WAR OF THE WORLDS!! S.W.A.T.!!! SPACE MONKEY!! Anna Paquin has joined THE 25TH HOUR for director Spike Lee. Paquin will star alongside Edward Norton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper and Rosario Dawson in the tale of a mans last night before heading to jail for a long term sentence. Shane West is in talks to play Tom Sawyer in Stephen Norringtons adaptation of the Alan Moore comic THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Sean Connery will headline the film as Alan Quartermaine. Jamie Foxx has signed to play Ray Charles in the Crusader Entertainment biography UNCHAIN MY HEART, based on the life of the blind legend. The story follows Charles\’ rags to riches story from his poverty-stricken childhood in Georgia through his rise in the music industry, battling his disability, racism, drug use and romantic problems. Cathy Moriarty has been added to the cast of ANALYZE THAT. She will play a Mob widow who takes on her late husbands business dealings and has no problem standing up to Robert DeNiro\’s emotional Mafiosi. Jennifer Lopez will produce and star in an update of CARMEN, Prosper Merimee\’s 19th Century story of a Gypsy temptress and the Spanish soldier she destroys. Craig Pearce will write the script as a modernization of the original idea. Natalie Portman has joined the cast of COLD MOUNTAIN, based on the novel by Charles Frazier. Anthony Minghella will direct Portman and cast mates Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger and Jude Law. Ryan Phillipe, Kevin Kline, Julliette Binoche and Steve Martin will star in PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE, based on a play by Martin. The story follows a young Picasso and Albert Einstein, commiserating in a bar in 1904 Paris. They argue about Life, art and science, before being joined by a time-hopping Elvis Presley. John Cleese and Billie Brown will star in THE SHOOT, written by Joshua Goldin and Bruce Hancock. Details are being kept under tight wraps by the production company. Samuel L. Jackson will take the lead in Columbia Pictures reimagining of the 70\’s TV show S.W.A.T. Jackson will play the head of the L.A. S.W.A.T. team who must transport a drug kingpin out of L.A. and into Federal custody. Problems arise when the kingpin offers $100 million to anyone who can free him. Dreamworks has picked up SPACE MONKEY from Ash Brannon, who will develop the project as a fully CG animated picture. It follows a team of monkeys working in the NASA program in the 50\’s. 20th Century Fox has won the bidding war for THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, the global warming disaster film to be directed by Roland Emmerich. David Fincher is eyeing the possibility of a remake of 1975\’s THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD, a supernatural thriller about a man who becomes haunted by memories of a past life. Frank Marshall will direct a biopic of the life of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt for Universal Pictures. Reinhardt was a handsome and talented jazz guitarist who almost lost the use of his left hand in a fire, but instead adapted his style to create an innovative technique that made him the toast of the jazz world. He was imprisoned by the Nazis in WW2 and later played with Duke Ellington at Carnegie Hall. Dean Parisot will direct LOCKED AND UPRIGHT, a time travelling comedy about two goofy flight attendants from the swinging 70\’s who travel through the Bermuda triangle and disappear, only to find themselves in a German bomber during WW2. Revolution Studios is already prepping a sequel to the forthcoming XXX. Vin Diesel has been signed and director Rob Cohen and screenwriter Rich Wilkes will reprise their duties as well. Revolution is eyeing a 2004 release date. Barry Levinson will direct Jack Black and Ben Stiller in ENVY, a Dreamworks comedy about best friends who hit a stumbling block when one of them becomes filthy rich and the other insanely jealous. Imagine Entertainment has made a deal with Alto Loma Entertainment to pick up archival rights to the 48 year back log of Playboy magazine. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are using the magazines for possible material to develop into features for Imagine. Curtis Hanson and producing partner Carol Fenelon have optioned a series of detective novels from writer George P. Pelecanos about D.C. based P.I. Derek Strange, an African-American detective in his 50\’s who solves cases dealing with honest people set on by drug dealers and low lifes in the beltway of Washington. The first two books are RIGHT AS RAIN and HELL TO PAY. Paramount Pictures is teaming up with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagners\’ C/W Productions to develop a big budget adaptation of H.G. Wells WAR OF THE WORLDS. Cruise is said to be set on a close translation of the book, rather than the George Pal film from the 50\’s. Production is scheduled for 2003.
