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Dan Owen reviews
I s s u e # 1 0 21 1 A u g u s t 2 0 0 4
THE ISLAND
Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, right) will star in The Island for director MichaelBay (Bad Boys II), says ‘The Hollywood Reporter’.
The Island is a sci-fi project that follows a “harvested being” that makes abid to escape the utopian facility where he is being kept.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (The Legend Of Zorro) are writing the script,which originated as a spec script by Caspian Tredwell-Owen.
McGregor arrived in New York on 29 July, marking the end of a 20,000 mileround the world motorbike journey. Accompanied by best friend CharleyBoorman, the actor spent three months on the road completing the journey ona pair of 1,150cc bikes.
AUSTIN POWERS 4The ‘Chicago Sun-Times’ talked to Seth Green about the possibility ofanother Austin Powers film. Green has played Scott Evil in all three movies.
Green: “Mike Myers hasn’t ever told me that. Here’s the great thing – no onewho has anything officially to do with any of the Austin Powers movies hasever said anything about anything when it comes to another film. All theserumours about yes or no are perpetuated by people who are not involved.”
“I kind of felt like the trilogy was wrapped up pretty well. No one islooking for more.”
SPY HUNTERThe Rock has commented on his upcoming action movie, based on the popular80’s arcade game, saying: “Yeah, it’s going to be awesome. And I meanawesome. John Woo is on board, and we’re going through many script changes.We’re starting in March next year.” BOND 21According to reports, the current draft of the next Bond movie, byscreenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, is based on author Ian Fleming’sdebut James Bond novel Casino Royale.
Purvis and Wade previously based their screenplay for Die Another Day onFleming’s Moonraker novel.
Casino Royale was published in 1953. A year later, it was adapted as a CBSone-hour teleplay with Barry Nelson as 007, and because Fleming had sold thefilm rights, Casino Royale was not part of the Cubby Broccoli/Harry Saltzman’Eon Productions’ deal.
That meant that the rights to Casino Royale were acquired by producerCharles K. Feldman, who released the 1967 Bond spoof Casino Royale,featuring David Niven, Peter O’Toole, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen.
‘Sony’ acquired ‘Columbia Pictures’ in 1990 and subsequently relinquishedrights to the novel to ‘United Artists’ and ‘MGM’.
In related news, speaking on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, director QuentinTarantino again confirmed his desire to film Casino Royale with PierceBrosnan – setting the film in the 60’s. Of course, Brosnan recently quit thefranchise, but would he be lured back if Tarantino directed the movie -currently pencilled in for 2007 release?
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE IIIJimi Mistry (The Guru, right) has landed a role opposite Tom Cruise in MissionImpossible III, as Cruise’s IMF colleague. RED EYEDirector Wes Craven (Scream) will helm the thriller Red Eye for’DreamWorks’, after completing troubled werewolf movie Cursed.
The film, written by Carl Ellsworth, focuses on a woman held captive by astranger on an airliner who threatens to kill her father unless she helpshim arrange the assassination of a wealthy businessman.
THE RING 2’Variety’ reports that ‘Dreamworks’ has pushed the release of The Ring 2back to 24 March 2005 after production delays and the last-minute directorchange to Hideo Nakata (Ringu). X-MEN 3’The Hollywood Reporter’ has revealed that director Bryan Singer will not beinvolved with the third X-Men movie, due to his commitment with Superman.
TRAILERS Blade – Trinity(Trailer link)
More bloodsucking martial-arts mayhem?
I should think that’s a distinct possibility of that, yes. Blade Trinity isthe third vampire action-adventure starring Wesley Snipes ashalf-vamp/half-human nosferatu slayer Blade.
Who’s in the hot seat this time?
Interestingly, the franchises’ writer – David Goyer – has stepped into thedirector’s chair.
Gulp. Never a good sign when the writer takes control, in my opinion.
Well, Goyer is actually a good director in his own right, although Blade 3will be his first major project. He’s undoubtedly in full command of thecharacters and plot, having also written this instalment.
Okay, so what’s Blade 3 about?
Not entirely sure, beyond the fact that Blade is “outed” by the FBI, heteams up with a gang of vampire hunters, then has to defeat the originatorof the vampires – Dracula.
Ugh, I hate it when genre movies pretend a fictional character is real.Remember that Buffy episode – gah!
Yes, I know what you mean. It seems quite lazy, but early word is that Blade3 is another fun and frantic round of blood-letting and kick-ass action,although not quite as good as the first two movies. The trailer certainlylooks decent enough – but it does contain a lot of footage from the earlierfilms to set itself up.
US TOP 10 (CINEMA)All figures are weekend box-office gross.
- 1. Collateral ($24.7m) (right)
- 2. The Village ($16.5m)
- 3. The Bourne Supremacy ($14.4m) (total to date: $125m)
- 4. The Manchurian Candidate (2004) ($10.5m)
- 5. Little Black Book ($7.08m)
- 6. I Robot ($6.52m) (total to date: $127m)
- 7. Spider-Man 2 ($5.43m) (total to date: $355m)
- 8. Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle ($3.19m)
- 9. Catwoman ($2.9m)
- 10. A Cinderella Story ($2.88m)
UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)
- 1. I Robot (£4.74m)
- 2. 13 Going On 30 (£1.18m)
- 3. King Arthur (£0.778m)
- 4. Spider-Man 2 (£0.771m)
- 5. Garfield (£0.74m)
- 6. Shrek 2 (£0.63m)
- 7. The Stepford Wives (2004) (£0.47m)
- 8. Thunderbirds (2004) (£0.29m)
- 9. Fahrenheit 9/11 (£0.22m)
- 10. Home on the Range (£0.19m)
** IN THE PIPELINE **All dates are U.K release dates, and are subject to change.
Email Dan Owen
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.