Well, Father Geek is here posting Elston's Christmas Edition of The Weekly Recap. Best Wishes to you Mr. Gunn (and family)for the holidays, and the same to all our loyal readers... even the disloyal ones. What the heck... tis the season, right? Anyway here's everything worth a hoot and a holler that happened last week in Hollywood, so pull that plate of Christmas cookies over a little closer, top off that cup of Expresso, sit back and enjoy...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Michelle Rodriguez (GIRLFIGHT) is in talks to join Milla Jovovich in RESIDENT EVIL, based on the popular video game. Paul Anderson (SOLDIER) will direct for Constantin Film.
* David Arquette, Ally Sheedy and Gloria Reuben are starring in the indie pic HAPPY HERE AND NOW for writer/director Michael Almereyda and Independent Film Channel Prods. Liane Balaban, Karl Geary, Shalom Harlow and Clarence Williams III are also featured in the film about a 16-year old girl who searches for her missing sister in New Orleans.
* Don Cheadle will have a cameo in RUSH HOUR 2, currently shooting for New Line Cinema. He'll play an owner of a Chinese restaurant who has a passion for kung fu. Roselyn Sanchez also joins the cast as an undercover agent for the U.S. Secret Service.
* Gerard Depardieu is in talks to star in Scandinavia's most expensive feature film project, I AM DINA to be directed by Danish helmer Ole Bornedal. Maria Bonnevie and Pernilla August will also star in the film.. It's about a woman who, as a child, accidentally caused the death of her mother.
* Jack Nicholson will take a pay cut and star in ABOUT SCHMIDT for director Alexander Payne (ELECTION) and New Line Cinema. He'll play a divorced, retired insurance man who is losing his battle of self-deception. It's based on the 1996 novel by Louis Begley, which has been adapted into a screenplay by Nicholson and Jim Taylor. Shooting begins March 15 in Omaha, Nebraska.
* Pierce Brosnan and Renny Harlin are in talks to star in and direct, respectively, on a feature adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story A SOUND OF THUNDER for Franchise Pictures. It's about a game hunter who travels back in time to hunt dinosaurs and somehow manages to...
* Guy Pearce will star in the very dark comedy BLOOD & GUTS for Alibi Films International, producer Al Clark and writer/director Scott Roberts. It's about three brothers and the mix of sex and greed between bad cops and "good" criminals.
* Julia Stiles will play a U.S. National Security field officer in Universal's THE BOURNE IDENTITY, starring Matt Damon, based on the Robert Ludlum novel. Doug Liman (GO) directs. Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox and Adewale-Agabaje also star.
* Kari Wuhrer (ANACONDA) will star opposite David Arquette in the horror/comedy ARAC ATTACK for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Centropolis Entertainment and director Ellory Elkayem (LARGER THAN LIFE).
* Michelle Yeoh is in talks to star in the sequels of THE MATRIX, most likely in the role Jet Li was once courted to play in the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow pics.
* Michael Michele ("ER) joins Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Mario Van Peebles, Jeffrey Wright and Mykelti Williamson in ALI for Sony Pictures and director Michael Mann.
* Erinn Bartlett (THE IN CROWD), Chad Donella (FINAL DESTINATION) and Jennifer Morrison (URBAN LEGENDS: THE FINAL CUT) will star in the romantic comedy 100 WOMEN for writer/director Michael Davis (100 GIRLS, EIGHT DAYS A WEEK).
* Bruce Campbell joins SERVICING SARAH as Elizabeth Hurley's husband for director Reginald Hudlin, BIJOU for Frank Darabont as a handsome movie star, and has also been added to the cast of SPIDER MAN for director Sam Raimi, where he'll play a ring announcer. has been added to the cast of Mandalay Pictures' "Servicing Sarah" for director Reginald Hudlin. In other SPIDER MAN news, Cliff Robertson (Uncle Ben), Rosemary Harris (Aunt May) and J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson) round out the cast of the Columbia Pictures pic which stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe and James Franco. Shooting begins next month.
* Anthony Hopkins is in talks to star opposite Chris Rock in BLACK SHEEP for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Hopkins would play a CIA agent who mentors Rock's character, a man whose brother was killed by the enemy and he is brought in to finish the mission.
* Mike Myers will put in a cameon on the comedy VIEW FROM THE TOP, Miramax's Gwyneth Paltrow-starrer about a woman's journey to become a flight attendant. Bruno Barreto will direct.
* Ellen Burstyn is in talks to star in DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD, based on the novel by Rebecca Wells, for Warner Bros. and director Callie Khouri. It's about the relationship between a mother and her neurotic playwright daughter, who learns about her mother through mom's three lifelong friends. Shooting begins in the spring.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Peter Antonijevic (SAVIOR) will direct IN GOD WE TRUST for Emmett/Furla Films and Nittolo Entertainment, about a group of con men who discover that their score from an off-track betting heist is more than they can handle. Willie Dreyfus scripted.
* Rupert Wainwright (STIGMATA) will direct the action-thriller THE APPRENTICE for the Canton Co. and Senator Entertainment. Ray Wright penned the screenplay about a troubled young man recruited by the CIA. He later discovers that his mentor in the agency is the guy who is responsible for the death of his family.
* Norwegian director Lars Berg will direct the children's picture BROKEN GLASS this spring. It's based on the Harald Rosenlow Eeg novel about a 12-year-old boy who doesn't know his older brother is dying from cancer, while he spends his time pursuing girls.
* Music video director Joseph Kahn will direct DMX in THE CROW: LAZARUS for Edward R. Pressman Film Corps. James Gibson wrote about a hard-living rap artist killed in a drive-by shooting who comes back to seek revenge on the biker gang who murdered him.
* Adam Shankman (THE WEDDING PLANNER) is in final talks to direct A WALK TO REMEMBER for Warner Bros. and Gaylord Films, based on the Nicholas Sparks 1999 novel. It's set in the 1950s and follows two teens, a rich boy and a minister's daughter, and their falling in love during the town's annual Christmas pageant. Karen Janszen adapted the novel into a screenplay. Production is expected to begin in March.
* Pedro Almodovar (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) will next direct LA MALA EDUCACION (THE BAD EDUCATION), a Spanish-language film based on his school memories -- setting it in the 60s in a school run by priests.
* Alex Proyas will direct GARAGE DAYS for Fox Searchlight, Film Finance Corp. and Mystery Clock Cinema. It's a contemporary dramatic comedy about a garage band. Shooting will begin in the spring in Australia. Proyas wrote the script with Dave Warner and Michael Udesky.
For script news, check out my weekly script report at ScreenwritersUtopia.com
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Miramax seems to have the edge in a race against MGM/Zoetrope on who gets to put out the first Frida Kahlo biopic. The former studio just sealed a deal with Julie Taymor to direct a pic starring Salma Hayek and possibly Antonio Banderas, Geoffrey Rush, Alfred Molina, Ashley Judd and a cameo by Edward Norton as Nelson Rockefeller. The latter studio is apparently still looking for a few million dollars to finance the pic as well as deal with scheduling conflicts with its star Jennifer Lopez, who would have to complete her other pic ENOUGH in time to star in the biopic before the impending strikes. Luis Valdez is directing that Frida Kahlo pic.
* Producer Jon Kilik (DEAD MAN WALKING) will produce a biopic on Leonard Peltier, the jailed Native American activist who President Clinton is considering a clemency grant. Chris Eyre (SMOKE SIGNALS) is attached to direct the pic entitled IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, based on the book by Peter Matthiessen for Overseas Film Group.
* Mindfire Entertainment has optioned the rights to the video game series DEAD OR ALIVE for a series of films. The first film, DEAD OR ALIVE: HARDCORE--THE MOVIE, will start production early next year for a release in late 2001. The game follows the world's greatest fighters who battle one another in a dead-or-alive tournament.
