It pays to be Cheap…twice
Adam Shankman (The Pacifier; Bringing Down the House) is quickly turning into a director to turn to for comedies. He is set to helm 20th Century Fox’s sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen reuniting with him with topliner Steve Martin. This time around the 12-kid Baker clan goes on vacation and gets into a head-to-head competition with a rival neighborhood family of eight kids. And watch the hilarity ensue! In addition to Martin, Shankman told the Hollywood Reporter that Cheaper co-stars Bonnie Hunt and Piper Perabo‘s deals were being worked out but added that Hilary Duff‘s return is still questionable. Well, I just won’t see it unless Duff is starring in it. I just won’t.
Evans and Lee bring us Foreverman
The ever-increasingly eccentric producer 
Robert Evans and comic-book icon Stan Lee are teaming up to bring a brand-new superhero to the big screen: Foreverman. Of course, the story will be along the same lines as Lee’s other creations, such as Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer–meaning the superhero will have all the problems of saving the world as well as the problems of dealing with everyday life. But the producers declined to divulge any other details than that. Let’s speculate what his superpowers might be. Immortality, perhaps, i.e. “forever?” Hmmm. Hellboy writer Peter Briggs has been hired to write the screenplay for Paramount Pictures in collaboration with Lee. “We believe it to be truly a whole new franchise,” Gill Champion, president and CEO of Lee’s POW! Entertainment told the Hollywood Reporter. “In this world where people are looking for something different, Stan’s idea was to create a concept not seen before to become an evergreen franchise for Paramount, and as Stan usually does, the franchise will come with various ancillary creations.” Great, more stuff to sell!
Hallstrom plays a Hoax
Lasse Hallstrom is poised to direct Hoax, a film about Clifford Irving, the man who wrote and sold a bogus biography about billionaire aviator Howard Hughes to McGraw-Hill. Richard Gere is in talks to play Irving, and Alfred Molina is in talks to play Richard Suskind, his accomplice in pulling off one of the great media hoaxes. The film is based on Irving’s published account of his misdeed, for which he was given a two and a half year jail sentence in 1972. He convinced his publisher that he’d developed a relationship with Hughes, who by that time hadn’t been seen in public for years. Irving even forged documents that appeared to prove he had the ear of the billionaire. Even when Hughes emerged momentarily from seclusion for a telephone news conference to say the book was bogus, McGraw-Hill continued to stand by Irving, who stuck to his story until he finally had no choice but to cop to his crime. Now, this one I like the sound of.
Kidman gets bitten by the shutterbug
Nicole Kidman is in negotiations to play photographer Diane Arbus in the upcoming biopic Fur. Steven Shainberg is set to direct, which would mark his first feature since the quirky 2002 hit, Secretary. Robert Downey Jr. also is in negotiations to join the project. Adapted from Patricia Bosworth’s book Diane Arbus: A Biography, Fur follows the life of Arbus, considered one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century for her strange, often disturbing images, who committed suicide in 1971. Interesting title. Wonder what it means? Kidman was set to co-star with Russell Crowe in the Australian feature film adaptation of the book Eucalyptus. But Fox Searchlight recently shut down the project amid script woes.
On a decidedly darker note…
Former Felicity star Keri Russell, who is currently co-starring in the indie film Upside of Anger, is set to sink her teeth into Butterfly, a Grimm Love Story, an independent horror feature based on the Internet cannibal movement. Huh? An underground Internet cult of cannibals? Did I miss the memo? Russell will play an American student who is in Germany researching the life of a cannibal killer (played by Thomas Kretschmann) for her graduate thesis. She becomes obsessed with him and plunges into a deeply alienated lifestyle. “This is a story that I have wanted to bring to the big screen ever since the Internet cannibal movement was brought to my attention,” producer Marco Weber told the Reporter. But wait, there’s unfortunately more. Apparently in January 2004, a German was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for manslaughter after he admitted killing a man he had met on the Internet. He was spared a murder verdict as the victim had asked to be eaten. Indeed, the killer recalled chopping off the victim’s penis at his own request, and eating it with him, first raw and then fried. Oh. My. God. This is gonna be one heck of a laugh-out-loud movie, don’t you think?
Depp has to postpone Bell
Johnny Depp‘s hectic work schedule has forced producers of The Diving Bell And
The Butterfly to delay filming for 15-months until the Oscar nominee is free to take up his starring role. And it is a fascinating story, to say the least. The film chronicles the life of Jean-Dominique Bauby, former editor of French fashion magazine Elle, who, at the age of 43, was disabled by a massive stroke in his brain stem. Despite this disability, Bauby was able to write his memoirs by blinking his left eye in an alphabet code. This one could net Depp is long-awaited Oscar, if he plays his cards right. The Academy voters love triumph-over-adversity films and usually award them justly (i.e. My Left Foot, Rain Man). Screenwriter Ronald Harwood, who has adapted the book for the big screen, however, wasn’t necessarily eager to wait for Depp. Harwood told the World Entertainment News Network, “I was against the idea–I say you shouldn’t wait for any actor but I didn’t have anyone else in mind. He’s an amazing-looking actor as well. I first saw him at the premiere of Finding Neverland and I couldn’t believe he’s 41. He looks about 25. It’s something to do with the cheekbones.” Yes, Depp does have mighty attractive cheekbones.
Zwick looks for Diamonds
The Last Samurai director Ed Zwick is taking on another large scale project. He has signed on to shoot the adventure drama Diamond, formerly known as Okavango. The Warner Bros. project recounts the story of a poor African farmer who gets caught up in a conflict between American diamond smugglers and the syndicate that controls the local diamond-mining industry, all in the path of one very valuable diamond. Jamie Foxx might be a good choice to play the farmer, if his asking price hasn’t gone up too much since winning the Oscar. Maybe they can pay him in diamonds. Get it? ‘Cause the movie’s about diamonds? Oh, forget it.
Until next week…
