Father Geek here with the latest edition of our regular weekly column from Elston Gunn that recaps all the tinseltown news for those of you who may have missed some of it during the last week, soooooo here we go... prepare to dive into ...

The WEEKLY RECAP...

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Matthew Perry and his father, actor John Bennett Perry, are in final talks to star as father and son in THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM for director Peter Hunt, Samaha Prods. and Franchise Pictures. T.J. Lynch wrote the script, set in the 70s, about a son who hires outside help to take care of his father at the family ranch. In comes a free-spirited young woman who has led a gypsy life.

* Cole Hauser will star in 20th Century Fox's PAPARZZI about a movie star who plots revenge after suffering a near tragedy due to relentless hounding by a photographer. Production is set to begin in February with Paul Abascal directing from a Forest Smith script.

* Michelle Yeoh will star in and produce THE MASKED CRUSADER for director Jingle Ma. Production begins in January in Hong Kong. It's based on the legendary Wong Ngung, who fought for justice for the underdog.

* Johnny Knoxville will star in the low-budget indie pic GRAND THEFT PARSONS with Christina Applegate and Marley Shelton for director David Caffrey (DIVORCING JACK). Jeremy Drysdale wrote the script, based on a true story. Knoxville will play Phil Kaufman, road manager for musician Gram Parsons. The film begins at Parsons' death, with Kaufman stealing the musician's body from a mortuary and racing it to Joshua Tree in the Southern California desert where he attempts to burn it to fulfill a pact he made with Parsons. Robert Forster and Michael Shannon also star.

* Sam Shepard, James Garner and Joan Allen will co-star in THE NOTEBOOK opposite Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams and Gena Rowlands for director Nick Cassavetes.

* Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones are in talks to star in an untitled psychological suspense drama set in the Old West for director Ron Howard, Revolution Studios and Imagine Entertainment. It's based on Thomas Eidson's novel THE LAST RIDE and tells the story of a father who returns home to make peace with his now-grown daughter Maggie, whom he has not seen since she was a little girl. When Maggie's daughter is kidnapped by a band of outcasts, Maggie must unite with her father to rescue her.

* Halle Berry will play a rape victim in the drama OCTOBER SQUALL, based on a true story, for director Lyndon Chubbuck (THE WAR BRIDE). Her character keeps her rapist's baby and becomes a loving mother. When he reaches puberty, she begins to suspect the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. Novelist Jason Starr (TOUGH LUCK) wrote the script under the supervision of Berry, who is also producing, and Chubbuck.

* Adam Sandler is attached to star in and produce the romantic comedy FIFTY FIRST KISSES that may reteam him with co-star Drew Barrymore. The feature centers on a man who falls in love with a woman with a severe short-term memory loss and has no idea who he is. He then must get her to fall in love with him all over again every day. George Wing wrote the script.

* Alex Kingston ("ER") will play the title role in BOUDICA about the long-ago British queen who led a bloody rebellion against the Roman occupation.

* Shiri Appleby ("Roswell," SWIMFAN) and Chaney Kley will star in the pic THE SKIN HORSE, shooting in Oregon.

* Perry King ("Spin City") joins the 20th Century Fox pic DAY AFTER TOMORROW written by Roland Emmerich. Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal and Sela Ward star. Shooting will begin mid-November in Montreal.

* Kevin Chapman (IN THE BEDROOM) joins MYSTIC RIVER for director Clint Eastwood. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden star.

* Denzel Washington is in talks to star in the thriller MAN ON FIRE for director Tony Scott, Regency Enterprises and Fox 2000. It's based on the A.J. Quinnell novel and adapted by Brian Helgeland about an American ex-soldier living out his days in Naples, Italy. He reluctantly agrees to protect an Italian child whose parents are threatened by a rash of kidnappings.

* Jamie Foxx will star in the Screen Gems comedy THE BREAK UP HANDBOOK for writer/director Daniel Taplitz and producer Lisa Tornell. It's a farcical comedy about a man who, after being unceremoniously dumped by his fiancee, pens a how-to book on breaking up and becomes a best-selling author on the subject. Not wanting his male friends to suffer the same fate, he gives them advice on dumping their mates.

* Alec Baldwin has joined the cast of Universal Pictures/Jersey Films' untitled romantic comedy written by John Hamburg, who also will direct. Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star.

* Tim Blake Nelson, Dylan McDermott, Janeane Garofalo, Carrie Fisher, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Eric Bogosian, Ted Levine, Josh Lucas, M.C. Gainey and Frankie G. join Val Kilmer, Christina Applegate Lisa Kudrow, Josh Lucas and Kate Bosworth in WONDERLAND, the John Holmes biopic, for director James Cox and Lions Gate Films.

* Jackie Chan will star in TITANIUM RAIN for director Stanley Tong about a guard of the Ming Dynasty who chases a samurai for 400 years.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Peter Care (THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS) will develop and direct BAG OF BONES, based on the Stephen King novel, for MGM. David Velos penned the adaptation of the story of a young novelist who is helped by the spirit of his dead wife from beyond the grave. They excise the spirit of a murder victim, who has killed several children and now has her eyes on a 3-year-old.

* Warner Bros. Pictures grabbed the feature rights to crime author George P. Pelecanos' series of books about Derek Strange for Curtis Hanson to direct and produce. RIGHT AS RAIN and HELL TO PAY are the two installments that have been published so far. David Benioff will adapt. It's about a black middle-aged former cop who now operates his own detective agency. When a white Irish Catholic former cop shoots and kills an armed black man, the mother of said dead man, later identified as an off-duty policeman, hires Strange to investigate the incident and restore her son's good name.

* J. David Stem and David Weiss will write an untitled live-action comedy about the deconstruction of the world of fairies and sprites for the Robert Simonds Co.

* Liz Brixius will write MATCHMAKERS for Warner Bros., based on the real-life romance of an Oregon couple who met through the America Online personals and later tied the knot.

* MGM purchased Ron Anderson's comedy spec WHEELS OF FURY about an '80s cop whose partner is a talking car. Hijinx ensue when the cop falls into a coma and wakes up 16 years later.

* Landscape Pictures is remaking the 1982 Italian film I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT I KNOW as a possible starring vehicle for Jim Carrey. It's about a man who fixes his marriage only after viewing surveillance footage shot by a private investigator who has been tailing his wife. Harley Peyton is penning the script.

* Terry Gilliam is choosing which project to direct next with BROTHERS GRIMM and THE BLUE RIBBON OPERATION being likely candidates. The latter is a DreamWorks project is a heist caper by Bill Wheeler that has Dustin Hoffman and John Cusack attached. Another possibility is TIDELANDS, based on Mitch Cullin's novel, about a Texan girl who escapes from her harsh reality into her imagination. The projects SCARAMOUCHE and GOOD OMENS seem to be on hold indefinitely.

* Nelson McCormick will direct the action thriller STAND-OFF for Myriad Pictures and Hyde Park Entertainment. The story focuses on a highly sophisticated and unpredictable criminal playing mind games with a tactical team leader at the Los Angeles Police Department. Reed Steiner wrote the script.

* Tamar Halpern and Larry Skoller sold their script PAPER LOVE to producer Chris Milburn for Gregory Cooke to direct. It's a romantic dramedy centering on the relationship that forms between a French countess and the blue-collar American man she hires to translate her suitor's love letters.

* Eric Rohmer (THE LADY AND THE DUKE) will helm TRIPLE AGENT, based on the true story of a Russian spy and his wife caught in the political maelstrom of pre-WWII Paris. Production is scheduled to begin in March.

* Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) will direct a modern-day Bollywood musical version of Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, with shooting beginning in March.

* Franc Reyes (EMPIRE) will direct CERAMIC LIFE, a fatal attraction-like tale of what happens when an aging pop superstar is denied repeated sexual liaisons with a casual fan.

* Hyde Park Entertainment and Crusader Entertainment have acquired the rights to the classic fantasy comic strip MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN with Josh Oppenheimer and Tom Donnelly writing the script for a live-action project. Created by Lee Falk in 1934, the comic strip follows Mandrake on various adventures as he uses his powers of hypnotism and illusion to combat crime.

* Universal grabbed an untitled romantic comedy pitch from John Leguizamo, who will co-write the screenplay as a starring vehicle for himself and will produce and possibly direct. The story is about a young Latino man who decides whether to take the plunge and marry the love of his life.

* Steven Zaillian may develop a remake of ALL THE KING'S MEN, based more on Robert Penn Warren's novel than the 1949 film, for Columbia Pictures. James Carville will serve as an executive producer.

* Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS, CHICAGO adaptation) will direct a feature based on the life and work of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Sir Ian McKellen and Chris O'Donnell are in negotiations to star. Production is slated to begin in March.

* Sharon Osbourne is co-writing a biopic about husband Ozzy Osbourne and is close to having a deal with a major studio for the project. Ozzy would be portrayed by another actor and Johnny Depp is on the top of her wish list to star in the life story.

* John Schultz (LIKE MIKE) will direct Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Films' WHERE'S WALDO. Based on the illustrated children's book series of the same name, the project centers on Waldo, now 30 years old, who is a janitor/inventor who ends up traveling through time after accidentally activating a malfunctioning travel machine. Adam Rifkin adapted the script.

* Radar Pictures picked up David Callaham's suspense screenplay HORSEMEN for Platinum Dunes. It's a psychological thriller about a hardened cop who, while hunting down a vicious serial killer, discovers a shocking connection with the prime suspect.

* Marco Brambilla ("Dinotopia") will direct the Paramount/Nickelodeon pic SECTOR SEVEN, written by Zack Helm. It's based on the children's book by David Wiesner, about a little boy who, on a class visit to the Empire State Building, gets whisked away by a friendly cloud to Sector Seven, a factorylike place where clouds are shaped and then distributed. The clouds ask him to draw them new shapes, and he does. By the time he is sent back down to rejoin his class, his new shapes are already in the sky.

* Epsilon has optioned the thriller THE DUELIST from writers Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie, to be produced Blue Tulip Prods. and R.L. Entertainment. It's about a Wall Street analyst who joins a powerful modern-day dueling society. When darker elements of the organization surface, he must fight for his family's survival.

* Casey La Scala will direct the skateboarding comedy THE GRIND for Pandora Films, Billy Gerber and 900 Films. It's about four young boys who go on the road in an attempt to become professional skateboarders. The film chronicles their journey from Chicago to Oceanside, Calif., as they try to get on a coveted skateboarding tour.

* Director Robert Luketic and writers Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz (LEGALLY BLONDE) are teaming on DON'T ASK for Columbia Pictures/Red Wagon, based on the true-life events of a young man from a macho family as he joins the Army to prove his manhood. Once there, he discovers he is both very manly and very gay. Despite the hardships of basic training, the Army adjusts to his being gay.

* Jerry Bruckheimer Films is developing a remake of the straight-to-video feature THE NUTTY NUTT with Josh Stolberg and Bobby Florsheim writing the script. It's about twin brothers, one of whom is insane.

* Marc Klein (SERENDIPITY) will adapt the Korean film MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER for Miramax Films. It's about a female Mafia boss who wants to get married in order to fulfill her sister's dying wish. She succeeds, choosing the most innocent and trusting dupe she can find in hopes that he won't ask too many nosy questions. After they're married, however, he starts to wise up and she starts to fall in love.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Warner Bros. has optioned the upcoming Jonathan Tropper novel BUSH FALLS for producers Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey. It's about a man who grows up as an outcast in Bush Falls, Conn., moves to Manhattan and writes a novel featuring the town and its inhabitants. After the novel is turned into a hit film, the writer returns to Bush Falls and must face the anger of the townspeople.

* Stone Village Prods. have optioned Robert Asprey's two-volume book set THE RISE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE and THE REIGN OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE to use as the basis for an epic feature. The first book chronicles Bonaparte's years from his birth in 1769 all the way to his rise to become Napoleon I, Emperor of France. The second book begins at the height of his power in the early 1800s and follows his descent through dethronement, exile, brief return to power and eventual death at age 51.

* Howard Stern's and Dan Gross's indie film production company Arclight Films have acquired remake rights to PORKY'S and ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL.

* Paramount/Nickelodeon will develop a computer-animated version of MIGHTY MOUSE.

* Out of the Blue Entertainment has optioned the feature rights to Alexandra Pelosi's award-winning documentary JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE, an HBO pic that goes behind the scenes during George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. The feature will tell the fictional story of a savvy young journalist assigned to travel with the campaign of a presidential candidate who represents everything to which she is politically opposed.

GUNN SHOTS

(NOT from the trades)

* Old King Films is promoting the short film ECHO at Their Site It's a dark comedy about a man, a light well, and humans' insatiable curiosity that dooms us to repeat the mistakes of others. They are currently in pre-production and scheduled to shoot the film in early December.

* Rumor has it Jonathan Hensleigh has dropped out of Artisan's Marvel adaptation THE PUNISHER and British filmmaker Kevin Hilton has taken the reins.

Until next week...

Elston Gunn

elstongunn@hotmail.com