RachaelLeighCook Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• Mario Van Peebles is whipping up an action thriller called Kerosene Cowboys, and the cast is about to be set. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Cam Gigandet, Shane West, and Rachael Leigh Cook are in negotiations to star in the flick that follows "hard-living pilots of an elite Navy attack squadron." Gigandet will be a "hot-shot pilot," West will play the nemesis who used to be his best friend, and Cook will wrap things up as a journalist who dates Gigandet. At the very least, it looks like a welcome vacation from some of Cook's recent work (from The House of Yes to Blind Ambition ... my, how they fall).
• Vin Diesel is all about the returns lately. First came the latest Fast and Furious pic, and now more triple-X. Variety reports that both Diesel and director Rob Cohen have signed on for another XXX pic, this one titled: XXX: The Return of Xander Cage. While it's not the most unique title out there, at least it's showcasing the plus points -- the return of Mr. Vin.
• Meanwhile, Adam Arkin is taking on the world of Coen. Variety reports that the Life actor has grabbed a role in A Serious Man. There is no word on who he's playing.
• Having just recorded "Another Way to Die" for Quantum of Solace, MTV reports that Alicia Keys would like to be a Bond Girl. Methinks this is something that would work best as a Bond girl/song mixture -- the sexy, iconic Bond girl having the pipes to also belt out the theme song. But no matter what happens, she has this positive report about the film: "it's damn good."

It's weird. You can get caught up in the ebb and flow of this business and it may not occur to you that, say, Neve Campbell hasn't been around lately. I miss her. I interviewed her in early 2004, just after Robert Altman's The Company came out. That was a masterful film, a great piece of work, on which Neve had writing and producing credits. It looked like she was really going places: from there, she was poised to play the great silent film star Louise Brooks in a biopic. I saw her again in James Toback's twisted When Will I Be Loved, which I liked more than just about anyone else.

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Rachael Leigh Cook and Snoop Dogg. Yes, Cook and Dogg have joined the romantic comedy The Golden Door. Unfortunately they will not be playing love interests in the film. Door will also star Sarah Roemer (Shia LaBeouf's co-star in Disturbia, which I'm watching tonight) and Joseph Cross (who played Augusten Burroughs in the astonishingly terrible Running with Scissors). The film will be about "a blue-collar nursing student played by Cross who's forced to quit school after his father dies in a freak handball accident." Yeah, you read that right -- a freak handball accident. "His uncle finds him a job as a doorman in a swank Manhattan apartment building, leading to an unlikely romance with a young resident, played by Roemer."

Cook (star of She's All That and the criminally underrated pop culture satire Josie and the Pussycats) will play "the sister who encourages Cross' relationship, much to the dismay of the girl's mother." Snoop Dogg (director and co-star of the Adult Video News award-winner Snoop Dogg's Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp) plays "the slick doorman who hazes his new co-worker and shows him the ropes." I can hear the dialogue now: "You've got to learn to drop it, son. Drop it...like it's hot!" The film was written and will be directed by David M. Rosenthal (See This Movie). Rosenthal apparently has pretty lofty ambitions for the movie, which he told The Hollywood Reporter is "about an Upstairs, Downstairs type of relationship. The film explores class distinctions and the American ideal."

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This upcoming Nancy Drew movie must be off the chain, y'all! Generally, you don't hear about a sequel until ... the first movie has come out. And even then, it helps that the movie is a success. Well, Warner Brothers must have complete and total faith in this project, because they've announced Part 2 before Part 1 has even hit theaters. Emma Roberts (niece of Julia, daughter of direct-to-video staple Eric) is playing Nancy Drew, and it looks like she's got a franchise on her hands. Producer Jerry Weintraub and director Andrew Fleming are doing both Drew films with Roberts, as well as something called Rodeo Girl, another family film, with Roberts portraying a "debutante equestrian" (can you put that on a resume?) who tries to win over a cowboy by entering a rodeo competition. Fleming did the excellent political comedy Dick and the not-so-excellent remake of The In-Laws.

The character of Nancy Drew has been around in book form since the 30s, and she has made it to the big and small screen many times before. For those of you concerned that Nancy '07 will be modernized into a Paris Hilton clone, Weintraub offers this reassurance: "She's not a hip kid. She's right out of a Norman Rockwell painting." The plot of the new Drew has Nancy joining her father (played by Tate Donovan) on a business trip to Los Angeles, "where she happens upon clues to a murder mystery involving a movie star." Rachael Leigh Cook (of the criminally underrated -- seriously -- Josie and the Pussycats) will also appear. Nancy Drew wasn't really on my radar when I was a kid, but I know there's enough material to keep this series going for a long, long time. My question is, when are we going to see The Boxcar Children up on the big screen! I used to love those wacky orphans!