MR. NICE GUY

on I the I slate I
BERRY GETS FOXY,
MARTIN TAKES SHOPGIRL TO THE MOVIES
AND CRUZ DATES DYLAN
GOOD GRIEF
Berry
FOXY BROWN
Fans of afros, mack daddys
and fly-away collars will
surely rejoice at news that
blaxploitation classic Foxy
Brown is soon to be remade
by Swordfish and Monster’s
Ball star Halle Berry. The
weepy Oscar-winner and
exhibitionist will take over
the role made famous by
Pam Grier in 1974, playing
a bereaved-but-sexy woman
out for revenge after her
boyfriend is killed by honky
gangsters. Berry, to be seen
later this year in the James
Bond picture Die Another
Day, is expected to start
work on the re-do as soon as she’s done shooting the X-Men sequel in
Vancouver. She’s also signed to produce and appear in Brown-Eyed
Girl, a long-in-the-works drama about the ups and downs in the life of
a modern woman. Directors? Co-stars? No word yet.
Cruz
BOB’S HER UNCLE
Add to the ever-growing
list of unlikely on-screen
couples that of shapely
Spanish darling Penélope
Cruz (Vanilla Sky) and
gnarled folk idol Bob
Dylan, who will pair up in
the forthcoming project
Masked & Anonymous. The
atonal singer — who, for
the record, has 33 years
on his 28-year-old love
interest, and had released
15 albums before she was
even born — will play a
veteran musician who is
sprung form prison to perform
a final benefit concert.
It’s based on an unpublished
story by Enrique
Morales and will also star
Luke Wilson (The Royal
Tenenbaums) as a former
roadie who quits his day
job to reunite with his
old boss. Filming has
already started.
famous 32 | july 2002
BY SEAN DAVIDSON
MONEY IN THE BANKS
Hear that? That beep-beep-beep is a truckload of money backing up to
Frankie Muniz’s house. The star of Fox TV’s Malcolm in the Middle
has been handed an estimated $2-million to star in the kiddie spy
movie Agent Cody Banks — cashing in on both the recent spate of spy
movies and the success of his Big Fat Liar, and making the 16-yearold
the highest paid child actor since Macaulay Culkin cashed his
cheque for Home Alone 2. The movie, shooting in B.C. this summer,
has Muniz as a teen recruited by the U.S. government for “youth-sized”
covert missions.
Martin
BOY MEETS SHOPGIRL
It came as little surprise that Steve
Martin would star in the adaptation of
Shopgirl, seeing as he wrote both the
screenplay and the bestselling novella.
And — if Novocaine, Joe Gould’s Secret
and The Spanish Prisoner are any indication
— he’s got a thing these days
for small dramas. The formerly wild ’n’
crazy guy, now sedate ’n’ sane, will
play a divorced millionaire who catches
the eye of a young retail clerk, who
has become bored with her life and
dead-end job. Shooting starts this fall,
as soon as director Anand Tucker
(Hilary and Jackie) finds a female lead.
SHOOTING FISH IN A HURRY
Because of Steven Spielberg’s busy schedule, the movie adaptation of
Big Fish has been handed over to director Tim Burton, who’s been told
to “fast track” the fantasy adventure into theatres for next year. That
means Burton, maker of such famously surreal hits and misses as
Edward Scissorhands and last year’s Planet of the Apes, needs someone
to play William, an adult son trying to make sense of his dying
father’s bizarre stories. Spielberg, long expected to make this his next
film after Minority Report, instead backed out to direct Leonardo
DiCaprio and Tom Hanks in Catch Me If You Can and to get a headstart
on the fourth Indiana Jones movie.
B R I E F L Y
Elijah Wood (Fellowship of the Ring) is in talks to star in Mort the
Dead Teenager for director Quentin Tarantino. � Expect to see
Haley Joel Osment (A.I.) and Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) in a
remake of 1986’s The Hitcher. � The thriller Underworld will star
Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor) as a vampire who falls in love with
a werewolf. � Peter Pan author James Barrie will look a lot like
Johnny Depp (Blow) in the bio-pic Neverland. � Gwyneth Paltrow
(Shallow Hal) has signed to star as a mentally unstable math
genius in the drama Proof. Lawsuits from the makers of A Beautiful
Mind expected shortly.