No, not that kind of love. Love as in Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is set to costar with Jackie Chan in Tuxedo. This is one of the many films that Chan has signed up for in the last few months, but this one looks like it’s a go. Hewitt will play a government agent (perfect casting!) paired up with a bumbling spy (Chan) who has invented a tuxedo that helps him fight the bad guys. A what? DreamWorks Pictures hopes to create a franchise with the film. Sounds a little like The Pink Panther series, but where’s Peter Sellers when you really need him? Production is set to start September in Toronto.
But what will Scully do?
We’ve all heard that Gillian Anderson, a.k.a. Agent Dana Scully, may not return for a 10th season of the continually creepy X-Files (granted there even is a 10th season). “The stuff I am going to do is as far from Scully as humanly possible,” she reportedly told the Sunday Times of London. Well, she proved her mettle in last year’s House of Mirth, giving a moving, and yes, a totally Scully-free performance, in which some were speculating she might get an Oscar nomination. So, it’s obvious she can escape the dour Scully persona–but what would she consider next? The Times reported she wanted to do theater in the West End. Ah, of course, the stage. The call of Shakespeare can be great. But hey, maybe she could get Jackie Chan to do a film with her.
Just kicking back, having some brews
Charles Stone III, the creator behind the extremely popular “Whassup?” Budweiser commercials, is getting plenty of attention. He will direct the fish-out-of-water comedy Drumline for Fox 2000, about a Harlem street drummer who enrolls in a Southern university and eventually leads the marching band to greatness. He also just finished directing the Dimension Films drama Paid in Full, based on the true story of a young man, also from Harlem, who creates a drug empire in the ’80s only to have a crisis of conscience. But of course his contribution to pop culture will live on-as well as its parodies. So, how are you doing?
Keeping it in the family
Watch out–there’s a new Tarantino in town. While director Quentin Tarantino has been hard at work on his follow-up to the 1997 Jackie Brown, his mother, Connie Zastoupil, has made a production deal with an independent company, Prague Indies Prods. Zastoupil, a former hospital administrator, has been producing educational films for the last few years. She told Variety that she came to Prague to “hang out with director, my friend Guillermo Del Toro,” and got hooked by PIP’s ongoing project list. She’ll be relocating to Prague to begin developing independent features. Guess it’s true that it runs in the blood. But poor Quentin will have to travel pretty far to get any mommy attention.
“South Park” influence
Wait until you hear this one. Comedian Bernie Mac, Jennifer Tilly, Carmen Electra and William Shatner are lending their vocal talents to a new animated feature called Lil’ Pimp. Rapper Lil’ Kim also is in negotiations. Here’s the doozer: the film is about the adventures of a freckle-faced 9-year-old and his “pimp” buddies Fruitjuice, Nagchampa and Weathers, plus a gerbil. A gerbil with Tourette’s Syndrome. That’s correct. A rodent that spews obscenities. Where can I get advanced tickets to this one?!? They are saying it will most likely received an R rating (no!) for its rather flavorful subject matter, a la South Park. Songwriters Mark Brooks and Peter Gilstrap will take the helm for Revolution Studios.
