More news from the seedy underbelly of Hollywoods moviemaking machine!! Marvel puts PUNISHER and SUB-MARINER on track! JUMANJI 2! INDY 4! TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE! Early April reports on several websites stating that Ryan Phillipe would play Leatherface in the Micheal Bay remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, were revealed to be a very bad April Fools joke. Thank the lord. Phillipe will not be in the remake, and was unaware of the reports. Dylan McDermott will join the cast of PARTY MONSTER, the true story of party promoter and murderer Micheal Alig. McDermott will star along Seth Green, Chloe Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne, shock-rocker Marilyn Manson and Macaulay Culkin as Alig. Carla Gugino joins Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson in THE SINGING DETECTIVE, with principal photography set for next month. Elijah Wood has signed to star in THUMBSUCKER for Good Machine Productions. Wood will play teenager Justin Cobb the \’King Kong of oral obsessives\’ whose quest to end his obsession throws his family and friends into chaos. Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johansson are also in negotiations. Gael Garcia Bernal, of the art house hit Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, will play revolutionary leader Che Guevara in THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, based on the journals of Guevara and Albert Granado. The film follows the early travels of a young Che as a young medical student in 1950\’s South America. Eddie Izzard will join Micheal Madsen, Tcheky Karyo, Colm Meaney and Julliette Lewis in an adaptation of the cult western graphic novel series BLUEBERRY for director Jan Kounen. Writer Blake Masters is in negotiations to script a film based on the Matt Helm action novels for Dreamworks and Team Todd. Dean Martin played the character in a series of fondly remembered films in the 60\’s. Richard Wenk will write 16 blocks for Winchester Films and Donner Co. as a new project for director Richard Donner. The pitch is described as a buddy drama in the vein of MIDNIGHT RUN where a NYPD cop must take a witness from the 6th Precinct to 100 Centre, but runs into constant trouble trying to navigate the 16 block journey. Tom Stoppard is on deck to pen the fourth installment of INDIANA JONES for Lucas and Spielberg to be put into production in 2004. Chris and Paul Weitz of AMERICAN PIE fame, have been hired to rewrite the script for the MEET THE PARENTS sequel MEET THE FOCKERS for Universal Studios. Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow are developing OCEAN\’S TWELVE with screenwriter Ted Griffin as a sequel to the immensely popular OCEAN\’S ELEVEN. Leslie Dixon has been hired to pen a sequel to THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR for MGM. Universal is working on a third installment of AMERICAN PIE with writer Adam Herz. New Line has enlisted David Goyer to write another sequel to BLADE, and are contemplating a sequel to SEVEN. Paramount Pictures are developing a third episode in the Alex Cross franchise Starring Morgan Freeman, which they hope to be based on James Pattersons novel ROSES ARE RED. Marvel Enterprises, hot with the impending release of SPIDERMAN, and the current productions of THE HULK, XMEN 2, and FANTASTIC FOUR, have hired Jonathan Hensleigh to write a feature adaptation of THE PUNISHER for Artisan Entertainnment. Marvel is also working with Universal on an adaptation of SUB-MARINER. Vanguard Animation has optioned the CHET GECKO series of childrens mysteries by author Bruce Hale to develop as a CGI franchise. Dennis Dugan is in negotiations to helm a sequel to JUMANJI for Columbia Pictures. Dugan has outlined a story for the film which focuses on tapping the full visual potential of the titular Board Game. A script is also being developed by Eric Fogel based on the picture book ZATHURA, which may become JUMANJI 3.
