DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 26

Dan Owen reviews

DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST
I s s u e # 2 61 7 J a n u a r y 2 0 0 3

Movie News
US & UK Top cinema listings
Trailers
In the Pipeline

** MOVIE NEWS **

THE HITCH-HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXYLate-author Douglas Adams’ wife, Jane Belson, was interviewed on ‘BBCRadio 2’ recently and asked about the oft-delayed movie version of “TheHitch-hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”.

Belson said that Karey Kirkpatrick (“Chicken Run”) had been working on ascript with her husband and that producers had read it, liked it, andhave greenlit the project!

AMERICAN WEDDINGThis frankly crap title for “American Pie 3” has been changed to “PieceOf Pie”. Hmm, why not “American Pie 3: The Third Slice”? Just a thought. INDIANA JONES 4George Lucas said at the annual New York Film Critics Awards dinner thathe expects “Indiana Jones 4” to start shooting sometime this year! For a2004 release?

GARFIELDSome casting rumours have emerged for the CGI adaptation of the felinecomic-strip character.

Pet-owner Jon could be played by Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live),Ryan Stiles (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) or Jason Lee (Dogma).Personally I’d go for Stiles – mainly on looks, but Kattan or Lee justdon’t fit.

Garfield himself could be voiced by either John Goodman (Coyote Ugly)or George Wendt (Cheers). Has to be Goodman, doesn’t it? He’d beperfect.

SUPERMANA working title for Brett Ratner’s “Superman” remake, due in 2004, isnow thought to be “Superman: The Flight”.

Screen tests are apparently ongoing, with three main contenders so faridentified: Ashton Kutcher (“Just Married”), Kip Pardue (“Rules OfAttraction”) and Barry Watson (“7th Heaven)

GHOST IN THE SHELL 2A sequel to anime classic “Ghost In The Shell” is being made, entitledGhost In The Shell 2: Innocence. The original film dealt with the ideasof sentient machines and was a major influence for “The Matrix”.For more (sadly sparse) details, gohere. HARRY POTTER 3’Entertainment Weekly’ spoke with Michael Gambon’s agent about therumour he will replace Richard Harris as Professor Dumbeldore in thenext Harry Potter movie. The reply was: “They’ve offered, and he wantsto do it.”

In related news, ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ talked with the nextinstallment’s direct, Alfonso Cuaron, about what fans can expect in thethird film. He said: “I don’t know if ‘dark’ is the word for it becausethere’s a great deal of humour [in the third tale].”

“I would say that rather than going into darker territory, it goes intomore emotional territory. Because the characters are a little bit moregrown up, the experience is completely different. In the first twobooks, the fear was outside, like a boogie man. But here, the fear comesfrom inside. When you’re 13, you stop believing in the boogie man andstart dealing with the monsters inside.”

DVDfever Dom adds:Fans of the series will be pleased to know that the fifth book, Harry Potterand the Order of the Phoenix, is released this summer and can be pre-orderedfrom Amazon. Click on these links for theChildren’s EditionandAdult Edition.

KNIGHT RIDERIn bizarre news, it seems that ex-“Neighbours” hunk Dan Paris (whoplayed Drew) is in talks to star as Michael Knight in a movie-version ofthe classic 80’s series Knight Rider. THE ITALIAN JOB’Empire Online’ recently talked to Jason Statham (The Transporter)about his role as Handsome Tom in the remake of “The Italian Job”, dueout this summer.

Statham: “It’s such an old classic; it would be silly to try to make adirect copy. There are a lot of new characters in it – the onlycharacters that remain the same from the original are Charlie Crokerwhich Mark Whalberg plays and Bridger played by Donald Sutherland.”

“It’s a big, big movie, very grand and very expensive, with somebrilliant car chases. The way we steal the gold is ingenious!”

The remake also stars Ed Norton, Mark Whalberg, Charlize Theron and SethGreen.

THE LAST SAMURAIThe ‘BBC’ has reported that Tom Cruise’s martial-arts movie The LastSamurai has hit a problem. Parts of New Zealand’s native Maoricommunity have said that sacred sites have been desecrated during themovie’s filming, whilst others claim that the filmmakers should pay foruse of images of their sacred mountain, Mount Taranaki.

Taranaki was selected because of its strong resemblance to Japan’s MountFujiyama. However, Jane Gilbert from ‘Film NZ’ said that ‘WarnerBrothers’ had done everything they could to prevent Maoris beingoffended, saying “I think the people that are promoting this are takingadvantage of the situation… and I don’t see why this should have anyimpact on international productions coming to New Zealand.”

LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMENAn image has been released that shows one of “The League OfExtraordinary Gentlemen”‘s mode of transport. (see right) XENA – WARRIOR PRINCESSLucy Lawless was interviewed on New Zealand radio station ’91ZM’according to ‘TheFlikSpot’ and indicated that a movie based on the”Xena: Warrior Princess” TV series is being worked on. A $50-60 millionbudget is hoped, with the film being produced by ‘Universal’.

LORD OF THE RINGS – THE RETURN OF THE KING’Cinescaqe’ interviewed Andy Serkis (Gollum) about his role in the finalfilm. Serkis said that “if I didn’t know it was going to be in the third[film] I would be upset. You actually see me onscreen, which was goingto be in this film, transforming into Gollum once he kills Deagol.”

“You see this whole kind of descent into madness. You see him physicallybecoming more and more decrepit. [The] last stage is becoming the CGGollum. Peter and Fran told me that wasn’t going to be in this film.They thought it would play much better into the next one.”

In related news, 2003 Calendar images have been released to promoteChristmas 2003’s final “Lord Of The Rings” movie. (see right)

STAR TREK XIBrent Spiner (Data) was interviewed by ‘BBC Radio Swindon’ recently andconfirmed that there will be a “Star Trek XI”, and he will star.

Spiner: “‘Nemesis’ was supposed to be our maiden voyage, but who canleave such a great franchise that easily. We’re all going to do anotherone, only this time they’re going to mix it up a bit – possibly givingData a commanding role to play; and bringing in some of the folks fromenterprise and some of the other great spin offs.”

THUNDERBIRDS’Working Title’ – the company behind Notting Hill andBridget Jones’ Diary, has given the movie-version of Thunderbirds a £50 millionbudget. This makes the Jonathan Frakes directed venture their biggestfilm yet.

The movie begins lensing at Pinewood this March with ‘Framestore’handling the special-effects – previously having worked on the TV seriesWalking with Dinosaursand the James Bond franchise.

‘Working Title’ co-founder Tim Bevan said: “We started work five yearsago on this [‘Thunderbirds’ project] but we could never quite get thescript right, and in retrospect, thank God we didn’t.”

“The special effects and their cost in particular have moved on so muchsince then – you can see it between the first and second Harry Potterfilms. Getting the Thunderbirds craft right is as important as gettingthe casting right.”

“Thunderbirds 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the heroes of the piece in many ways. Wehave been faithful in the new designs to Gerry Anderson’s originalconcepts in the way that the new Volkswagen Beetle or the new Mini areto their old ones.”

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US TOP 10 (CINEMA)

1. Just Married ($17.5m)

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($14.7m)

3. Catch Me If You Can ($14.6m)

4. Two Weeks Notice ($6.8m)

5. About Schmidt ($6.4m)

6. Chicago ($5.6m)

7. Maid in Manhattan ($5.1m)

8. Gangs of New York ($4.8m)

9. Antwone Fisher ($3.7m)

10. The Wild Thornberrys Movie ($2.8m) UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (£3.7m)

2. Gangs of New York (£2.6m)

3. The Tuxedo (£1.08m)

4. Star Trek: Nemesis (£0.80m)

5. Die Another Day (£0.64m)

6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (£0.62m)

7. Sweet Home Alabama (£0.52m)

8. City of God (Cidade de Deus) (£0.27m)

9. The Good Girl (£0.11m)

10. The Quiet American (£0.08m)

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** TRAILERS ** Daredevil – Theatrical Trailer #2

What’s it about?
Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer who becomes a superhero after beingexposed to radioactive material that gives him “extra-sensoryperception”. He becomes the acrobatic ‘Daredevil’, catching villains atnight and sending them to jail in court by day…

Will it be good?
Oh Yes. Everyone involved seems enamoured with the film, as you’dexpect, but the trailers look great and some comic-book fans luckyenough to have seen the film are very happy. The director and BenAffleck are big comic-book fans and are said to be very happy with theadaptation.

Will it be a success?
Of course. The only snag is that “Daredevil” isn’t a superhero thegeneral public is very aware of, so don’t expect a box-office taking torival “Spider-Man”! This film will do strong business based mainly onthe appeal of Ben Affleck and the marketing hype…

What will its legacy be?
Ben Affleck should cement a growing action man status (after “PearlHarbor” and “The Sum Of All Fears”).

Jennifer Garner should find this a break into a successful film careeralongside her TV hit “Alias”.

Colin Farrell has the potential to steal the show as villain Bullseye,but regardless this will catapult him into the Hollywood big-time.

Director Mark Steven Johnson should be the happiest man, as he will nowhave a decent film to add to his unimpressive career (Jack Frost,Simon Birch and Grumpier Old Men) Ouch!
Click here for trailer

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** IN THE PIPELINE **

January 2003: “Darkness Falls” (24), “Final Destination 2” (31)

February 2003: “Shanghai Knights” (7), “Daredevil” (14), “Jungle Book 2″ (14), Spider” (28)

March 2003: “Johnny English” (14), “Phone Booth” (14), “The Core” (28), “House Of 1000 Corpses” (TBC)

April 2003: “Ripley’s Game” (4), “Timeline” (11), “Bulletproof Monk” (16), Basic” (18)

May 2003: “Matrix Reloaded” (16), “Bruce Almighty” (23), “Finding Nemo” (30), “The Italian Job” (30)

June 2003: “Fast & The Furious 2” (6), “Freddy Vs Jason” (13), “Hulk” (20), Charlie’s Angels 2″ (TBC), “Tomb Raider II” (TBC)

July 2003: “Legally Blonde 2” (2), “Terminator 3” (2), “Pirates Of TheCarribean” (9), “League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (11), “Bad Boys II(18), “Exorcist – The Beginning” (18), “Dumb & Dumberer” (18), “Spy Kids 3” (25)

August 2003: “American Wedding” (1), “Cursed” (8), “Jeepers Creepers 2” (29)October: “Kill Bill” (10), “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (17), “Underworld” (TBC)

September 2003: TBA

October 2003: TBA

November 2003: “Matrix Revolutions” (7), “Looney Tunes – Back In Action” (14),Around The World In 80 Days” (21), “The Cat In The Hat” (21), “DirtyDancing 2” (21)

December 2003: “The Last Samurai” (5), “The Alamo” (12), “Lord Of The Rings -Return Of The King” (17), “Garfield” (19), “Lemony Snicket” (19), “PeterPan” (25) Page Content copyright © Dan Owen, 2003.

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