DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 55

LORD OF THE RINGS – THE RETURN OF THE KINGDirector Peter Jackson talked to the official fan magazine about how thethird film is progressing: “We’re shooting, we’re cutting, the visualeffects still have a long way to go before they are done, we haven’tstarted recording the music yet – so for me there may be light at theend of the tunnel, but the premiere in December still seems a long, longway away from where I am at the moment.”

“I have experienced my last day of shooting Elijah Wood as Frodo and mylast day of shooting Viggo [Mortensen] as Aragorn. Those to me are moreprofound than what my personal last day is going to be.”

“[The Return Of The King] is the movie that I want to be most proud of,so I am working very hard to make sure that happens. I think when peoplelook back at the three films; I want Return Of The King to be the onethat really lingers with them in terms of the emotional experience. Iwant it to be the reason why we made the other two films.”

THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICKMore details are filtering through on this proposed trilogy of sci-fimovies starring Vin Diesel. The first movie is designed to be astandalone story, taking place five years after the events of PitchBlack.

The production are halfway through the 77-day shoot, and has beenutilizing massive sets (dwarfing those used for Men In Black II andPlanet Of The Apes). The tone has “made a conscious decision to moveaway from horror film and into science fiction epic”.

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS’DreamWorks Pictures’ is developing a remake of Francis Veber’s Frenchcomedy Le Diner de Cons (“The Idiot Game”) – now retitled Dinner ForSchmucks tapped. Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G) is set to star.

The French film focused on a weekly dinner party held by a Parispublisher who challenges his friends to bring the most pathetic guest tothe gathering.

In the new version, Cohen will play a character deemed to possess such”extraordinary schmuckiness” that he is capable of ruining the life ofanyone who spends more than a few minutes in his orbit. Coen will play avariety of new characters.

Cohen has also been talking with ‘Fox Searchlight’ to see if there is amovie opportunity with his TV character Borat – the Kazakh TV reporter.

UNDERWORLDActors Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman both talked to ‘EntertainmentTonight’ about their roles in the upcoming Underworld.

Beckinsale said the harder the role, the better: “That’s the whole pointfor me. I think the more frightened you are and the more convinced youare that you can’t do it, that’s the job you should take.”

Speedman: “I’ve never done anything like this. All the training, runningaround and getting shot at – I wanted to see if I’d like it. It was alot of hard work, but was definitely cool to do.”

Beckinsale: “[Scott] was amazingly able to withstand the physical pain.I wasn’t expecting that. He’s so pretty that you don’t think he’d stayin freezing cold water for 10 hours and come back asking for more.”

And will the movie spawn a sequel? Beckinsale seems to think so, telling’MTV’ that “I would love to do it again. I had an amazing experience onthis movie. I think that when you push yourself beyond what you thinkyour limits are – like, a lot – it’s a really profound kind of lifeexperience. And I had an amazing time on this.”

“People are sort of talking about it being a love story, [but] it’s lessa love story than ‘The Matrix.’ There’s an attraction there between mycharacter and Scott Speedman’s character, but the main thrust of themovie is absolutely not a love story. It’s action.”

GHOST RIDER’CountingDown’ spoke with ‘Marvel’ honcho Kevin Feige about the longgestating movie adaptation of Ghost Rider: “In a perfect world, we’dlove to be shooting [Ghost Rider] early next year. Writer/director MarkSteven Johnson [Daredevil] is halfway through his rewrite of the scriptand is coming up with spectacular stuff.”

“Nicholas Cage is dying to do Ghost Rider. He’s doing a movie calledNational Treasure as his next project, but after that he wants to doGhost Rider. We’re committed to him and he’s committed to the movie. Nowit’s just a matter of timing”.

Strangely, Cage had since attached himself to The Weather Man, meaninghis starring-role in Ghost Rider will have to wait.

ROBOCOP 4Recent rumours about Paul Verhoeven returning to direct a fourth RoboCopmovie have been denounced by the director’s agent. “Paul did speak ofdoing another RoboCop in the past, but nothing is in the works at themoment. Paul is trying to cast the ‘New Line’ film Solace and has someother projects he is attempting to set up also.”

RESIDENT EVIL – APOCALYPSE’IGN Filmforce’ posted new details on the character of Jill Valentine,played by actress Sienna Guillory (The Time Machine). Here’s how theydescribe her: Dark hair, 20’s, casual clothes. Her striking looks mightmake you forget what a top class police officer she is. A mistake manypeople have made before – to their detriment.

The site also says that The Nemesis (the classic Resident Evil villain)will appear in the film, and that the creature will look similar to thegame. He’s described as follows: Eeight feet tall and humanoid withmetallic pipes and tubes grown into his flesh. He is incrediblymuscular, scarred and disfigured but has clear blue eye” – strikingreminders of a humanoid past.

STAR WARS EPISODE III’Independent’ spoke with Ewan McGregor before he flew to the set of StarWars Episode III.

“I’m delighted to be in the Star Wars films. There’ll be quite a lot offighting in the film and I always enjoy that. I imagine it [the StarWars series] has got to resolve itself with me and Hayden Christensen[who plays Anakin Skywalker] having some big, kick-off fight.”

WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE GREAT VEGETABLE PLOTAardman Animations are finally ready to shoot their first feature aspart of their four-picture deal with ‘DreamWorks’, signed way back in1999.

Chicken Run co-director Nick Park will begin production on hislong-awaited movie outing for Wallace and Gromit in September. The filmwill be co-directed by Park with Steve Box. The film is scheduled for amid-2005 release.

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

• 1. American Pie 3: The Wedding ($33.3m)
• 2. Spy Kids 3D: Game Over ($19.5m)
• 3. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ($18.8m)
• 4. Seabiscuit ($17.6m)
• 5. Bad Boys II ($12.7m)
• 6. Lara Croft Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life ($11.3m)
• 7. Finding Nemo ($3.8m)
• 8. Gigli ($3.7m)
• 9. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ($3.2m)
• 10. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ($2.9m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (£6.08m)
• 2. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (£1.54m)
• 3. Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (£0.97m)
• 4. Bruce Almighty (£0.48m)
• 5. Veronica Guerin (£0.348m)
• 6. The Hulk (£0.342m)
• 7. Piglet’s Big Movie (£0.341m)
• 8. Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle (£0.282m)
• 9. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (£0.281m)
• 10. Daddy Day Care (£0.25m)

Like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Yippee!
Yes, but also like Space Jam.

Oh. Yes. Is Michael Jordan involved in this?
No.

Yippee! So fill me in.
This stars Brendan Fraser (The Mummy) and Charlize Theron (The ItalianJob) as the human stars, and all the Looney Tunes characters from’Warner Brothers’. Minus the voice talent of Mel Blanc, who’s been deadfor over a decade now, of course.

And who’s directing?
Joe Dante.

Who?
The guy who made Gremlins, Gremlins 2, The ‘Burbs, Small Soldiers…

Ah, yes, the guy who only finds success doing films about small-town suburban US neighbourhoods…
Well, yes, that is a valid point. He also created the exceptional Eerie,Indiana TV series. Er, about a small-town neighbourhood trapped in TheTwilight Zone.

Wow, yes, that was cool! So will this Looney Tunes thingy be good?
Early word has been split. Of course the effects will make Roger Rabbitlook extremely dated, but… no movie has ever beaten Roger Rabbit’sfabulous premise and plot. And insiders suggest this is a fairlyempty-headed affair. But Joe Dante is certainly the man for the job -just go and watch Gremlins 2 again.

Note that these are US release dates.