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week 34-01
ShowBiz Weekly: news from the UK & US...

Wrestler-turned-actor THE ROCK may have been seen on the big screen for about 10 minutes so far in The Mummy Returns - but now he is set to star in two more films for Universal Pictures. The Rock, who recently finished his first starring role in The Scorpion King, will next star in Hunting Bronze, a rugged action comedy in which he will play a bounty hunter. In addition, studio executives want him to star in an as yet untitled film written by Oscar-winner BRIAN HELGELAND, who wrote LA Confidential.

The British actor JASON STATHAM, who co-stars in JOHN CARPENTER's futuristic adventure The Ghosts of Mars, is considering leaving the London home he shares with model KELLY BROOK and moving to Los Angeles. ``The films I've been in recently, they'd never make these kind of films back home,'' he said in an interview in Los Angeles. The move would enable him to spend more time with his friend, director GUY RITCHIE, who cast him in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. ``Guy has a passion for fighting and so do I,'' says Statham. ``He's like a sparring partner - we go down to whatever dojos available and strangle each other. I like to turn him a shade of purple.''

WILL SMITH is to produce a remake of the 1980 comedy Nine to Five with his wife, JADA PINKETT SMITH, playing one of the three leading roles. The original film, about secretaries who take revenge on their boss, starred JANE FONDA, LILY TOMLIN and DOLLY PARTON. The new version will feature three black women at a black workplace, according to the Hollywood Reporter. It has not yet been decided whether Smith, who has just finished filming Ali, will appear in the film.

MICHAEL CRAWFORD is to return to Broadway in the macabre musical Dance of the Vampires - 14 years after appearing in The Phantom of the Opera. Crawford has reportedly committed himself to the show for one year and has been working with writers on the script, which is based on ROMAN POLANSKI's 1967 film spoof, The Fearless Vampire Killers. He will play Count von Krolock, a distinguished vampire who battles with a student from Heidelberg University over the body and soul of a young woman, who has not yet been cast. The show is due to open on April 11.

The hit 1970s television series Kung-Fu, which starred DAVID CARRADINE as Caine, a nomadic marital arts expert, is coming to the big screen. The creator of the series, ED SPIELMAN, has been hired to write a new script, which will be filmed as American Samurai. No cast has yet been announced for the project.

STEVEN SPIELBERG is on the verge of agreeing to direct LEONARDO DiCAPRIO's next film, Catch Me if You Can. The Oscar-winning film-maker, who is editing his sci-fi drama Minority Report, wants to begin shooting in early January, according to his DreamWorks company. Catch Me if You Can, the true story of the youngest man to make the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, interested a number of directors, including CAMERON CROWE, GORE VERBINSKI, MILOS FORMAN and LASSE HALLSTROM, but all have dropped out of the project. The Sopranos star JAMES GANDOLFINI was set to co-star with DiCaprio but left when Verbinski, who directed him in The Mexican, backed out. ``Steven has been a great fan of Catch Me since the first time he read the draft last year,'' DreamWorks production chief WALTER PARKES told the Hollywood Reporter. ``His commitments to AI and Minority Report precluded his considering it then, but we're hoping that this time he'll be able to clear the decks and commit to the movie.''

TOM CRUISE has reportedly agreed to take a ``major cameo'' role in MIKE MYERS' next Austin Powers film. He will play a spy aiding Powers while spoofing his Mission: Impossible films, reports the New York Post. Sources who have seen the latest draft of the Austin Powers III script say film-makers are still hoping to entice SEAN CONNERY to play Powers' father and are looking for a star to portray the villain of the piece.

TIGER WOODS' drop in form on the golf course may be due to his eating habits off course. The 25-year-old golfing phenomenon has been flying from tournament to tournament in his private Falcon jet and is about to upgrade to a larger Gulf Stream IV. A source who has been involved with his flight plans tells the New York Daily News: ``He can order any kind of food he wants on these planes, but his choice is McDonald's, morning, noon and night.''

GUY RITCHIE has received a rap on the knuckles from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after embarking on an alligator hunt in Florida. MADONNA's husband went hunting with the aid of a guide near Lake Okeechobee during a stop on the singer's Drowned World Tour, according to reports. The Snatch director was unable to bag an alligator because they were out of season but instead bagged a wild boar, according to PETA. They wrote him a letter saying: ``We were troubled to learn that you recently went hunting in Florida. ``Should you find yourself with any more free days in the Sunshine State, we'd like to suggest you splash around in the shark-infested surf near Tampa or Daytona Beach where you might square off against a more equally matched predator instead of a small vegetarian animal who can only run from your guns.'' Ritchie's spokeswoman had no comment.

An EMINEM showdown with LL COOL J and JAY-Z for a video shoot in which they play gangsters had to be moved after police in New York's South Bronx said they did not have the necessary permits. Instead the trio ended up shooting the video in the subway under Grand Central Station. Trains were cancelled to enable the three rappers, playing thugs in red hats and gold chains, to chase each other in and out of two trains for the cameras.

PAUL NEWMAN has recruited an all-star cast to perform a little-known work by ERNEST HEMINGWAY in aid of charity. The World of Nick Adams, which features music by AARON COPLAND, has not been seen since it was televised in America in 1957. Now it will be performed as a one-time production at New York's Lincoln Centre in November with a cast including MERYL STREEP, JULIA ROBERTS, ROBERT De NIRO, MORGAN FREEMAN, JOANNE WOODWARD, MATT DAMON and ALEC BALDWIN. The proceeds will go to Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camps for children with life-threatening illnesses.

RICHARD HARRIS had his doubts about taking the role of Hogwarts headmaster Prof Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. But he has now signed on for three sequels, which are all in various stages of development. ``I wasn't sure I wanted to do this,'' Harris tells Premiere magazine. ``I hate making dates and appointments - it feels like entrapment.'' But, as Harris reveals, a call from his 11-year-old granddaughter left him no choice: ``She rang up one day and said, `Papa, if you don't play Dumbledore, I'll never speak to you again'.''

The British actor CHRISTIAN BALE is considering an offer to play Oscar-winner FRANCES McDORMAND's son in Laurel Canyon, a family drama that has been in development for nearly four years. Bale, who was last seen in American Psycho, would play a strait-laced young man who, after completing medical school, returns to his childhood home with his fiancee to find his pot-smoking mother living in the house.

MARLON BRANDO may be one of America's finest actors but he was no good as a director, according to a biography, Marlon Brando, due out soon. He was thrilled to have total control when he landed the job of directing the Western One-Eyed Jacks, says the author, PATRICIA BOSWORTH. ``He become involved with every aspect of One-Eyed Jacks, from costumes to sets to lighting,'' she writes. ``He even had a dozen horses brought to his home and they trotted around the garden while he auditioned them. He called meetings to order in the dining room by striking a big brass gong.'' Bosworth writes: ``One day an executive came by and commented, `You're looking into the wrong end of the viewfinder'. Said Marlon, `Maybe that's why the picture is so late'.''

COLIN FARRELL, one of Hollywood's hottest new young stars, is tipped to play Beat generation author JACK KEROUAC in director JOEL SCHUMACHER's version of the classic On the Road. Dublin-born Farrell previously starred in Schumacher's Tigerland and Phone Booth and in America he is on the screen as Jesse James in the American Outlaws.

The chilling 1978 Nazi-themed The Boys From Brazil is the first of several classic films to be remade by the US arm of the British production company Carlton International, which owns the originals. Other titles under consideration for remakes, according to the Hollywood Reporter, include The Eagle Has Landed, Farewell My Lovely, On Golden Pond and the British television series Captain Scarlet. No casting has been announced for the new version of The Boys From Brazil, a dark thriller about a new race of Hitlers which starred GREGORY PECK as Joseph Mengele and LAURENCE OLIVIER as the Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman.

TOM HANKS has revealed he found it difficult to leave his family to go to Chicago to film The Road to Perdition for British director SAM MENDES. ``This is not an easy gig, in the heart of the school year, to be off in Chicago making another m ovie,'' he said in an interview in September's Reader's Digest. ``But Rita (his wife, actress RITA WILSON) puts her head down and says, `OK, when will you be coming home?' This is what we do. This is our life.''

CHRISTINA RICCI has already established herself as an actress and producer and now the 21-year-old star of Sleepy Hollow is turning to directing. She will make her directorial debut on Speed Queen, a dark comedy in which she will play a salesgirl who goes on a lethal road trip with a man and woman and then tells her story to a best-selling author while on death row. Last year Ricci produced and starred in Prozac Nation which will have its world premiere in Toronto next month and also produced and starred in Pumpkin, which is due for release next year.

British punk band the Adverts' 1977 song Gary Gilmore's Eyes is featured in Shot in the Heart, an upcoming film about writer MIKAL GILMORE's relationship with his murderous younger brother. GARY GILMORE was executed in 1977 and his corneas were donated for eye transplant surgery, which promoted the Adverts song. ``It's jarring song and never a song I accepted easily, but it's important historically,'' Mikal tells the Los Angeles Times. ``It was a deft commentary imagining what happens when your memories are transmitted through someone's eyes - how would it be to look at the world through the eyes of a killer?'' Shot in the Heart, which stars GIOVANNI RIBISI as Mikal and ELIAS KOTEAS as Gary, is based on Mikal's book about his attempts to come to terms with his tortured family history.

DAVID HASSELHOFF and several original Baywatch cast members are reuniting for a film, even though the 10-year-old TV series has been axed because of poor ratings. Baywatch Blast, which will cost more than 3 million, will be filmed in Hawaii and Los Angeles and feature Baywatch beauties ALEXANDRA PAUL, GENA LEE NOLIN, NICOLE EGGERT, YASMINE BLEETH, TRACI BINGHAM and CARMEN ELECTRA. PAMELA ANDERSON, who began her acting career on the show, has not yet said whether she will return.

MICK JAGGER is embarking on heavy promotional duties for two films and his first solo album in eight years. He assumed production duties for Enigma, which stars KATE WINSLET and is due for release shortly. Meanwhile, The Man from Elysian Fields, in which Jagger co-stars with ANDY GARCIA, JULIANNA MARGULIES and JAMES COBURN, will be screened at the Toronto Film Festival next month. His album, Goddess in a Doorway, is scheduled for release in early November and reportedly includes performances by guest stars LENNY KRAVITZ and PETE TOWNSHEND.

While his recent film Driven was not a hit, SYLVESTER STALLONE is persisting with a race car theme and has sold the idea of a series to the NBC network in America. Sources say the story is a mixture of relationship drama and adrenaline-fuelled action. Stallone would not appear in the project but would probably write and direct it.

Scrabble has suddenly become a hot property in Hollywood with two rival projects in the works based on the 53-year-old word game. Oscar-nominated director CURTIS HANSON has bought the rights to the non-fiction book, Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble. Meanwhile, Miramax Films are developing Your Word Against Mine, a romantic comedy set in the world of tournament scrabble. GWYNETH PALTROW is being tipped to star in the Miramax project as a young woman who has set her heart on becoming the national Scrabble champion when she meets an equally competitive man who throws her off her game.

The British director ALAN PARKER will have an all-star cast for his next film, The Life of David Gale. KEVIN SPACEY will star as a professor opposed to the death penalty who ends up on death row after being convicted of murder. LAURA LINNEY, who was nominated for an Oscar for You Can Count On Me, will play a death penalty activist and one of the two female leads in the film. The producers are hoping NICOLE KIDMAN will be the other.

The Who singer ROGER DALTREY is expanding his acting career by starring in the premiere of a new American television drama series called Strange Frequency, an anthology of music-related horror stories. ``I play a very good guy, a rock manager who delivers the goods,'' says Daltrey, who also hosts the series. ``It was kind of fun being on the other side and playing a manager, poking fun at all the things that happen. I wasn't making fun of my past managers but there were certain things they get up to that came to mind.''

SALMA HAYEK is rumoured to be interested in starring in the film adaptation of SALMAN RUSHDIE's rock and roll novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Sources say that Rushdie is also seeking a role in the film for his girlfriend, PADMA LAKSHMI, who will soon be seen on screen in the MARIAH CAREY film, Glitter, playing a bad disco singer.

BILLY BOB THORNTON credits his happiness with his wife ANGELINA JOLIE for his new career as a recording artist. The Oscar-winning writer-actor-director makes his musical debut with the release next month of the album Private Radio on which he was helped by Grammy-winning musicians MARTY STUART and RANDY SCRUGGS. Thornton told the Hollywood Reporter that music has always been a passion and he started his first band when he was nine years old. ``When Angelina and I got together a few years ago I was really happy with my life and I was ready to start thinking about making music again,'' he said.