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Dan Owen reviews
I s s u e # 1 0 62 2 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4
MEM-O-RE
Dennis Hopper has agreed to star in the independent movie Mem-O-Re for ‘3210Films’. Hopper will play a retired doctor and colleague of a medicalresearcher who taps into the genetically stored memories of a killer.
THE DUKES OF HAZZARDJohnny Knoxville (TV’s Jackass) has agreed to star as Luke Duke alongsideSeann William Scott (American Pie) as Bo Duke, in the movie adaptation ofclassic 80’s TV series The Dukes Of Hazzard, for director Jay Chandrasekhar.
Jessica Simpson (TV’s The Newlyweds) has also screen tested for the role ofDaisy Duke, but no decision has been made on casting that iconic role yet.Other names often linked to the role include Charisma Carpenter (Angel),Shannon Elisabeth (American Pie) and Britney Spears.
PRIMEUma Thurman has taken over the lead role from Sandra Bullock in ‘UniversalPictures’ Prime, working with writer-director Ben Younger.
FANTASTIC FOURActor Chris Evans (Cellular, right), who’s playing Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four,has spoken about his role for the first time, saying: “It’s tough to say noto superhero. I think it’s every little kid’s dream to be a superhero. Whatguy here didn’t wrap a towel around their shirt and run around the livingroom?”
“I had Dr. Doom growing up; I had the action figure of Dr. Doom. And hekicked a lot of ass as I remember. I didn’t know much about this one inparticular. As soon as I read the script, I went out and bought some of thecomic books just before the audition to brush up a little bit. And it wascool cause I had some buddies who were like ‘dude, Fantastic Four!'”
“I think within the ‘Marvel’ family, it’s up there… I was reading somearticle on the internet that said that Fantastic Four is first royal familyof comic books.”
HULK 2’Marvel’ executive Avi Arad is said to be close to announcing a director forHulk 2. Also, rumour has it that screenwriter Michael France has been askedto pen the storyline to the sequel.
The original Hulk was a global hit, but underperformed in many people’s eyeswhen compared to Spider-Man and X-Men. Reaction was also split from criticsand fans because of Hulk’s overtly serious overtones, which grated withthose expecting a more light-hearted affair.
In related news, ‘USA Today’ spoke to original star Jennifer Connelly at thepremiere of husband Paul Bettany’s romantic comedy Wimbledon, about herinvolvement with the sequel. Connelly confirmed that she’s contractuallyobliged to star in any sequel – so does this go for star Eric Bana?
KING KONGThe teaser poster for Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake, due out Christmas2005, has been released (see right). The movie has begun production in NewZealand with Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody and Jack Black. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3’The Hollywood Reporter’ says M:I-3 director J.J. Abrams is reteaming withAlias writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are coming on board towork on the script of the third film in the franchise.
Abrams is the creator of Alias and Felicity as well as a writer on the newtelevision series Lost. Having directed all three of those series, Abramsmakes his major motion picture directorial debut with “M:I-3”.
The movie is set to begin shooting in the summer of 2005. Several writershave been involved with the project, including Dean Georgaris, Dan Gilroy,Robert Towne and Frank Darabont.
STAR WARS EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITHJohn Rhys-Davies (Lord Of The Rings) dropped a hint at a convention thathe’ll be providing the voice of Episode III’s new villain General Grievous.When asked by a fan what he’ll be working on next, the actor said: “I’mdoing some next month, in fact. Let’s say the working conditions are…Grievous.”
This could signal the departure of Gary Oldman, who was signed up to voicethe new Star Wars villain, but who has lately found himself frustrated withdirector George Lucas violation of various Screen Actors’ Guild rules.
X-MEN 3Bruce Davison (X-Men, right) talked to the ‘Chicago Sun-Times’ about the status ofX-Men 3, saying: “I don’t know what the story is with the third film. I hadlunch with [X-Men director] Bryan Singer in Vancouver recently and he seemspretty busy.”
“I know he wants to make Logan’s Run and he’s directing Superman now. I knowthey’re trying to put a script together for X-Men 3, but no one knows howthe story is going to evolve.”
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE – THE PREQUELProducer Brad Fuller talked to ‘Zap2it’ about the upcoming prequel The TexasChainsaw Massacre, which will explore Leatherface’s family and how theybecame serial killers.
Fuller: “It won’t have any of the young actors from the first [like JessicaBiel], this is a prequel. But there will be a group of teen and young adultsin their 20’s who make an unfortunate decision to end up in this town.”
“The old man had no legs, we hope to answer questions about that. We hopethat you’d eventually be able to watch the two movies together and it willexplain a lot of questions that were unanswered.”
WAR OF THE WORLDSDakota Fanning (Uptown Girls) will play Tom Cruise’s daughter in StevenSpielberg’s War Of The Worlds remake.
TRAILERS A Sound Of Thunder – Trailer 1(Trailer link)
Not another disaster movie?
Well spotted.
Ho-hum, another CGI thunderstorm with predictably dire results.
Ah, no actually, but I see why you made that mistake. Despite the title,this is actually a time-travel movie starring Ben Kingsley and Edward Burns.
Oh. Right. But it’s still a disaster movie, right?
Of sorts, yes. The film is set in the future, where Kingsley organizeshunting expeditions for teams armed with high-tech weaponry. The twist beingthat the teams travel back 65,000,000 years to hunt dinosaurs.
Cool! So what happens?
Well, this is based on the famous Ray Bradbury short story and involvedchaos theory.
Huh?
In a nutshell, the time-travelling hunters are instructed to only stand on aspecially constructed “carpet”. If they venture beyond the carpet they couldalter history and destroy the future.
And guess what happens…?
You got it. Someone steps off the carpet, so when the team get back to thepresent, they find evolution had gone haywire. Meaning lots of CGI nastiesto fend off.
Sounds like fun.
Yeah, it could be. But the special-effects aren’t exactly Jurassic Parkstandard and the presence of Kingsley (while a fine actor) isn’t anyhallmark for quality – he’s also been in Species and Thunderbirds, remember?
Right. So, we wary.
At the moment it looks like entertaining B-movie hokum with mediocreeffects… but a great premise. The last movie with that kind of pedigreewas Paycheck – so be warned.
Team America: World Police – Trailer 1(Trailer link)
A documentary on the post-911 planet?
No, a riotous piss-take of the terrorist-obsessed world from the creators ofSouth Park using marionettes.
Marionettes? You mean (gulp!) puppets?
Gerry Anderson would be proud. Imagine a feature-length version ofThunderbirds but with an anarchic sense of humour, and you’re half-waythere!
Coolness! Does it look good?
It’s not laugh our loud funny, but it is extremely amusing. The puppets lookexcellent (check out the mouth movements), while there’s some wonderfulscenes of wanton destruction, a smattering of quotable lines (“Heyterrorist! Terrorise this!”) and some potentially cult characters(particularly the fat Chinese villain).
Wow – looking forward to this.
Yes, could be the surprise hit of the year and should definitely be on your”to watch” list if you like South Park and anything that takes the piss outof the Bush administration and Al Qaeda. Even Fahrenheit 911’s Michael Mooreand Osama Bin Laden appear in puppet-form!
US TOP 10 (CINEMA)All figures are weekend box-office gross.
- 1. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow ($15.6m)
- 2. Mr 3000 ($8.86m)
- 3. Resident Evil: Apocalypse ($8.66m)
- 4. Wimbledon ($7.12m)
- 5. Cellular ($6.79m)
- 6. Without a Paddle ($3.63m)
- 7. Hero ($2.84m)
- 8. Napoleon Dynamite ($2.29m)
- 9. Collateral ($2.27m) (total to date: $96.0m)
- 10. Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement ($1.94m) (total to date: $91.9m)
UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)
- 1. Collateral (£2.23m)
- 2. Open Water (£0.88m)
- 3. The Terminal (£0.771m)
- 4. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (£0.770m)
- 5. Hellboy (£0.34m)
- 6. Anchorman (£0.33m)
- 7. The Bourne Supremacy (£0.27m)
- 8. The Village (£0.25m)
- 9. A Cinderella Story (£0.20m)
- 10. Garfield (£0.19m)
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.