Father Geek here with one more WEEKLY RECAP from Elston Gunn. I'm smilin' 'cause my favorite living crazy (Bruce Dern) is set for another screen appearance. Even if it is only as a Xerox operator in MILWAUKEE, MINNESOTA (I know... I know... no such place, I did use the word crazy in the above)It will be a little indie flick. And ol' Father Geek is on pins and needles awaiting Ralph Fiennes' appearance in David Cronenberg's creepy SPIDER... surprize, surprize a "psychological chriller" pinned by Patrick McGrath. And what about that Sonnenfield - Coen Bros. project LADY KILLERS... yummy! Well enough of Father Geek... onward thru the week's recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
CASTING
* Brenda Blethyn, Shirley Knight and James Garner are in talks to join the ensemble of Warner Bros.' THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD for director Callie Khouri. Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, Maggie Smith and Ashley Judd also star.
* Hilary Swank will star opposite Al Pacino in INSOMNIA, a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film, for Alcon Entertainment and director Christopher Nolan. The project is scheduled to begin shooting April 12 in Vancouver. Hillary Seitz (EARLY BIRD SPECIAL) adapted the screenplay. Swank will play a female officer who tries to discover the truth after a police officer is blackmailed by the subject of a murder investigation.
* Ralph Fiennes will star in SPIDER, a psychological thriller to be directed by David Cronenberg. Patrick McGrath wrote the script, based on his 1991 novel, about a man going insane, searching for the truth of his past and the death of his mother. Shooting begins this summer.
* Tiffani Thiessen joins the cast of Woody Allen's next pic. Allen, Tea Leoni, Debra Messing and Treat Williams also star.
* Marc Blucas ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") joins the cast of several features: John Sayles' GOLD COAST, WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG for writer/director Randall Wallace and Kevin Smith's JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.
* Faye Dunaway and William Hurt will star in the psychological drama BEAR LAKE RUN for writer/director Jason Ruscio. It's about a young man who puts together pieces of his past after he mysteriously wakes up on a bus bound for the hometown he abandoned years earlier. Norman Reedus will also star.
* Neve Campbell will star in and co-produce the drama UNDERSTANDING VIRGINIA, which centers on a hooker-stripper who is convinced she's carrying God's child. Shooting begins May 7.
* Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Whoopi Goldberg will topline POWER FAILURE, a dark comedy about an author who documents the lives of high-profile criminals. David Jablin will direct the project written by Larry Gelbart.
* Juliette Lewis will play best friend to Jennifer Lopez in the Columbia Pictures thriller ENOUGH to be directed by Michael Apted.
* Reese Witherspoon is in talks to star in the comedy THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST for Fragile Films and writer/director Oliver Parker (AN IDEAL HUSBAND). It's based on the play by Oscar Wilde and also stars Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Judi Dench.
* Dermot Mulroney will co-star with Hope Davis and Jack Nicholson in New Line Cinema's ABOUT SCHMIDT for director Alexander Payne (ELECTION), based on the novel by Louis Begley. Production begins in March in Omaha, Nebraska.
* Christopher Kennedy Masterson ("Malcolm in the Middle") joins SCARY MOVIE 2 and JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.
* Blake Heron joins WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG alongside Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Chris Klein, Barry Pepper, Sam Elliott and Dylan Walsh. Randall Wallace directs from his script.
* Johnny Knoxville (MTV's "Jackass") is in talks to star in THE RINGER about two guys who try to fix the Special Olympics. The Farrelly brothers will produce. Knoxville will also star in MEN IN BLACK 2 as a two-headed alien, and GRINGO, about a slacker who is drafted into the Mexican army and leads other soldiers into wacky misadventures. Matt Allen and Caleb Wilson will script.
* Monica Bellucci (MALENA) is in talks to star opposite Keanu Reeves in the sequels to THE MATRIX for directors Andy and Larry Wachowski. Shooting begins next month in Oakland, California.
* Mike Myers is slated to reprise the title role in AUSTIN POWERS 3 for New Line Cinema. Myers and co-writer Michaed McCullers will pen the script which, like the second, will involve time travel. The studio is hoping to start the film early enough for a 2002 release.
* Rachael Leigh Cook, Chris O'Donnell, Michael Rapaport, Jeremy Davies, Michael Lerner, Keith David and John Polito will star in the the indie dark thriller 29 PALMS, about a bag of money and the people who come in Leonardo Ricagni will direct the project that begins shooting this month. Tino Lucente scripted.
* Owen Wilson will co-star with Eddie Murphy in the comedy I SPY for director Betty Thomas and Columbia Pictures. Marianne and Cormac Wibberly wrote the script, based on the 1960s TV series, and follows a government agent and a professional athlete who are sent to recover a missing jet.
* Dennis Farina joins Tom Green, Leslie Mann, Jason Lee and Megan Mullally in STEALING STANFORD for Revolution Studios.
* Andy Richter joins SCARY MOVIE 2 and THE GUEST, both for Dimension Films.
* Roberto Benigni will star, write and direct PINOCCHIO, based on the classic tale by Carlo Collodi. Benigni will play the wooden puppet/boy, with his wife, Nicoletta Braschi, appearing as the Blue Fairy. Vincenzo Cerami co-wrote the script with Benigni. Shooting will begin in May.
* John Lithgow joins Colin Hanks, Catherine O'Hara, Lily Tomlin, Garry Marshall, Kevin Kline and Chevy Chase in Paramount's ORANGE COUNTY for director Jake Kasdan.
* Rapper Eminem is in talks to join DMX in LAZARUS, a film that was planned to be another installment of THE CROW franchise, but has transformed into a separate story. James Gibson and Joe Ide have written the script about two rappers who die and are brought back from the dead to battle for control of the hip-hop world. DMX would play the good guy while Eminem is being eyed for the evil one. Joseph Kahn will direct. Universal/Imagine is also developing an autobiographical Eminem pic in which the rapper will star for producer Brian Grazer. Scott Silver is scripting.
* Bruce Dern will star in the indie comedy MILWAUKEE, MINNESOTA as a copy shop owner with a secret past. Alan Mindel directs.
* Toni Collette is in talks to play the female lead in ABOUT A BOY, opposite Hugh Grant, for Universal and directors Chris and Paul Weitz. Based on the novel by Nick Hornby (HIGH FIDELITY), the project centers on a wealthy womanizer who is afraid of commitment, so he goes out with single mothers because he feels they are easier to ditch. However, things turn around for him when he befriends the son of his latest catch. Production begins April 16 in London.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Director John Whitesell, producer Robert Simonds and Village Roadshow Pictures (all worked on SEE SPOT RUN) are developing GET SMART for Warner Bros., based on the 1960s TV show. Mad Chance Prods. is also producing. Bill Collage and Adam Cooper wrote the script.
* Jonathan Mostow (U-571) will direct SHADOW GOVERNMENT, for Beacon Communications, about a U.S. president who survives an assassination attempt and begins to suspect those who are close to him. Dan Gordon (THE HURRICANE) wrote the script.
* Tarsem (THE CELL) will direct an Indian version of HAMLET entitled ADITYA. It centers on a Rajput prince who avenges the murder of his father.
* Harold Ramis will direct the Fox 2000 action comedy RULE #3, scripted by Robert Kuhn, about a firearms tycoon who bullies a hitman, a guy the billionaire thought was an average Joe. Needless to say, the hit man tries to teach him a lesson. The studio is said to have Sean Connery in mind to star.
* Documentarian Mark Mori (BUILDING BOMBS) will produce/direct a feature-length documentary on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who for the first time has agreed to cooperate with such a production. Production is expected to begin in the spring.
* Wes Craven will direct a new feature version of the classic tale DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE for Dimension Films. Craig Rosenberg (JURASSIC PARK 3) will write the script and is expected to add some twists to the story.
* Brad Silberling (CITY OF ANGELS) will develop and direct 20th Century Fox's Holocaust heist thriller JOSIAH'S CANON. It centers on a Holocaust survivor who leads a sharp team of bank robbers to rob a heavily-guarded bank in Switzerland, that holds the money which belonged to Jews killed in concentration camps. Jeff King wrote the script.
* Director Gore Verbinski and writer Joel Wyman (THE MEXICAN, upcoming PROJECT 3) are developing a remake of the 1959 film TEN SECONDS TO HELL for MGM. The original, written/directed by Robert Aldrich based on THE PHOENIX by Lawrence Bachmann, centered on bomb disposal experts in post-war Berlin who fight for the same woman.
* Screenwriter Fred Wolf will direct PUKA PETE, which he co-penned with David Spade, for Revolution Studios. Spade will star as a guy who has been stranded on a desert island for 30 years. He has no immune system and struggles through Los Angeles to find the love of his life. Shooting starts next month in L.A.
* Project Greenlight winner Pete Jones will direct STOLEN SUMMER for Miramax Films, who is giving him a $1 million production budget to produce the pic. The process will be documented for a 13-part reality series to air on HBO. Miramax will release the film next year as well. It's about a young Catholic boy and his younger Jewish friend who is dying of cancer. The two try to figure out how to get the dying boy into heaven.
**For script news, check out my weekly script report at
ScreenwritersUtopia.com
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Producer Tom Jacobson (upcoming BIG TROUBLE) has a few projects on his plate: the aforementioned GRINGO, starring Johnny Knoxville; PUBLIC ENEMY at Fox 2000, currently being rewritten by Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis; PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION about a date instructor and her client; LADY KILLERS, a remake being written by Joel and Ethan Coen which Barry Sonnenfeld may direct; and SAINT-X, a biopic of THE LITTLE PRINCE author Antoine de St. Exupery, who was a French aviator. Regis Wargnier (INDOCHINE) will direct that project.
* Twentieth Century Fox and Bill Cosby are developing FAT ALBERT, a live-action picture based on the animated character and Cosby's standup monologues. The project will be a mixture of hip-hop, humor, as well as social/personal issues. Cosby wrote the screenplay with Charles Kipps.
* 310 Entertainment and Trixter are working on the animated pic MOBY DICK II, inspired by MOBY DICK II, OR THE MISSILE WHALE by Patricia Highsmith. Michael Coldewey (THE FEARLESS FOUR, HEAVY METAL 2000) is directing and co-producing the project from a script he wrote with Joachim Masannek. Jurgen Prochnow (DAS BOOT) will lend his voice to the feature.
* Muse Prods./Blacklist Prods have optioned the feature rights to the 90s book GENERATION X: TALES FOR AN ACCELERATED CULTURE by Douglas Coupland. It's about a group of twenty-year olds in Palm Springs who are overeducated for their jobs, having a disenchanted view of corporate culture and are amusing one another with their wild stories. The film is expected to be in production by the end of the year.
* James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment has extended its deal at 20th Century Fox and is developing numerous projects including, BROTHER TERMITE, a sci-fi drama based on the novel by Patricia Anthony, adapted by John Sayles and to be directed by Stephen Norrington, THE COFFIN, a film noir/suspense project based on the new comic book for director Guillermo del Toro; and the romantic comedy DAMNED IF YOU DO, which will be directed by Stan Winston. The company is also working on THE FURTHEST PLACE by Joe Gayton and David Schow with Rupert Wainwright directing; Rick Krause-scripted COMEBACK, Anne Rice's RAMSES THE DAMNED; REAL TIME; and TRUE LIES 2.
* Producer Charles Evans Jr. has filed a lawsuit claiming he was booted from his own project, a biopic based on the life of Howard Hughes. The suit says Evans had been developing a Hughes film since 1993. In 1998, Evans attempted to convince Leonardo DiCaprio to play the part of Hughes, who wanted Michael Mann to direct. Mann hired John Logan to write a screenplay. After months of understanding that Mann and DiCaprio were planning to do the Hughes film at New Regency with him, Evans discovered that Mann had made a deal with New Line to do a Hughes project. The complaint alleges fraud, breach of implied contract and intentional interference with economic advantage.
* Sony Pictures Classics grabbed the worldwide rights to GRATEFUL DAWG, a documentary chronicling the final days of late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. The project centers on the musical friendship between Garcia and mandolinist/recording artist, David Grisman, who is also the father of the project's director, Gillian Grisman. The studio plans to release the film on August 1, Garcia's birthday.
Project development slacked off slightly this week, but there was still mounds of casting. Some promising stuff out there. Joseph Fiennes in a David Cronenberg film sounds mighty cool. Ensemble casts are rampant now with THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD, WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG, JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, 29 PALMS, ORANGE COUNTY and several others continuing to cast. Lotsa Cosby this week with FAT ALBERT and I SPY projects gearing up for production. Johnny Knoxville is busy as well. And the classics aren't ignored either with versions of HAMLET, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, PINOCCHIO and GET SMART in the making.
