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Dan Owen reviews
I s s u e # 8 83 0 A p r i l 2 0 0 4
MOVIE NEWS DIE HARD 4Actress Bonnie Bedelia (John McClane’s wife in the first two Die Hardmovies, right) has spoken about her views on a fourth movie.Bedelia: “I wasn’t in the last one. One minute Holly was in the script, thenext minute she was out. But as it worked out, I was tied up with twotele-movies that year anyway, so who knows if I could’ve done it anyway.”
“[Die Hard 4 is] being written right now. I’m definitely doing this one.It’s going to feature John and Holly’s kids too, I believe. It’s taken awhile to do another one because Bruce wasn’t sure whether he really neededto do one and the studio wasn’t so sure that it was the best time to do aDie hard film with all that’s going on in the world right now. So they’vewaited a few years, worked on a story that doesn’t necessarily concentrateon the whole terrorist theme, and everyone feels it’s time to make ithappen.”
“All I know is that John McTiernan, who is just wonderful, he did the firstfilm, wants to do it. Hopefully it’ll be underway soon. I look forward toit.”
ANTHEMDirector Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow) is hoping his next projectwill be Anthem, a thriller being produced by his Independence Day cohortDean Devlin.
The project involves an impeached president who refuses to leave the WhiteHouse, while an FBI agent is racing to find the truth behind a conspiracythat threatens to undermine the Constitution.
Devlin and Emmerich have written the first draft of the script, according to’The Hollywood Reporter’, but other writers may be hired to polish thestory.
THE AVIATOR’USA Today’ interviewed Kate Beckinsale (Van Helsing) about her role inMartin Scorsese’s The Aviator, in which she plays Ava Gardner oppositeLeonardo DiCaprio’s Howard Hughes. Jude Law plays Errol Flynn, CateBlanchett is Katharine Hepburn and Gwen Stefani takes on Jean Harlow.
Beckinsale: “It was a little bit intimidating. On every page of the scriptshe is described as the most beautiful woman in the world.”
As for the relationship between Hughes and Gardner: “It was a cantankerousflirtation. They were good friends, and she was attracted to him and hislargesse. But she was worried that something might be required in return.[As a result] he constantly proposed, and she would turn him down. Heproposed to everyone, though.”
CATWOMAN’Warner Brothers’ have unveiled the Catwoman one-sheet poster for the HalleBerry movie co-starring Benjamin Bratt, Sharon Stone, and Lambert Wilson.(see right) THE FOUNTAIN’Sci Fi Wire’ talked to Hugh Jackman, who will be playing three charactersin writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming sci-fi epic The Fountain.
Jackman: “It’s basically about the search for the Fountain of Youth. It isreally an extraordinary [film]. I think Darren could become, in the finalanalysis, another Kubrick.”
“I think he’s an amazing director, and he’s written a script that is justphenomenal. I’m honoured to be a part of it, I really am; I’m very excitedabout it.”
The film is about the journey of one man in the present as well as both 500years in the past and into the future. Among the issues it tackles are love,death and immortality.
JARHEADDirector Sam Mendes (American Beauty) is set to helm Jarhead, a drama basedon Anthony Swofford’s Persian Gulf War memoir. Cast Away screenwriterWilliam Broyles wrote the script, and the movie begins filming this Autumn.
Drawing on his own experiences as a Marine in Vietnam, Broyles wrote ascript that studio and producers felt captured Swofford’s voice and vividdescriptions of war.
While Mendes has no background in soldiering, he liked the world enough tocommit after reading the script and doing some work on it with Broyles.
Mendes: “This is equal parts black humour, honesty, rage, lyricism,profanity and the mixture of machismo jarhead culture. With the exception ofThree Kings, this is a war that has been overlooked but which has a burningrelevance to what is happening right now in the Middle East.”
The production will start casting and scouting locations immediately, withthe deserts of the Southwest a possible destination, after they made aconvincing backdrop for Three Kings.
Mendes has now postponed his film adaptations of Stephen Sondheim’s musicalSweeney Todd and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner.
CONSTANTINEThe logo for Keanu Reeves’ next movie, Constantine, has been unveiled on theofficial website (see right)
Constantine is scheduled for a 11 February 2005 release.
OLIVER TWIST’Variety’ reports that Ben Kingsley will play Fagin and 10-year-old Englishactor Barney Clark has the title role in director Roman Polanski’s OliverTwist.
Polanski has also cast Jamie Foreman as Bill Sykes and Frank Finlay as Mr.Brownlow in his adaptation of Charles Dickens’ famous novel.
The film, which starts a four-month shoot on 12 July in Prague, is producedby Alain Sarde and Robert Benmussa, the team behind Polanski’s Oscar-winningmovie The Pianist. It will be shot entirely in the Czech Republic, withinteriors and exteriors built on Barrandov Studios’ backlot.
PATTERN RECOGNITIONDirector Peter Weir (Master & Commander) is attached to direct PatternRecognition, a thriller by sci-fi author William Gibson, to be adapted byWeir and David Arata.
The film follows the adventures of a marketing expert who finds herself in adangerous puzzle when she’s hired to track down the source of a strangecollection of video footage on the Internet.
KING KONG’Entertainment Weekly’ interviewed director Peter Jackson about his upcomingadaptation of King Kong. Jackson: “We are not reinventing it. Our storyfollows the same structure. It starts in New York, goes to Skull Island, andthere’s dinosaurs on the island. Then it comes back to New York and there’sthe Empire State Building and the biplanes and the whole thing.”
“[We’re trying to make it more] emotionally truthful. I put that ahead ofanything else, including technology and the realism of the effects.”
“Everybody’s image of King Kong is that it’s this amazingbeauty-and-the-beast love story. And when you look at the original film,there is as sense that Kong is feeling an attraction toward Ann – probablythe first empathy he’s felt in his life toward another living creature.”
“But Ann is not giving him a thing. She just looks at him as an object ofhorror the entire time. She screams at him, she’s terrified. Herrelationship with Kong doesn’t go beyond that. We’re having a lot of funmaking it more psychologically real.”
King Kong will be released in December 2005.
THE LOVELY BONESDirector Peter Jackson and writing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyensare in talks to adapt Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel The Lovely Bonesafter completing their King Kong remake, reports ‘Variety’.
The Lovely Bones is a heartbreaking tale narrated by a 14-year old girlafter she has been raped and murdered. From heaven, the girl observes hershattered family’s attempt to heal, as a detective tries to solve the caseand her killer moves along his demented path…
The film rights are held by ‘FilmFour’ and producer Aimee Peyronnet, whomade an option deal in 2000 based on the book’s first 100 pages.
THE POSEIDON ADVENTUREScreenwriter Mark Protosevich (The Cell) is writing a remake of The PoseidonAdventure for director Wolfgang Petersen’s ‘Radiant Pictures’ and ‘WarnerBrothers’.
The original movie, released in 1972, told the story of a group of survivorstrapped on a passenger ship after it was capsized by a monster wave. Asequel followed in 1979, Beyond The Poseidon Adventure.
The new movie will be set in the present day and follow a new set ofcharacters that attempts to survive after a tidal wave capsizes the S.S.Poseidon.
SIN CITY’The Hollywood Reporter’ states that Jessica Alba (Honey) is in talks tostar in Sin City for ‘Dimension Films’, co-written, directed and produced byRobert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn) and Frank Miller.
Miller wrote the graphic novel series that has inspired the film, which iscomprised of three intertwining vignettes revolving around a dark set ofcharacters who call the fictional corrupt town home.
Alba will star in a section with Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke, playingNancy, a beautiful exotic dancer known as “the sweetheart of Sin City.”Jaime King, Elijah Wood and Brittany Murphy have also been cast.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3Scarlett Johansson (Lost In Translation, right) has joined the cast of MissionImpossible 3 for ‘Paramount Pictures’. She will portray an ally of Cruise’sEthan Hunt character. SUB-MARINERA rumour is circulating that The Rock is attached to star in another’Marvel’ superhero comic-book adaptation – The Sub-Mariner. THE VEGA BROTHERS’Rolling Stone’ magazine interviewed writer-director Quentin Tarantino aboutKill Bill Volume 2, and Tarantino also revealed the often rumoured VegaBrothers could be his next film.
Tarantino: “It’s a sequel to both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, actually,it’s a sequel and it’s a prequel. It’s The Vega Brothers, played by MichaelMadsen [Vic Vega in Reservoir Dogs] and John Travolta [Vincent Vega in PulpFiction].”
“I have been trying to do it for years, and the more time I take, the olderthese two guys get. But I’ve come up with an idea that won’t much matter howmuch they age… the magic of movies. It’s going to be great. It’ll befunny, and these guys are so great, alright, they’re going to be like twooversized mob-men fighting over the last bowl of pasta, that we can’t gowrong.
“It’s just going to be John and Michael, and I hope to make this my nextmovie. We’re laying down the pipework for it now.”
US TOP 10 (CINEMA)All figures are weekend box-office gross.
- 1. Man on Fire ($22.8m)
- 2. 13 Going On 30 ($21.1m)
- 3. Kill Bill Vol.2 ($10.4m)
- 4. The Punisher (2004) ($6.2m)
- 5. Home on the Range ($3.5m)
- 6. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed ($3.4m)
- 7. Hellboy ($3.1m)
- 8. Johnson Family Vacation ($3.0m)
- 9. Ella Enchanted ($2.9m)
- 10. Walking Tall ($2.6m)
UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)
- 1. Kill Bill Vol.2 (£2.76m)
- 2. 50 First Dates (£0.64m)
- 3. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (£0.54m)
- 4. Shaun of the Dead (£0.53m)
- 5. Taking Lives (£0.317m)
- 6. The Butterfly Effect (£0.315m)
- 7. The Girl Next Door (£0.26m)
- 8. The Passion of the Christ (£0.238m)
- 9. Gothika (£0.233m)
- 10. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (£0.21m)
** 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.