DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 38

Dan Owen reviews

DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST
I s s u e # 3 81 1 A p r i l 2 0 0 3

Movie News
US & UK Top cinema listings
Trailers
In the Pipeline

** MOVIE NEWS **

THE PUNISHER’Artisan Pictures’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ are pushing ahead with anothercomic-book adaptation. This time The Punisher is to filmed, written anddirected by Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon). Production begins this Julyfor a Summer 2004 release.

Unknown actor Thomas Jane(Deep Blue Sea)has the lead role of FBI undercover agentFrank Castle (aka The Punisher), who until now has beat considerableodds. A former Special Forces operative, he is finally moving out of thefield and into a desk job – and a normal life with his wife and son.

Then Castle’s world is shaken to its core by a nightmare he has longedfeared: his family is executed as a repercussion from his finalundercover assignment. With unparalleled intensity, ferociousintelligence and fearless actions, Castle seeks to punish the murderers- and finds the one thing he least expected: redemption.

‘Marvel’ head Avi Arad said: “Although Frank Castle is a tough-as-nailsvigilante, he is, at his very core, an extremely tortured soul, a victimof survivor’s guilt.”

“Thomas Jane, being a character actor, is going to have all he dimensionnecessary to bring to life the depth of a character who is both the heroand the victim with the physicality of a Super Hero. By signing Thomas,we follow the Marvel tradition of bringing art-house actors in to tackleour complex characters. We are very excited to have him as part of ourfamily.”

KING KONG’The Dominion Post’ had an exclusive interview with director PeterJackson about his next venture – his beloved remake of King Kong.Jackson says the film will have a budget of approximately $200 millionand will be shot in Wellington, New Zealand and other “exotic” locationsaround the area.

Shooting is set to begin mid-2004 with the aim of releasing the film in2005. Jackson, partner Fran Walsh and screenwriter Philippa Boyens willstart work on the script in October. They already wrote a script back in1997, so it’s likely this existing draft will be rewritten to improveit.

Jackson said the Wellington-based production will provide between 1500and 2000 jobs and make a significant contribution to the local economy.Most of the King Kong crew will be New Zealanders, though Jackson wasrequired by ‘Universal’ to hire international actors for the biggeracting roles.

Two-thirds of the film is set on the mysterious Skull Island – which issupposed to be somewhere near Sumatra in the story – so location scoutswould be looking for a jungle-type location and beaches around thecountry.

The New York set for movie will be shot in Wellington because filming inthe real New York would be too expensive and too difficult to get theright 1930’s look.

“We will build somewhere in the Wellington area. We’ll just find someflat land and build a big back block set of New York streets and thenuse our computers to extend the buildings, make the streets longer andthe buildings higher. It may just be a field somewhere on someone’sfarmland.”

King Kong and all the dinosaurs will be CGI and employ the breakthroughtechniques used to bring Gollum to life.

BATMAN: THE FRIGHTENING’Batman On Film’ indicates that the hiring of screenwriter David Goyer(Blade II) for ‘Warner Brothers’ Batman The Frightening project isn’t topen a new script, but to rewrite their existing screenplay – which Ireviewed in a previous DMD(read review here). DIE HARD 4Bruce Willis and producer Arnold Rifkin have both debunked the spuriousrumour of Britney Spears’ involvement in the fourth Die Hard movie.Rifkin also spoke with ‘About.com’ about pre-production on the film.

Apparently they have met with 30 writers who have all had difficulty inproviding a strong reasoning for the John McClane character to be “inthe wrong place at the wrong time” for a fourth time.

GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS’The New York Times’ interviewed director James Cameron about his new$13 million 3D-IMAX Titanic documentary Ghosts Of The Abyss recently,and Cameron revealed he has agreed to direct and produce a new 3D moviefor ’20th Century Fox’.

Cameron said: “We are going to do an experiment with an awful lot ofRupert Murdoch’s money”. Nobody seems to know exactly what the projectwill be, bit it will definitely utilize the 3D techniques Cameron hascreated for Ghosts Of The Abyss.

So, are 3D movies the new vogue? Or should they have been buried afterthe Jaws 3D debacle? Cameron doesn’t seem to think so, and neither doesRobert Rodriguez – about to start filming his Spy Kids 3D adventure (seebelow). So how long will it be before George Lucas announces hisdecision to re-release all the Star Wars films in three-dimensions…?

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERAJoel Schumacher responded to PhantomMovie.Comabout the factcelebrated actor Michael Crawford will not be involved in his new movie.Crawford, best known as Frank Spencer in the 70’s BBC sitcom SomeMothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em has always enjoyed support from Phantom fans to starin any eventual movie, having played the character onstage for AndrewLloyd Webber for years.

But Schumacher insists that “the decision to not use Michael Crawford isAndrew Lloyd Webber’s and his alone. All fans and friends of fans ofMichael Crawford should please tell that to everyone for me, becausethis has nothing to do with me. If you care to write to A.L.W, it’s theReally Useful Company in London.”

THE SILVER SURFER’The National Post’ teased the following information from Vin Diesel -apparently the xXx star would love to take the lead-role in a SilverSurfer movie. SUPERMAN’Superman Homepage’ reports that director Dominic Sena (Swordfish) istipped to be Brett Ratner’s replacement on the freefalling project.Rumours also suggest that unknown actor Matt Bomer may have signed forthe proposed trilogy.

THUNDERBIRDSThe first in-movie image from Jonathan Frakes’ upcoming Thunderbirdsmovie adaptation has appeared, showing the iconic Lady Penelope’s pinkcar. (see right) SPY KIDS 3D: GAME OVERWriter-director Robert Rodriguez spoke to ‘About.Com’ recently about hissecond sequel to the immensely (and bafflingly) popular Spy Kids.

“Everybody who’s ever been in a Spy Kids movie is back.” The movie’sproposed 3D effects will also figure into the worldwide releases, notjust specialist cinemas. “It’ll play in all theatres because I’m usingan anaglyph system,” confirmed Rodriguez.

“[Ghosts] is a polarized system where you can only see it in a specialtheatre. I’m using the same cameras but I’m outputting it so it’ll be indigital theatres, it’ll be in regular movie theatres, you’ll havecoloured glasses that you get when you buy a ticket and you’ll see it inred and cyan”.

The eventual DVD release will also utilize the 3D format, but not theVHS release – due to that format’s poorer resolution. The movie itselfis said to be taking strong references from 80s classicsTron andJohn Carpenter’s Escape From New York

Personally, I’ve loved Rodriguez’ adult filmmaking (El Mariachi,Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn), but have found his Spy Kids franchisequite unappealing, OTT, and dated. That said, this fresh 3D-angle shouldensure Game Over does better business in the UK than Island Of LostDreams did.

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US TOP 10 (CINEMA)

1. Phone Booth ($15.0m)

2. What a Girl Wants ($11.4m)

3. A Man Apart ($11.0m)

4. Head of State ($8.5m)

5. Bringing Down the House ($8.3m)

6. The Core ($6.1m)

7. Basic ($5.3m)

8. Chicago ($5.1m)

9. Agent Cody Banks ($3.6m)

10. Piglet’s Big Movie ($2.8m) UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

1. The Recruit (£0.77m)

2. Shanghai Knights (£0.74m)

3. A Man Apart (£0.52m)

4. Blue Crush (£0.49m)

5. Just Married (£0.48m)

6. Maid in Manhattan (£0.37m)

7. The Core (£0.32m)

8. Cradle 2 The Grave (£0.22m)

9. The Rules of Attraction (£0.19m)

10. Chicago (£0.14m)

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* TRAILERS * Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle Of Life

What kind of title is that?!A long one. This will be known as Tomb Raider II anyway; a sequel to thepoorly received original starring Angelina Jolie as Britisharchaeological heroine Lara Croft.

Like in the computer games?
Exactly. Jan De Bont has taken over the franchise reigns from directorSimon West (Con Air).

Jan “The Haunting” De Bont? AAAAAHH!
Well, he’s also Jan “Speed” De Bont…

And Jan “Speed 2” De Bont…
Yes, yes, okay, so he hasn’t made a decent film made for years now. Buthe’s hoping Tomb Raider II will redress the balance.

What’s good about this?
Everyone involved on Cradle Of Life seems to agree that the first moviewas lame – except for a perfect performance from Angelina Jolie. So thistime the action levels are being upped, the plot is a more spiritedquest for a “real-life” mythical item (Pandora’s Box), all mixed with007-esque vibes. Sadly though, Angelina has apparently ditched hericonic sweat-top, twin guns and shorts combo beloved of Lara’s fans…

Oh, shame.
… to be replaced by a skin-tight silver wet-suit!

HURRAH! One for the boys then.
Yes, but she’s also a great role-model for young girls, you know…

Of course. One to watch, or one to miss?
Could go either way. This trailer looks okay, but nothing special.However, a draft of the screenplay did inspire some good reviews onlinelast year. It does look like they’ve learned from their mistakes, sothis won’t be quite as story-less as the original was.

Any final comments?
The trailer already makes Tomb Raider II look more like an action FILMand less of a live-action VIDEO-GAME. But we’ll find out for sure inAugust.

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER

The Last Samurai

Japanese teaser trailer for Tom Cruise’s historical samurai movie fromthe writer of Gladiator.

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER

Pirates Of The Caribbean

Another pleasing trailer for this year’s big (and only) pirate movie,starring Johnn Depp (escaping indie-land), Orlando Bloom (escapingMiddle Earth) and Keira Knightley (trying to escape the “one who doubledfor Natalie Portman in ‘Episode I'” entry on her CV).

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER

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** IN THE PIPELINE **

Note that these are US release dates.

April 2003: “Timeline” (11), “Bulletproof Monk” (16), Basic” (18)

May 2003: “Matrix Reloaded” (16), “Bruce Almighty” (23), “Finding Nemo” (30), “The Italian Job” (30)

June 2003: “Fast & The Furious 2” (6), “Freddy Vs Jason” (13), “Hulk” (20), Charlie’s Angels 2″ (TBC), “Tomb Raider II” (TBC)

July 2003: “Legally Blonde 2” (2), “Terminator 3” (2), “Pirates Of TheCarribean” (9), “League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (11), “Bad Boys II(18), “Exorcist – The Beginning” (18), “Dumb & Dumberer” (18), “Spy Kids 3” (25)

August 2003: “American Wedding” (1), “Cursed” (8), “Jeepers Creepers 2” (29)October: “Kill Bill” (10), “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (17), “Underworld” (TBC)

September 2003: TBA

October 2003: TBA

November 2003: “Matrix Revolutions” (7), “Looney Tunes – Back In Action” (14),Around The World In 80 Days” (21), “The Cat In The Hat” (21), “DirtyDancing 2” (21)

December 2003: “The Last Samurai” (5), “The Alamo” (12), “Lord Of The Rings -Return Of The King” (17), “Garfield” (19), “Lemony Snicket” (19), “PeterPan” (25) Page Content copyright © Dan Owen, 2003.

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