Father Geek here with Elston once again to post our weekend rehash of Hollywood trade stories for all of you who may have missed some of the news last week.
I just found out today that Robert Rodriguez has been breaking all his personal speed records at the end of his first week's shooting on ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO down in the beautiful Central Highlands of Mexico's Colonial Heartland. My source said: "This movie has been going at the speed of light." Also Enrique Iglesias is definitely IN the movie as a pistolero friend of El Mariachi, but they (Robert and Elizabeth) are trying to keep him hidden away out of sight right now. They are having crowd problems as it is just with Antonio. If the local fans start spotting Enrique in addition, it could be a riot. My source, which is very involved in the production, told ol' Father Geek here that all the star names AICN has reported are sure bets with "Dafoe already on the scene along with Antonio," and that as for all the regulars in Robert's other movies- "anything goes concerning them and this project."
Now on to Elston and THE WEEKLY RECAP...
Just saw MOULIN ROUGE myself this evening. Unbelievable. Can't wait to
Baz's next whatever that may be. Hope Paul Thomas Anderson directs a
musical one day, but I digress. Recap here....
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
Now on to Elston and THE WEEKLY RECAP...
Just saw MOULIN ROUGE myself this evening. Unbelievable. Can't wait to
Baz's next whatever that may be. Hope Paul Thomas Anderson directs a
musical one day, but I digress. Recap here....
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Jackie Chan will star in two big-budget projects for Hong Kong's Golden Harvest: the first, OPERATION CONDOR 3, will go into production next year in India; the other, SUN TZU'S ART OF WAR, will be filmed in Mandarin and is expected to be the most expensive Hong Kong movie to date.
* Bo Derek joins Faye Dunaway, Brad Dourif and Nils Allen Stewart in THE CALLING for Rico Films and writer/director Damian Chapa.
* Rahul Khanna (EARTH) joins Kevin Kline, Steven Culp, Patrick Dempsey, Embeth Davidtz, Rob Morrow, Harris Yulin and Emile Hirsch in THE PALACE THIEF. Michael Hoffman directs.
* Lisa Brenner (THE PATRIOT) has nabbed a role in Lawrence Gray's THE GROOMSMEN, currently lensing in South Africa.
* Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Enrique Iglesias and Eva Mendes join Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Quentin Tarantino and Mickey Rourke in ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO for Robert Rodriguez and Columbia Pictures/Dimension Films. Shooting begins this week in Mexico.
* Fred Willard, Henry Gibson, Meredith Monroe, Martin Mull and Sean Nelson star in THE YEAR THAT TREMBLED, based on the 1998 novel by Scott Lax, for writer/director Jay Craven. It's a coming of age story set at Kent State circa 1970 and centers around a group of youngsters facing the Vietnam draft lottery.
* Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson will star in SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, a sequel to their 2000 hit SHANGHAI NOON. In the new pic, the pair will travel to London to uncover a conspiracy to overthrow the Chinese and British empires. Shooting begins in February.
* DJ Qualls, Danny Masterson, Cary Elwes, Donal Logue, Michael Rapaport, Natasha Lyonne and Monet Mazur are starring in the dark comedy pic COMIC BOOK VILLAIN for Lions Gate Films and writer/director Doug Robinson. It's about two rival comic shop owners: one does it for the love of comics while the other cares only about profit. When someone discovers info that leads to the discovery of classic comics in perfect, untouched condition, he tells the owners of both stores and mayhem ensues.
* Judith Godreche (THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK) is in final talks to take a role in SOUTH KENSINGTON for Medusa Films.
* Aisha Tyler ("Talk Soup") will play Eddie Murphy's love interest in SHOWTIME for Warner Bros. Robert De Niro also stars.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Digital Domain Films has optioned Shawn Lawrence Otto's script SHINING WHITE about a guy who becomes addicted to gambling and alcohol due to his pursuit of materialistic dreams. He loses his job and family, but rediscovers life and spirituality on an Indian reservation through a relationship with a Native American boy and his horse.
* Andrew Fleming (THE CRAFT, DICK) will direct AMERICAN PRINCESS for New Line Cinema and Team Todd, based on a script by Dennis Bartok and Tom Abrams. Production will begin in the fall. It's about an English peasant girl who fantasizes about becoming a princess, but is sent to America as an indentured servant after she is caught wearing some of the queen's clothes. While in America, she inadvertently gets entangled in the movement against the crown and falls for the head of the resistance.
* Dennis Hopper is attached to direct and star in the drama THE NIGHT JOB, written by James O'Hanlon, about an ex-con pulled back to the underworld by a crooked cop trying to nail a mobster's global art smuggling ring. Hopper will play the cop while Val Kilmer is in talks to play the mobster.
* Luke Greenfield (THE ANIMAL) is developing THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, which he is rewriting with Chris McKenna, for Fox's Regency Enterprises. It's about a careful high school senior who falls for a girl who moves in next door. When the town finds out she's an ex-porn star, he is forced to risk everything, including his future.
* Miramax Films has optioned the feature rights to MAL CHANCE, the Platinum Studios Spanish comic book by Martin Pardo and David Morancho. Scott Murphy ("Angel") has written a screenplay adaptation. The script follows Lola, a female Chinese assassin for a powerful gangster in Chinatown, who is marked for death by her own employer. She teams up with an American FBI agent, who is unaware of her true identity, to bring the criminal organization down.
* Curtis Hanson will direct Eminem in a Universal Pictures feature project about a young rapper from a script by Scott Silver (THE MOD SQUAD).
* Karey Kirkpatrick (JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, CHICKEN RUN screenwriter) will direct the live-action pic SUPERKID about a junior high kid who becomes a superhero. Kirkpatrick is also working on TORTOISE VS. HARE for DreamWorks/Aardman and PLANET FRED, a DreamWorks/Imagine pic about microscopic alins who land on the head of Fred.
* Lem Dobbs (THE LIMEY) is writing SCOTTSBORO for producer Donald De Line, based on Barak Goodman's documentary SCOTTSBORO: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, about the true story of nine black youngsters.
* Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio will return as writers for the sequel to SHREK for DreamWorks Pictures.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* MGM is developing a film based on the sci fi anthology TV series "The Outer Limits" for Mark Victor and Michael Grais to produce along with Trilogy Entertainment.
* MGM is in discussions to take over NOSEBLEED, the Jackie Chan recently shelved by New Line Cinema. The project follows a window washer at the World Trade Center who takes a falls for a waitress who works at the restaurant on top of the building. The two become dangerously involved in a plot to bomb the twin towers. Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner wrote the screenplay.
* Dimension Films is developing the live-action pic CLOAK AND DAGGER, based on the Marvel comic book about two runaways, a rich white girl and a street-smart black male, who protect the streets with their powers: she can project a terrifying darkness while he is able to produce a blinding bright light. Producer Rick Alexander and writer David Tischman are wroking on the project with Marvel's Avi Arad overseeing the production. Dimension is also working on GHOST RIDER with director Stephen Norrington as well as Marvel's WEREWOLF BY NIGHT.
* MGM and Jersey Films are getting closer toward a pic based on Elmore Leonard's BE COOL, a sequel to GET SHORTY. The studio is working on getting John Travolta to return as Chili Palmer. Brett Ratner may be a directorial candidate for the film.
* Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney are working on a pic for Warner Bros. based on the life story of Garland Bunting, a moonshine revenue agent who became the scourge of bootleggers in North Carolina during the late 1950s. Duncan Brantley will write the script.
* Miramax purchased THE NANNY DIARIES, an unpublished manuscript by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin that Richard Gladstein will produce. It centers on a 21-year-old NYU student who becomes a nanny to a family from hell on the Upper East Side.
* Producer Lawrence Bender and performing artist Peter Gabriel are developing a feature film for Miramax based on the true story of 22-year-old pop singer Barry Cox, a Liverpool, England, local who has become a pop sensation on Liverpool's Cantonese karaoke circuit and is trying to become a Chinese pop star.
GUNN SHOTS
(NOT from the trades)
* Visit This Site to see the short film "Making of the SAG Picket Line" from ShortSpot Prods.
* The Lake Placid Film Forum 2001 will take place in the Adirondack resort village of Lake Placid, New York. For more info, visit Their Cool Site
* Notodofilmfest.com has launched the First International Compressed Film Festival. To find out more, visit Right Here.
