DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 68

BOND 22

John Cleese told ‘Channel 4’ that “I wouldn’t mind seeing Jack Davenportplaying Bond… he’s got my vote”. Davenport (right), star of TV’s Coupling, isbest known to movie audiences for his roles as Matt Damon’s lover in TheTalented Mr Ripley and Keira Knightley’s naval suitor in Pirates Of TheCaribbean.

CABIN FEVER 2Rider Strong told ‘Moviehole’ “there will eventually be a Fever 2. AndI’ll be in it… but that’s all I’m saying. Eli and I love workingtogether; we’re going to plug each other into as many projects aspossible.”THE CAT IN THE HAT COMES BACK’USA Today’ reports that the sequel to Mike Myers’ The Cat In The Hatwill begin filming in Summer 2004 for release in 2005. HELLBOY’Superhero Hype’ reports that Frasier star David Hyde Pierce will voicethe character of Abe Sapien in Hellboy. GHOST RIDER’The Z Review’ indicates that “Nic Cage is very much attached to thefilm, as is Jon Voight. Although, there hasn’t been any ‘official’signings yet. Look for a Fall 2004 production start, with a possibleApril-May 2005 release.”

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE IIIShooting is scheduled for a January start based on a script by DeanGeorgaris and Robert Towne. M:I-3 will star Tom Cruise, Kelly Brook (right),Marc Blucas and Ving Rhames. THE GOONIES II’MTV News’ reports that original Goonies director Richard Donner andSteven Spielberg have purchased a sequel script and are pushing to getit made.

Donner: “We’re trying desperately. We’re just trying to get ‘WarnerBrothers’, who owns it, to say yes. The new group is called theGroonies, because they happen to live in a town where [Data], theChinese kid, lives… and he’s got an electronics repair shop and allthe kids hang out at his shop. He has this Chinese accent and he callsthe Goonies the Groonies, and so the new kids call themselves theGroonies, until they get into a situation where the old Goonies have tosave the new Groonies, or vice versa”.

Donner will continue to develop the script and confirmed both Sean Astinand Jeff Cohen’s characters will return.

THE MUMMY IIIWill there be a second sequel? Star Brendan Fraser offers the followingstatement to fans: “I’ve spoken with [director] Stephen Sommers and heintends to finish up Van Helsing [first]. He is going to investigatestorylines and what to do, but look, I told him I’m in, but I’ll waitfor the call. But I can’t imagine there won’t be one.”

“You know working with Stephen, the suggestions that I ever made werejust like, ‘You want me to do another take? Can I jump a little further?Shorter?’ Things like that. Storyline things, I leave that up to him.”

“Let’s face it, it’s The Mummy, he’s a thousands-of-years-old bad guy.He’s kinda like you can’t get rid of him, you can go anywhere. He’s beenendowed with certain powers. [Sommers] may explore other characters fromother periods of history that have been mummified. The Aztecs certainly,other ancient societies. I really don’t know the answer aside from a lotis possible.”

THE RING 2’DreamWorks’ is moving forward with a sequel to their recent remake ofJapanese scare-a-thon The Ring. Advert director Noam Murro is set tohelm the US sequel in January for a November 2004 release…

X-MEN 3James Marsden (Cyclops, right) talked to ‘Sci-Fi Wire’ about reprising hisX-Men role in a possible third movie: “I know that there’s an outline, atreatment out there, for the third one, I don’t know what’s in it orwhat the story is”.

“I guess that would include me a lot, because [Jean Grey will have]become super cosmic and evil. So that would be an interesting dichotomy,to have Hugh Jackman [Wolverine] and [me] team up to stop her”.

“Jean definitely does continue to evolve after the second movie, and I’dlike to see us get into that relationship a bit more. And I’d like tosee them get into a relationship between Cyclops and Wolverine a littlebit more [too]”.

In related news, Ian McKellen was interviewed by ‘Teletext’ afteraccepting the Variety Personality of the Year Award and said he’d returnas Magneto.

McKellen: “X-Men and its story is about mutants, about people who feeldisaffected with society, and whom society is hard on, appeals most toyoung blacks, young Jews and young gays. That’s why I did the movie andthat’s why I intend to do the third movie if it happens. If my characteris in it and if he’s my age. They might bring Magneto back but it may bethe young Magneto. Who knows?”

Also, Canadian newspaper ‘The Province’ ran an article where actor ShawnAshmore (Iceman) seemed confident of an X-Men 3: “It’s a big cast to gettogether, but I think it’s pretty much everybody coming back. I can’twait to find out what the story is this time”.

Ashmore also confirmed that Halle Berry would be the actor least likelyto return due to other commitments, but adding that she could return if”her hours are shortened and her role is lengthened.”

XXX2Samuel L. Jackson is set to reprise his role in the xXx sequel with IceCube replacing Vin Diesel.

UNDERWORLD II’Moviehole’ talked to director Len Wiseman (right) about the proposed Underworldsequel. Wiseman: “This time we can expect more history about thevampires and the werewolves, which we weren’t able to do in the firstone. There’s going to be a bit of actual battle in the medieval timesbetween the werewolves and vampires, with like army-clad vampires onhorses, kinda like Braveheart.”

“It’ll play out a bit like Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade where thefirst ten to fifteen minutes of the film will be a prequel. We’re goingto really dive into the dark ages, and then centre some more on themodern day. We will have a lot of the same cast, but also new cast too.It’s in early development, so of course we have no idea whom, but yeah,some new people will be involved. Marcus of course will be back.”

“I’m doing another project with Danny McBride. The script was actuallysold the same week Underworld was. It’s called Black Chapter. It’s aghost movie with a slick, high energy action film feel to it. We’ve seenghost movies done as either horror, thrillers, dramas, even comedy, butnever as a slick cool action movie.”

“It’s coming along. I don’t know if I’m going to direct it, I haven’tdecided yet. I mean, it could be my next project, I don’t know yet. I’vebeen working on drawings for it though.”

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

• 1. The Matrix Revolutions ($48.4m) (total since Nov 5th: $83.7m)
• 2. Elf ($31.1m)
• 3. Brother Bear ($18.5m)
• 4. Scary Movie 3 ($10.8m)
• 5. Radio ($7.2m)
• 6. Love Actually ($6.8m)
• 7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) ($4.9m)
• 8. Mystic River ($4.7m)
• 9. Runaway Jury ($4.6m)
• 10. School of Rock ($3.0m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. The Matrix Revolutions (£8.71m)
• 2. Finding Nemo (£1.65m)
• 3. Seabiscuit (£0.76m)
• 4. Intolerable Cruelty (£0.68m)
• 5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) (£0.66m)
• 6. Kill Bill: Vol.1 (£0.57m)
• 7. The League of Extraodinary Gentlemen (£0.42m)
• 8. In America (£0.27m)
• 9. Calendar Girls (£0.23m)
• 10. In The Cut (£0.17m)

Note that these are UK release dates.