Kutcher, Mac Join Forces
Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac are in negotiations to star in the comedy Dinner Party for Barbershop 2: Back in Business director Kevin Rodney Sullivan. According to the Reporter, the Columbia Pictures project is about a white man (Kutcher) dating a black woman whose father (Mac) is having difficulty coming to terms with the relationship.
Kevin Costner: A Man and His Elephant
Actor-director Kevin Costner is going out on a limb–or a trunk, as it were–with his next project. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he is in negotiations to direct and possibly star in Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived, described as a cross between Black Stallion and Forrest Gump. Intrigued? The film tells the joint biography of a man, Bram, and his elephant, Modoc, both born in a small German circus town on the same day in 1896. Bram was the son of an elephant trainer, and Modoc was the daughter of the trainer’s prize performer. The boy and the elephant grew up side by side, and when the Wunderzircus and its animals were sold to America, Bram stowed away on the ship to avoid being separated from the elephant.
Hairspray Comes To Big Screen…Again
From cult indie film to smash Broadway musical and back again, there’s a new splashy big-screen adaptation of John Waters‘ Hairspray on the way. Variety reports New Line Cinema will produce the remake, which is set in Waters’ beloved native Baltimore during the 1960s dance-TV craze and centers on high school hairhopper Tracy Turnblad as she graduates from outsider to celebrity trendsetter. Along the way she stars on “The Corny Collins Show,” wins the heart of resident hunk Link Larkin and kicks down the barriers for black and white integration on local television. Casting has not yet begun.
Logan’s Run Gets a Rerun
X-Men director Bryan Singer is set to remake the 1976 sci-fi cult classic Logan’s Run, which starred Michael York as a man who tries to outrun cops who, to alleviate overpopulation, kill off the population when they reach age 30. “I was drawn to X-Men because of its universal issues of tolerance,” Singer told Variety. “This deals with a utopian society, but also with the obsession of youth and mortality. I’ve already started working with my X2 production designer, Gy Dyas, to create a visual world we’ve never seen before.” No stars are attached as yet.
Gyllenhaal Is Happy and Wonderful
Indie princess Maggie Gyllenhaal is keeping busy these days, starring in two upcoming films. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she is set to star with Edie Falco and Tony Shalhoub in the dark indie comedy The Great New Wonderful, in which she plays a cake designer in an anxious post-9/11 New York, competing against Falco in the cutthroat world of high-society pastry making. Gyllenhall is also replacing Jennifer Garner in the ensemble comedy Happy Endings, which involved three stories among 10 characters in Los Angeles. Gyllenhaal will play a woman involved with both a father and a son.
