Hey folks, Harry here and profusely sorry for the delay in getting the WEEKLY RECAP to you folks, but what with TIME WARNER ROAD RUNNER Service killing my E-mail to a point of hell that neither Father Geek nor I will be getting E-mail via our regular accounts till Wednesday at the earliest. UGH!!! Yeah, Time Warner's service is wonderful for surfing but their damn email service sucks like Freddie Lillard as Fraggy... It has now been a week since I got regular mail.... AAAAGHHHH!!!! Well, enough of that... onto what you've been craving...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Billy Bob Thornton will star in BEHIND THE SUN, a drama written and to-be-directed by Robby Henson (PHARAOH'S ARMY). It's about a sheriff who is rejected by his peers and seeks comfort with those whom he claimed to loathe. He's investigates the death of a transsexual and discovers some of the town's higher-ups may be involved in covering it up. Production begins March 24 in Louisiana. Thorton will then star in MONSTER'S BALL which starts shooting May 1. Both films are Lions Gate projects.
* Scott Foley ("Felicity") joins Dimension's BELOW for director David Twohy. The submarine thriller was written byhas Twohy, Darren Aronofsky and Lucas Sussman. Shooting begins later this month in London.
* Charlotte Ayanna (upcoming LOVE THE HARD WAY, RENNIE'S LANDING and TRAINING DAY) joins James Mangold's time-travel romantic comedy KATE & LEOPOLD starring Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman, Natasha Lyonne, Breckin Meyer and Liev Schreiber.
* Doug Hutchinson (THE GREEN MILE) will co-star opposite Sean Penn in the drama SAM I AM for New Line Cinema.
* George Clooney joins the cast of WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD for Pandora Films and his own (along with Steven Soderbergh) Section Eight. Brothers Anthony and Joe Russo are directing from their own script about a group of working-class Cleveland guys who try to rob a pawn shop. Sam Rockwell, Luis Guzman, Isaiah Washington and Jennifer Esposito also star.
* William Hurt and Alexis Bledel (WB's "Gilmore Girls") are in talks to star in Disney/Beacon Communication's TUCK EVERLASTING for director Jay Russell (MY DOG SKIP). It's based on Natalie Babbitt's 1975 children's book about a girl who finds out her neighbors have a spring that prevents aging. Ben Kingsley also stars. Shooting begins next month in Baltimore.
* Dustin Hoffman is in final talks to star in the Disney drama BABY'S IN BLACK for writer/director Brad Silberling (CITY OF ANGELS). He'll play the father of a young man who is grieving over the death of his fiancee, but soon falls for a barmaid with a missing boyfriend. Newcomer Ellen Pompeo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Susan Sarandon also star.
* DJ Qualls (ROAD TRIP) will star in CHRISTMAS WITH JD for helmer Malcolm Clarke. It's about military boarding school student who goes on a journey not unlike Holden Caulfield's in THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. On his trip, he faces and overcomes the demons of his past. Rachel Blanchard and Sean Kanan also join the cast. Kanan wrote the script. Shooting begins March 26 in Montreal.
* Aunjanue Ellis (MEN OF HONOR) will star in UNDERCOVER BROTHER opposite, Eddie Griffin, for director Malcolm Lee (THE BEST MAN) and Universal/Imagine. It's about a guy who works undercover for an all-black brotherhood who constantly fights the Establishment. Gary Anthony Williams (Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle") and Neil Patrick Harris join the cast as well. John Ridley wrote the script based on his animated comedy series at urbanentertainment.com.
* Kathryn Morris (THE CONTENDER, A.I.) joins Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT with Tom Cruise, Colin Farell and Samantha Morton.
* Minnie Driver and Philip Seymour Hoffman will star in OWNING MOLONY for director Richard Kwietniowski (LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND). It's based on the nonfiction book STUNG by Gary Ross about a bank manager with a gambling problem who was given access to a $20 million account. He lost $12 million of it over a year and a half. Kwietniowski wrote the screenplay with Maurice Chauvet.
* Erika Christensen (TRAFFIC) is in final talks to join Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn in THE BANGER SISTERS for writer/director Bob Dolman. Shooting begins March 26. She'll play the experimental daughter of Sarandon's character.
* Wesley Snipes, Linda Fiorentino and Oliver Platt will star in LIBERTY STANDS STILL for Pearl Pictures Management, Lions Gate and Cinerenta. Kari Skogland directs the pic about a father who takes an arms dealer hostage after he discovers that the dealer and her husband supplied the gun that was used to kill his daughter.
* Noah Wyle signed to join Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell and Juliette Lewis in Columbia Pictures' thriller ENOUGH for director Michael Apted.
* Julie Bowen ("Ed") has landed the female lead in Fox 2000/New Regency Prods.' JOE SOMEBODY, starring Tim Allen, Jim Belushi and Kelly Lynch. John Pasquin directs the pic about a divorced regular Joe who is beaten up by a co-worker. He later decides to fight back, giving his life a needed jolt while falling for a young office counselor.
* Frances O'Connor (MANSFIELD PARK, BEDAZZLED, upcoming A.I.) will join Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST for director Oliver Parker. Shooting begins April 23 in London.
* James Purefoy (MANSFIELD PARK) joins Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez in RESIDENT EVIL for Constantin Films/Impact Pictures and director Paul Anderson.
* Jay Hernandez (upcoming CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL) will star opposite Dennis Quaid in Disney's THE ROOKIE, about a high school baseball coach who tries out for the big leagues.
* Nancy O'Dell ("Access Hollywood") will have a supporting role in the upcoming thriller THE COURIER for helmer Lorena David (EASTSIDE).
* Shiva Rose (BLACK DAYS) will star in 13 MOONS for director Alexandre Rockwell. It's about a bail bondsman who affects the lives of perfect strangers in one night. Steve Buscemi will make an appearance in the film.
* Gwyneth Paltrow is in talks to co-star with Meryl Streep in DAUGHTER OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA for Wind Dancer Films/Winchester Films. Karen Croner (ONE TRUE THING) will adapt the 1997 memoir by National Public Radio correspondent Jacki Lyden. Matt Williams will direct. The book is about Lyden's childhood and her mother's bouts with manic depression. Her mother would transform into Queen of Sheba or Marie Antoinette. Lyden took her own bumpy journeys covering war zones for NPR.
* Harold Perrineau ("Oz") and Daniel Bernhardt (MORTAL KOMBAT: CONQUEST) joins the cast of the sequels to THE MATRIX. Bernhardt will play the villainous agent Johnson.
* Jimi Mistry (EAST IS EAST) will star opposite Heather Graham and Marisa Tomei in THE GURU OF SEX for director Daisy Mayer and Working Title Films. It's about a young man from India who comes to the U.S. to find fame and fortune. He ultimately becomes a guru who teaches spiritual enlightenment through sex. Shooting begins April 19.
* Tilda Swinton (ORLANDO, THE BEACH) has been cast in ADAPTATION for director Spike Jonze. She'll play a studio exec who hired Nicolas Cage to write a feature adaptation of THE ORCHID THIEF by Susan Orlean.
* Stuart Townsend will star opposite Charlize Theron in 24 HOURS for director Luis Mandoki. Production begins later this month. Courtney Love also stars in the kidnapping thriller.
* Greg Kinnear is in talks to play "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane in
Propaganda's
AUTO FOCUS about Crane's obsession with a sordid world of sex
before his
murder in 1978. Pat Dollard, Scott Alexander and Larry
Karaszewski will
produce the pic. Mike Gerbosi wrote the script.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Writer/director John Stockwell (CHEATERS, CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL, ROCK STAR) will rewrite and direct the thriller EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE (aka I WOULD DIE FOR YOU) for Columbia Pictures. It's about a young man who has a one-night stand during a trip home from college. When he heads back to school, his fling follows him back and tries to win his heart, or ruin his life.
* Peter and Bobby Farrelly will produce, write and possibly direct THE THREE STOOGERS for Warner Bros. The studio is hoping for a possible summer 2003 release. the project will not be a biopic, nor a remake of the film shorts, but instead the Farrellys will set the Stooges in modern times without any need of explanation, not unlike CHARLIE'S ANGELS. C3 Entertainment's Earl and Robert Benjamin, stepsons of Curly Joe DeRita, will executive produce the project.
* Arlene Sanford ("Ally McBeal," A VERY BRADY SEQUEL) is in talks to direct the Disney comedy FRANK MCKLUSKEY, C.I., starring comedian Dave Sheridan as a wacky insurance fraud investigator. Production begins April 16.
* John Scott Shepherd will make his directorial debut with the comedy/drama EULOGY FOR JOSEPH WAY for Warner Bros. and John Wells Prods. It's based on Shepherd's upcoming novel about a man whose father, a senator, recently passed away. He discovers some unsettling truths about his dad has only five days to really get to know him before eulogizing him at the funeral and making an announcement concerning his own candidacy.
* William Bindley (MADISON) will direct SACCO & VANZETTI, starring John Turturro. The project tells the story of Niccola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-American immigrants who may have been falsely accused and executed due to their political beliefs. Turturro will play an attorney who represented them in their 1927 robbery-murder trial.
* Writer/director Victor Nunez (RUBY IN PARADISE, ULEE'S GOLD) is developing two projects. First up is the indie drama COASTLINES, with Aaron Eckhart in talks to star, about a guy who gets shafted when he tries to collect money due him after he takes the fall for a couple of jerks in Louisiana.
Shooting begins in May. Nunez has also lined up financing for THE PROFESSOR'S WIFE, a family drama set in Florida about a married couple who work to redefine their relationship as their offspring begin to raise their own families. Catch 23 Entertainment will finance the project.
For script news, swing by ScreenwritersUtopia.com
and
check out my weekly script report. Thanks!
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* A decision was supposed to be made this week on the future of BASIC INSTINCT 2. Sharon Stone has been asked to approve Benjamin Bratt as her co-star in the project for director John McTiernan, Intermedia, MGM and producers Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna, though the actress has said neither yes or no. Bratt would play a young analyst who treats Stone's villainess Catherine Trammel.
* Actress Julia Stiles will develop projects and starring pics as a part of a deal with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films (SAVE THE LAST DANCE). She'll receive producing credit on projects she brings to the companies.
* Due to the recent high school shootings near San Diego, it is doubtful that Dimension will release O, a modern OTHELLO set in high school, on April 27. Like the play, the film ends with four characters brutally murdered and one wounded. The film was completed in 1999 but its release that year was postponed due to the Columbine tragedy. O was directed by Tim Blake Nelson.
* Miramax Films grabbed the rights to the Japanese live-action suspense pic AVALON directed by Mamoru Oshii (GHOST IN THE SHELL). It's about a beautiful woman/computer game champion, whose former lover is lost within said game. She must then make a decision whether or not to follow him to a secret level from which no other has ever returned.
* Fox 2000 picked up the feature film rights to the nonfiction book FINAL CONFESSION: THE UNSOLVED CRIMES OF PHIL CRESTA, by Brian P. Wallace and Bill Crowley, for State Stree Pictures as a possible directing vehicle for George Tillman (MEN OF HONOR). The project follows Cresta's career of crime in the 1960s, stealling more than $10 million and made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. He was captured five years later and several of his crimes remain unsolved, though before he died, he revealed all about his heists to Crowley, a retired Boston police detective. Bryan Goluboff (THE BASKETBALL DIARIES) will adapt the book for the big screen.
* The sci-fi thriller A SOUND OF THUNDER, to be directed by Renny Harlin, has been postponed indefinitely due to time constraints related to the possible upcoming strikes. Star Pierce Brosnan had asked for another rewrite of the script and the producers came to the conclusion that they couldn't do the rewrite and shoot the pic before the strike deadline.
* Disney is planning to release the sequel to their 1953 classic PETER PAN theatrically, as opposed to straight-to-video, in spring 2002. Studio execs have been pleased with the project's results thus far that they decided to change its release.
There you have it folks. Another week has passed and there's much to cheer/boo/feel indifferent about. What projects do we want to hear about? Which scripts need reviewed? What casting needs to be reconsidered? Discuss.
Until next week...
Elston Gunn
Shoot your lead this way fellas and gals
