A look inside Hollywood and the movies incorporating Outtakes, Cinefile and Production Chart. : BIG DEALS
Diane Keaton, who can use a high-profile role in a commercial film, has been set to co-star with Steve Martin in Touchstone Pictures’ remake of Vincente Minnelli’s 1950 “Father of the Bride.” The roles were played in the original by Joan Bennett and Spencer Tracy.
Sources say the movie will be updated to reflect changing times, but will essentially remain a story about an exasperated father experiencing the trials and tribulations of his only daughter’s wedding. Martin Short has been signed for a cameo, but the role of the daughter--played in the original by 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor--is still uncast. The film, which begins shooting in May, reunites Keaton with her “Baby Boom” director, Charles Shyer.
In 1984, “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Bill Murray got savaged by critics for attempting a serious dramatic role in the remake of the 1946 Tyrone Power classic “The Razor’s Edge” and has stuck with comedy ever since. But he may be heading into treacherous critical waters again.
Sources close to Murray say his next film project may be “Mad Dogs and Glory,” in which he would co-star with Really Serious Actor Robert De Niro. The script, by Richard Price (“The Color of Money”), is the story of a thug loan shark (the role Murray would play) whose life is saved by a lonely, gun-shy cop (De Niro). As a thank-you for the cop’s good deed, the loan shark sends him a woman who becomes much more than a gratuity.
“Mad Dogs and Glory” will be produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by John McNaughton, whose last film was “Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.”
Debra Winger will play one of the two principal female roles in Penny Marshall’s “A League of Their Own,” the story of a women’s baseball team during World War II. The other part has yet to be filled. Put in turnaround by Fox, “League” was picked up by Columbia, distributor of Marshall’s Oscar-nominated “Awakenings,” when the studio signed a deal with her last fall. Shooting is scheduled to begin this summer.
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