DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 54

AMERICAN GOTHIC – THE MOVIE’Moviehole’ scooped a rumour that short-lived cult series AmericanGothic will be translated into a movie. Now, Craig Maquardo, thePresident of the ‘Fathom Motion Picture Company’, has confirmed that amovie and new TV series is being seriously proposed.

Marquardo: “I will exec produce, and the film adaptation was my idea.Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert [original producers of the series] of’Renaissance Pictures’ are also attached to the film. Sean Cassidy,series creator, is not affiliated with the project, and won’t be. Thefollowing members of the original cast will reprise their roles: GaryCole. Jake Weber, Brenda Bakke and Nick Searcy. Paige Turco will notreturn. Lucas Black and Sarah Paulson will not return due to theirsignificant age change since the series run”.

‘Fathom’ is in talks with Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan aboutwriting the script that “will be based upon elements from the early partof the series”. But “right now, the fate of the film rests with’Universal’. ‘Uni TV’ owns the rights. ‘Universal Studios’ is making thedecision as we speak. They are the ones who will have to decide whetherto greenlight it.”

“Even if they say no, there are other options, one of which is ‘Fathom’buying the rights from Uni and making it ourselves”.

A new TV series of American Gothic is also being proposed by ‘Fathom’ tothe ‘Sci-Fi Channel’ under the banner “American Gothic: Revisited”, withthe original series events being ignored.”

BATMAN 5The latest rumour is that director Christopher Nolan, who hopes to beginshooting Batman 5 very soon, wants Michelle Pfeiffer to return asCatwoman for a brief cameo. Interestingly, Pfeiffer once stated she’snever wear the cat-suit again, so perhaps her alter-ego Selena Kyle ismore likely to make an appearance.

Of course, Halle Berry is about to start shooting the Catwoman spin-offmovie, so there may be a bone of contention with Nolan’s wish…

London’s ‘Metro’ magazine recently interviewed Nolan about Batman 5:

Metro: How is Batman coming along?
CN: Fantastic. I’m having the time of my life.

Metro: What stage are you at?
CN: Very early stages, which is where it’s tremendous fun. I’m gettingto watch my vision of the world of Batman. To do that and get paid forit is brilliant.

Metro: Can you pitch your vision to me?
CN: Er, bloody marvellous? I can’t, it’s absolutely, excruciatingly topsecret.

They then asked general questions about his influences (which includeStar Wars, Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey). Nolan alsoapparently understood 2001 when he was eight years old:

CN: I think there is a tendency, particularly in Hollywood, tounderestimate kids and the way in which they respond to narratives. Ithink that if you show something incredible and take them to a differentworld, you don’t necessarily have to be telling them the clearest ormost obvious story.

Metro: I’m going to read that as your vision for Batman.
CN: Absolutely. Definitely.

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA 2Sadly, the rumour that a sequel is forthcoming has been shot down inflames. Apparently, director John Carpenter commented that he’d love todo a sequel, but no studio would give him the budget.

CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORYWith Johnny Depp making an almighty splash with his portrayal of CaptainSparrow in Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean, the now highly bankablestar looks set to star in another Tim Burton movie – playing Willy Wonkain Charlie & The Chocolate Factory! THE BOURNE SUPREMACYProducer Frank Marshall talked with ‘About.com’ about the BourneIdentity sequel and confirmed that the film will be set in “Berlin,Moscow and India”.

But the plot will differ to the book: “It will be totally different. Thestories in all three books are very dated. It’s about the cold war andthings that have all been resolved and are over with.”

CATWOMANLambert Wilson (the Merovingian in Matrix Reloaded) and Sharon Stonehave been cast as a husband and wife in the new Catwoman spin-off movie.Interestingly, Stone was one of the first actresses rumoured to betaking the Catwoman role from Michelle Pfeiffer back in 1992, when BasicInstinct had then made her a superstar.

How times change…

THE CROW 5’The Z Review’ has heard from a reliable source that “UK-basedassociates of Edward R Pressman, have let slip plans for a fifth Crowmovie. Tired of the formula ‘guy dies and becomes an avenging Crow”, theplan for the fifth time round is for a female to don the make-up andkick butt… on the streets of Hong Kong. CURSEDDirector Wes Craven has teamed up with Scream writer Kevin Williamsonagain for this contemporary teen update of the werewolf myth. But themovie was shut-down mid-production by Miramax after the studio wereunhappy with the dailies being released by the crew.

‘Moviehole’ now reports that much of the problem was the apparentlytroublesome ending. But, a new finale has been written that the studiois happy with as and will be filmed very soon.

SPIDER-MAN 2A new poster to advertise the Spider-Man sequel has been released (seeright) FANTASTIC FOURDirector Peyton Reed (Down With Love) has left the project, which isstill scheduled for a November 2004 release. The screenplay is beingpolished, with new directors sought. FINAL DESTINATION 3Producer Craig Perry spoke about the possibility of a Final Destination3 to ‘About.com’: “Theatrical [for Final Destination 2] was slightlyless than it was on the first movie. Still more than enough to turn anample profit, but I think they’ll get a real landscape with how muchthey want to spend on a third one based on DVD.”

“Because three years ago when the DVD was released for Final Destination1, there weren’t as much hardware. Now there’s tons more hardware. Wewant to see how it does.”

Any ideas about where the franchise can go? “We’ve been banging around afew ideas, but those are really hard to come by so I’m going to keepquiet… somebody said why not have a roller-coaster disaster? How muchfun would that be? It would be badass. So, think about it.”

FIVE CHILDREN & IT’Empire Online’ reports that comedian Eddie Izzard’s next screen rolewill be voicing a sand fairy in a new film adaptation of the classicJames Nesbitt tale Five Children & It.

Kenneth Brannagh, Tara Fitzgerald and Zoe Wannamaker are also attachedto star in the fantasy film, previously a BBC children’s series in the90s.

FREDDY Vs JASON IIStar Robert Englund recently spoke with ‘Bloody Disgusting’ about thepossibility of a second Freddy Vs Jason movie and a Nightmare On ElmStreet prequel.

Englund: “I had heard that him [Craven] and Heather [Langenkamp] hadtalked about it, whether they’d want Heather to play the mother orsomething, I don’t now. I had heard that there were ideas in treatmentand in artwork. It would be more of a serial killer film that a monsterfilm, since Freddy isn’t a monster yet.”

“Obviously I’d be attracted to that idea; I have a soft spot in my heartfor serial killers… I like that stuff, it intrigues me, the how tosolve it, the Sherlock Holmes element of it.”

“Also, I wouldn’t have to get into all of the make-up and it would be achance to get into psychological work before he sort of became operatic,I’m always operating in a dream, and there’s a certain type ofexaggeration to my performance since I’m in a dream, it’s a surrealisticand magical.”

“But if I did the prequel, it’s pre-Nightmare and I wouldn’t operate inthe magical world. It would be more nuts and bolts psychologicalthriller. As for Freddy Vs Jason, not that I’m too old, I did all my ownstunts in the water in the new one, when you see me flying through thesky in fire, you know. For me it’s so hard, so hard to get Freddy VsJason going, you have to get into the fun of it, and the story telling.”

“There’s a certain degree of difficulty doing another Freddy Vs Jason.There certainly could be another Freddy movie or another Jason movie, oreven hints that they are operating in the same area or country, butnever say never, never say die!”

HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN’MSNBC’ scooped the first proper article on the filming of Harry Potter3 with new director Alfonso Cuaron’s visual style apparently verydifferent to Christopher Columbus’.

Actress Emma Watson (Hermione): “Alfonso is much more gritty than Chrisever was. He’s really into the idea that [shooting] should be fluid andnatural. People can be eating an apple during a take”.

British actor Michael Gambon, hired to play Dumbledore after RichardHarris’ death, is said to have reworked the character into “an elegantold hippie”.

Ex-director Christopher Columbus, now producer, said: “The biggestpressure on Alfonso is delivering sequences to the effects people earlyenough.”

HE-MANIt has been revealed that John Woo (Face/Off) is apparently interestedin directing a movie adaptation of the famous He-Man cartoon series.

The cartoon He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe was turned into a DolphLundgren movie in the 80’s, and an updated version of the cartoon hasrecently been released.

ROBOCOP 4Original director Paul Verhoeven has revealed his ambition to return fora fifth RoboCop movie: “I’m thinking of bringing Robocop back. I thinkwe will leave the 4 off, and start afresh. I enjoyed Page Fletcher’sperformance as the character in the recent mini-series, so ideally we’llhave Page playing the role.”

“I’d like to push the boundaries on this one. Take out all thecomic-book style the previous Robocop films had, and bring back theaction, suspense, and really delve deeper into the characters origins.I’m toying with the idea of centring the story around Murphy and hisgrown son, James. But that’s all I want to spill at this point.”

SON OF THE MASK’Filmjerk’ has revealed that The Mask II: Son of the Mask will beginprincipal photography this November in Queensland, Australia. ‘TheHollywood Reporter’ had previously reported that a 21 July start wasplanned.

The sequel focuses on Tim Avery [played by Jamie Kennedy of Screamfame], an aspiring cartoonist at Animagic Studios. Not ready forfatherhood, he finds himself raising a baby, soon discovering that hisson is endowed with the powers of the mask of Loki.

Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz will not reprise their roles, or cameo.

SPEED 3’The Russian Insider’ speculates that a spec-script for Speed 3 is doingthe rounds. The new sequel would apparently require a relatively modest$30 million budget. The plot apparently involves an armoured car and apolice escort. SUPERMANAshton Kutcher was interviewed by ‘The Face’ magazine about hisinvolvement with the Superman remake.

The Face: Aren’t ‘Warner Brothers’ after you to do Superman?
Kutcher: If they didn’t expect me to do a sequel I’d do it. But you haveto stop and think, can you name one other movie that Christopher Reevedid? It would have to be like when George Clooney did Batman. Theyshould just let me do the one movie and it’d be the greatest four-hourmovie ever.

The Face: Greater than flying round the earth and making it spinbackwards?
Kutcher: More like flying round the earth and making it spin off itsaxis into the sun.

TRUE LIES 2’Coming Soon’ spoke with Jamie Lee Curtis who commented on theoft-rumoured possibility of a True Lies sequel: “True Lies 2 will neverget made. Never happen. You know why? I found out why. Becauseterrorists aren’t funny anymore. They never were, but, it was distantenough from our psyche that we could make it funny. It’ll never be funnyagain. I just think that that is over, that kind of humour is over.”

“Unless they come up with some sort of businessman, make it aboutRepublican businessmen who are evil, and then, you know, then we canmake it. Maybe they’ll make it about… I know, an American presidency,with kind of, I know, and we’ll have the guy not be so bright, oh,that’s great!”

“No, instead I think if they do that, then they’ll probably call and saythey have another idea, but based on the original concede, it’ll be thatsomehow a bad guy group is doing something bad to humanity and theworld.”

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

• 1. Spy Kids 3D: Game Over ($33.4m)
• 2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ($23.1m)
• 3. Bad Boys II ($22.0m)
• 4. Lara Croft Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life ($21.7m)
• 5. Seabiscuit ($20.8m)
• 6. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ($5.0m)
• 7. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ($5.0m)
• 8. Finding Nemo ($4.3m)
• 9. Johnny English ($4.3m)
• 10. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde ($2.7m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. The Hulk (£1.38m)
• 2. Bruce Almighty (£1.19m)
• 3. Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle (£0.96m)
• 4. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (£0.82m)
• 5. Daddy Day Care (£0.75m)
• 6. Agent Cody Banks (£0.53m)
• 7. Piglet’s Big Movie (£0.48m)
• 8. Veronica Guerin (£0.25m)
• 9. Buffalo Soldiers (£0.16m)
• 10. 2 Fast 2 Furious (£0.14m)

Bob Hope (1903-2003)

Comedian/actor Bob Hope has passed away at the age of 100. Known as “Mr.Entertainment” or “the King of Comedy,” Hope appeared in more than 75films, starred in more than 475 TV programs and 1,000-plus radioprograms. He also toured tirelessly for the US military.

He was one of the last of the great entertainers whose career took offin the first half of the 20th century and who continued to reach newgenerations of fans by the end of it.

Thanks for the memories.

Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Say what you like about the rather tired original, it did have itsmoments. Matthew Lillard was a perfect Shaggy and the sense of fun wasthere. So, will the sequel manage to get the formula right? It certainlylooks promising, with Scooby 2 focusing on ghoulish beasties made famousfrom the cartoon series…

Note that these are US release dates.