Kit Bowen's Weekly Role Call, June 25
By Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com Staff
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Friday, June 25, 2004
Vince Vaughn |
Vaughn Speeds ahead
Sing the theme song with me…"Go Speed Racer, go Speed Racer, go Speed Racer, Go!" Vince Vaughn, hot off his new No. 1 comedy Dodgeball, has teamed up with Warner Bros. to do a live-action adaptation of the Japanese cartoon series, in which he'll executive produce as well as play the role of Racer X. You remember him, right? Racer X is, unbeknownst to Speed, Speed's long-lost yet very protective brother, who keeps an eye out on the young driver as travels from race to race. "I've been a fan of the show since I was a kid and I always liked the theme of the protective older brother who can't reveal his identity," Vaughn told Variety. So do we. Our casting suggestion for the part of Speed: think Jake Gyllenhaal.
15 minutes of fame
When busy bee director Cameron Crowe showed up last Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky, for a casting call, he generated quite a buzz, attracting hundreds of people who all were looking to land roles as extras in his new movie, Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. The Kentucky Film Office was very happy Crowe's production, which begins filming next month, was planning to put their state in a "very positive light." The movie itself doesn't sound all that positive, though. It centers on a guy (Bloom) who is fired from his job, dumped by his girlfriend, dealing with the death of his father, and heading back to his Kentucky hometown on the verge of suicide. But wait! There's a ray of light--on the way home, Drew meets a flight attendant, Claire (Dunst), with whom he falls in love and their romance helps get his life back on track. Sounds sweet…and, yaaawwwn….boring.
The Kid in Tom Arnold
Usually relegated to an action hero's wacky sidekick (i.e. True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger; Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li), Tom Arnold is moving up in the world. His screenplay The Kid & I starts filming in Los Angeles this week, with Tom himself starring alongside Shannon Elizabeth, Linda Hamilton and Joe Mantegna. Directed by Penelope Spheeris, the indie project stars newcomer Eric Gores as Aaron Roman, a 17-year-old with cerebral palsy who dreams of being in an action movie. His wealthy entrepreneur father (Mantegna) tells Aaron he can have anything he wants for his 18th birthday, and when Aaron tells him what he wants, the father has to hustle to get the movie made. Arnold stars as an out-of-work actor who collaborates with Aaron on the new project. This will either be really, really moving or really, really embarrassing.
Lane goes to the Dogs
Diane Lane better be careful to avoid rehashing the same parts. She's worked hard to make her way back into the limelight, starting with her sexually charged, emotionally wrought, Oscar-nominated performance in Unfaithful and following up with a role as newly divorced woman searching for a new life in the touching Under the Tuscan Sun. Her next project, however, just sounds like a regurgitation of Tuscan. Lane is set to star in Must Love Dogs, in which she'll play a divorcee who, after choosing another Mr. Wrong, swears off dating. Her close-knit Irish-American family enrolls her in a number of online dating programs. Break out of the single-looking-for-love mold, Diane.
Dark Matter for Streep
Never one to shy away from controversial material, Meryl Streep is heading into Dark Matter with Chinese actor Liu Ye. Chinese opera director Chen Shi-zheng will make his feature-directing bow with the film, based on a real-life events, which tells the story of a disgruntled physics student from China who shot and killed six people on the University of Iowa campus in 1991. Disgruntled why, you may ask? Apparently, the student was a science prodigy studying the origins of the universe who dreams of winning the Nobel Prize but sees his aspirations squashed by campus politics. Streep will portray a wealthy university donor who befriends the student. Creepy, and yet intriguing.
Until next week…
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