courtesy of CczuAzul, this is good stuff..

Enjoy:

Brosnan joins Stratus' 'Matador'
Pierce Brosnan is finalizing a deal to star in Stratus Film Co.'s "The Matador," which New York-based filmmaker Richard Shepard wrote and will direct. A year-end start date is being planned with a budget of $20 million-$25 million. Furst Films and Irish Dreamtime are producing. "Matador" is a thriller that follows the unusual friendship between two very different men set against an international backdrop. Brosnan will play Julian Noble, a hit man who has a breakdown while on assignment in Mexico City. There, he crosses paths with an ordinary, married businessman from Denver with problems of his own. "The Cooler" producers Sean and Bryan Furst are producing "Matador" through their Furst Films along with Brosnan's producing partner Beau St. Clair in their Irish Dreamtime. Stratus' Bob Yari, Mark Gordon and Mark Gill are executive producing. (Zorianna Kit)

More Brosnan News: New Line will lay down the 'Laws'
New Line Cinema has acquired U.S. rights to the Intermedia/Stratus Films production "Laws of Attraction" in a negative pickup. A romantic comedy starring Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore as New York divorce lawyers who face off against each other inside of court and out, "Laws" is being directed by Peter Howitt and will start shooting June 16 from a script penned by Aline Brosh McKenna, Karey Kirkpatrick and Robert Harling, with a recent polish by Howitt. Deep River Prods.' David Friendly, who originated the idea for the project, will produce with his partner Marc Turtletaub along with Beau St. Clair, Brosnan's producing partner in their Irish DreamTime, and Julie Durk. Moritz Borman, Basil Iwanyk, Mark Gordon, Bob Yar, Mark Gill and Arthur Lappin are executive producing. New Line executives Mark Ordesky and Guy Stodel are overseeing for the studio. CAA, which represents Brosnan and Moore, was instrumental in putting the project together.

X3 w/o Halle Berry and possible not Hugh.
Halle is out and Bryan will step to the side, Alan, Daniel, Shawn & Rebecca are back - what about Hugh Jackman then one has to wonder. The actor seems interested but won't commit fully as yet according to The Chicago Sun Times - "I'm sure they're planning 'X3,' and all I can say is I love this character. There's so much more meat on the bone than you would ever hope to get out of a movie like this and it's great fun. You have all the action, too. Of course, my agent says, 'Never say definitely yes, Hugh!". The article also hints at least one blooper we may see on the X2 DVD - Singer in a Jean Grey costume and Hugh smooching.
Excerpt from Chicago Sun Times: The rumor is the rest of the cast will be back for part three, but Oscar winner Halle Berry has opted out. "You know, it depends," Singer hedges. "I think a lot depends on the evolution of her character, Storm." Halle is out and Bryan will step to the side, Alan, Daniel, Shawn & Rebecca are back - what about Hugh Jackman then one has to wonder. The actor seems interested but won't commit fully as yet according to The Chicago Sun Times - "I'm sure they're planning 'X3,' and all I can say is I love this character. There's so much more meat on the bone than you would ever hope to get out of a movie like this and it's great fun. You have all the action, too. Of course, my agent says, 'Never say definitely yes, Hugh!". The article also hints at least one blooper we may see on the X2 DVD - Singer in a Jean Grey costume and Hugh smooching. http://www.suntimes.com/output/pear...tr-cindy05.html

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Re-incarnated as evil overlord..

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Post the other stuff too!

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just so we can stop hearing the whining

Hopkins added to the list for Stone's Alexander:

Sir Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of the sure to be deliciously indulgent Oliver Stone movie about the life of Alexander the Great, the young conqueror who I learned all about in Watchmen.
Colin Farrell will be playing the Macedonian who conquered pretty much the entire known world and brought many new and exciting solutions to the world of knot untying. Hopkins will play Old Ptolemy, while Young Ptolemy, seen in battle, will not be played by Hopkins in a girdle, a la Red Dragon, but in fact by a whole different actor. Or a Native American dancer, depending on how much hash Stone smoked that day.
As you may know, Oliver Stone's Alexander is in neck and neck competition with a feature starring Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Baz Luhrmann, and possibly featuring the songs of Elton John. Interestingly, Stone has chosen to film his version in Morrocco, a locale that Luhrmann abandoned due to the prohibitive cost of insuring his actors there. Get this - in Morocco, marijuana is grown in the Rif Mountains, possibly the origin of the word reefer. Ollie, you rascal! Link: http://www.chud.com/news/may03/may5hopkins.php3

Tobey Maguire's Feature Debut as a Producer:

He's currently generating sticky goo and curiously keeping Kirsten Dunst at bay on Spider-Man 2, but Tobey Maguire doesn't plan on having much downtime when he crawls off the wall.
Maguire will put on a producing hat (or skintight mask) for an adaptation of the recent novel Justice Deferred. The legal thriller by Len Williams follows an Alabama trouble-magnet who gets wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to the Big House, where he learns all he can about the law. Then, naturally, he breaks out and changes his identity, becomes a lawyer, and goes after the crooked cops who framed him. Seems reasonable.
The movie is set up with Warner Bros. through Maguire's masterfully named Maguire Entertainment, but Tobey isn't planning to star in the flick. Link: http://www.chud.com/news/may03/may6tob.php3

Fantastic Four News: http://www.superherohype.com/cgi-bi...52248919,28522,
Fantastic Four Targeted for November 4, 2004
Tuesday, May 6, 2003 2:21 CDT

In today's First Quarter Marvel Enterprises earnings conference call, Marvel Studios' head Avi Arad revealed that the company and 20th Century Fox are targeting November 4, 2004 for the Fantastic Four movie! Get it?... Fantastic 4 on 11/4/2004!

He also mentioned Blade III is definitely in the works, that there will be some new announcements on The Punisher this week and that scripting is currently going on for 6 more projects, including Sub-Mariner and Iron Man.

Screenwriting for Fantastic Four:

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=1620
E! Online reported back in March that "it may be back to the drawing board for the FANTASTIC FOUR screenplay. I hear execs at Fox are not in love with the current script..." I got a chance to talk to FF director Peyton Reed as he was out and about promoting his latest effort DOWN WITH LOVE and he addressed these rumors. He said that at this time there is very little movement because they don't have a script. The last version was submitted back in late-2002 and written by Doug Petrie. Petrie talked to MTV at the time and said of the script: "[The other scripts] were very big on 'these are astronauts that go to space' for the first, like, half-hour...It was something like ARMAGEDDON. I just kept saying it's got to be like A HARD DAY'S NIGHT." Perhaps Fox didn't like that angle either as director Reed confirmed they have hired former "Twin Peaks" writer Mark Frost to write the current draft. When I asked about a possible release date in 2005 or the possibility he might as his DOWN WITH LOVE star Renee Zellweger to play Invisible Woman, Reed said all those decisions were on hold until there was a script everyone was happy with. Now if anyone has a copy of Doug Petrie's draft and would like to send it along...just let me know. (Stay tuned later this week for more fun from the DOWN WITH LOVE junket.)

Grease III-*opinionated article*:

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=1619
You just had to know this was going to happen. For every X2 there's a BATMAN FOREVER. And for every CHICAGO there's a FROM JUSTIN TO KELLY...or potentially worse, GREASE 3. Yes. GREASE. 3. I could repeat those words for the next twenty minutes and I'd still never make sense of this. Of course everyone wants to know if John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John will return and the answer is, they haven't officially been offered yet. But c'mon. Olivia doesn't have much else to do so you know she's available. And the way things are looking for John Travolta...he should be happy he's getting any kind of offers, even if it's GREASE 3. The project is being fast-tracked at Paramount where a script is currently in the works that would follow the children of Travolta and Newton-John's characters, dancing it up in the 70s and the disco era. Wow, what a great idea! Cause the 70s and disco aren't completely played out? Why not have them growing up in the 80s during the breakdancing fad? Now THAT my friends would be a movie.

*sigh* Another Ben and J.Lo Flick:

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=1596
By the time this news comes into fruition, Ben Affleck will be Supreme Overlord Affleck and his betrothed will be High Priestess Lopez so I'm sure we'll all be required by the newly enacted Amendment 2000 to see this film. But Bennifer have not fully completed their plan for world domination at this point so I'm safe to talk about this freely now. The duo will apparently reteam - AGAIN - for a film titled GONE DADDY GONE that will mark the return of Affleck the screenwriter and may mark the debut of Affleck the director (this is when the final phase begins). The future Mrs. Affleck would play - are you sitting down? good... - the partner to Affleck's hard-boiled Boston PI. Hard-boiled? Sorry, and I have nothing against Benny but he's more sunny side-up than hard-boiled. The ability to grow a 5 o'clock shadow doesn't make one hard-boiled. But he is an Academy Award winning writer, so we'll trust his skills... Right now the lovesick pair are sobbing into their respective Kleenex as separate filming schedules keep them apart. Fleck is filming PAYCHECK with Uma Thurman in Vancouver and Lopez is filming AN UNFINISHED LIFE with Robert Redford.

__________________
"If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football, I would've said 'fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees." -Noel Gallagher 2005

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wouldn't it make more sense to release the fantastic four on 4/4/4 instead of 11/4/4?

just a thought :P

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Well Hugh likes his character too much to not be back. And Im sure Halle will be back in. I actually thought she had more to do in this film then the last film. We can't just revolve the film around Storm. I mean Wolverine and Professor X are probably the most important characters throught the Xmen comics. So it does make sense to center more attention around those characters. Hell, maybe we just need an Xmen series. There is just not enough movie time to have a whole lot for every character. So either we need a new Xmen movie every year or a series. To totally please everyone.

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I'm ok with an X-Men movie a year

__________________
"If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football, I would've said 'fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees." -Noel Gallagher 2005

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These are the top articles of the day, from The Hollywood Reporter and Film Force, courtesy of myself. Pretty good stuff, finally a Alexander the Great will get done by 2004.

The Great Wait Is Over
Variety declares Oliver Stone the winner of the race to see which filmmaker (Stone or Baz Luhrmann) will bring their Alexander epic before cameras first. Although industry wags often speculated that whichever project lensed first would cancel the other one out, Luhrmann, producer Dino De Laurentiis, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman vowed to soldier on and open their Alexander the Great (at the earliest) in late 2005. (Stone's film has a tentative Thanksgiving 2004 release date.)
De Laurentiis says that filming on his Alexander – which will be an approximately $150 million co-venture between Universal and DreamWorks – will commence in April 2004 in Morocco and last for six months, according to Variety. (Earlier claims that shooting would take place in Australia instead have been shot down.) The trade paper says the epic "requires the casting of some 70 speaking roles as well as hordes of extras (supplied from the Moroccan army by King Mohammed VI)." De Laurentiis advised Variety that such "huge preparation can't be done in less than eight or nine months," which the trade implies was a smack at his rival's impending production.
The stars of the Luhrmann/De Laurentiis version even pitched in their two cents on Alexander the Great. "What most attracts me is the complex character of Alexander himself," DiCaprio told Variety. "His legend is one of the most compelling stories in human history." Kidman, cast as Alexander's mother Olympia, said, "She is unlike any other woman I've played before, and it's a role I'm really looking forward to."
Stone's film, which will be produced by Intermedia and released by Warner Brothers, begins filming this July for 12 weeks in Malta, London and Morocco. Colin Farrell and Anthony Hopkins have been cast. The producer, Intermedia honcho Moritz Borman, says that "set designs are done, the costumes are done. (Thirty staffers are) working on a full pre-production schedule. ... From a pure production schedule, there's no reason we can't deliver it before fall next year."
Boritz adds that neither he nor Stone mind the competition. "Oliver and I have always said there's nothing wrong with two Alexander projects," Boritz said. "On the surface it might not make sense. But they just have to be vastly different, and with those two filmmakers they are."

Wayans joining pack of thieves for 'Ladykillers'
May 07, 2003
"Scary Movie" star Marlon Wayans is set to appear opposite Tom Hanks in the Coen brothers-directed remake of "Ladykillers" for Touchstone Pictures. A remake of the 1955 comedy starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, "Ladykillers" centers on an eccentric Southern professor (Hanks) who puts together a gang of double-crossing thieves to rob a riverboat casino. They rent a room in an old woman's house, but when she discovers the scheme, somebody has to kill her. The landlady proves tough to dispatch, however. Wayans will play one of the thieves. "Ladykillers" was penned by Joel and Ethan Coen and is being produced by Tom Jacobson, Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson and Ethan Coen. The Walt Disney Co. production president Nina Jacobson and executive Jeff Clifford are overseeing for Touchstone, with production planned for the summer. A veteran of both "Scary Movie" films (which he wrote and starred in), Wayans has also appeared in such films as "Requiem for a Dream" and "Dungeons and Dragons." While he is not involved in the upcoming third installment of the "Scary" franchise, Wayans is developing a pair of comedy projects at Revolution Studios with his brothers Keenen Ivory and Shawn. Wayans is repped by CAA, attorney Kevin Yorn and manager Eric Gold. (Josh Spector)

Wonder Women News
Comics2Film chimes in with the latest on the Amazon heroine tipping that a new screenwriter has been brought on board the project. The site reports that Philip Levens (Smallville, Wolf Lake) has been hired to write a new script for the long-in-development comic book film.
Levens is the fourth screenwriter to take a stab at the legendary DC property. Todd Alcot (13 Ghosts), Jon Cohen (Minority Report) and Becky Johnston (Prince of Tides) have all written a draft of Wonder Woman. If you haven't, check out Stax's script review of Alcot's draft.
The WW movie is setup at Warner Bros. with Joel Silver (The Matrix) producing.
There's still no word on who might portray the amazing Amazon. No new names have been associated with the project since Sandra Bullock gracefully (and wisely?) bowed out last year.

'Method' actress: Hurley to die for in Junction film
In what will likely be her first movie role since giving birth to her son a year ago, Elizabeth Hurley is in negotiations to star in Junction Films' "The Method" for British director Duncan Roy. Production on the film begins in July in Romania. Written by Katie Fetting, the project is described as "Day for Night" meets "Basic Instinct." It follows a celebrity actress (Hurley) who gets her dream role playing real-life 19th century serial killer Belle Gunness in a feature film and starts to take on the characteristics of the role onscreen and off. Junction Films' Donald Kushner and Brad Wyman are producing with Andrew Stevens of Trademark Entertainment. Trademark will act as worldwide sales agent for the film. Junction and Trademark are co-financing the project, which is budged in the $7 million range. Hurley, repped by UTA and attorney Steven Brookman, most recently starred onscreen in Paramount Pictures' "Serving Sara." Her credits include "Bedazzled" and "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me." Roy, who is repped by Innovative Artists, wrote, directed and executive produced the indie feature "AKA." The film was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best first feature this year and won the audience award at the Outfest Film Festival in October.

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Let Me Take You Down
John Ridley has signed on to direct the thriller "Let Me Take You Down" from his original screenplay. The Lions Gate project is described by its producers as an eerie tale of murder, obsession, intrigue and Hollywood folklore centering on a young "bagger" for the Los Angeles Coroner's Office who finds striking similarities between the murder of a young woman and the notorious 1947 Black Dahlia case that has riveted the public imagination for decades. "This project is a passion of mine, and finding a joint that digs atypical material isn't easy," Ridley said. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lions Gate is eyeing a 2004 release. Ridley's screenwriting credits include "Three Kings" and "Undercover Brother."

Nicolas Cage Revs-Up RPM
Nicolas Cage will reteam with his Con Air director Simon West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) on the high-octane action-thriller RPM at Columbia Pictures.
The film, written by Joel Wyman, revolves around a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid-like pair of outlaws who are among racers tooling around in Maseratis, Aston-Martins, Lamborghinis and Ferraris. The underground race takes place in London, Monaco, Paris and Germany.
RPM is scheduled to start production mid-August in Italy.

Warner Bros. Visits Brightbill's Hergatory
Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up the spec screenplay Hergatory for Andrew Lazar to produce, says The Hollywood Reporter. The project was written by first-time scribe Susan Brightbill.
The film is described as a high-concept romantic comedy about a 30-year-old woman who has been unlucky in love. One day, she makes a wish to go back and re-date her old boyfriends, and it comes true. The wish becomes a curse, however, when she suddenly finds her exes coming back in to her life one by one, but at the ages they were when she dated them, including an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old who is trying to get to second base.
During the course of the dates, she finds true love with the one person she least expected.

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And yet, some more news. I keep on thinking that I've found all articles, but then again, I guess not.

"Bringing Down the House" again
Variety reports that Mandeville Films has tapped "Bringing Down the House" screenwriter Jason Filardi to pen a script for a sequel. The company is also looking to get back Queen Latifah, Steve Martin, and Eugene Levy involved in the cast again.

Jane Fonda in Cameron Crowe's next?
The IMDB (http://us.imdb.com) reports that Jane Fonda, now 65 years old, is in talks to join Cameron Crowe in his next untitled project.
People News says that Fonda is in serious talks with Crowe, who has directed such films as "Almost Famous," "Jerry Maguire," and "Vanilla Sky." A source says, "In the past, Jane has said she's not interested in returning to acting. "So she's trying to keep this project hush-hush in case it doesn't happen. "She was making movies for 30 years. She's really eager for something to work out. If this doesn't, something else will."

Hoffman talking "Wag the Dog 2"?
Someone sent Cinema Confidential News an article about a possible sequel to Wag The Dog. Here's the article: In a recent interview with Box Office Magazine, Hoffman stated, "I'm actually talking with Barry [Levinson] and Ron Bass about the potential of a Wag the Dog sequel. The premise behind it is that my character [producer Stanley Motss] wasn't actually killed at the end of the first movie, like we led you to believe. So what happened to him? What did the government do with him? Well, I can't reveal such details yet, but it has the promise of being really sharp and funny, and building on the satirical situations begun in the first film. If we can get the story just right we'll probably move forward with it sometime next year. William H. Macy will have a bigger role, and Kirsten Dunst already promised me she would do a cameo if we make it."

Knoxville in Hot Dog war
The Hollywood Reporter reports that "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville will produce and star in an untitled comedy about hot dog vendors at war.
The script will be written by Jerry Stahl for Paramount Pictures. The premise of the project was based on an idea by Knoxville himself.

Piven following Moore for Alcon
May 07, 2003---Jeremy Piven has been cast opposite Mandy Moore in Alcon Entertainment's untitled Mandy Moore project (aka "First Daughter") for Warner Bros. Pictures and helmer Andy Cadiff. The project is slated to go into production in mid-June. It centers on the U.S. president's 18-year-old daughter, who gives the Secret Service the slip and runs away on a European road trip. Piven is set to play a key Secret Service agent. David Parfitt is producing along with Alcon co-presidents Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson. Alcon's Kira Davis and Steven Wegner are co-producing. Wayne Rice is executive producing. Derek Guiley and David Schneiderman penned the screenplay, with a rewrite by Randi Singer. Piven, who is coming off his starring turn in the DreamWorks Pictures/Montecito Picture Co. comedy "Old School," next stars in "Runaway Jury" for Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox and "Scary Movie 3" for Dimension Films. He is repped by WMA, Matt Luber and Aaron Ray at Nine Yards Entertainment and attorney Patti Felker. Regency Enterprises has a competing "First Daughter" project, which Katie Holmes recently signed on to topline. That project is due to start production in mid-May, with a Jan. 9 release date scheduled.

Lions Gate Films erects sequel to Zombie's 'House'
May 08, 2003--- NEW YORK -- Lions Gate Films and Rob Zombie are fixing to build another "House." Hard rocker and writer-helmer Zombie has inked a deal to pen and direct a sequel to his directorial debut, the horror feature "House of 1000 Corpses," for the indie banner Lions Gate. A current release, "House" -- which was rolled out by Lions Gate last month and has scared up more than $11 million thus far -- follows two young couples who take a misguided tour along the back roads of America in search of a local legend known as Dr. Satan. Lost, they are set upon by a bizarre family of psychotics as murder, cannibalism and satanic rituals are just a few of the horrors that await. The sequel is slated for a fall start with an April 2004 release to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the original.

Cumming tries on 'Mask' role
Fresh off his role as a mutant superhero in the blockbuster "X2: X-Men United," Alan Cumming is in early negotiations to take on a more villainous role in New Line Cinema's "Son of the Mask," the second installment of "The Mask" franchise. Starring Jamie Kennedy, "Son of the Mask" carries on with the premise of a character-altering mask that was established in the 1994 blockbuster feature starring Jim Carrey. This time around, it follows an aspiring cartoonist (Kennedy) who is not ready for fatherhood but finds himself raising a baby endowed with the powers of the mask of Loki (Cumming).

Last edited by CcZ on 05-08-2003 at 05:17 AM

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Rhames joins DAWN OF THE DEAD
Ving Rhames and Sarah Polley are in final negotiations to star in Universal Pictures/Strike Entertainment's horror remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD, for director Zack Snyder. Written by James Gunn, the film is about a mysterious plague that causes the newly dead to rise from their graves and begin to eat the living. During the chaos, a core group of remaining humans takes refuge in a shopping mall. These include a young nurse, the police-uniformed Kenneth, a mall employee who works at Best Buy, a gangbanger and his pregnant Russian girlfriend.

RUNELORDS film being planned for 2004
Story Island Entertainment, Origin Entertainment and Entertainment Business Group have acquired the feature-film and game rights to the best-selling fantasy novel series THE RUNELORDS by David Wolverton, aka David Farland. This fall the fourth installment in the series, Lair of Bones, will be released, as the film is being readied for a fall 2004 theatrical release.

__________________
"If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football, I would've said 'fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees." -Noel Gallagher 2005

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