DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 96

The ‘AAP’ reported that a candle used on the House Of Wax (starring Elisha Cuthbert, right)set is believed to have started a fire which destroyed a studio at ‘Movie World’on the Gold Coast of Australia.

‘Studio Eight’ was engulfed in flames at about 6.40 p.m (AEST) on Saturday26 June, causing a smoke hazard for motorists travelling between Brisbaneand the Gold Coast.

Police said a huge candle was believed to have set other props alight,forcing actors, producers and production crew to flee the building. Thestage was being used to shoot some final scenes for the film.

One of the camera assistants working on the movie said the fire started inthe set of a bookshop and spread quickly. Police said the studio containedgas bottles which were being used during the filming.

BALLS OF COURAGE’The Hollywood Reporter’ has revealed that Jim Abrahams and Pat Proft, twoof the alumni behind the Naked Gun movies, are re-teaming to spoof theaction movie genre in Balls Of Courage. CHRONICLES OF NARNIAThe ‘New Zealand Herald’ reported that actor Rupert Everett will be thevoice of the Fox, a CGI character in director Andrew Adamson’s adaptation ofThe Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. Everettrecently provided the voice of Prince Charming in Adamson’s Shrek 2.

‘The Scotsman’ newspaper has also revealed that Scottish actor James Cosmo(Troy) has agreed to voice a character for the movie, due for U.S release on23 December 2005.

HARRY POTTER’CNN’ has reported that Harry Potter author J.K Rowling has revealed thetitle of the sixth Harry Potter book on her website www.jkrowling.com.The title is – Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince.

3001’The Onion’ interviewed Mike Judge (right, creator of TV’s Beavis & Butthead andKing Of The Hill) about his new movie sci-fi comedy 3001:

O: You mentioned that you’re working on a movie now. Is that 3001?
MJ: “Yeah, although I’m not going to call it that. It’s set more like 400years in the future. There have been so many movies about people beingfrozen and waking up in the future. This is mine.

“Apparently, a bunch of Futurama nerds are pissed off, because that’s theyear in which that show is set. You know, neither of us invented guysgetting frozen and waking up in the future. But I didn’t mean to set it in3001 anyway – that was just a placeholder title.”

O: What’s the movie’s current status?
MJ: “We started shooting right in the beginning of May, in Austin. The basicpremise is that most science fiction shows the future as being morecivilized or more intelligent, and that’s just not the way we’re headed.Like, if someone made a movie in the late ’50s about the year 2004, itprobably wouldn’t have had The Maury Povich Show, and gangs, and whatever.”

“So this starts out as a documentary about how the people who arereproducing the fastest are guys who are too lazy to put on a rubber, andlots of highly educated people are waiting until they’re 40 to have a kid,and then having one or none. It’s kind of a sleeper movie about how, 400 or500 years from now, a guy who’s your average dumbass today is the smartestperson in the world.”

KING KONG’MTV’ spoke to Jack Black about his recently announced role in PeterJackson’s King Kong remake, saying: “There are some funny things about mycharacter but, yeah, it is a different thing for me. But I’m not approachingit differently. I’m approaching it with the same balls-to-the-wallattitude.”

“I just read the script for the first time. It’s so rad. And it’s topsecret. I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you this,” he teased. “KingKong is going to be scary as hell, dude. He’s not gonna be sweet and cuddly.It’s not gonna be the cute kind [of movie]. He’s a fucking carnivore, as in,eats flesh!”

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III’Paramount Pictures’ has moved Mission Impossible 3’s release date backseven weeks, to 29 June 2005. The film was previously scheduled to open on 6May.

With Spider-Man 2 grossing $40.5 million on its opening Wednesday, andmaking a six-day total of $180 million (which has seta record), the 4th of July holiday weekend is looking a lot better to thestudio, says ‘Variety’.

SCHOOL OF ROCK 2Director Richard Linklater has spoken about the possibility of a sequel tohis hit School Of Rock.

Linklater: “I don’t know. The producer said that he got a call from one ofthe higher-ups in the corporation that Monday morning at 9:00 after theweekend results: [imitates studio exec] ‘Sequel or series? What’s it goingto be?’ It wasn’t a given going into that I was making a movie that wasgoing to be really successful. Jack hadn’t necessarily opened a movie on hisown, but I thought that if we pulled it off, it could be entertaining andhave a wide appeal hopefully.”

“It’s nice when you have a pop culture moment and people go see it. It’s notalways a given. It was a lot of fun to work on, but I don’t think there’llbe a sequel actually, to answer your question. I mean it hasn’t reallygotten much traction. Maybe some things are better left alone.”

“But I love those kids and I really like working with Jack, and if an ideaemerged, I could be recruited. I think I would be a soft sell if all thekids asked me to do it, and then I’d probably have to do it. Mike White wasa great collaborator and I’d love to work with him again, too. Truth is thatif Mike had a great idea for the story and Jack liked it, we might, but timeis moving on. Everyone is doing other stuff.”

JURASSIC PARK 4An anonymous source has updated everyone on the status of the fourthJurassic Park movie, now being prepped for a late-2005/early-2006 release.

The script is being written by John Sayles, based on a draft by WilliamMonahan. Apparently, many of the new dinosaurs are sea-dwellers, but theSpinosaurus and the velociraptors are confirmed to return.

Sam Neill is not returning for this movie, but Jeff Goldblum (right) and RichardAttenborough are back. Director Alex Proyas (I, Robot) is the latestcandidate to direct the film, although this is only in discussion.

SUPERMAN

Unsubstantiated rumours have leaked that director McG (Charlie’s Angels) hasleft the Superman project, following on from Brett Ratner’s departureearlier this year. ‘Warner Brothers’ executives are now hoping to replacehim with Michael Bay (Bad Boys II) who is looking for a big-budget projectto sink his teeth into.

THE UNTOUCHABLES – MOTHER’S DAY’Paramount’ and producer Art Linson are developing a spin-off to 1987’s TheUntouchables, which was directed by Brian De Palma and starred Kevin Costneras Eliot Ness.

‘Variety’ reports that Antoine Fuqua (King Arthur) may direct the film,tentatively called The Untouchables: Mother’s Day. It will focus on the riseof Chicago mob kingpin Capone, in the years before Ness and his lawmen.

Wesley Snipes returns for the third and final part of the vampire trilogy,this time forced underground by the FBI where he teams-up with a gang ofhuman vampire hunters, known as The Nightstalkers, to defeat the originalbloodsucker – Dracula!

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

• 1. Spider-Man 2 ($116m) (total to date: $180m)
• 2. Fahrenheit 9/11 ($21.0m)
• 3. White Chicks ($12.0m)
• 4. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story ($10.4m)
• 5. The Notebook ($10.3m)
• 6. The Terminal ($10.2m)
• 7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ($8.1m) (total to date: $225m)
• 8. Shrek 2 ($7.9m) (total to date: $410m)
• 9. Garfield: The Movie ($3.6m)
• 10. Two Brothers ($3.6m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. Shrek 2 (£16.22m)
• 2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (£1.21m)
• 3. Mean Girls (£0.59m)
• 4. The Day After Tomorrow (£0.56m)
• 5. Godsend (£0.49m)
• 6. The Ladykillers (£0.36m)
• 7. The Notebook (£0.16m)
• 8. Troy (£0.15m)
• 9. Eurotrip (£0.08m)
• 10. The Cooler (£0.04m)

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