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After a long struggle to complete the editing on Swept Away, a remake of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 film starring wife Madonna, Guy Ritchie is going back to doing what he does best--the gangster flick. Between warding off rumors of Swept Away being threatened with straight-to-video purgatory and helming his crusader epic The Siege of Malta, the director has managed to squeeze a new film into his schedule. According to Productionweekly.com, Ritchie and producer Matthew Vaughn have signed on to take JJ Connolly's novel Layer Cake to the big screen. The story is about a young man's attempt to disengage himself from London's gangster underworld, but a last job threatens to spoil his plans. The book is riddled with the same type of rhyming slang used in Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, so expect plenty of subtitles. Swept Away is scheduled for release Oct. 11.
Celebs
His own record label, a clothing line, two restaurants. If you thought Sean "P. Diddy" Combs had it all, think again. According to The Associated Press, the hip-hop entrepreneur has expanded into the polling business with his own market research company. Blue Mindset, a division of Combs' company Blue Flame Marketing and Advertising, will release a national survey each week on a different topic. Combs' enterprises do an estimated $300 million in annual business.Steve-O, a regular on MTV's Jackass, turned himself in to police after returning to Louisiana, where he faced charges of obscenity and of staging a stunt that injured a teenager in a nightclub, the AP reports. Steve-O, whose real name is Stephen Glover, allegedly exposed himself on a stage in Houma, La., last month and took part in a stunt in which a bouncer slammed a 19-year-old on his head, knocking him unconscious. Glover, 28, was booked on counts of obscenity and accessory to second-degree battery, but was later released on bail.Movies
MDP Worldwide has greenlighted 26-year-old filmmaker Greg Marcks' 11:14, a story of seemingly unrelated incidents recounted in reverse chronology, all converging in a car accident that occurs at that time, Variety reports. The ensemble cast boasts Hilary Swank, Colin Hanks and Rachael Leigh Cook, with Patrick Swayze and Barbara Hershey in final negotiations to star. Swank was so impressed by the script that she agreed to serve as an executive producer on the project.Former James Bond star Timothy Dalton has signed on to play Brendan Fraser's father in Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Variety reports. The film, which blends live action with animation, also stars Jenna Elfman and Heather Locklear.Tube
USA Cable Entertainment is developing a remake of the 1976 series The Bionic Woman. In the original series--a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man--Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) gets bionically reconstructed after a near-fatal skydiving accident, leaving her with superhuman powers. Sommers, you may recall, was the one-time fiancée of Steve Austin (played by Lee Majors). No word on whether the series will include her bionic German shepherd, Max.Friends star Lisa Kudrow said in an interview for the season premiere of Oxygen's Conversations From The Edge with Carrie Fisher that she did not know if the upcoming ninth season would actually be the final season of the show. "You look around and you see that a lot of reasons shows finish is [that] the ratings are really bad. We were No. 1 for the first time ever in our eighth season."Music
Fans of the late legend Elvis Presley gathered Thursday to pay tribute on the 25th anniversary of his death, with thousands lighting candles in the nightlong procession past his grave, Reuters reports. The street in front of Presley's Graceland mansion was closed to traffic, with an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 fans assembled. Presley, who died Aug. 15, 1977 at the age of 42, is buried next to the mansion's swimming pool, along with his parents and paternal grandmother.