Elston Gunn's WEEKLY SCRIPT REPORT (Major Sales, Events, and other News!)
September 29th, 2000
* Eric Wald and Roger Kumble scripted A VIEW FROM THE TOP which Bruno Barreto (BOSSA NOVA) will direct. Gwyneth Paltrow is in talks to star in the comedy for Miramax Films. It tells the story of a young woman who wants to become a flight attendant and her journey getting there from her days as trailer-park trash. Shooting begins in December.
* Robert Mark Kamen (THE KARATE KID) will write an untitled martial arts project for Miramax Films as a starring vehicle for Freddie Prinze. It's about a young American man who is raised by monks after his parents are murdered. He travels to New York seeking revenge and searching for his parents' killers while trying to join his only living relative. Kamen also recently sold his thriller script LEAVING EDEN to Miramax.
* Writer/director Sandra Goldbacher will next helm her script ME WITHOUT YOU. Michelle Williams will star opposite Anna Friel in the pic that follows two best friends outside London from ages 16 to 27, when they start having kids.
* Bix Skahill (CHAIN OF FOOLS writer) will direct his screenplay LIFE WITHOUT DICK starring Sarah Jessica Parker about a woman who falls for a hit man who was hired to kill her boyfriend. Craig Ferguson and Elijah Wood may be in talks to star as well.
* Robert Moresco will direct his script ONE EYED KING about family and friends living in Hell's Kitchen. William Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, Armand Assante, Connie Britton, Dash Mihok and Jason Gedrick will star in the Cutting Edge Entertainment project.
* Bob Dolman (WILLOW, FAR AND AWAY scribe) has written and will direct the comedy/drama THE BANGER SISTERS for Fox Searchlight in which Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn are in talks to star. It's about two former rock 'n' roll groupies who reunite. One sister wants to relive her wild days, while the
other tries to hide her past.
* Columbia Pictures picked up the Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry-penned script TICK-TOCK for producer Gavin Polone. It's told in real time and follows an amnesiac who is told he is the prime suspect in a case involving several bombs being planted throughout the city, timed to go off very soon. A female FBI agent tries to jog his memory to find out the location of the bombs so they can be disarmed.
* Samantha Silva will write WHAT YOU WISH FOR to be directed by her husband Michael Hoffman (ONE FINE DAY) for Universal Pictures. It follows two sisters who travel back in time to the period of Jane Austen, where one sister adapts well and the other doesn't.
* Jon Bokenkamp (BLAIR WITCH 2) will write PERFECT STRANGERS for Revolution Studios as a starring vehicle for Julia Roberts. It's described as a FATAL ATTRACTION involving the internet.
* John Hefferman will write the thriller SNAKES ON A PLANE for Paramount/MTV Films about an assassin who releases a crate filled with lethal snakes aboard a commercial airliner high above the Pacific Ocean.
* Brad Anderson (NEXT STOP WONDERLAND) will direct the horror film SESSION 9 for USA Films starring David Caruso. Anderson and Stephen Gevedon wrote thescript which takes place in an abandoned insane asylum. Josh Lucas (THE WEIGHT OF WATER), Peter Mullan (THE CLAIM) and Brendan Sexton III (BOYS
DON'T CRY) will also star.
* Valerie Thomas and Stacy Kramer have written the script #6E, picked up by Fox Searchlight, about an apartment used by a group of women for affairs.
* Richard Regen has sold his heist thriller pitch HEATHER TALLCHIEF to Bill Mechanic, based on a Marie Claire magazine article by Daniel Jeffries about the true story of a driver for Loomis Armored Inc. who allegedly help steal $3.1 million from an armored van, then fled to Denver.
* DreamWorks bought the romantic comedy pitch THE DOCTOR AND THE DOORMAN from writers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis (THE WEDDING PLANNER), who will write the script for producer Lindsay Doran. It's about a female cardiologist and a doorman who fall for each other. Due to their real professions getting in the way of their love lives, she tells him she's a teacher while he pretends to be a stockbroker.
* John August (GO) will script a Warner Bros./20th Century Fox film inspired by the 1960s sci fi flick BARBARELLA with Drew Barrymore attached to star. The project will be based on Jean Claude Forest's books LE SEMBLE LUNE (THE MOON LIKE) and LE MIROIR AU TEMPETES (THE MIRROR OF STORMS) from the
BARBARELLA series.
* Bill Wheeler (THE PRIME GIG) will write the DreamWorks adaptation of THE MAN WHO ROBBED THE PIERRE by Ira Berkow with John Cusack, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink producing the pic as a possible starring vehicle for Cusack and Woody Allen. Wheeler is also working on THE HOAX for Mutual Film Corps
and an untitled biopic for producer Casey Silver about Ken Uston, the blackjack legend.
* Kirsten ``Kiwi'' Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz will write THE MIRANDA OBSESSION for MGM and director Robert DeNiro, based on the Vanity Fair article about a mysterious female phone confidant of celebs during the 80s.
* Carol Doyle wrote the first draft of CHASING THE DRAGON: THE VERONICA GUERNIN STORY, Mary Agnes Donahue did a rewrite. Joel Schumacher will develop and direct the pic for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It's about the true story of the Irish journalist who was killed by drug dealers about whom she had investigated and written a series of stories. Carol Doyle wrote the first draft of the script, Mary Agnes Donahue did a rewrite.
* Universal is in final talks to purchase James Vanderbilt's fantasy thriller pitch THE CAVES OF STEEL, based on the novel by Isaac Asimov-the first of the author's THE ROBOT SERIES. Simon West (CON AIR, TOMB RAIDER) is attached to direct. Vanderbilt will write the script. In an effort to prevent an intergalactic war from happening, a New York cop must team up with an humanoid robot to solve a crime within 24 hrs.
* Roman Coppola will direct CQ from his own script about a 1960s filmmaker in Paris who takes the reigns of a sci fi film that is set in the year 2000. Gerard Depardieu, Elodie Bouchez, Giancarlo Gianni, Massimo Ghini, John Philip Law, Jason Schwartzman, and newcomer Angela Lindvall will also star.
Shooting begins next month in France.
* Alcon Pictures purchased Bart Baker's drama spec script THE BAKER'S SON about a swimmer who confronts his family's demons.
* Producer Roger Corman and his brother, producer Gene Corman, will team on the indie pic WIZOFODDS.COM on which the former is developing a script. It's based on the web site of Larry Trusley, a professional sports handicapper. The movie will center on a guy who picks football winners on the internet so well, Las Vegas bookies try to destroy his site.
A VIEW FROM THE TOP, THE BANGER SISTERS, TICK TOCK, SNAKES ON A PLANE, #6E all sound fun to me. John August taking a crack at BARBARELLA might prove to be exciting. My pick of the week, however, goes to THE MAN WHO ROBBED THE PIERRE simply because the producing team behind HIGH FIDELITY (who also wrote GROSSE POINT BLANK) is involved. That group of folks, the premise, the potential team-up of Woody Allen & John Cusack and the positive vibe regarding Bill Wheeler's work has convinced me that this is a project to watch.
-- Elston Gunn
(Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
* Robert Mark Kamen (THE KARATE KID) will write an untitled martial arts project for Miramax Films as a starring vehicle for Freddie Prinze. It's about a young American man who is raised by monks after his parents are murdered. He travels to New York seeking revenge and searching for his parents' killers while trying to join his only living relative. Kamen also recently sold his thriller script LEAVING EDEN to Miramax.
* Writer/director Sandra Goldbacher will next helm her script ME WITHOUT YOU. Michelle Williams will star opposite Anna Friel in the pic that follows two best friends outside London from ages 16 to 27, when they start having kids.
* Bix Skahill (CHAIN OF FOOLS writer) will direct his screenplay LIFE WITHOUT DICK starring Sarah Jessica Parker about a woman who falls for a hit man who was hired to kill her boyfriend. Craig Ferguson and Elijah Wood may be in talks to star as well.
* Robert Moresco will direct his script ONE EYED KING about family and friends living in Hell's Kitchen. William Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, Armand Assante, Connie Britton, Dash Mihok and Jason Gedrick will star in the Cutting Edge Entertainment project.
* Bob Dolman (WILLOW, FAR AND AWAY scribe) has written and will direct the comedy/drama THE BANGER SISTERS for Fox Searchlight in which Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn are in talks to star. It's about two former rock 'n' roll groupies who reunite. One sister wants to relive her wild days, while the
other tries to hide her past.
* Columbia Pictures picked up the Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry-penned script TICK-TOCK for producer Gavin Polone. It's told in real time and follows an amnesiac who is told he is the prime suspect in a case involving several bombs being planted throughout the city, timed to go off very soon. A female FBI agent tries to jog his memory to find out the location of the bombs so they can be disarmed.
* Samantha Silva will write WHAT YOU WISH FOR to be directed by her husband Michael Hoffman (ONE FINE DAY) for Universal Pictures. It follows two sisters who travel back in time to the period of Jane Austen, where one sister adapts well and the other doesn't.
* Jon Bokenkamp (BLAIR WITCH 2) will write PERFECT STRANGERS for Revolution Studios as a starring vehicle for Julia Roberts. It's described as a FATAL ATTRACTION involving the internet.
* John Hefferman will write the thriller SNAKES ON A PLANE for Paramount/MTV Films about an assassin who releases a crate filled with lethal snakes aboard a commercial airliner high above the Pacific Ocean.
* Brad Anderson (NEXT STOP WONDERLAND) will direct the horror film SESSION 9 for USA Films starring David Caruso. Anderson and Stephen Gevedon wrote thescript which takes place in an abandoned insane asylum. Josh Lucas (THE WEIGHT OF WATER), Peter Mullan (THE CLAIM) and Brendan Sexton III (BOYS
DON'T CRY) will also star.
* Valerie Thomas and Stacy Kramer have written the script #6E, picked up by Fox Searchlight, about an apartment used by a group of women for affairs.
* Richard Regen has sold his heist thriller pitch HEATHER TALLCHIEF to Bill Mechanic, based on a Marie Claire magazine article by Daniel Jeffries about the true story of a driver for Loomis Armored Inc. who allegedly help steal $3.1 million from an armored van, then fled to Denver.
* DreamWorks bought the romantic comedy pitch THE DOCTOR AND THE DOORMAN from writers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis (THE WEDDING PLANNER), who will write the script for producer Lindsay Doran. It's about a female cardiologist and a doorman who fall for each other. Due to their real professions getting in the way of their love lives, she tells him she's a teacher while he pretends to be a stockbroker.
* John August (GO) will script a Warner Bros./20th Century Fox film inspired by the 1960s sci fi flick BARBARELLA with Drew Barrymore attached to star. The project will be based on Jean Claude Forest's books LE SEMBLE LUNE (THE MOON LIKE) and LE MIROIR AU TEMPETES (THE MIRROR OF STORMS) from the
BARBARELLA series.
* Bill Wheeler (THE PRIME GIG) will write the DreamWorks adaptation of THE MAN WHO ROBBED THE PIERRE by Ira Berkow with John Cusack, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink producing the pic as a possible starring vehicle for Cusack and Woody Allen. Wheeler is also working on THE HOAX for Mutual Film Corps
and an untitled biopic for producer Casey Silver about Ken Uston, the blackjack legend.
* Kirsten ``Kiwi'' Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz will write THE MIRANDA OBSESSION for MGM and director Robert DeNiro, based on the Vanity Fair article about a mysterious female phone confidant of celebs during the 80s.
* Carol Doyle wrote the first draft of CHASING THE DRAGON: THE VERONICA GUERNIN STORY, Mary Agnes Donahue did a rewrite. Joel Schumacher will develop and direct the pic for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It's about the true story of the Irish journalist who was killed by drug dealers about whom she had investigated and written a series of stories. Carol Doyle wrote the first draft of the script, Mary Agnes Donahue did a rewrite.
* Universal is in final talks to purchase James Vanderbilt's fantasy thriller pitch THE CAVES OF STEEL, based on the novel by Isaac Asimov-the first of the author's THE ROBOT SERIES. Simon West (CON AIR, TOMB RAIDER) is attached to direct. Vanderbilt will write the script. In an effort to prevent an intergalactic war from happening, a New York cop must team up with an humanoid robot to solve a crime within 24 hrs.
* Roman Coppola will direct CQ from his own script about a 1960s filmmaker in Paris who takes the reigns of a sci fi film that is set in the year 2000. Gerard Depardieu, Elodie Bouchez, Giancarlo Gianni, Massimo Ghini, John Philip Law, Jason Schwartzman, and newcomer Angela Lindvall will also star.
Shooting begins next month in France.
* Alcon Pictures purchased Bart Baker's drama spec script THE BAKER'S SON about a swimmer who confronts his family's demons.
* Producer Roger Corman and his brother, producer Gene Corman, will team on the indie pic WIZOFODDS.COM on which the former is developing a script. It's based on the web site of Larry Trusley, a professional sports handicapper. The movie will center on a guy who picks football winners on the internet so well, Las Vegas bookies try to destroy his site.
A VIEW FROM THE TOP, THE BANGER SISTERS, TICK TOCK, SNAKES ON A PLANE, #6E all sound fun to me. John August taking a crack at BARBARELLA might prove to be exciting. My pick of the week, however, goes to THE MAN WHO ROBBED THE PIERRE simply because the producing team behind HIGH FIDELITY (who also wrote GROSSE POINT BLANK) is involved. That group of folks, the premise, the potential team-up of Woody Allen & John Cusack and the positive vibe regarding Bill Wheeler's work has convinced me that this is a project to watch.
-- Elston Gunn
(Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
Comments
Only logged-in members can comment. You can log in or join today for free!
Advertisement
