Variety reports that Paramount Pictures reports that SNL producer Lorne Michaels and former SNL writer/cast member Fred Wolf are teaming together for a new comedy titled Jersey Dukes.
Wolf (“Dirty Work”, “Dickie Roberts”) is drafting the screenplay about “a New Jersey mob boss who sends a crew over to England to check on his daughter’s impending wedding to a royal. The mobsters discover that England is ripe for mob expansion, especially once they are offered help by some dukes and duchesses in need of money to hang on to their country estate.”
Michaels will produce the feature. His credits also include Wayne’s World and most recently, Mean Girls.
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New Line Cinema has commissioned producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Chicago) work on Hairspray. The original story, which starred Ricki Lake and Debbie Harry, followed a new dance star that is harassed by the one she de-throned.
New Line co-chairmen Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, both actively implicated in the new version, were not shy of promoting their upcoming project.
“It’s been nearly 20 years since we first introduced Hairspray to the world and at that time we never could have imagined it evolving into the franchise it has become today,” Shaye and Lynne said. “To take a film like this and adapt it into a hit Broadway production, and then bring that musical version back into movie theaters is a first, and we are excited to have Craig and Neil on board to help make it happen.”
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The Chicago Sun-Times caught up with Colin Farrell over the weekend to set the record straight on what role comes next for him. The most talked about (aside from Bond) would certainly be in Michael Mann’s revamped Miami Vice.
“The script is great. The director is great. The worst thing about the project is the title, but as a piece in itself it’s brilliant,” Farrell offers, even though he isn’t signed yet. “I’m not trying on those jackets just yet because I haven’t signed, although I’d do anything to work with Michael Mann”.
The real question on Vice, though, is what the heck kind of story director Mann could give his two detectives to update such an 80s icon. Farrell seems to be excited about it.
“It goes deep into the undercover world. It’s Mann doing his heavy and tough stuff, with the kind of great dialogue you saw in ‘Heat’ and Collateral.”
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Variety reports that Harold Ramis (Analyze This) will direct an untitled comedy for Sony/Columbia Pictures, with Owen Wilson producing the feature and most likely starring in it as well. The trade describes the feature as a “historical comedy” but details are being kept under tight wraps.
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Variety also reports that Matt Damon will replace Leonardo DiCaprio in The Good Shepherd, which will star Robert De Niro. De Niro will also be directing and producing the feature as well.
Eric Roth wrote the first draft of the screenplay about the history of the CIA as seen through the eyes of an agent. Universal will distribute the feature, which is being targeted for a March 7th start date. The budget is expected to hover around $110 million.
Credit: Cinecon.com, TheHollywoodnews.com
