DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 63

BOND 22’The Daily Record’ reports that actor Clive Owen (Croupier) will takeover from Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in 2007.

The paper claims that “at a Press Conference at Pinewood Studios inJanuary or February 2004, Pierce Brosnan will reveal his last outing as007 will be Bond 21, to be made next year and released in 2005.”

“And for the first time, the new James Bond will be unveiled at the sametime. We can reveal that Clive will take on the mantle in the Bond 22which will be filmed in 2006 and shown in 2007.”

An inside source commented, saying: “Clive’s the one. There have beenrumours about Clive, but these rumours are getting louder and loudernow. No one at the top will come out and admit it, but the claims it’sClive are coming from different sources within ‘Eon’ who make the Bondfilms…”

“He’s not hugely known, but has done some good films and is at least aname people recognise. Most of the other names mooted are already knownactors so could never be Bond. Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan were bothknown actors, but not hugely famous when they took on 007 and they arethe best.”

ALIEN 5The ‘Star-Ledger’ newspaper reports that director Ridley Scott isdefinitely in talks with ‘Fox’ about returning to film a fifth and finalinstalment of the Alien saga he started back in 1979.

Ridley Scott confirmed, saying: “I’d like to go back to do a tight movie,one-on-one. I think that’s always scarier. When you get too many aliens,it diminishes the terror. It becomes an action movie, whereas ours wasabout flat-out terror.”

The trade also mentions he’s been speaking with director James Cameron(Aliens) about the new project…

ALIEN VS PREDATORGossip from the set of director Paul W.S Anderson’s Alien Vs Predatormovie suggests that audiences can expect a hybrid Predator/Aliencreature (complete with tail) and marine jumpsuits with permanent gunattachments! BAD BOYS IIIWill Smith hinted at a possible storyline for a third Bad Boys movie to’Empire Online’, saying: “You know, there was an early draft of thescript that actually set Bad Boys II in London but that script nevercame together. Maybe Bad Boys III, we could blow some stuff up here.” THE EXEC’Warner Brothers’ will adapt Doug Miers’ cult comic book The Exec into amovie, to be directed by Christopher Nolan after he finishes Batman 5.

Nolan’s brother Jonathan will write the script, which is a futuristiclook at a society where corporations govern, and business is waged likewarfare.

Producer David Heyman (Harry Potter) said: “It has the elements of thetension Chris created in Memento and Insomnia, but it is also amajor-sized film.”

THE HITCH-HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY’Variety’ reports that the continually stalling sci-fi comedy hasfinally been given the go-ahead by ‘Disney’ to head into production nextyear. No word yet on whether Jay Roach (Austin Powers) is still attachedto direct. HARRY POTTER & THE PRISON OF AZKABANEmma Thompson will make a guest appearance as the eccentric ProfessorTrelawny in the third Harry Potter movie, according to ‘The Herald Sun’. KILL BILL – SEQUEL & PREQUELDavid Carradine, who plays the titular Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s KillBill Volume I and II, has commented that Tarantino has envisioned a true

sequel and prequel to these moves.

David Carradine: “Bill wouldn’t be in the sequels. The original concept callsfor two sequels, but they’re going to be shot quite a bit apart. Thechildren of some of the characters in this picture will become the starsof the subsequent movies, but there are also plans for a prequel thatwould be animated. It would be done with anime, as far as I know. Thatwould take you back and give some of [The Bride’s] back-story. As far asthe prequel cartoon and, to a lesser extent, the sequels, these arevisions that Tarantino has…”

xXx 2As we know, director Rob Cohen is not returning to film a sequel to xXx,his extreme-sporting espionage action thriller. But now the film’soriginal star, Vin Diesel, has also dropped out!

‘The Hollywood Reporter’ indicates that actor Ice Cube will assume thelead role – but not the same character – with Lee Tamahori (Die AnotherDay) to direct. Diesel and Cohen will serve as executive producers onthe project.

THE LION, THE WITCH & THE WARDROBEAn official press release from the movie states that the project will befilmed in Hobsonville, Auckland, New Zealand. Kiwi-born director AndrewAdamson (Shrek) will film almost all of the film at the HobsonvilleAirbase and the Defence Quarters located there.

The South Island (used for Middle Earth in The Lord Of The Rings) willbecome Narnia. The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe will feature a largelyAmerican cast and production is to start sometime in 2004, with aDecember 2005 release for the USA and New Zealand.

WETA will handle the special-effects, having previously worked on TheLord Of The Rings trilogy, as well as prepping to film Peter Jackson’sKing Kong remake.

THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTEDirector Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) is keen to film a movie based onDon Quixote, previously abandoned by Terry Gilliam.

Andrew Davis told ‘Moviehole’: “I’m thinking of doing Don Quixote. TerryGilliam tried to do it. I talked to someone who’s involved in it, and hestill wants to do it… its very complicated. But I’m in talks. It’shard to think how I can make a movie that’s going to be so all of theworld, that’s going to have somebody in it that people are going to wantto come and see, because every three years someone else is ‘hot’ andit’s such a classic story – not unlike Holes – that has such afollowing, I’ve got to do it right.”

“If I got to make it, I’d like to make it with someone like Jon Voightyou know, or someone like John Leguizamo – who probably aren’t bigenough stars to get it greenlit. If Johnny Depp said he wanted to do itagain right now, we’d get the money. We’ll see.”

MEET THE FOCKERSActress Teri Polo has mentioned she is due to start filming a sequel toMeet The Parents with Ben Stiller next Spring. Polo also mentioned thefilm would focus on Stiller’s parents – Mr. & Ms. Fokker, and hisGrandmother – affectionately known as Mother Fokker! STAR WARS EPISODE IIIAnother title rumour: Star Wars Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith. Thisone based on a recently registered domain name by LucasFilm Ltd… THE THREE STOOGES’The Boston Herald’ revealed a bit of potential casting for The FarrellyBrothers biopic – Benecio Del Toro as one of the Stooges!

The Matrix Revolutions

In a sly marketing ploy, ‘Warner Brothers’ have released a fake websitebased on the computer company Neo worked for – Metacortex.

The site is filled with codes and riddles for Matrix fans to solve,including: after the flash intro runs and you get to the main page,scroll down to the bottom and click on ‘DIRECTORY’. You’ll get a mapwith a bunch of clickable locations, of which only ‘REDLAND’ works (onthe left).

You’ll now be taken to a screen where you can enter employee names fromMetacortex. Type in ‘AndersonThomas’ and you’ll see that he’s beentransferred somewhere, but it’s undisclosed (ha, ha).

Type in ‘AveryJames’ and you’ll get an interesting binary code and aflickering picture to the left. Binary code can be translated with thebinary code keys from TheMatrix.com, perhaps?

Can you find any more?

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

• 1. School of Rock ($19.6m)
• 2. Out of Time ($16.1m)
• 3. The Rundown ($9.6m)
• 4. Under the Tuscan Sun ($7.6m)
• 5. Secondhand Lions ($5.1m)
• 6. Underworld ($5.0m)
• 7. Lost in Translation ($4.1m)
• 8. The Fighting Temptations ($3.3m)
• 9. Once Upon a Time in Mexico ($2.6m)
• 10. Cold Creek Manor ($2.5m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. Bad Boys II (£3.17m)
• 2. Calendar Girls (£1.41m)
• 3. The Italian Job (2003) (£1.00m)
• 4. Down With Love (£0.599m)
• 5. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (£0.598m)
• 6. Once Upon a Time in Mexico (£0.53m)
• 7. Underworld (£0.45m)
• 8. Bright Young Things (£0.32m)
• 9. Matchstick Men (£0.25m)
• 10. Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (£0.17m)

Note that these are UK release dates.