Movie File: Elijah Wood, Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Garner & More
Elijah Wood must be racking up the frequent flier miles. Just after he returned from England, where he was shooting the soccer hooligan flick "The Yank," the Los Angeles-based actor was off to Austin, Texas, to work on Robert Rodriguez's comic book epic "Sin City." Now he's in Prague getting ready to make "Everything Is Illuminated," from the novel of the same name. Actor Liev Schreiber ("The Sum of All Fears") is making his directorial debut with the picture, about a young Jewish man in search of the woman who may have saved his grandfather during World War II. ...
Reese Witherspoon, who already has "Sammy," "The Proposal" and "Sports Widow" on her plate, is in final negotiations to star in and produce a supernatural thriller called "The Reckoning." Based on Jeff Long's upcoming book (which was optioned months ago for "The Silence of the Lambs" screenwriter Ted Tally to adapt), the story centers on a New York Times photojournalist who follows a team to Cambodia to recover the bones of lost soldiers. ... Charlize Theron will star in "Boys Don't Cry" director Kimberly Peirce's big-screen adaptation of Mark Richard's novel "The Ice at the Bottom of the World." The actress told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival she'll shoot the indie project in the fall of 2005. Until then, Theron has "Aeon Flux" with director Karyn Kusama ("Girlfight"), the sexual harassment drama "Class Action" with Niki Caro ("Whale Rider") and the bounty hunter thriller "Jinx." She was in Cannes promoting "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers." ...
Marvel Comics fans who were disappointed with Jennifer Garner's black leather Elektra costume in "Daredevil" have cause to rejoice: she'll be wearing a red outfit closer to the heroine's comic book garb in next year's "Elektra" spinoff, which is shooting in Vancouver with director Rob Bowman ("The X-Files"). ... Meanwhile, Mark Steven Johnson, who wrote and directed "Daredevil," is in pre-production on Marvel's "Ghost Rider," which he'll head to Australia in November to shoot with Nicolas Cage in the lead. Johnson has an executive producer credit on "Elektra." ... On a related note, Marvel's long-awaited "Fantastic Four" has begun pre-production work just a short drive from the "Elektra" set. Tim Story ("Barbershop") will direct. ...
Gwyneth Paltrow has signed on to star in and produce a biopic about Marlene Dietrich based on the German actress's memoirs written by her daughter, Maria Riva. A shoot date has yet to be scheduled, as Paltrow has taken a sabbatical following the birth of her first child, with Chris Martin. ... Lions Gate Films will release "Ju-On: The Grudge" to a limited number of theaters this summer just as director Takashi Shimizu puts the finishing touches on an Americanized version of the Japanese horror flick starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Behr ("Roswell"). "Ju-On: The Grudge" will arrive Stateside July 23, while "The Grudge," shot in Tokyo by Shimizu and co-produced by "Spider-Man" and "Evil Dead 2" director Sam Raimi, is due in October. ...
Perhaps taking a cue from Raimi, DreamWorks has hired original "Ringu" director Hideo Nakata to direct Naomi Watts in "The Ring 2," which is shooting in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. "I found [the idea] very interesting because I already made two 'Ringu' films in Japan," Nakata explained from the set. "I think this will look completely different, storywise, lookwise, so I felt like it would be challenging." ... Gary Oldman has been cast as a sadistic warden in the remake of "The Longest Yard." Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and the star of the original, Burt Reynolds, are also on board. ...
Unlike the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, horror master George A. Romero promises that the zombies in "Dead Reckoning" will still move slowly. "It's about society trying to get back together and ignore the problem, like people living in an earthquake zone, people living with the threat of terrorism, and they treat the zombies like rabid-dogs or homeless people," Romero explained of the still-in-development fourth installment of the series he began with the 1968's "Night of the Living Dead. "They're trying to live in spite of this and, of course, this is very misguided." ... Hugh Jackman won the 2004 Theater Development Fund-Astaire Award on Tuesday as the best male dancer in theater for his role as Peter Allen in "The Boy From Oz." ...
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