Ellroy's cop saga booked (Variety)
		By MICHAEL FLEMING, February 19, 2001 Kurt Russell has committed to star for director Ron Shelton in the Intermedia-financed ``The Plague Season,'' a drama about L.A. police during the week leading up to the riots stemming from the acquittal of cops who battered Rodney King. James Ellroy (``L.A. Confidential'') penned the script, with a rewrite by David Ayer (``Training Day''). The film has crystallized for an early March start, with Alphaville's Caldecott Chubb, Jim Jacks and Sean Daniel producing. Russell's Creative Artists Agency reps closed a deal for him to move quickly to the film as soon as he finishes shooting ``Vanilla Sky,'' the Cameron Crowe-directed film that stars Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. Intermedia partners Guy East, Nigel Sinclair and Moritz Borman will exec produce. Intermedia will finance the drama and owns world rights, with a domestic distributor to be named shortly. Russell will play a seasoned L.A. detective in a drama that centers around four officers. The drama concerns the investigation of a brutal, racially charged robbery-homicide. ``The Plague Season'' was the first original written by author Ellroy. That it is getting made is a testament to the perseverance of its producers and the power of a memorable script. Ellroy wrote it eight years ago with Russell in mind for the lead, and the film nearly came together numerous times in the past few years, most recently as a Russell/Ben Affleck pairing. The filmmakers expect to move quickly to cast the other three leads. Alphaville now has three projects scheduled for March starts, including the Chuck Russell-directed ``The Scorpion King,'' with the Rock and Michael Clarke Duncan. Alphaville is producing the Universal film with Steve Sommers. Alphaville's teamed with Ricardo Mestres on the Lakeshore-financed ``The Hunted'' with William Friedkin directing Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro and Connie Nielsen. As with any pre-strike film that comes together these days, another is dealt a blow. In this case, that is ``Two Guys on the Job,'' a film Beacon Communications was pushing for a pre-strike start, wooing Shelton to reteam with ``Bull Durham'' star Kevin Costner in a cop drama scripted by ``The Hurricane'' team of Beacon chairman Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon. Costner, who just starred in the Beacon drama ``Thirteen Days,'' will next be seen starring alongside Russell in ``3000 Miles to Graceland.'' As for ``Two Guys on the Job,'' that cop drama will either have to wait until the actors strike is settled or averted, or proceed with a different director. Shelton is directing Russell for the first time, though he wrote the script for ``The Best of Times'' a film that starred Russell and Robin Williams. Using its ground floor position on the standup comedy circuit, management firm Power Entertainment has powered its way to five deals for possible series built around its stable of standups. The company, which has a first look deal at Twentieth Television, is run by former William Morris agent David Goldman; Robert Hartmann, a founding partner of the Improv and talent coordinator of the standup chain; and Judi Brown, who is senior producer of the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Power has a deal at Fox Broadcasting Co. to develop a series for standup Corey Holcomb, written by ``Mad About You'' creator Danny Jacobson and ``Moesha'' exec producer Warren Hutcherson, with Goldman and Hartmann producing for Power. NBC's ordered a pilot for a series based around Debi Guttierez, who's called a Latina Roseanne for her standup routines about her life as a former L.A. schoolteacher staying home to care for a husband and her kids. ``Dharma and Greg (news - Y! TV Coverage)'' exec producer Regina Stuart wrote the script for Castle Rock and Warner Bros., with Power's Goldman and Brown producing. DeRay, a standup comic who recently won a Comedy Central-sponsored nationwide competition, has a deal with ABC and Disney for a show based on a concept by the comedian and Goldman. Written by Eunetta Boone (who's working on the Damon Wayans sitcom ``My Wife and Kids''), the sitcom's an ``Odd Couple'' scenario in which the young black man, a physical therapist, rooms with an uptight white female medical student. The Fox Network has just given Power Entertainment a script commitment for ``Single, Married, Divorced,'' a half-hour mix of sketch and sitcom material that's a match between ``Sex and the City (news - Y! TV Coverage)'' and ``Love American Style,'' written by Gabe Miller and Jonathan Green. Power's Goldman and Hartmann are exec producing with Michael Wilson. And Power client Mark Curry, who starred on ``Hangin' With Mr. Cooper,'' also has a sitcom in the works that has been written by ``Caroline in the City'' co-creator Marco Penette for Castle Rock and CBS, with Power's Goldman and Hartmann producing. Power's got about 25 clients, all discovered on the standup circuit, with Holcomb and DeRay, for instance, signed at the Laffapalooza festival in Atlanta. ``Our thing is to find the stars of tomorrow, helping to groom and bring out a comedic standup voice that can translate,'' said Goldman, a UCLA Law School grad who represented the likes of Will Smith, Kurt Russell, Roland Emmerich and Mick Jagger at William Morris before forming Power. Next step, Goldman said, is taking the clientele into low-budget comic features. Leonor Varela, who made a splashy American debut toplining the Robert Halmi-produced miniseries ``Cleopatra,'' has landed the female lead in ``Blade 2: Bloodlust,'' the Guillermo del Toro-directed sequel that New Line shoots next month in Prague. Playing the daughter of a vampire overlord, she teams with Wesley Snipes' bloodsucker hunter to wipe out a mutant strain threatening the survival of both the vampires and humans. Varela just wrapped ``The Tailor of Panama'' and ``Texas Rangers.'' Ali Landry, the former Miss USA who's best known for an acrobatic ability to devour airborne Doritos in commercials for the chipmaker, will chomp down the lead role in ``The Courier'' a Kingsize Entertainment pic directed by Lorena Davis. In the film, she plays a rich runaway who helps an unwitting college student who's the courier of a package that puts him in the cross hairs of the FBI (news - web sites) and the mob. Landry just wrapped the title role in ``Repli-Kate'' and did a stint on the TV drama ``Felicity.''

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