DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 180

Director Ronny Yu (Freddy Vs Jason) will helm a live-action adaptation ofhit anime Blood Vampire, starring South Korean actress Jin Ji-hyun. Thefilm, retitled Vampire, has a budget of $30 million and concerns a vampireemployed by the US government to hunt demons in post-WWII Japan. Shooting inChina stars next March 2008.

HIS DARK MATERIALS

Author Philip Pullman is increasingly impressed with the casting for themovie versions of his three children’s books. So far the project has securedthe talents of Dakota Blue Richards (Lyra), Nicole Kidman (Miss Coulter),Daniel Craig (Lord Asriel) and Eva Green (Serafina), and can now add Sam Elliot (Hulk)as daring aeronaut Lee Scoresby.

Pullman: “The film of The Golden Compass is progressing very well. I spentyesterday at the studios in Shepperton, meeting some of the cast, includingSam Elliott, who’s playing Lee Scoresby. Sam’s resemblance to the Lee in mymind is just astonishing. His Lee has all the presence, the experience, thebattered integrity, the humour, and the courage of the aeronaut who firstwalked into my story thirteen years ago.”

“I can’t imagine a better cast, and the sets and costumes are justastounding. They were filming the scene where Lyra approaches Iorek Byrnisonat the gyptian camp and asks him to take her to the village near the lake,because the alethiometer has told her that there’s something she needs tosee there. Dakota had to speak to the empty air, because Iorek, of course,is being constructed pixel by pixel in a computer somewhere; but his voiceis provided by Nonso Anozie, and a better bear you’d have to go a long wayto find.”

The trilogy concerns a young girl called Lyra who encounters parallelworlds, talking bears and witches in an epic story that caused controversybecause of its religious content.

IRON MAN

Robert Downey Jr (right) is set to star as billionaire inventor Tony Stark (aka IronMan), in the new superhero movie from director Jon Favreau (Zathura).Speaking about the role, Downey Jr said: “The suit for Iron Man is socomplex and does so much stuff that except for once or twice or from thechest up, I’m not required to do all that much. What I will do is a lot ofmotion capture so that the movement isn’t just some random stunt guy. A lotof time I look at CGI and I’m like ‘What’s the reference for this? Thislooks like a cartoon reference not a person.’ So I said I want to do all themotion capture work, which is like eight months after finishing shooting,but as much as it as I can do, I will.”

“I went after [the role] like a greyhound after a rabbit. I lovedMarvel and Iron Man to me is the goods. To tell you the God’s honest truth, I’d thrown themall away for Sgt. Rock, because I really grew up on Hogan’s Heroes, Sgt.Rock. I’m still addicted to the History Channel and the Military Channel ismy thing, but Tony’s the best because I could never be Sgt. Rock. He’s alittle bigger and more butch and has a cigar, I don’t see it. Tony’s aperfect fit for me, and if I was ever going to do this type of thing, Ithought, you know, like early ’40s. Great, because when you hang up your’macho hat’ and start directing or doing other stuff, it’s not anembarrassment to be doing this in your late ’40s still if we wind up doingthree of them.”

Iron Man is scheduled for release on 2 May 2008.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

The sequel to Ang Lee’s Hulk, directed by Louis Leterrier (Transporter 2),from a script by Zak Penn (X-Men III), is set to arrive in cinemas on 27June 2008. It is very unlikely that any of the original stars will return,despite contractual obligations, due to the original film’s lukewarmsuccess.

MAD MAX 4

Director George Miller is still keen to do a fourth Mad Max movie, althoughoriginal star Mel Gibson is increasingly unlikely to be involved. Miller hasconfirmed: “We were about three months off shooting [Mad Max 4] when theIraqi war came and the American dollar collapsed against the Australiandollar so we lost our budget. Also, we couldn’t get the container ships outbecause of security and stuff.”

“Though I think there will be another Mad Max; the time has gone where Melcan be in it. I think the last opportunity was about four years ago and youknow the character’s lean and hungry. He was twenty one when he first playedMad Max and he’s now in his fifties. Also I think he’s much more interestedin what’s happening behind camera than in front. It needs a lean and hungryactor and he’s not into acting so much anymore and I think he just lovesproducing, writing and directing. But I think if fates allow there will beanother Mad Max though it is certainly two films away for me, but the time’sgone when Mel can run around the wasteland anymore.”

WANTED

Morgan Freeman is set to star alongside rising British hot property JamesMcAvoy, for Wanted – a sci-fi action movie that will mark theEnglish-language debut of Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov. Wanted isbased on a series of graphic novels by Mark Millar, about a man (McAvoy) whodiscovers that his long-lost father is an assassin. After his dad ismurdered, the son is recruited into a covert organization of killers andtrained to follow in his father’s footsteps. Freeman will play Sloan, thelead assassin who trains McAvoy.

The Academy Award winning actor most famous for his role in classic WesternShane, while modern audiences will know him best as Curly in City Slickers(earning him an Oscar), has died of natural causes at his Californian home.

Palance made over 100 films in his fifty-odd year career, after leaving aprofessional boxing career in the early-1940s, which led to him serving inWorld War II (where he earned a purple heart, good conduct medal and a WWIIVictory medal).

He is survived by his wife Elaine Rogers and three children; Holly andBrooke.

Basil Poledouris (1945-2006)

You may not know the name, but you know the music. Poledouris was thecomposer responsible for such classic scores as Big Wednesday, The BlueLagoon, Conan The Barbarian, Red Dawn, RoboCop, Lonesome Dove, The Hunt ForRed October, Free Willy, It’s My Party and Starship Troopers.

He died after a battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Bobbie andtheir two children Zoë and Alexis.

All figures are weekend box-office gross, including Sunday estimates(at the time of posting):

• 1. Borat ($28.3m)
• 2. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause ($16.9m)
• 3. Flushed Away ($16.6m)
• 4. Stranger Than Fiction ($13.4m)
• 5. Saw III ($6.98m)
• 6. Babel ($5.56m)
• 7. The Departed ($5.16m) (total to date: $110m)
• 8. The Prestige ($4.78m)
• 9. The Return ($4.48m)
• 10. A Good Year ($3.72m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. Borat (£4.51m)
• 2. The Prestige (£1.18m)
• 3. Saw III (£0.89m)
• 4. Step Up (£0.63m)
• 5. The Departed (£0.44m)
• 6. Open Season (£0.38m)
• 7. Breaking and Entering (£0.36m)
• 8. Barnyard (£0.35m)
• 9. The Devil Wears Prada (£0.34m)
• 10. Sixty Six (£0.21m)

All the following are U.K. release dates, and are subject to change.

• 17th November 2006: Requiem, Gabrielle, Special, Heroes and Villains, 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep, The Nightmare Before Christmas (3D)
• 24th November 2006: Fated, Rampage, The Rocket Post, The Santa Clause 3, Jackass Number Two, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, Something New, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, Middletown, Hollywoodland
• 1st December 2006: The Nativity Story, Shortbus, Flushed Away, Deck the Halls, London to Brighton, Stranger Than Fiction, Big Nothing
• 8th December 2006: The Heart of the Game, Happy Feet, The Covenant, The Holiday, Frostbite
• 15th December 2006: Eragon, Gone, Grounded, The Upside of Anger, Deep Water, Dead Man’s Cards, Black Christmas
• 22nd December 2006: Zoom, Flags of Our Fathers, Deja Vu
• 29th December 2006: Night at the Museum (26th), It’s a Boy Girl Thing

Page Content copyright © Dan Owen, 2006.