DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 25

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3

‘Sky News’ reports that Kelly Brook (“Smallville”) is being tipped tostar alongside Tom Cruise “Mission Impossible 3”, to be directed byDavid Fincher (“Fight Club”).

A film insider told ‘The Sun’ that: “Paramount, who make ‘Sex And TheCity’ and release the ‘Mission Impossible’ films, love her and want herfor the film.” Bosses think she will be great as Cruise’s love interestin ‘MI:3’. She’s sexy and she can act. Scripts are just being finalizednow.”

If true, this really would cap a meteoric rise for Kelly Brook since shewas unceremoniously sacked from Channel 4’s “Big Breakfast” in thelate-90s. Since then she has starred in TV’s “Smallville” and liveswith actor Jason Statham (“Snatch”) in Los Angeles.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MANScreenwriter Michael Chabon has updated ‘Countingdown.com’ with some newdetails about “Spider-Man 2”. He said: “I turned in my draft of thescript to ‘Sony’. I thought it more or less rocked. Alas, not everyoneinvolved with the project, apparently, agreed with my own unbiasedassessment.”

“As far as I know it has now been handed, along with the two priordrafts [Gough-Millar and Koepp] to a well-known and well-regarded scriptdoctor, Alvin Sargent, who is married to the film’s producer, LauraZiskin. What he does with it all is a mystery that I’m as anxious as youto see revealed.”

BATMAN VAn inside spy has read a version a proposed fifth Batman movie entitled”Batman: The Frightening”, dated 23 December 2002. The script has beenwritten by Rafael Yglesias (“From Hell”) and Terry Hayes (“The RoadWarrior”).

The story kicks off with Bruce Wayne escaping from an asylum and thelead villain is The Scarecrow. The finale takes place on The Scarecrow’sblimp. There is no Robin or Batgirl, but butler Alfred has a moreprominent role. The reviewer also stated that the screenplay is perhapsslightly darker than Tim Burton’s movies and is almost resembles adetective story.

ALEXANDER’The Guardian’ revealed the romantic angle of the upcoming “Alexander”,saying that “in Baz Luhrmann/Leo DiCaprio’s version [the romance] willrun along the following lines – ‘After taking three male lovers, anddiverting himself with the odd eunuch, he will be shown putting politicsbefore pleasure to do his duty with the single-breasted queen of theAmazons’.

Meanwhile, ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ reports that Nicole Kidman hasconfirmed through her publicist that she will indeed play Alexander’smother Olympia in Luhrmann’s film. She previously worked with the Aussiedirector in “Moulin Rouge!”

EI8GHTThe ‘Internet Movie Database’ has stated that a sequel to serial-killersmash-hit “Se7en” is to be made, entitled “Ei8ght”.

An insider said: “The gruesome climax [to ‘Se7en’] had previously ruledout a sequel. But bosses think they have the right script now. Brad[Pitt]’s character will be mentioned, but he will not appear. He will bein a mental hospital.”

This rumour should be taken with a very large pinch of salt. Mainlybecause ‘IMDB’ information is extremely unreliable and, I mean, whatwill the title of “Ei8ght” actually relate to?! Another Deadly Sinnobody knew about?

EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS 2’Moviehole’ reports that producer Dean Devlin is in talks for a sequelto “Eight Legged Freaks”, with David Arquette to return and ElloryElkayem to direct again. HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN’E! Online’ reports that Michael Gambon (“Sleepy Hollow”) looks set toreplace Richard Harris in the next Harry Potter movie.

‘Entertainment Tonight’ later confirmed with a ‘Warner Brothers’representative that no-one has been cast yet and the Gambon rumour isfalse.

In related news, Gary Oldman (“Dracula”) will star in the next two HarryPotter movies as Sirius Black.

THE HOBBITThe ‘Chicago Sun-Times’ asked “Lord Of The Rings” director Peter Jacksonif he will ever film “The Hobbit”. Jackson replied: “People ask if I’mgoing to do ‘The Hobbit’ as my next film, and the answer is no. I thinkwhen I’m done with this trilogy I’ll need a break from this theme andmove on. I’m not saying never, but certainly not immediately.”

DVDfever Dom adds: Upon hearing the news, Thorin sat down andstarted singing about gold. Gandalf took the curious map and went east, leavingme in a comfortable tunnel-like hall with a round green door.

THE HULKA new photo has hit the ‘net from Ang Lee’s “The Hulk”, showing EricBana post-Hulk transformation. (see right) LORD OF THE RINGS – THE RETURN OF THE KINGCo-writer Philippa Boyens teased fans with what to expect from the final”Lord Of The Rings” movie next year.

Boyens said: “In film three, a huge part is the conflict between fathersand sons. Just as Gollum’s schizophrenia is buried in the story and youhave to dig it out, you have this story of fathers and sons.”

“Merry learns how to ride a horse and wield a sword, and we make bigdifferences in Middle-Earth.”

Director Peter Jackson also said that Bilbo Baggins will return in thenext film. “We saw Bilbo in the first film. He’s a very affectionatecharacter, but we will see him again in ‘Return of the King,’ when thejourney ends as the Hobbits return to the Shire.”

MEN IN BLACK III’TV Guide’ reports that ‘Columbia-TriStar’ are interested in another”Men In Black” sequel, despite the film being considered a creative bythe film’s producer, who said: “There were many disagreements among thedifferent principals, and what came out was not a movie worthy of thefranchise”. TOMORROW” *spoiler!*Roland Emmerich’s sci-fi disaster film doesn’t arrive till 2004, but’Delzo’ caught has reviewed the screenplay and dished the followingspoiles.

The Opening: There’s a massive sequence where a giant piece of AntarcticIce breaks off its shelf and the action involves a group of scientistsjumping the massive ice crevasse that results from the split – its aspectacular action piece which no other scene in the film can beat.

Los Angeles Destroyed: It only lasts a few minutes but one sequence hasthe City of Angels being ripped apart by multiple tornadoes includingone tearing right through the heart of Sunset Blvd and a unique jokeinvolving an Angelyne billboard.

The Super Freeze: The big juicy effect which will be awesome to see inthis (it happens a few times) is the ‘instant freeze’ in which airsucked from the upper atmosphere rushes down and freezes everything onthe ground (including people) in seconds.

TRON 2.0Sadly, it seems that early excitement regarding a sequel to 80’s sci-ficult film “Tron” have proved unfounded. The talk of a “Tron 2.0” byindustry insiders actually related to a video-game sequel, due out thisSpring. Never mind. STARSHIP TROOPERS 2Actor Casper Van Dien commented on the sequel to “Starship Troopers” onhis official site. Sadly his character, Johnny Rico, looks unlikely toreturn for the sequel – if one gets made.

Van Dien said: “They may do a ‘Starship Troopers 2’ with [Phil] Tippetset to direct. Starring Clancy Brown. Direct to Video. I talked with EdNeumier [the original film’s writer]. It is a confirmed maybe. So far Iam not involved in that.”

Producer Jon Davidson concurred with Van Dien when he talked to’Moviehole’, saying: “There may be a sequel to ‘Starship Troopers’. Ifthere is; it will be directed by Phil Tippett. It will be shot HighDefinition and go direct to DVD [at least in the US]. If it goes soonClancy Brown won’t be in it as he’s busy with a series for HBO. If itgoes in the summer or later, Clancy said he’d love to do it.”

WES ANDERSONWriter-director Wes Anderson (“The Royal Tenenbaums”) is rumoured to bebasing his next comedy on oddball characters that work for The MinistryOf Defence here in the UK! xXx 2Director Rob Cohen spoke with ‘CNN’ while promoting the “xXx” DVD andspilled some information about the sequel. He said: “I’m dedicated tothe idea that there’ll be no template for ‘xXx’.”

“Xander’s adventures will always be different. It will not be going toanother foreign place and having another exotic villain. I would likeyou to come to ‘xXx-squared’, as I call it, [in which you’ll] thinkyou’re going to see the NSA and anotherXander-defeats-the-bad-guys-in-strange-locales, and in fact I havesomething very different in mind… It will in fact, almost be adifferent genre of movie each time.”

“There’s two scripts being developed. One by Rich Wilkes, the originalwriter, our buddy from No. 1, and that will take place in SoutheastAsia, in the Malacca Straits, and [there are] dirty doings going on in amuch prettier place than Central Europe.”

“[Also,] I’ve just hired Simon Kimberg to write more of a thriller thatwould take place in Washington, D.C., which isn’t as pretty as Prague,but as we know, there’s lots going on there today. I think Xander shouldsave the United States, I think that’s the next thing. [Simon’s] scripthas a little more grit and thriller tension. Rich’s is a splashy, fun,off-the-chain kind of adventure.”

WARGAMES 2Producer Walter Parkes recently talked with ‘Screenwriting’ magazineabout “Catch Me If You Can”, and was asked if he will ever writeanything for the big-screen again. Parkes has only ever written twoscripts in his career: “WarGames” and “Sneakers”.

Parkes said that “I’m actually writing a follow-up to ‘WarGames’. Theidea’s actually been floating around up there – in my head – for years,but it’s just been finding time to sit down and write it.”

“Anyway, we’re doing that right now. I’d like to keep most of it secretfor the moment but it’d definitely deal with the information ageexplosion we’ve been dealt in years to come. We’re hoping Matthew[Broderick] and Ally [Sheedy] will come back to play David andJennifer.”

“We’d love John [Badham] to direct of course. ‘War Games 2′ will take usup to about 2004. I’ll be producing another of [Tom] Hanks’ films then.But early days on that.”