From Dark Horizons: <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Owen Wilson is in negotiatings for the Rudin/Linklater film. With "A Scanner Darkly" going in August (only a 30 day shot as a major portion of the movie is animated), this project has been pushed back to October. Nick Nolte is also being pushed to play the father character to Natalie Portman.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->
IMDb says Betty Thomas (I Spy) will direct The Smoker from a script by Peter Tolan. Plot summary:<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>An English teacher at a prestigious all-girls school is invited to dinner at the home of one of his students. A beautiful senior in his class has decided that he would be the perfect husband for her -- not because she's in love with him but because she thinks they would be a good match. The idea is supported by her eccentric parents, who encourage them to get married.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->
I take it Owen would play the English teacher. Seems like a different role for him.

Edited by: KumarsTouch at: 4/9/04 2:11 pm

Interesting if it's true since Betty and Owen didn't exactly hit it off when he did I Spy... <p><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END-->I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. -mark twain
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IMDb could be wrong, they often are. If that's the case, I'd put more faith in the Dark Horizons report -- Richard Linklater could direct when he's wrapped up the month it will take to shoot A Scanner Darkly.

LInklater directing would be fabulous. I guess I thought that he usually writes his own screenplays. BUt maybe he would also do a good script from someone else. <p><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END-->I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. -mark twain
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In case anyone might be interested or hasn't seen it before, you can read the original short story that The Smoker is based on in the archives of the New Yorker at

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?030616fr_archive02">www.newyorker.com/archive..._archive02</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->

My own teacher story - It's on Triggerstreet under the title "Degrees of Separation" and the userid cajames4. For anyone not into Triggerstreet, you can also see it at
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/scriptidea.htm">teach.valdosta.edu/chjame...ptidea.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END-->

Feel free to trash it at will, that's what Triggerstreeting is for... extra credit if you can find all the Bottle Rocket references!

scanner darkly will be linklater going over an old charlie kaufman version , and modifying it as he see's fit, he has just completed a draft, the original kaufman adaptaion is at his site http://www.beingcharliekaufman.com, keanue reeves will star, and it will be produced by soderburgh/cloony's production company, and yes it will be rotoscoped.

I thought I had read a while back on beingcharliekaufman that his script wasn't going to be used. Maybe I'll check that out later.

Here's a third teacher/professor story idea that made me think of Owen. I was reading some more screenplays at TriggerStreet, and someone (not me) wrote a good one and put it on TS last August. It got very good reviews, and has moved up to a festival ranking of 23 out of 1378 screenplays.

Quote:
"As I Lay Married"
by Drongo3 (J. Drongowski)
Synopsis: What if the woman of your dreams turned out to be your wife? When the youngest English professor at a prestigious private college finds out his best student is battling for her life and has to drop out, he makes the obvious choice: He asks her to marry him (for his insurance benefits). A harrowing story of ovarian cancer, goldfish crackers, the novels of William Faulkner, and a certain selfish altruism, As I Lay Married is one man’s search for meaning in a world full of causes.
Production Notes: This was written with a fairly low budget in mind.


(The title is meant as a reference to Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.) It's a very romantic story with a fiesty student who stands up for herself, and she and the professor find real love.