• ''The Argonauts'' ready to sail with ``Mummy'' director
• Andrew Davis, The Jennifer Project, 3 Miles Down
• Nicolas Cage to star in film about plastic surgery artist
• Richard E Grant and Famke Janssen to star in dot.com black comedy
• Kevin Spacey, John Travolta and Gerard Depardieu in WW2 movie
• Vortex Pictures on the Roll with Nicolas Cage’s directorial debut Sonny
• US actors' union annuls presidential vote
• Prince Edward's Film Plans Anger Charles
• DVDs Fueled 2001 Video Rental Growth
• India.Arie Surprised by Nominations
• Susan Lyne Atop ABC As Bloomberg Exits Network
• Previous Days
  • Monday Jan 07

''The Argonauts'' ready to sail with ``Mummy'' director

Director Stephen Sommers will use the technology from his ``Mummy'' feature franchise to bring fearsome figures of Greek mythology to life in ``The Argonauts.''

The tale is set on the eve of WWII, when a group of treasure hunters think they've figured out the location of the fabled sunken ship of Jason and the Argonauts, a vessel whose contents are believed to include the mythical golden fleece. The adventurers find themselves back in the land of Greek mythology, battling Cyclops and a minotaur.

The project is an homage to Ray Harryhausen, who made stop-motion special-effects films like ``Jason and the Argonauts.'' Advances in computer technology and the success of films like ``The Mummy'' and ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' have emboldened studios to conjure up creature-heavy pictures.

``Argonauts'' is DreamWorks-based, but talks have begun with Universal, where Sommers and his partner and editor, Bob Ducsay, recently signed an overall deal. ``Argonauts'' originated at DreamWorks as a pitch, but languished until it was resuscitated by Jason Hoffs, who was an executive there.

Hoffs now works at John Baldecchi Prods. Baldecchi has a long history of collaboration with Sommers and Ducsay, including the Sommers-directed films ``The Adventures of Huck Finn'' and ``Deep Rising.'' He intrigued Sommers and Ducsay, who were eager to do a Harryhausen-type film. The foursome will serve as producers.

Sommers will direct after developing a script with screenwriter Simon Kinberg. Baldecchi brought in Kinberg after reading his NYU thesis script ``Mr. and Mrs. Simon.'' Kinberg ultimately set that script up at New Regency, with Joel Schumacher circling, and he's writing the Sony-based ``Airshow'' for ``Charlie's Angels'' director McG and the WB pilot ``The Legacy'' for producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Baldecchi, who produced ``The Mexican'' at DreamWorks, got that studio charged up over the package and they made a deal with Sommers.

Andrew Davis, The Jennifer Project, 3 Miles Down

``The Fugitive'' director Andrew Davis has set his sights on the story of a fugitive Russian nuclear sub and a high-stakes salvage mission that nearly started WWIII.

Davis, who is about to open Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer ``Collateral Damage,'' is among a group of producers who've taken an option on ``The Jennifer Project,'' a book by Clyde Burleson, which is being developed into a Cold War drama called ``3 Miles Down.''

The book tells the story of one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history, when a Soviet nuclear sub sank in international waters. The CIA plotted with the Navy to salvage the sub for its technical secrets, and engaged Howard Hughes in a daring mission called the Jennifer Project. They constructed a large ship that had a three-mile-long, concealed salvage arm. The mission was a success, even though the sub was cracked in half during the operation.

A script is being written by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton. The book was originally set at MGM but is looking for a studio berth.

Nicolas Cage to star in film about plastic surgery artist

Nicolas Cage is set to star in David Cronenberg's new film Painkillers. It is about French artist Orlan, who uses her own body for artistic purposes.

She has had nine plastic surgery operations and has exhibited digital photos and sculptures of her body.

Orlan told France-Soir: "David Cronenberg wrote a movie called Painkillers, based on my treatise on L'Art charnel and the fight against pain.

"I will be playing my own role and I also know that Nicolas Cage will be part of the cast. As for when shooting will begin, I will know more about that during this year's Cannes Film Festival, where I will be presenting my work to the public."

Richard E Grant and Famke Janssen to star in dot.com black comedy

Richard E Grant and Famke Janssen are set to star in a new black comedy.They will play sparring dot.com lovers in the as-yet-untitled movie.

The firm is loosely based on the rise and fall of Boo.com. The company was set up by Swedish model Kajsa Leander and was once valued at $300 million.

But after an 18 month long rollercoaster business ride, the organisation crashed with massive debts.

Working Title hope to go into production next autumn with the project, which is based on a book by Charles Drazin, Ernst Malmsten and Eriuk Portanger.

Kevin Spacey, John Travolta and Gerard Depardieu in WW2 movie

Kevin Spacey, John Travolta and Gerard Depardieu are expected to star in a new World War Two drama.

The Garbo Deception tells the story of a scheme to deceive the Nazis by creating a fictitious French spy network.

Sigourney Weaver and Emanuelle Beart are also expected to join the cast. The story is based on the activities of Juan Pujol, a creative mastermind who fabricated a network of non-existent spies.

Pujol was nicknamed Garbo by British military intelligence. His scheme threw German intelligence into chaos just before the Allied forces' D-Day invasions of Normandy. Screenwriter Bill Wheeler is working on the script.

American director John McTiernan who made Die Hard and the re-make of The Thomas Crown Affair, is likely to direct. Depardieu will play Pujol, with Travolta and Spacey as his main Allied connections.

Vortex Pictures on the Roll with Nicolas Cage’s directorial debut Sonny

Vortex Pictures, the newly formed financing and sales outfit run by Nicolas Chartier and Dean Shapiro, has acquired three more films for international sales including Nicolas Cage’s directorial debut Sonny.

The company is at Sundance and Slamdance later this week with 13 Moons, the latest film from director Alexandre Rockwell, which opens the Slamdance Film Festival, and The Man From Elysian Fields directed by George Hickenlooper, which screens in the Premiere section at the Sundance Film Festival.

All three pictures are produced by LA-based Gold Circle Films, the prolific independent founded by Gateways Computer co-founder Norm Waitt and run by British producer and entrepreneur Paul Brooks. Vortex has a close relationship with Gold Circle and represents previous titles such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bad Boy and Wishcraft.

Sonny, which started principal photography yesterday in New Orleans, sees Cage behind the camera for the first time. It stars James Franco – who memorably played James Dean on a recent TV movie – heads the cast as a male hustler struggling to get a proper job but hindered by his flesh-peddling mother (played by Brenda Blethyn) who wants him back. Co-starring are Mena Suvari, Harry Dean Stanton, Scott Caan and Cage himself. Footage from the film, which Vortex describes in the vein of Leaving Las Vegas and American Gigolo, will be available at AFM.

The Man From Elysian Fields – previously represented by Shoreline Entertainment – world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year. It stars Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger, Julianne Margulies, James Coburn and Anjelica Huston and features Garcia as a failed novelist who is persuaded to join a male escort service.

13 Moons marks the first film by Rockwell, who won the Sundance Film Festival grand jury prize with In The Soup in 1992, since Louis & Frank in 1998. The film stars Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Sam Rockwell and Jennifer Beals in the story of a night of madness when 13 moons fill the sky and an odd assortment of complete strangers are independently brought together by their sudden need for one bail bondsman.

US actors' union annuls presidential vote

The American actor's union, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has rejected last November's presidential victory by Melissa Gilbert after members complained of procedural irregularities.

The presidential vote, in which Gilbert beat former Rhoda star Valerie Harper and two others, will now be recontested, as will the vote for treasurer, and that for membership secretary, which was won by Elliot Gould (The Long Goodbye, Bugsy, Ocean's Eleven).

SAG members cried foul last month, citing administrative oversights that led to different voting deadlines for New York members. After hearing the evidence, SAG's election panel threw out the results and rebuked polling administrator Sequoia Voting Systems and union top brass for rule violations.

The re-run will take place between March 15 and April 10. "It is regrettably the case that all those who ran for office were the innocent victims of these two groups, namely SAG staff and Sequoia representatives," the panel said. "These problems arose... because SAG senior staff and Sequoia representatives treated the election in New York as an entirely different election to the one in the rest of the country."

The panel continued that the election fell "far short of... the standards... our members and candidates are entitled to receive."

Prince Edward's Film Plans Anger Charles

Edward owns a film company, Ardent Productions, which is making a 13-part series on the royal family for the Los Angeles-based E! entertainment network.

According to the London Times , Edward made the request to his brother in a telephone conversation in late 2001 — after Edward had already been rebuffed for trying to film Charles' son Prince William at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

At the time, there was already a Buckingham Palace request to leave the young student alone. St. James's Palace publicly criticized Edward after the attempt.

The relationship between the brothers had been improving after Edward's wife Sophie was rushed to the hospital for an ectopic pregnancy last month. But Edward's latest plans are said to have set them back again.

A friend of Prince Charles told the Times : "We were all taken aback by this request from Prince Edward, particularly coming so soon after the row about Prince William at university."

When asked about Charles' response, the friend added: "What do you think? It was treated with contempt. It's done nothing to improve relations between the two of them."

A Needed Commission

The Earl of Wessex has often clashed with his older brother over his apparent willingness to exploit his royal lineage for commercial gain.

Prince Edward's Ardent Productions is said be as much as $3.5 million in debt, and is relying on worldwide sales and a $375,000 commission for the television series A-Z on Royalty to improve its economic outlook.

Edward reportedly pitched the series as a "behind-the-scenes" look at the royal family, and was expected to include an episode on Prince Charles, his marriage to the late Princess Diana and relationship with Parker Bowles as a guarantee of good ratings and spin-off sales.

Edward hoped to meet these expectations because Charles' relationship with Parker Bowles had been so well-documented. He reportedly wanted to use excerpts from Diana's confessional interview with Martin Bashir on BBC's Panorama , in which the princess alluded to problems in her marriage to Charles.

Charles himself admitted to having committed adultery during a 1994 television interview with Jonathan Dimbleby. But Charles bitterly regrets that TV interview, reported The Times , and his friends have been banned from speaking to cameras since then.

A-Z on Royalty is now being regarded as something of a joke, reported The Guardian . So far, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is the only member of the royal family to agree to appear in the series, due to be broadcast later this year.

DVDs Fueled 2001 Video Rental Growth

spent more money in 2001 watching rented videos and DVDs at home than going to the theaters to see movies, according to a trade group.

Rental revenues grew 2.1 percent to $8.42 billion, compared with $8.38 billion in box office revenue, the Video Software Dealers Association said Monday.

Driving the increase is the popularity of the DVD format. The number of DVD rentals grew 164 percent over 2000, the association reported. Revenue from VHS rentals were $7.02 billion, while revenues from DVD rentals were $1.40 billion in 2001.

In the fourth quarter, revenue from DVD rentals grew 32 percent over third quarter revenues, the association said. ``Video rental remains a strong, vibrant and growing industry,'' Bo Andersen, president of the VSDA, said.

India.Arie Surprised by Nominations

India.Arie says she never dreamed she'd be nominated for seven Grammys. Her debut, ``Acoustic Soul,'' was nominated for album of the year, while her breakout song, ``Video,'' received bids for record and song of the year. She's also nominated for best new artist.

She was among the artists invited to announce the nominations last Friday. ``I thought I might get one, or two, and they asked me to come, I was like, `Oh, that means I got one.'

``And they just kept saying `India' over and over. I wasn't expecting that at all. At all. It's weird,'' she told AP Radio. What was her first year in music like?

``I went straight from having no job at all to having a career that I had to manage and people and employees,'' she said. ``It's very, very difficult and tiring. ... That it was new and that it was a lot of work made it a double whammy.

``I'm not floating away as high as I could be because I worked for everything.'' The Grammys will be presented Feb. 27 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in a live ceremony on CBS.