Well its that time again folks... time for ol'Father Geek to be posting up Elston's review of all the Hollywood news from the past week so you'll have something to read with your weekend coffee and donuts other than how many people are protesting Bush's appearances in Europe, or weather the crime rate has REALLY gone up, or down in the last year. Elston's put together a much more enjoyable reading experience for all you fathers out there to have on YOUR day tomorrow than the front couple of sections of your local paper provide.Buuuuuut first here's something to put a smile on you face...
Buuuuuut first here's something to put a smile on you face...
Subject: Square pigs...
Well, no... but how bout SQUARE WATERMELONS!
LOL, I just had to send this off to you after remembering AICN's review of Dennis Hopper's SPACE TRUCKERS, and all the talk of the "square pigs."
It seems the Japanese have gone and invented... square watermelons! Here is the full story from the BBC: Just Click Here Now and prepare to wear a big stupid grin the rest of the day.
What will they think of next! Thanks a great deal for the wonderful website!
See you, Jim
I know, I know, that didn't really have anything to do with last week's movie news, but it is a bit of pretty cool "useless info" to bring up with your friends when the conversation dies down later tonight over a few brews. Now enough of Father Geek... Here's Elston and his WEEKLY RECAP...
Happy Father's Day to Father Geek. Hope all is well. Here's the recap...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
CASTING
* Elle Macpherson and Italian comic Enrico Brignano join Rupert Everett and Judith Godreche in the comedy SOUTH KENSINGTON for writer and director Enrico and Carlo Vanzina respectively. It's about a British aristocrat in desperate need for money, so he rents rooms in his family home to two Italians, who are introduced to British high society. Shooting begins in July in London.
* Jamie-Lynn Sigler ("The Sopranos") will star in the indie dysfunctional family drama THE PLAYROOM for Chimera Films and Julia Dyer, who will direct from a script by Gretchen Dyer. Shooting begins in August.
* Jet Li has signed to star in an untitled action comedy for Miramax Films, in which he'll play a Tibetan monk who wins a trip to New York and brings peace to an inner-city neighborhood. Robert Mark Kamen (KISS OF THE DRAGON) will write the script based on an original idea by Li. Cory Yuen will choreograph the fight sequences. Production will begin in the fall after Li finishes HERO, a Chinese-language epic for writer/director Zhang Yimou (RAISE THE RED LANTERN). That pic, about the relationship between China's first emperor and an assassin, also stars Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi.
* Rob Morrow, Sam Robards and Mae Whitman join Victoria Foyt, Juliet Landau, Jennifer Grant, Lee Grant, Pamela Bellwood, Cynthia Sikes, Marcia Strassman and Robert Romanus in Henry Jaglom's SHOPPING for Rainbow Film Co. and Revere Entertainment. The pic is the third project in Jaglom's "women trilogy" which also includes EATING and BABYFEVER.
* Danny Strong ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") will join Marisa Coughlan, Jordan Bridges, Heather Donahue, Dan Hedaya and Mark Setlock in the comedy NEW SUIT for Trillion Entertainment/Unbridled Pictures. Craig Sherman wrote the script about a writer who unintentionally sparks a Hollywood feeding frenzy with a mysterious new screenplay.
* Cate Blanchett is in early talks to play the title role in CHASING THE DRAGON: THE VERONICA GUERIN STORY with Joel Schumacher attached to direct for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. The film is based on the true story of journalist Guerin who was killed by drug dealers about whom she often wrote. Shooting is expected to begin in the spring.
DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Warner Bros. has purchased THE FRAUD PRINCE, a modern fairy tale script by Dan Forman and Paul Foley for Adam Schroeder Prods. It's about a young princess who kisses a frog, who becomes the prince she must wed. She becomes suspicious that there is much more to her future husband than she knows, so she hires a private investigator outside of the kingdom to do a background search on him. During the investigation, the two dig up info on the prince and fall in love in the process.
* Rob Cohen will direct the urban spy thriller TRIPLE X for Revolution Studios and producer Neal Moritz, with Vin Diesel possibly taking a role. The story involves an extreme-sports player who is sent by the government to infiltrate a crime ring. Rich Wilkes (AIRHEADS) wrote the script.
* Doug Wright (QUILLS) has sold his legal drama script THE BURIAL, based on the true story of Mississippi black personal-injury lawyer Willie Gary, to Warner Bros. The project is adapted from a New Yorker piece by Jonathan Harr (A CIVIL ACTION) and tells Gary's story of the case of Jeremiah O'Keefe, an owner of a chain of funeral homes who claimed he had been cheated by a large funeral parlor conglomerate. Gary cooperated with O'Keefe's lawyer, an admitted racist, to win $260 million for the plaintiff.
* Michael Showalter and David Wain have sold their romantic comedy pitch THEY CAME TOGETHER (aka WHEN HARRY MET WOODY ALLEN'S BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING PLANNER IN SEATTLE) to Universal/Shady Acres Entertainment. Wain (WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER) will also direct CAP'N RICKY ALSO FEATURING KARL, from a script by Mark Perez, for Kinowelt USA.
* Tim Hill's and Michael Rubiner's animated comedy pitch GAME OVER was sold to Warner Bros. for Jim Henson Pictures to produce. It's about a video game character who journeys through other games to find a new life. Hill and Rubiner will write the script.
* Playwright Maurissa Tancheroen has sold an untitled pitch to Revolution Studios about two Asian-American FBI agents who go undercover as Korean grocery store clerks in order to take down a South Central L.A. gang.
* MGM picked up JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE, a comedy screenplay by television writer Jeff Lowell ("Drew Carey," "Spin City"), for Landscape Entertainment to produce. It's about members of a cheerleading squad who join forces after being dumped or dissed by the school's most popular guy.
* Greg Mottola (THE DAYTRIPPERS) will direct Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller in the Miramax black comedy DUPLEX, a co-production by the actors' respective prod. companies Flower Films and Red Hour Films. The screenplay by Larry Doyle ("The Simpsons") focuses on a New York couple who have a dream of moving into a popular duplex apartment. The opportunity is at hand, if they kill the old lady who lives there.
* Jersey Films has grabbed an untitled pitch for Elisabeth Shue to produce and possibly star in. Chris Kleitzen will write the "Bad News Bears"-esque script based on Shue's original idea about women playing baseball.
* Writer Jason Richman (upcoming BLACK SHEEP) will script BEVERLY HILLS COP IV for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Paramount Pictures.
* Brett Ratner (RUSH HOUR, THE FAMILY MAN) is in negotiations to direct Universal's RED DRAGON, based on the Thomas Harris 1981 best-seller that introduced readers to Hannibal Lecter. Anthony Hopkins is in talks to once again portray Lecter, who early in the book is arrested by ex-FBI agent Will Graham, an investigator who quit the bureau after nearly becoming a Lecter victim. Dino De Laurentiis will produce the project and Ted Tally (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, ALL THE PRETTY HORSES) is handling scripting chores. It's been reported that the new film will cover aspects of the novel not seen in Michael Mann's 1986 adaptation of the book, MANHUNTER.
* Michael Bacall's (FREE WILLY) dramatic comedy script BOOKIES will be produced by Arts Entertainment International with backing from International West Pictures. The film will follow four college friends who become small-time bookies. When their business grows, the mob is on their tail for stealing their business. Shooting begins late summer.
* Karl Bakke ("Night Man") will develop his script CONTROL for Escape Artists, who will produce the project. The thriller centers on two estranged brothers who find themselves between a rock and a hard place thanks to a serial bomber in New York. The two then try to survive as they try to piece together the puzzle of their situation.
* Scribe Darryl Quarles (BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE) is in talks to direct his script SO THIS IS LOVE for Screen Gems. It's about four married black men who are best friends and whose wives are also best friends. When one of the men leaves his wife for a young white woman, tension spreads throughout the group.
* Propaganda Films nabbed the comedy pitch BIG IN JAPAN, based on an idea by Steve Carr (NEXT FRIDAY) who will produce and possibly direct the project. Jason Taragon will write the script about a one-hit wonder hip-hop group that gets a second chance when their music becomes popular in Japan by a growing number of Japanese youngsters obsessed with rap.
* Dean Devlin's Electric Entertainment, Roland Emmerich's Centropolis Entertainment and Bob Cooper's Landscape Entertainment will produce the thriller CYBER LOVE STORY, a Ron Bass script about online dating in the near future, when chat rooms have become "totally synthetic environments."
* Dimension Films has acquired JUNK, a family sci-fi adventure pitch with Robert Kurtzman (WISHMASTER) attached to direct for producers Wes Craven and Marianne Maddalena. David Benullo and David Goldstein will write the script about a group of misfits who find a treasure in a junkyard. Kurtzman,
* Lisa Loomer's (GIRL, INTERRUPTED) script LIBERTY STREET has landed at Bel-Air Entertainment. It tells of a relationship between a ballet dancer from Beverly Hills and a teenage girl from South Central Los Angeles who meet at Liberty Street, a community service program that gets troubled kids off the streets.
* Wes Craven is in talks to direct a remake of this year's French hit movie WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY for Miramax Films. It's about a charming yet psychotic man, Harry, who happens upon his former schoolmate and his wife, who are having rough times. When Harry tries to help them out, he begins to reveal his the murderer within him.
* Alex Torres' action comedy script HIT THE MISSES, about an FBI agent's wife who is put into the federal witness protection program where her life changes, was purchased by Columbia Pictures.
* Working Title Films has purchased Scott Kosar's script THE MACHINIST about a mysterious figure who terrifies a machinist until he confesses to a hit-and-run death. John Cameron will produce.
* Adam Cooper and Bill Collage have landed their pitch LAZARUS SPEAKS at APG and StudioCanal. The story revolves around a young FBI agent who is on assignment to pick up a presumed dead former beureau operative, but instead discovers he is very much alive, insane and telling government secrets. Cooper and Collage have also been writing STRETCH ARMSTRONG and GET SMART.
* Kevin Fox (THE NEGOTIATOR) sold his untitled romantic comedy pitch to Revolution Studios as a possible starring vehicle for Julia Roberts. The plot is being kept secret, but it's reported to be in the vein of ROMAN HOLIDAY or IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.
* Summit Entertainment and Newmarket Group have picked up THE KEY MAN, a thriller script from Michael Konyves, which begins with two men strapped to a bomb, both with the power to blow up the other, and it tells how they got there.
* Touchstone Pictures bought the buddy action pitch BOYS TOWN from writers Jordan Budde and Robert Ellsworth. The pitch features a DEA agent who investigates the murder of his gay brother. He teams up with a gay activist who is the link between the authorities and the gay community.
* Henry Bromell (PANIC) is in talks to direct THE BAKER'S SON for Alcon Entertainment about a high school senior who is a talented swimmer and takes to the water to escape his home life. Kip Pardue ("Driven") is in talks to star in the pic written by Bart Baker.
* Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman are in talks with Warner Bros. to sell their action-adventure pitch THE INFERNO for Silver Pictures to produce with Top Cow Prods. It's about 12 brave yet flawed men who have to travel through the gates of hell and close them before hell is unleashed upon Earth. Joel Silver will produce with Spike Seldin.
* Hyde Park Entertainment grabbed an untitled pitch by writer Ted Humphrey for Don Johnson Prods. to produce. It's based on true events and centers on the Chagra brothers from El Paso, Texas, who were successful attorneys, while their other brother Jimmy became famous smuggling marijuana in the 1970s, ultimately commissioning the murder of Judge "Maximum" John Wood.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* John McTiernan has dropped out of the Initial Entertainment Group/Miramax Films period drama SMOKE AND MIRRORS due to "insurmountable business differences." Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones will star in the project, currently being rewritten by Leslie Dixon.
* Fox Searchlight is picking up both the sci-fi thriller 28 DAYS LATER with Danny Boyle directing and Jim Sheridan's romantic drama EAST OF HARLEM. The Boyle project was written by Alex Garland and centers on a deadly virus that plagues the planet. Production may begin in August. EAST OF HARLEM is a semi-autobiographical film for Sheridan, who also scripted, and follows a couple who leave Ireland to start a life in New York. Samantha Morton may star in the pic which is expected to begin shooting in July.
* John Wells Prods. has picked up the feature rights to the Peter Moore Smith novel RAVELING as a starrng vehicle for Julianne Moore, who would also executive produce. Bart Freundlich (THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS) would direct the project from his own adaptation. The thriller is about a psychologist who is trying to solve the mystery involving two brothers and the murder of their sister.
* Producer John Williams (SHREK) is signing a multi-film production and development agreement with animator Greenlight Media. The two will develop and produce animated and live-action family entertainment projects, including a cartoon feature based on Greenlight's successful Brothers Grimm TV series.
* Jerry Bruckheimer has optioned the rights to A SMILE AS BIG AS THE MOON (aka EINSTEIN'S CHILDREN), the upcoming nonfiction book by teacher Michael Kersjes. The book tells the true story of a high school football coach and special education teacher whose students competed against and defeated several mainstream students in athletic and academic competitions at a NASA-sponsored space camp.
