JohnFrancisDaley Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Here's a few Vegas-themed Monday nibblets:

• All the way back in 2006, there was news that New Line had grabbed Burt Dickenson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth. Set in Vegas, the comedy was said to focus on rival magicians and how one of the magic men's partners dies, leaving his ex to "find a way to rediscover his love for magic." Well, it's not quite ready for the camera yet, and The Hollywood Reporter posts that Freaks and Geeks and Bones actor John Francis Daley is going to whip up a rewrite with Jonathan Goldstein. Now the plot is being described as the tale of "a big-time Las Vegas illusionist whose preeminence is threatened by a younger 'extreme magician.'" Whatever the film ends up being, hopefully it won't take another 2 years to get a step further. And hopefully it will be better than The Illusionist.
  
• Meanwhile, Variety reports that a feature on the first desegregated hotel and casino in Vegas, the Moulin Rouge, is in development. Titled The Fabulous Moulin Rouge, and penned by Milosz Feigin, the film will center on "a fictional African-American character who rises from mob debt collector to manager of the Moulin Rouge." It should be a pretty interesting production. A replica of the 1955 casino is getting built in Dubai, where the film will be shot late next year, and the casino itself might have attracted performers like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, but closed a mere 6 months after opening.
  

Oh, May 25, 1977. I was gearing up to be born, but for most of you, this is the day that brought us Star Wars -- the film that would create oodles of fans gushing over the likes of Han, Luke, and Leia, and later make them cry with three not-as-good-as-they-maybe-coulda-been prequels. The date is also going to be the focus of a movie that's been brewing for a long while now.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that the WMA/Hannaywood Ltd.'s Beverly Bridge Fund is completing the financing for 77 -- an autobiographical indie that focuses on Patrick Read Johnson's time in Hollywood with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. This used to be 5-25-77, which Jessica shared a poster for over a year ago. Now, finally, the film is on its way. BBF is handing over $200,000 in funding and prepping the long-awaited film for a Toronto debut, presumably this year.

John Francis Daley (Freaks and Geeks) stars as Johnson, a sci-fi-loving teen in Illinois who has his life changed by Star Wars. The film has Austin Pendleton and Colleen Camp as his parents (although Carrie Fisher was offered the role of mom), plus Scrubs janitor Neil Flynn as a Dr. Callahan. Right now, it's being described as "an American Graffiti-style film about the people who made American Graffiti."

Hopefully this will finally get the film out there.

It's been a long time since John Francis Daley made a cult name for himself on Freaks and Geeks. Since then, he's popped up on a bunch of other television shows, from the one-season Kitchen Confidential to the current skeleton-solving Bones, but he's also building a pretty sweet screenwriting gig for himself. Last year, the writer/actor sold a spec called The $40,000 Man for Terry Zwigoff to direct, and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's teaming with Jonathan Goldstein (The New Adventures of Old Christine) to rewrite Greg Pace's family comedy, currently titled Fun.

Honestly, it does sound like fun -- sort of Jumanji meets Mad Magazine. Remember all those back-page ads in comics and kids mags that would give you seemingly immense power for only a couple of bucks? Well, Fun focuses on "two childhood friends who ordered a slew of novelty toys (such as X-ray glasses, Sea-Monkeys, and transforming robots) from the back pages of their late-'70s comic books. Thirty years later, the toys begin living up to their wild advertising claims, forcing the pair to save their town from ensuing chaos."

The best family movies usually merge old-school memories for the adults with funky stories for the kids, so this has a lot of potential. I just wonder how the Sea Monkeys fit in. Will they grow bigger so people can actually see them? Or will the little buggers slip into the drinking water while a poor sap tips the glass to take a drink?

My head's buzzing with all the old-school toy possibilities. What novelties would you like to see come to life?