DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 24

TERMINATOR 3

James Cameron spoke to ‘MTV’ recently about why he decided not to makeTerminator 3, saying: “I made that decision [not to be involved] along time ago. Really it was when I was in post-production on ‘Titanic,’I said, ‘Guys, I don’t want to do this.’

But Arnold kept kind of hanging on, wanting me, trying to reel me in.Because we are friends and he really wanted that continuity. And finallyI just said, ‘You know, dude, just go make this. You were born to goplay this guy, and I just don’t feel it. I’ve told the story that Iwanted to tell.

If they can come up with a good script and they pay you a lot of money,don’t think twice.’ So we’re still on great terms. It’s funny, you know,there’s a part of me that kind of hopes it sucks, but Arnold is one ofmy best friends, and so for him I really want it to be good. And also,you just want it to be good because you want it to continue the line.”

DEAD RECKONING’20th Century Fox’ have bought the rights to George Romero’s “DeadReckoning” screenplay – the official fourth film in his legendary “NightOf The Living Dead” saga. DEUCE BIGELOW: ELECTRIC GIGOLO’Variety’ reports that ‘Touchstone Pictures’ are moving ahead with asequel to “Duece Bigalow: Male Gigolo” with Rob Schneider reprising hisrole.

The sequel, working-titled “Deuce Bigalow: Electric Gigolo”, may involveSchneider’s character attending a “Harry Potter”-esque academy forgigolos. Schneider is working on the script to the film, with shootingto begin next year.

LORD OF THE RINGS – RETURN OF THE KINGAttention has already now shifted to Christmas 2003’s final instalmentin the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy and (surprise, surprise!) it seemsthe last movie will be the best.

‘The Chicago Sun-Times’ talked with Elijah Wood and director PeterJackson about the final film. Jackson said the movie “will be as long asit needs to be. The third is my favourite one in the trilogy. It’salmost biblical and makes me cry. It’s about incredible courage and thelast part of it is just mind-boggling.”

Wood agreed, saying that: “the third movie has always been my favourite.I’ve seen moments from it and they just break my heart. You’ve grown tocare about these characters and they lose quite a lot in the process ofthe third movie. Frodo, Sam, Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn will never bethe same.”

In related news, photos showing actor Andy Serkis (Gollum) as Gollum’salter-ego Smeagol, and together with his brother Deagol, have beenrelease on the ‘net. These scenes are likely to be from “Return Of TheKing”, although they could possibly be released on the “Two Towersextended edition DVD next Christmas. (see right – top, middle, bottom)

DIE HARD 4Australia’s ‘TV Week’ reports that ’20th Century Fox’ have a title fortheir proposed fourth “Die Hard” movie. It will be known as “DieHardest”.

The publication also talked to an insider on the film, who revealed starBruce Willis is a bit frustrated about doing the flick. The molerevealed that “[Bruce is] tired of running with guns and yelling. Bruceis keen to get it done and concentrate on more intelligent films.

HELLBOYDoug Jones recently spoke with ‘Countingdown.com’ about his role as AbeSapien in the “Hellboy” movie adaptation. Regarding the make-up he said:“They did about sixteen, seventeen different life casts of me, bodyparts, very specific. They’re gonna be gluing things to my actual bodyfrom head to toe, so there’s going to be an awful, awful lot of doingup.

Most expensive I’ve ever done. ‘Cause often times they’ll do a fullbody cast, and they do a suit and you’ll slip into it. This is differentbecause they’re creating a chest piece, some shoulder pieces, and theneck with the gills, and then this, and then that, and the head, and thehoo-hah… so there’s a lot of different components that have to cometogether, and I love the overall shape.

Y’know, they’ve given me an amazing body, one that would take me yearsof 24-hour fitness to get. And the face, the lines, they are justbeautiful.”

And the actor’s voice won’t be dubbed. “We’ve talked about what kind ofa style to give him, and I think he’s gonna be soft-spoken,articulate… with a certain melodic sort of tone to his voice. I wantto make him quirky enough so he’s not just a guy.”

INDIANA JONES 4’SciFi Wire’ talked with Steven Spielberg about the upcoming “IndianaJones 4”, who confirmed that the film will have a supernatural elementand that it will take place in the 1950s.

Spielberg: “You have to understand that Harrison [Ford] is going to be62 years old when the film [begins production in 2004], so we had topush the years into the 1950s. The story’s wonderful, but Frank[Darabont]’s writing the script right now. Frank and I and George[Lucas] spent weeks together pounding out the story.”

MAD MAX 4’First Magazine’ interviewed director George Miller about “Mad Max 4”,who said: “We’re almost done on the script, and we hope to get filmingearly in the year. Yes Mel [Gibson]’s back on board. [In response to hispayment] He’s worth every cent.

I mean would you watch a ‘Mad Max’ film without Mel? [In terms ofcasting] we’ve a bit of a way to go there. But Mel has an idea to putRobert Downey Junior, who I adore by the way, in a role, and I myselfwould love to see some of the faces from the earlier films return – beit Tina Turner, Emil Minty…”