VAN HELSING!!! JURASSIC 4!!! WALKEN, STILLER and JACK BLACK?!?!?!!! The Z review in the UK has reported that John Cleese will join the cast of SHREK 2 as Princess Fiona\’s father. Fiona will again be voiced by Cameron Diaz, with Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy also returning. Starlog Magazine got the scoop on JURASSIC PARK 4, from Speilberg himself, who says \"at this point I\’ve pretty much decided to do a JURASSIC 4. Similar to the JURASSIC 3, I will not direct it. I would hope that I could get Joe Johnston to direct this one too, but it\’s up to him.\" He goes on to say, \"We actually have a wonderful story that I think is the best story since the very first movie. … it is actually the best story I\’ve heard for a Dinosaur movie since the Micheal Crichton book. And I\’m not going to tell you anything about it. My lips are sealed.\" Adam Goldberg has landed the role of the best friend in Paramount Pictures\’ HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS. Goldberg will play the best friend of a ladies man (Mathew McConaughey) who he bets can\’t stay in a relationship for ten days. Kate Hudson plays the girl he picks, who tries to get rid of him, using rules from a \’guide to romance\’. Jim Caviezel will star in THE HIGHWAYMAN for New Line Cinema and director Robert Harmon. The film will be a thriller concerning a man who sets out to avenge the death of his wife at the hands of a serial killer who stalks the highways of America in his 72\’ El Dorado. 20th Century Fox has picked up the comedy-action pitch ANIMAL CONTROL from writers Eric Kripke and Eric Gewirtz. The story is described as a GHOSTBUSTERS/MIB type story about the hapless attendants of a top-secret zoo, where mythical creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster are kept to keep them from overrunning the planet. According to Variety, 20th Century Fox and Universal are developing competing films about ancient Greece and the Spartan warriors who held off an invasion of a million Persian invaders at the battle of Thermopylae. Fox has hired Erik Jendresen to pen THE 300 SPARTANS, and Universal has picked up GATES OF FIRE by David Self, adapting the novel by Steven Pressfield. Micheal Mann is attached to direct GATES. Jennifer Garner, of TV\’s hit ALIAS and the upcoming DAREDEVIL is in negotiations for a reported $3 Million paycheck to star in 13 GOING ON 30. Garner reportedly will have director approval which should shoot during next years TV hiatus. The project is described as a \’female version of BIG\’. It is about a gawky 13 year old girl who dreams of being popular. During her birthday party, she plays seven minutes in the closet, and when she emerges, finds that 17 years have passed and she is now gorgeous and extremely popular. Charlton Heston will provide his talents as a voice and as the narrator of an animated version of BEN-HUR, a 97 minute adaptation of the novel by Lew Wallace, which was previously made into an epic film starring Heston in 1959. Donald Faison of CLUELESS and TV\’s SCRUBS will reteam with his CLUELESS costar Brittany Murphy in the MGM comedy MOLLY GUNN, which will also star Dakota Fanning from I AM SAM. Murphy will play a down-on-her-luck socialite who becomes a reluctant nanny to Fanning. Faison will play a slick record exec. William Shatner has signed a deal to be the host of a new late-night B-movie show called WILLIAM SHATNER\’S FULL MOON FRIGHT NIGHT on the Sci-Fi Channel, beginning July 20. Shatner will host the show, by introducing the films, cracking wise before and after commercial breaks, chatting with guests and frequently re-enacting gruesome moments from the movies. Christopher Walken will co-star with Ben Stiller and Jack Black in the Dreamworks comedy ENVY, to be directed by Barry Levinson. Walken will also be seen as Leonardo DiCaprio\’s father in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and costarring with J.Lo and Ben Affleck in GIGLI. Jason Statham, best known as Turkish in SNATCH, has joined the rapidly expanding cast of F. Gary Gray\’s remake of THE ITALIAN JOB, starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Edward Norton. Statham will play Smiling Rob, one of Wahlberg\’s accomplices in a gold heist made possible by creating the largest traffic jam in L.A. history. Statham will also be seen this fall, starring in THE TRANSPORTER, that mysterious film about the courier who can find anyone anywhere. Joel Schumacher has joined the development team on Warner Brothers A STAR IS BORN remake, with Jon Peters producing. Schumacher is said to be eyeing directing duties, and Will Smith is being courted for one of the leads. The story, about an up and coming actress who falls in love with a famous actor only to pass him on the ladder of success as he loses popularity and she gains it, has seen many incarnations. The original 1937 film won the best original story Oscar and had nominations for it\’s stars Frederic March and Janet Gaynor. The 1954 remake also pulled in nominations for it\’s leads, Judy Garland and James Mason. The last version, in 1976, changed actors for rock stars starred Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Streisand. Hugh Jackman, soon to reprise the role of Wolverine in X2, is in negotiations to star in the title role of the Universal action-adventure-horror flick VAN HELSING. Written and to be directed by Stephen Sommers, the man behind the lucrative MUMMY franchise, VAN HELSING follows the monster hunter as he is sent to eastern Europe to battle the evil of Dracula, Frankenstein\’s monster and the Wolf Man as reimagined by Sommers. Producer Arthur Sarkissian has optioned the remake rights to the Oscar winning 1961 film EL CID. The original, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, is set in 12th century Spain and follows the heroic acts of Lord Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, who was known as El Cid, one of Spain\’s greatest historical figures. El Cid rose past the ruling sentiments of religious hatred to bring the Christians and Moors together to fight against the fanatical Ben Yussuf and his army, who were set to invade Spain. Sarkissian hopes to shoot soon in Spain for a 2004 release.
