DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 44

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE – REMAKE’New Line Cinema’ will release their Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake inJanuary 2004. Jessica Biel (The Rules Of Attraction) headlines the movieabout a group of friends who face a family of Texan cannibals.

Andrew Bryniarski takes the role of Leatherface (see right), previouslymade famous by Gunnar Hansen in Tobe Hooper’s original.

BATMAN 5At a press conference director Christopher Nolan (Memento) confirmedthat Batman 5 would be his next project. Nolan is likely to use ascreenplay by David Goyer (Blade II). FANTASTIC FOUR’Marvel’ are rumoured to have met with Michael Chiklis, from TV copdrama The Shield, concerning the role of Ben Grimm (a.k.a The Thing). HARRY POTTER & THE GOBLET OF FIRE’The Z Review’ report that Rowan Atkinson (Johnny English) is beingconsidered to play Lord Voldemort in the fourth Harry Potter film TheGoblet Of Fire, whilst Richard Wilson (TV’s One Foot In The Grave) couldplay Hogwarts’ gardener Frank Bryce. MEET THE FOCKERS’Sky News’ reports that the Meet The Parents sequel, Meet The Fockers,has officially been given the green light. A source said: “We have beentrying to get this under way for a while. Everybody is very keen to doit and they all have space in their schedules for the first quarter nextyear – that’s when we hope to shoot.” PETER PANActress Olivia Williams spoke with ‘Empire Online’ about director P.JHogan’s adaptation of J.M Barrie’s seminal children’s book. She said:“It’s the P.J Hogan take, which I think is a fantastic one. He has afantastic twinkly imagination for colour and fantasy but also a greateye for satire.”

“He’s totally nailed the amateur psychology of Mr Darling, thechildren’s father, being Captain Hook, who is their worst nightmare.It’s all done very tongue-in-cheek but absolutely faithful to J.MBarrie. Even the lines are all Barrie. The kids in the film are reallykids; it’s not some forty-year-old playing a child.”

“It’s going to be the kiddie movie that parents want to take theirchildren to, rather than sitting in the cinema reading their paper witha torch, which is what my dad used to do. I think its Peter Pan as itshould be which has never been done before.”

THE PUNISHERJohn Travolta has been cast as lead villain Howard Saint, described as”a man involved in the criminal underworld who has managed to concealhis violent beginnings and become a paragon of society until a darker,vengeful side emerges after his son is brutally slain.”

‘Marvel’ executive Avi Arad talked with ‘MTV’ about Travolta’s role: “Wedidn’t want to do a cliché villain. We are going for a dignifiedbusinessman [who is] cold but almost charming. And we are going to seehis world fall apart like he made Frank’s world fall apart.”

“There is a lot of pain to what happens to Saint in this movie. And weneeded an actor who can carry a real emotional journey.”

Arad also revealed that the movie will use comic-book writer GarthEnnis’ acclaimed ‘Welcome Back Frank’ storyline. “It’s great characters.It’s going to be obviously a hard movie, but there were also greatscenes [in the comics] that were almost funny…”

“We’d like to take the Punisher saga and turn it into a real interestingfilm about emotions, about punishment, and deal both with the hero andthe villain even-handedly as people first and see what happens when theshoe is on the other foot. And you really need great actors to pull itoff.”

Shooting is scheduled to take place in Tampa Bay, Florida from July2003.

JAMES BOND 21The ‘Calgary Sun’ spoke with Ewan McGregor about his thoughts onpossibly taking over as James Bond when Pierce Brosnan leaves thefranchise.

McGregor said: “I don’t want to hypothesize as to what I might do if theoffer came. I’d have to wait until they actually approached me. I wentthrough the same kind of angst and decision-making when George Lucascame to me for Star Wars.”

“I think playing Bond would be an even greater commitment. They turnthem out closer together than George does the Star Wars films and itappears to me that Pierce spends as much time promoting those films ashe does making them.”

SCARY MOVIE 3Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy have both secured cameo roles in thethird Scary Movie, er, movie. SUPERMANSo who will now replace the departed Brett Ratner? Three names have beenleaked by inside sources: Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek First Contact),Stephen Hopkins (Lost In Space) and Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood Prince OfThieves). Apparently Reynolds is favoured because he shares a similarvision to the ‘Warner Brothers’ executives.

In related news, WWE superstar Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) has apparentlybeen approached to play a Kryptonian villain in the movie.

Shades of Suburban Commando spring to mind…

TERMINATOR 4Arnold Schwarzenneger, 56 this year, has confirmed that he is willing toreprise his Terminator role in a fourth movie: “Is this my lastTerminator? No. I’ve so many more years left. I’m totally full of energyand thanks to my weight training and cardio-vascular training I’m ingreat shape.”

“I consider this the middle term of my career. Go out and see the movie.The more successful the movie is, the faster we can make Terminator 4.”

Y: THE LAST MAN’Coming Attractions’ reports that sci-fi comic-book Y: The Last Man hasbeen optioned by ‘New Line’ for a movie adaptation.

The comic tells “the story of Yorick Brown, a twentysomething amateurescape artist who appears to be the only human male survivor of amysterious plague that instantly killed every other mammal with a Ychromosome on the planet.”

“Even more enigmatic is that a male monkey named Ampersand, whom Yorickwas in the process of training for disabled people, also survived theplaque unscathed.”

“As the world’s nations struggle to bury the billions left dead andrebuild society, powerful and dangerous groups learn of Yorick andAmpersand’s existence and seek to capture the last two males on theplanet — or finish the job that the plaque started”.