SPIELBERG TO WORK WITH FIRST VERSION OF SCRIPT WRITTEN BY RON SHUSETT AND GARY GOLDMAN OF ALIEN AND TOTAL RECALL FAME
TUESDAY AUGUST 17, 1999 3:53PMCT Nick

With January being the latest production date for Minority Report, overdue writing credits may again be ignored. What is generally unknown is that Jon Cohen did not write the earliest version of Minority Report as reported on several key publications on the Internet and on hard copy. The credit goes to the writing team of Ron Shusett and Gary Goldman of Alien and Total Recall fame, who penned their version of MR well over a year ago. Along the development highway, however, they sort of got pushed aside and John Cohen was brought onboard. When word came along that Spielberg and Cruise were going to do the project, Ron and Gary got on the line and called Spielberg’s office to remind them that they had written the first draft and perhaps Steven ought to take a look at it before going much further. As it turns out, Steven and Ron have a history: it was Steven who convinced the studios to produce Total Recall and he also favors Ron’s work. Having read both Ron’s and Cohen’s version of the Minority Report adaptation (based on a short story by Philip K. Dick), Spielberg agreed that Ron’s was more workable and decided to go with it instead of Cohen’s. Granted, it is being overworked, but it’s still Ron and Gary’s version and Fox has been reluctant to tell anyone this. The duo have been waiting patiently for some sort of press release telling of his involvement and they not only have writing credit, but producing credit as well--no small deal. After some time, there still was no word from FOX acknowledging Ron and Gary’s involvement with the project and thus, Ron wrote to Steven and laid it out that fair is fair and FOX should be forthright about letting the world know of he and Gary’s involvement. Spielberg must have seen the logic of this and sent the letter along to FOX, which has since notified Ron that from this point forward he would receive due credit for his contribution. We’ve yet to see this, but if it doesn’t happen voluntarily, then Ron and Gary Goldman are prepared to go to the trade publications themselves. Since Ron Shusett and Gary Goldman are by far a much more salable name when it comes to sci-fi, it would seem strange that FOX would keep promoting Jon Cohen, who most folks haven’t heard of. Only time will tell and the good news is that Scott Frank  is waxing the script a bit and production is indeed in full swing.

PRODUCTION PUSHED BACK AGAIN
MONDAY AUGUST 16, 1999 4:49AMCT

Please ignore my spelling mistakes and lack of observations on the following, it’s 5:00am in the morning here in Texas and I need to get some sleep. A big thanks to SnakeEyes for sending in this exclusive scoop about the new (and improved?) shooting schedule for Minority Report.

Hollywood will be taking one less summer Cruise next year. Last Friday the 13th, 20th Century Fox announced that production of ``Minority Report,'' the Tom Cruise starrer directed by Steven Spielberg, has been pushed to a January start date -- which moves its release date from next summer to a holiday 2000 release (God knows they’ll change it again).

The move was made to accommodate the availability of the actors in the film.'' To date, Cruise is the only actor signed for the picture, although Matt Damon, whose schedule is nearly as packed as Cruise's, has been in talks to co-star.

The picture, which FOX now plans to release on June 30, 2000, was originally slated to go before the cameras in October. There was speculation that Fox, which is co-producing ``Minority Report'' with DreamWorks, might move the film's release to later next summer after Paramount announced earlier this month that it was postponing the release of ``Mission: Impossible 2'' (which wraps production this week) from its original Dec. 17 berth to Wednesday, May 24.