DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 123

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DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST
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MOVIE NEWS

BOND 21 – CASINO ROYALE

Director Martin Campbell (The Mask Of Zorro) is returning to the Bondfranchise the helm the 21st instalment – a remake of Ian Fleming’s original007 novel Casino Royale.

Campbell previously directed Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan’s debut movie in1995, although Brosnan will not return for the new movie.

Wilson and Broccoli: “We are thrilled that Martin has accepted our offer todirect Casino Royale. He is an extremely talented director and we believe hewill help take our films in a new and exciting direction. He is currentlyfinishing filming Legend Of Zorro, the sequel to The Mask Of Zorro, and willbe joining ‘EON Productions’ shortly to work on the development of thescript with our writers, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.”

MGM Vice Chairman and COO Chris McGurk: “Martin is an incredibly excitingfilmmaker. Goldeneye was a wonderful movie and helped reinvigorate the Bondfranchise. We’re thrilled to have him ba ck to direct the newestBond.”

Campbell moved to England from New Zealand in 1966 and made his directorialdebut on the popular TV series The Professionals and Minder. He moved toAmerica in 1986 to direct Criminal Law and Defenceless, before enteringHollywood with Goldeneye, The Mask Of Zorro, Vertical Limit and BeyondBorders.

EVIL DEAD 4’Bloody Disgusting’ spoke to Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert about the Evil Deadfranchise and revealed some exciting news.

Sam Raimi: “There will be an Evil Dead 4, and there will also be an Evil Deadremake. The remake will be produced by ‘Ghost House Pictures’, [his companywith Tapert] and it will star a new cast and a completely new director.”

“The point of ‘Ghost House’ is that we want to bring new directors (likeTakashi Shimizu of The Grudge to Hollywood and give them a chance to make agood horror film.”

“I love the original Dawn Of The Dead, and I also really enjoyed the newDawn Of The Dead. I mean, they are both really great horror films. I want tolet somebody with a fresh vision bring The Evil Dead to a new generation anda new audience with a different vision…”

However, Raimi himself will direct Evil Dead 4: “This is the project Ireally want to make. The remake can belong to someone else, but part 4 willbe a continuation of the original”.

Ted and Sam Raimi have begun writing Evil Dead 4, and will be developing itfor production later this year. Original cult star Bruce Campbell willreturn as Ash…

For more information, check out this issue’s interview.

HALO’Microsoft’ has put the finishing touches on a deal to hire Alex Garland (28Days Later) to adapt the bestselling video-game franchise into one movie,reports ‘Variety’.

The trade says Garland’s screenplay will then be offered to studios as acomplete “turnkey” script and rights package.

The Halo franchise is one of the most popular in gaming history, having soldover 12.8 million units and grossed approximately $600 million since its2001 debut. Last year,Halo 2sold 6.4 million copies and was the second-bestselling game of the year.

The plot concerns a warrior soldier known only as “Master Chief” battling agroup of alien religious zealots who believe one of their most sacredartefacts is located on Earth.

PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN – DEAD MAN’S CHEST‘Disney’ studio Chairman Dick Cook has described the plot of the Piratessequel as follows: “This time around, Johnny [Depp] returns as Captain JackSparrow and is caught in yet another tangled web of supernatural intrigue.”

“It turns out, Captain Jack owes a blood debt to the legendary Davey Jones,ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. IfJack can’t figure a crafty way out of this one, he’ll be cursed to anafterlife of eternal servitude and damnation.”

“And as if that weren’t enough, Captain Jack’s problems throw a huge wrenchinto the wedding plans of the blissful Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, whoquickly find themselves thrust into Jack’s misadventures.”

SUPERMANEva Marie Saint has been cast as Martha Kent. The actress is famous forstarring in North By Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock. UNDERWORLD – EVOLUTIONUnderworld Evolution, the unlikely sequel to the critically savaged vampireversus werewolves action movie, is due out on 9 December.

The sequel traces the beginnings of the ancient feud between the two tribesas Selene (Kate Beckinsale), the beautiful vampire heroine, and Michael(Scott Speedman), the lycan hybrid, try to unlock the secrets of theirbloodlines.

The fast-paced, modern-day tale of deadly action, ruthless intrigue andforbidden love takes them into the battle to end all wars as the immortalsmust finally face their retribution.

GHOST RIDER’Fox News’ reports that Eva Mendes (Hitch) has signed to play a role inwriter-director Mark Steven Johnson’s Ghost Rider. Nicolas Cage plays thetitle role in comic-book adaptation, with Wes Bentley playing baddieBlackheart.

INTERVIEW’Coming Soon’ interviewed Sam Raimi, cult director of Evil Dead and therecent Spider-Man movies, about his continuing work.

    Q: What do you think of the backlash against an Evi Dead remake?
    Sam Raimi: “Well, I respect the fans and their wishes, and more thananything, Rob and I want to please the fans of the films. But I’ve neverthought that making a film ever takes away from an existing film. No matterwhat you do, they’re just two separate realities.”

    “Evil Dead was made by Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell and myself, in 1979 wewere shooting it. It bridged over into 1980. It was a 16mm film and althoughwe think it was effective in a lot of ways, we actually think that it’s notlike it couldn’t be improved in so many ways, from characterizations -there’s like no real characterizations – the dialogue is not very good, thephotography is like I mentioned 16mm, we had a small lighting kit.”

    “I think Tom Sullivan did a great job with the makeup but if he was given alittle more time and a little better budget, I think he could have even gonefurther. And I love Bruce Campbell, so I don’t think you ever replace Brucebut I just think there’s a lot that a new director could bring to it that Ididn’t.”

    “I’m kind of excited to see it be born again in a strange way. I think itcould be a lot of fun for the fans of the first one, and I think there areso many people that have never seen the thing that it’s exciting to realizethat gee, that horror story we told could be retold to a much largeraudience, and maybe if it was told in a finer quality, maybe they would likeit.”

    Q: Would it be grounds for a new trilogy?
    Raimi: “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

    Q: Would it be PG-13 like the other ‘Ghost House’ movies?
    Rob Tapert: “I think that would be a mistake.”
    Raimi: “No, I don’t think so.”

    Q: Would remaking it seal the doors for a part four? Wouldn’t Evil Dead IVconfuse people then?
    Raimi: “Oh, I think the fans are really smart. I don’t think they’d beconfused. I’d like to make a part four. There’s this very small audience forEvil Dead IV, and if we ever make a movie called Evil Dead IV, which I’dlike to make with Rob at some point and starring Bruce Campbell, I’m notsaying there’s a million people, but there’s 100,000 people that will knowexactly what it is and that’s about as big as the crowd is, honestly. It’snot a giant crowd. They’re a great crowd.”
    Tapert: “And you might have to call it Army of Darkness II oddly enoughbecause only the fans really knew that that was Evil Dead III. Even thepeople at ‘Universal Home Video’ called us up one time and said, ‘We want todo a direct to video Army Of Darkness II because that’s a really goodtitle.’ We said, ‘No, that’s really Evil Dead III.’ They said, ‘Oh, well, wedon’t care about that Evil Dead stuff but the Army Of Darkness was reallygood.’ They’re totally confused.”

    Q: Will Bruce be involved?
    Raimi: “Evil Dead IV would just be made with Bruce, but if we make a newEvil Dead movie, which we’re hoping to produce, Rob and I would try to get ayoung director with brand new ideas with his own cast and his own take onthe thing.”

    Q: No Bruce cameo?
    Raimi: “I don’t know.”
    Tapert: “Bruce has said no. He said he’d rather wait and do something elserather than strictly playing a cameo.”

    Q: What are his feelings on the remake talk?
    Tapert: “The only thing that Bruce has asked is that nobody is called Ash.He wants to sit on that name.”

    Q: How far out are you?
    Raimi: “We’re way out in development. We’re waiting to find the rightdirector for the project, that thinks he can really bring something new toit so that we can say to the fans, ‘We really believe in this guy. He lovesthe material. He’s got a great new take on it. He’s told us all thesedifferent ways he can improve it. And therefore we can go ahead with a cleanconscience thinking it’s going to be a really good project, something thatthe fans would like.’

    Q: Would it be a ‘Ghost House’ release?
    Raimi: “Would it be, Rob?”
    Tapert: “I don’t know. Meaning, eventually it’ll probably end up back in theGhost House library. We actually haven’t even thought about it.”
    Raimi: “It’s probably not, but we don’t know.”

    Q: Did Bruce want to do Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash?
    Raimi: “He might have been. I don’t want to speak for Bruce. I don’t reallyknow how he felt about it.”

    Q: What do you look for in a young director?
    Raimi: “Somebody that can create really good characters, because I thinkthat would be a great way to improve Evil Dead. Somebody with a real desireto terrify the audience, that has a morbid, sick fascination with punishingthem. Someone who is really a great visualist, good campfire storyteller.”

    Q: More scary than funny now?
    Raimi: “Well, the Evil Dead movie was always intended to be the scariestmovie we could make with elements of black humour. Then Evil Dead II, wetried to change the balance of that and mostly make a dark comedy that hadelements of a horror film. But to remake Evil Dead 1, that much I would liketo insist upon, our goal and the goal of this director should be to terrifythe audience in a very intense, and merciless way.”
    Tapert: “As Sam would say, to punish them.”

    Q: When do you start Grudge 2?
    Tapert: “Grudge 2, we’re working on the script right now. Shimizu San andTaka were here for about two weeks, and sending treatments back and forth,ideally off to script in the next month or so.”

    Q: Takashi Shimizu would direct again?
    Tapert: “That’s the intention. Based on him being here, there’s a deal,there’s everything, he said he loves it, he wants to do it. If he came backtomorrow and said no, he wasn’t going to, he would legally be able to dothat but I think everybody’s aboard. Certainly Taka’s aboard and wedesperately think Shimizu san is fantastic.”

    Q: Will Sarah Michelle Gellar be Back?
    Tapert: “We loved working with Sarah and right now our intention is to useher character in the sequel. It’s really her decision if she wants to comeback and do it, but we loved the experience and love working with her andthink she was not only an asset to bringing in an audience but to taking anAmerican cast and an all Japanese crew and working in a strange land, shewas the camp leader.”

    “She was the one who when the new people came over, she rallied, ‘Hey, let’sgo out to dinner, let’s go to the fish market, let’s do all those things.’So she was really kind of the beacon for all the non Japanese speakingpeople who came to Japan. So to work with somebody like that again would begreat.”

    Q: You’ve decided on the Spider-Man 3 villain. Has he been established inyour previous films or starting a new story?
    Raimi: “Actually, I’m not at liberty to say because I think ‘SonyCorporation’, they’re very particular about the presentation of theSpider-Man story aspects to the press.”

    “So it’s really in their hands. When they decide they want to release thevillain, I think then they’ll make some formal presentation. They’llprobably have a mock up of what he looks like and announce the actor thatthey’re going to cast. I think because they’ve done this in the past. Ihaven’t yet talked to them about it if that’s how they want to put itforward, so I don’t think I’m at liberty to say?”

    Q: What is the theme?
    Raimi: “I can’t say yet. I’m sorry.”

    Q: You don’t know?
    Raimi: “No, I know. But I want to allow ‘Sony’ really to say when they wantto say what aspects of the film they want to put out to the public. I thinkthey’re just thinking it’s way too early and people have just had enough ofSpider-Man for the time being.”

    “They want to give him a rest. And when it comes time in a year or year anda half to start talking about that movie, to start getting the audienceinterested, I think then they want to probably make their presentationaround then.”
    Tapert: “Bruce, I think he’s more in touch with the fans all the time overEvil Dead, he was the one who came back and said, ‘Oh, there’s this hugebacklash. People don’t want to do it.’ And of all the crazy people, ouroriginal investors who would profit from it said, ‘Geez, we don’t know whyyou’d even do it. We’ve done very well, but…'”

    “But there is somebody out there who is going to be able to reinvent thatmovie for a whole new group of people who are never going to experience itin a theatrical event. And it really, even though it’s great DVD, it’s agreat theatrical experience.”

    “To bring that to a whole new generation and a whole new group of peoplewith somebody who wants to honour the first movie and take it to the nextlevel of entertainment, in building the better roller coaster so to speak,we would be denying the people who originally like it and the people whowill never see it and experience it that opportunity if we don’t at leastinvestigate to the best of our ability how can we go about that task.”

    Q: If you don’t get a script or director, will you abandon it?
    Raimi: “I would say we’d put it on hold. I don’t think we’d abandon it, butwe won’t make it unless we have a really good script and a really greatdirector, somebody we feel is just right for it.”

    Q: “Is there anything you can tell about Spider-Man 3?”
    Raimi: “I’m really not at liberty to honestly. I can tell you I think whatyou probably already know if you’re interested and that is that AlvinSargent is hard at work on the screenplay now. My brother Ivan and I turnedin a few different drafts of stories and we finally decided on one directionwe wanted to go.”

    “I am starting to work with my storyboard artist now. A lot of the guys thatworked with me on the last two Spider-Man pictures, coming up with thevisuals, starting to design some of the action sequences. I’m having thefirst discussions now with ‘Sony Pictures Imageworks’ on how to create someof these different characters.”

    “What improvements, for instance, would we do to Spider-Man. They’ll besubtle and the audience probably won’t even be aware of them but to thatcharacter specifically, how will we improve his style of movement, hisdensity, the sense of weight? How can we take the next step? Where did wefail and what should we do about it to bring it to the next level? I’mreally trying to shoot for a level of reality that we haven’t yet achievedyet with Spider-Man films.”

    Q: Will you make the release date?
    Raimi: “I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll make it because there are so manythings that have to come together very, very quickly now and it’s hard to beable to say if they’re all on course and a lot of them depend on the successof others. So it’s a guessing game. But the answer is actually I must beready, because Sony’s demanding that release date. So I’m just going to sayyes, I’ll be ready. 2007.”

    Q: And when will you start shooting?
    Raimi: “Well, I’m actually going to start shooting tests next month. Tests,experiments with costume and the characters, movement, new CG types oftechnology that we’re going to develop, combinations of existingtechnologies that are put together in new ways to make it seem new but thatstuff already exists. Our stunt people are going to be working in a monthalso, shooting tests, mechanical effects tests.”

    Q: You shot the Doc Ock hospital scene during tests?
    Raimi: “Yes, we’re going to do big scenes earlier and probably the firstthing to shoot really early might be plate photography and maybe as early asSeptember. Maybe a unit to shoot three days of plates, could be as early asthat.”

    Q: When will actors start filming?
    Raimi: “I think in September, it will just be myself, the director ofphotography, visual effects supervisor shooting environments. The actorsprobably wouldn’t start, I don’t know, but I think at this point, maybe inOctober? That’s a guess.”

    Q: Will Bill Pope be back?
    Raimi: “Yes, Bill Pope will be coming back as the director of photography.”

CoverTRAILERS

Batman Begins – Super Bowl TV Spot(weblink)

Is this shaping up nicely?
It certainly is! This is the a TV spot played during the recent AmericanSuper Bowl. Y’see, cool trailers for summer blockbusters are the ONLY reasonto watch that “rugby with padding” thing they laughingly call a sport…

Okay, okay, enough with the Yank bashing! What does the trailer show?
A lot of what we’ve seen before, but in better quality, and with someexcellent new additions, such as – our first glimpse of The Scarecrow, atreacherous fall from a glacier, a Gotham City monorail train and BruceWayne being shown how to handle the Batmobile by Morgan Freeman’s character.

Very cool. Likely to disappoint?
I seriously doubt it. The script’s cool, the cast are excellent, thedirector is extremely talented, and the overall direction is more realisticand adult in tone. This one’s going to be THE superhero movie of 2005 andmake Fantastic Four look like a poor-man’s The Incredibles (sadly).

CoverUS TOP 10 (CINEMA)

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

  • 1. Boogeyman ($19.0m)
  • 2. The Wedding Date ($11.1m)
  • 3. Are We There Yet? ($10.6m)
  • 4. Hide and Seek ($8.91m)
  • 5. Million Dollar Baby ($8.52m)
  • 6. The Aviator ($5.43m)
  • 7. Meet the Fockers ($4.81m) (total to date: $265m)
  • 8. Sideways ($4.66m)
  • 9. Racing Stripes ($4.28m)
  • 10. Coach Carter ($4.23m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

  • 1. Meet the Fokkers (£4.58m)
  • 2. Ocean’s Twelve (£3.39m)
  • 3. Racing Stripes (£1.14m)
  • 4. Closer (£0.51m)
  • 5. Sideways (£0.40m)
  • 6. The Aviator (£0.37m)
  • 7. Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) (£0.35m)
  • 8. Creep (£0.31m)
  • 9. Million Dollar Baby (£0.24m)
  • 10. Team America: World Police (£0.17m)

Cover** IN THE PIPELINE **

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

  • 11th February 2005: Mayor of the Sunset Strip, Sprung! The Magic Roundabout, The Door in the Floor, Elektra, Tarnation, Son of the Mask, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
  • 18st February 2005: The Wedding Date, Shall We Dance, The Yes Men, Stay
  • 25th February 2005: Spanglish, The Woodsman, Hide and Seek, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Coach Carter
  • 4th March 2005: Hitch, Somersault, Kinsey, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Boogeyman, Flight of the Phoenix, King’s Ransom
  • 11th March 2005: Hungry Heart, The Choir, 9 Songs, Hostage, The Machinist, Stalker
  • 18th March 2005: 5×2, Non ti muovere, Robots, Monster Man, Constantine, The City of No Limits
  • 25th March 2005: Melinda and Melinda, Maria Full of Grace, Wild Side, Valiant, Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
  • 1st April 2005: Be Cool, The House Keys, The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse (London), Mean Creek, The Rage in Placid Lake, The Ring Two
  • 8th April 2005: The Assassination of Richard Nixon, The Cave, Bullet Boy, Sahara, DiG!
  • 15th April 2005: The Edukators, The Weather Man
  • 22nd April 2005: Tarnation, Sin City, Palindromes, Machuca, The Wedding Date, Unleashed, The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse
  • 29th April 2005: In Your Hands, One Love, XXX: State of the Union
  • 6th May 2005: Rubber Johnny, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Mysterious Skin, Twin Sisters, Kingdom of Heaven, Monster-in-Law
  • 13th May 2005: The Eye 2, Friday Night Lights, A Good Woman
  • 20th May 2005: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (19thh), Saint Ralph, What the Bleep Do We Know?
  • 27th May 2005: Clifford’s Really Big Movie, Torremolinos 73, Ong-bak, The Pacifier
  • 3rd June 2005: House of Wax
  • 10th June 2005: Silver City, Screaming Blue Murder
  • 17th June 2005: Mr and Mrs Smith
  • 24th June 2005: Batman Begins, Wonderful Days
  • 1st July 2005: Stray Dogs, Madagascar
  • 8th July 2005: War of the Worlds (2005)
  • 15th July 2005: Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)
  • 22nd July 2005: The Wedding Crashers, Whisky, Fantastic Four (2005)
  • 29th July 2005: The Skeleton Key, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
  • 5th August 2005: Stealth, Because of Winn-Dixie, Nanny McPhee
  • 12th August 2005: The Island, Herbie: Fully Loaded
  • 19th August 2005: Doom, Bewitched (2005), Dark Water
  • 26th August 2005: The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Edison, Goal!
  • 2nd September 2005: Cinderella Man, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
  • 9th September 2005: Elizabethtown
  • 16th September 2005: TBA
  • 23rd September 2005: Pride and Prejudice (2005)
  • 30th September 2005: The Perfect Man
  • 7th October 2005: TBA
  • 14th October 2005: Wallace & Gromit Movie: Curse of the Wererabbit
  • 21st October 2005: Aeon Flux, Sky High, Corpse Bride
  • 28th October 2005: Noel, Flightplan, Halloween 9 (31st)
  • 1st November 2005: Bad Blood
  • 18th November 2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • 9th December 2005: Underworld: Evolution, The Chronicles of Narnia: Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
  • 14th December 2005: King Kong (2005)

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

  • FEBRUARY: Constantine (18), Son Of The Mask (18), Cursed, (25)
  • MARCH: Be Cool (4), A Sound Of Thunder (11), The Ring 2 (18),
  • APRIL: Sin City (1), Amityville Horror (15), XXX State Of The Union (29),
  • MAY: Kingdom Of Heaven (6), Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (6), Star Wars Episode III (19)
  • JUNE: Mr & Mrs Smith (10), Batman Begins (17), War Of The Worlds (29)
  • JULY: Fantastic Four (1), Bewitched (8), Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (15), The Island (22), The Dukes Of Hazzard (29)
  • AUGUST: 3001 (5), Doom (5), Deuce Bigelow European Gigolo (12),
  • SEPTEMBER: Birth Of The Pink Panther (23), Legend Of Zorro (23), Serenity (30), Spy Hunter (30)
  • OCTOBER: Wallace & Gromit (7), The Fog (14), Land Of The Dead (21)
  • NOVEMBER: Cars (4), Harry Potter 4 (18), Brother Grimm (23)
  • DECEMBER: Chronicles Of Narnia (9), Underworld 2 (9), King Kong (14), The Producers (24), Zathura (21), Mad Max Fury Road (31), Die Hard 4 (31)

Page Content copyright © Dan Owen, 2005.

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