BY BELINDA BREMNER
On the film front, Oceans Eleven has come and gone. Muhammad Ali began its four-week shoot at the end of February and Road To Perdition will begin its 14 weeks of filming on March 5. Thirteen episodes of the "Joan Cusack" show will begin airing at the end of March. "Mind of the Marrying Man," the pilot that was shot in Chicago, has been picked up by HBO for 12 episodes. They will be back regularly a la "ER") for a "somewhat extensive" second unit. Starring Mike Binder and produced by his brother Jack Binder, this show is the male equivalent of "Sex In The City." The aforementioned "ER" was in town recently. Indies Ball In The House and Crazy Love are in town. There is some scouting for future projects, including Joshua for Crusader Entertainment. And you never know, projects fall on us out of the blue.
Chicago Casting Center (C3 profiled online in the premium pages) have scored high marks in booking Chicago talent for pilots. They cast Will Malnati from Stewart for the WB pilot "Bad Haircuts." And they cast Mark Wilson, Pete Kelly and Sierra Cleveland (all from Arlene Wilson), Pam Mack from Linda Jack, and Laura Baron from Big Mouth for the NBC pilot "Fear Factor." They are working on the NBC pilot "Brewster’s Place" and "Small Town X" as well as the ABC mini-series based on A Wrinkle In Time. For stage, they are casting replacements for The Producers and Thou Shalt Not, the Harry Conick Jr. and Susan Strohart project going up at the Lincoln Center.
Booking those episodes of the "Joan Cusack" show is, of course, Claire Simon. The latest Chicago talent booked were Paul Vato and Daniel Allan. Claire also was busy with pilots. Among them, "Fairplay" an untitled Jonathan Groff project, "Chestnut Hill," an untitled project for Tim Kring, "U.C.," an untitled Anne Rice project and "Pikiville." Cast for the Prime Co spot were Julia Neary, Brian Shortall, Tom Gaitsch, Quincy Wong, Oksana Fedunyszyn, Cedric Young, David Pease, Dave Kappas, Dan Sullivan, Katherine Bennett, Louise Lamson, Gary Goodson and Carmen Roman. We anxiously await the Muhamad Ali bookings.
Tenner Paskal has a bounty of bookings to report for the Mendes-Zanack project Road To Perdition. There are more to come, but let’s start of with this impressive list: Keith Kupferer, Neil Friedman, David Darlow, Maureen Gallagher, John Sierros, James Elderkamp, Michael Sassone, Rich Komenich, Hollis McCarthy, Margie Rynerson, Lance Baker, William Dick, Diane Dorsey, Stephen Dunn, Gene Janson, Robert Jones, John Judd, Ed Kross, Kurt Naebig, Monte, Jon Sattler, Lee Roy Rogers, Phil Ridarelli, Molly Reynolds, Heidi Netzley, Juanita Wilson, Jason Wells, Paul Turner, Luisa Strus, John Sterchi, Craig Spidel, Peggy Roeder, Jobe Cerney, Marty Higgenbotham, Christian Stolte, Mary Mulligan, Tim Hendrickson and Lara Phillips. Phew! That’s a lot of happy people.
And in their spare time, the Tenner Paskal folks also conducted a search for the HBO project "Jelly’s Last Jam" and a search for a project for Bernie Mack. They also booked spots for Toys 'R’ Us, Soft Sheen and PC Computers.
On the agent front, Arlene Wilson in Milwaukee announces that the SAG modified low budget feature One More Time, "the misadventures of Mark Forchart and a Brittany Spears impersonator" from France’s Raphael Films, is currently shooting in Milwaukee with many of their clients. Appearing in the feature are: Gina Torrecilla, Greg Sandquist, Timothy Jon, Rebecca Merrit, Chad Clevens, Kiko DeLorenzo, Rachel Gimbel, Harz Sondericker, Brian Faracy, Mark Metcalf, Julia Christmas and Silky D.
Closer to home, Lily’s has some great news. Their exclusive client Darryl "DiDi" Davis was booked as the younger sister for the Bernie Mack pilot. Commercials went to Jen Malenke, Patrick Sarb and Thomas Daugherty. And industrials were booked by clients Mary Kay Specht, Laura Stigler, Elisa Suehs, Stacey Canno, Valentin Tenuel, Annette D’Ariano, Connie Fairbanks. Lisabeth Rohick, Marvinetta Woodley, Jim Trainor and Darrian Easson. And the "Lucky Seven" for March are Ellis Foster, Mykeal LeFiore, Colin Douglas, Joshua Newkirk, Chen Yin DeAndrea, Nick Lanas and Spacey Cabrera.
That’s it for now.
Peace.