorarily dropped out of the DreamWorks pic CATCH ME IF YOU CAN due to GANGS OF NEW YORK running over shedule.
* Intermedia Films picked up the remake rights to the Swedish/Norwegian thriller SLEEPWALKER about a man whose family disappears in the middle of the night and slowly discovers that he may have committed a crime whilst sleepwalking.
* New Line Cinema and Revolution Studios are in talks to co-finance and co-produce the Paul Thomas Anderson/Adam Sandler comedy. Joanne Sellar (BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA) will produce. After starring in this film, Sandler may segue into another comedy inspired by the 1936 comedy MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN written by Tim Herlihy.
* Pixar Animation Studios Inc. has announced plans to release FINDING NEMO, its fifth computer-animated feature film, in summer 2003. The pic will be directed by Andrew Stanton (A BUG'S LIFE), and centers on Nemo, "a boy clownfish," who is stolen from his home under the sea. His father embarks on an adventure to find him.
* Fine Line Features has optioned the big screen rights to the U.K. comic book superhero Outlaw, for a feature that is expected to start production early next year. Andrew Upton is in talks to direct from a script by Lloyd Foneville.
* Production on Kevin Smith's JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK will begin in January for Dimension Films, who is eyeing an Aug. 10 release. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are in talks to join the pic which also stars Jason Lee, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson and, of course, Jason Mewes and Smith as the title characters.
