Hey Guys, and gals Father Geek here with another issue of Elston's Weekly Recap for you to read inbetween all those great trailers airing tomorrow night on TV. So set up your video capture programs, get whatever drinks and snacks you want handy, tune in that trailer channel, and sit back to enjoy the evening with Elston and the rest of us. Oh, remember some of those great trailers will start airing both before and after that big program that's gonna dominant most of the air time...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Danny Aiello and Lori Singer will star in the action comedy MARCUS TIMBERWOLF for Manhattan Pictures Intl. about a young man who has hallucinations about his American Indian heritage while he's on the run from a bad cop. Rick Newberger wrote the script based on an original story by Edward Bunker. Production will begin in the spring.
* Rhys Ifans (NOTTING HILL, LITTLE NICKY) will star opposite Kevin Spacey in THE SHIPPING NEWS for Miramax and director Lasse Hallstrom. The project is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by E. Annie Proulx and centers on a man whose cheating wife is killed in an accident. He then moves to Newfoundland and begins writing for the local paper while falling for a single mother.
* DJ Qualls (ROAD TRIP) and Matt Davis (TIGERLAND) join the cast of the comedy LONE STAR STATE OF MIND for Screen Gems and director Dave Semel. James King and Joshua Jackson also star.
* Leslie Mann (BIG DADDY) joins Tom Green, Jason Lee, Megan Mullally and Linda Cardellini in STEALING STANFORD for Imagine/Revolution and director Bruce McCullough (DOG PARK). Production begins in April. Martin Hynes and Peter Tolan wrote the screenplay.
* Reese Witherspoon will star in and produce Catch 23 Entertainment's comedy/drama THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING, based on Melissa Banks' bestselling short story collection. The feature combines two of the short stories, "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Can Imagine" and "My Old Man." It will center on a young woman and her experiences in the publishing world while her father is terminally ill.
* Jim Caviezel will star in PRINCESS OF PARADISE PARK for Franchise Pictures and writer/director Michael Seitzman. It's about two brothers who have inherited an abandoned carousel from their grandfather. The two believe that if they get it up and running again, they may be able to communicate with their sister, who mysteriously died several years earlier. Shooting begins April 15.
* 'N Sync's Lance Bass and Joey Fatone will star in the Miramax romantic comedy ON THE LINE, written by Eric Aronson and Paul Stanton, about a guy who meets a girl on a commuter train and thinks she may be his soul mate though he forgot to get her number. He and his friend try and track her down by putting up signs and posters all through town, getting well-known in the process. Jonathan Bernstein, Mark Blackwell and James Greer are working on a new draft of the script.
* Estella Warren will star in the action-comedy DOWN AND UNDER for director David McNally (COYOTE UGLY), Castle Rock Entertainment and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Jerry O'Connell and Anthony Anderson star as two childhood friends who have to deliver $100,000 to Australia for the mob, but their money is lost to a wild kangaroo when they arrive.
* Olivia Williams (THE SIXTH SENSE, RUSHMORE) will star in Dimension Films' supernatural thriller BELOW, which writer/director David Twohy (PITCH BLACK) will shoot in March in the U.K. It's set aboard a haunted submarine during World War II. Darren Aronofsky and Eric Watson developed the project.
* Byron Allen will make a cameo appearance in AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS starring Billy Crystal, Julia Roberts, John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Joe Roth directs.
* Jessica Cauffiel (VALENTINE) will join Milla Jovovich and David Krumholtz in the romantic comedy YOU STUPID MAN for APG/New Legend Media.
* Jennifer Gimenez (upcoming BLOW and CORKY ROMANO) joins the cast of Cameron Crowe's VANILLA SKY. She'll play Tom Cruise's ex-girlfriend.
* Selma Blair will join Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate in THE SWEETEST THING for director Roger Kumble (CRUEL INTENTIONS).
* Aaron Eckhart is in talks to join Julia Roberts in PROJECT 3 the Revolution Studios psychological thriller which starts shooting in April. Gore Verbinski will direct. The movie's plot is being kept under wraps, but the project is said to be in the vein of George Cukor's 1944 film GASLIGHT.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Joel Schumacher is set to direct the New Regency Pictures romantic comedy LIFE, OR SOMETHING LIKE IT about a female reporter who happens upon a homeless prophet who tells her she only has one week to live. Shooting starts in April from a script written by John Scott Shepherd, with a rewrite by Dana Stevens. Schumacher is also developing the thriller DARE at New Regency.
* George Armitage (GROSSE POINTE BLANK) is in talks to direct the romantic comedy LARCENY FOR LOVERS, starring Pierce Brosnan, for Mandalay Entertainment. It follows male and female con artists trying to outsmart one another.
* Rob Ritger will direct the comedy AMERICAN MULLET for Gaylord Films based on an idea by studio production chief Casey La Scala about the Mullets, a band of trailer park misfits who must deal with an unfinished private golf course that needs an 18th hole on their land.
* Director Tarsem (THE CELL) will direct the thriller CONSTANTINE, based on the comic book HELLBLAZER, for Warner Bros. The Donners Co. will produce the pic which has a screenplay by Kevin Brodbin (THE GLIMMER MAN) with a rewrite by Mark Bomback (THE NIGHT CALLER) and Frank Cappello (NO WAY BACK). No start date has been set.
* Michael Hoffman (RESTORATION, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM) is in final talks to direct THE PALACE THIEF, based on the short story by Ethan Canin, for Beacon Pictures. It centers on a prep school teacher and his troubled student. Kevin Kline will play the teacher.
For script news, check out my script report at
ScreenwritersUtopia.com
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Strand Releasing and Cinema Restoration Archive have teamed up to rerelease the 1985 prison drama KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, starring William Hurt and Raul Julia, this summer.
* Miramax has made a deal for the movie rights of Michael Chabon's (WONDER BOYS) upcoming children's novel SUMMERLAND for Tribeca Films to produce. The story is a fantasy tale that includes baseball, werefoxes, fairies and a war between good and evil in another world.
* Producers John Hart and Jeff Sharp (YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) are in talks to buy the film rights to the play PROOF by David Auburn about the relationship between a dying insane but genius math professor and his 25-year-old daughter.
* Miramax Films will co-finance and co-produce THE HOURS with Paramount Pictures. The project will star Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Eileen Atkins and Allison Janney in a story based on the Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Stephen Daldry will direct the pic which starts shooting next week.
* New Regency Films is in final talks to get the domestic rights to the upcoming Intermedia/IMF submarine pic K-19, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Paramount is handling foreign distribution. Meanwhile, Intermedia Films has been sued by Drawbridge Films Inc., which claims the story rights for the project were stolen from Drawbridge. That studio is seeking unspecified damages and to halt production on the feature. Kathryn Bigelow directs the pic which his being co-produced by National Geographic. Shooting is expected to start Feb. 19.
* Scott Steindorff's Stone Village Prods. has several projects in development based on high caliber lit material: Brad Thor's spy thriller LIONS OF LUCERNE; THE HUMAN STAIN by Phillip Roth; T.C. Boyle's TORTILLA CURTAIN; the bestseller NIGHT MAGIC by Tom Tryon; and the legal thriller THE WILL by Reed Arvin to be produced with Gene Simmons.
* Tribeca Prods. has signed a first-look three-year feature production pact with Universal Pictures. The company is now developing MEET THE FOCKERS, a sequel to MEET THE PARENTS, with Jim Herzfeld scripting, Jay Roach directing and De Niro, Ben Stiller, Teri Polo and Blythe Danner returning to star.
* Producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa have picked up the rights to several books for the Bona Fide banner: Scott Phillips' dark comedy ICE HARVEST, about a lawyer who embezzles money from sex bars and massage parlors ; BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg, which follows a young girl who appears to be a slow learner but is an idiot savant; and Tom Perrotta's (ELECTION) novel JOE COLLEGE, about a 1980s New Jersey kid trying to survive Yale.
* Pioneer Entertainment is plannnig a U.S. re-release and a DVD version of the cult Japanese anime film AKIRA, based on the popular comic book. The film hits theaters again in the spring while the DVD (as well as a new VHS edition) will be out later this year.
* Universal Pictures is in talks to pick up the comedy/drama ABOUT A BOY, which Tribeca Prods. will produce, from New Line Cinema.. Hugh Grant is attached to star for directors Chris and Paul Weitz.
* Nicole Kidman may exit the Columbia drama THE PANIC ROOM which David Fincher is directing from a script by David Koepp. The film has been shooting for two weeks and the studio is faced with having to quickly find a replacement. Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam also star.
