Dish: Action man Li a monk at Miramax
Thesp to produce laffer with Chasman
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Li will produce his monk comedy with Steve Chasman. While a director is still to be hired, the action directing will be done by Hong Kong helmer Cory Yuen, who handled the fight sequences on "Kiss of the Dragon" and Revolution drama "The One," which will open this fall.
The Hong Kong action star, who broke big in the U.S. with "Lethal Weapon 4" and "Romeo Must Die," now has global bankability, and he was fiercely courted by Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. The two agreed to do the movie, and maybe another in the future, at the recent Cannes Film Festival, where Li was promoting the Luc Besson-orchestrated "Kiss of the Dragon," which co-stars Bridget Fonda.
"While it is always thrilling to be working with Jet Li, it is especially exciting to see how passionate he is about this project, which he personally conceived and developed," said Weinstein, who heard Li's pitch and made the deal with Miramax execs Louis Anderman, Didi Nickerson and Bob Osher.
Li, who continues to broaden his range by steering into comedy, said the pic "will be one of the most important projects of my career, and I look forward to bringing a story of compassion and kindness to the worldwide audience."
The monk project will begin shooting in the fall, after Li stars in "Hero," a Chinese-language period epic written and to be directed by "Raise the Red Lantern" helmer Zhang Yimou, about the relationship between China's first emperor (Jiang Wen) and an assassin (Li). The film also stars Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and "Crouching Tiger" star Zhang Ziyi. Li is repped by Current Ent, while UTA reps Kamen.
MEADOW LANDS MOVIE: "The Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays Tony's daughter Meadow, is on course to matriculate her first movie star credit during summer vacation. She's set to play the lead in "The Playroom," a low-budget indie mobilizing for an August shoot. Like "Sopranos," the film's a family affair: Julia Dyer will direct a script by sister Gretchen Dyer, with Stephen Dyer of Chimera Films producing with Melissa Chesman. Circle of Confusion's Lawrence Mattis and Chimera's Tanya Wexler are exec producing. The film is, not surprisingly, a family drama, though the dysfunctional kind, not the mob kind. Gretchen and Julia Dyer wrote and directed, respectively, the Sundance entry "Late Bloomers." Sigler's repped by W&A and Vision Management Group.
SMITH MOVES INTO 'GREEN': Playwright and actress Anna Deveare Smith is negotiating to make her directorial debut for HBO on "Cabrini Green," a Dan Therriault-scripted drama centering on several families who settle in the Chicago housing project in the 1940s and watch their quality of life erode over the years. Therriault's scripts have been a charm for HBO and first-time helmers, with Charles "Roc" Dutton directing "First Time Felon." He also scripted "Witness Protection," which starred Tom Sizemore; feature vet Richard Pearce directed. "Cabrini Green" will shoot in the fall. While Smith hasn't yet directed a film, she's done everything else. Best known for writing and performing her one-woman play about the riots, "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," she most recently played a recurring role on ABC series "The Practice."
BEDEVILED IN COURT: Though Cutting Edge Entertainment producer David Glasser was adamant that Alec Baldwin would be back behind the camera by May 29 to finish his directorial debut "The Devil and Daniel Webster," it looks as ifthe next date between producer and director-star has gone from the cutting room to the courtroom. Baldwin's filed suit against Cutting Edge over the remake he directed and starred in with Anthony Hopkins and Jennifer Love Hewitt, stemming from cash shortages he complained about when he told Dish on May 22 he was ankling. Baldwin described the suit as "regrettable but necessary." Glasser said he was optimistic that the film's well worth salvaging. Glasser said the litigation was unnecessary and the producer's bitter. "We gave Alec exactly what his lawyers asked for, and he went and filed a lawsuit, which basically comes down to an $850,000 bonus he was due only if he delivered the picture on time and on budget," said Glasser. "Why, if he was so concerned about vendors getting paid, did he make sure he was paid in full, first? I deferred my fee to pay the vendors...I hang in on a movie that goes from $13 million to a $28 million budget and he can't roll with the punches when an investor pulls out? I could say more, but it might hurt the movie. But this is silly and I've never seen anything quite like it."
