DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 129

CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORYThe Tim Burton movie has released its official one-sheet poster, andeffectively Dahl-esque it looks to. My bet’s on this being THE kids movie of2005… BLACK CHRISTMASJames Wong and Glen Morgan (writer-directors of Final Destination and TV’sThe X-Files) have agreed to remake the 1974 horror Black Christmas.

The movie was a precursor to slasher flicks like Friday The 13th andHalloween, revolving around a sorority house being terrorized by a killerover the Christmas holiday.

DEATH RACE 3000Director Paul W.S Anderson (Alien Vs Predator) is set direct this Death Race2000 update, based on the cult 70’s movie starring David Carridine (KillBill) GET SMARTSteve Carrel (Anchorman) will star as Agent 86 in a movie version of MelBrooks’ TV espionage comedy Get Smart.

Carrel: “They’re developing [it] right now, and they are in the process ofwriting the script so it’s somewhere down the road. Right now, the approachis modern day. The basic premise is that both CONTROL and KAOS have fallenon hard times and are not being funded by the government. They’re notgetting the same kind of funding as (the) CIA. They have one last mission totry to get back on top… it’s not retro at all.”

DIE HARD 4.0Tony Jaa (right) is reported to be close to signed as Die Hard’s latest villain. Jaais a talented martial artist who is tipped to become the next Asian breakoutaction star after Jet Li and Jackie Chan. HELLBOY 2A sequel to the mildly successful superhero movie begins shooting thisAutumn, with Ron Perlman back as the red-skinned demonic hero. KING KONG 2 & 3Director Peter Jackson revealed plans for two sequels to King Kong, due outthis Christmas. The first sequel is provisionally titled Son Of Kong, andwill feature Kong’s offspring battling various creatures created by Naziexperiments. Sounds silly, but the marquette for the creatures areapparently already being created by WETA during Kong’s production.

Although… this news did come to light on April Fool’s Day… and wassubsequently confirmed as a joke.

LIFE OF PI’Fox 2000 Pictures’ have begun talks with director Alfonso Cuaron (HarryPotter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban”) to helm their adaptation of Yann Martel’sbestselling novel Life Of Pi.

SUPERMANDirector Bryan Singer has recast Perry White! Out goes Britain’s own HughLaurie and in comes Frank Langella (right). Laurie hadn’t begun work on the movie,so it seems that Singer just belated decided that an older White wouldprobably work better than the middle-aged Laurie. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2’Empire Online’ reports that Jack Davenport will be returning to his role asNorrington in Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest.

Davenport: “I’m filming on Pirates until January of next year. There’s alittle break between shooting on the two films, so that the poor bastardswho have to work every day, i.e. the crew, can catch their breath slightly,because it’s a pretty massive operation.”

“The first one made so much money that the number crunchers obviouslydecided to turn it into a franchise. We’re kind of lucky to be along for theride really.”

TRANSFORMERS’Dreamworks’ are moving ahead with their Transformers movie and have twopotential directors in mind – Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) or MichaelBay (Armageddon). Apparently the studio is very happy with Bay’s work on TheIsland, so he is currently the hot favourite.

Tom DeSanto and Don Murphy are both attached to produce the film, and arecurrently supervising a rewrite of the John Rogers script by Alex Kurtzmanand Roberto Orci (The Island).

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

• 1. Sin City ($29.1m)
• 2. Beauty Shop ($12.8m)
• 3. Guess Who ($12.7m)
• 4. Robots ($9.83m) (total to date: $104m)
• 5. Miss Congeniality 2 ($8.13m)
• 6. The Pacifier ($5.80m)
• 7. The Ring Two (2005) ($5.69m)
• 8. The Upside of Anger ($4.03m)
• 9. Hitch ($2.91m) (total to date: $171m)
• 10. Ice Princess ($2.75m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. The Ring Two (2005) (£2.06m)
• 2. Be Cool (£1.15m)
• 3. Hitch (£1.07m)
• 4. Robots (£0.99m)
• 5. Valiant (£0.92m)
• 6. Miss Congeniality 2 (£0.69m)
• 7. Constantine (£0.50m)
• 8. Hostage (£0.26m)
• 9. Der Untergang (£0.16m)
• 10. Pooh’s Heffalump Movie (£0.13m)

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

• 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.

• APRIL: 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.