DAN’S MOVIE DIGEST 175

Shooting will begin in early August in New Zealand (of all places!). ‘Ghost House Pictures’, created by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, are producing the movie.

DRILLBIT TAYLOROwen Wilson is set to star in the high-concept comedy Drillbit Taylor for ‘Paramount Pictures’, says ‘The Hollywood Reporter’. Steven Brill (Without A Paddle) is in talks to direct the movie, which is based on an original idea by John Hughes. The movie revolves around two high school freshmen who are targeted by the school bully on the first day of the school year. The boys hire what they think is a low-budget soldier of fortune (Owen Wilson) to protect them, but he turns out to be anything but…

The film will start shooting in September in Los Angeles, for a summer 2007 release.

WRONG TURN 2Henry Rollins and Steve Braun are set to star in Wrong Turn 2, being directed by Joe Lynch for ’20th Century Fox’. Rollins plays a host and producer of his own reality TV show entitled “The Ultimate Survivalist”, which features six contestants be thrown together for six days in a simulated post-apocalyptic wasteland. Located in a remote part of West Virginia, the contestants discover that they really are in a fight for survival against a family of hideously deformed, inbred cannibals… JACKASS: NUMBER 2’Paramount Pictures’ has revealed that Jackass: Number Two is set for release on 22 September. The sequel to the 2002 hit, based on the infamous ‘MTV’ TV show, will again star Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, and the rest of the Jackass team –- all putting themselves in harm’s way for our amusement. KAVALIER & CLAYMichael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize winning author for his book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, has posted news on the big screen adaptation on his official Blog: “The fate of this project — whether it will move at last from the nebulousness of pre-pre-production into really-truly pre-production, with a budget and cast and everything, will be decided on or around 12 July 2006. Miss Natalie Portman is a strong likelihood for the part of Rosa; other casting is ongoing, as are work on the script (a lot of cutting) and tests conducted by a number of top-drawer animation studios (for the comic book elements). Quick answers (as of this date): Golem: yes. Antarctica: yes. Gay love story: yes. Ruins of World’s Fair: no. Long Island: no. Orson Welles: no. Salvador Dali: yes. Loving reference to Betty and Veronica: no. Stan Lee: no.”

Stephen Daldry is attached to direct the film, about two young cousins who create a comic-book superhero named The Escapist. The boys help usher in the golden age of comics, and through the years, The Escapist encounters adversaries similar to real-life figures…

VANTAGE POINTSigourney Weaver (Aliens) is in talks to join the cast of Vantage Point, says ‘The Hollywood Reporter’. Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, William Hurt and Forest Whitaker already have signed on to the thriller, to be directed by Pete Travis from a Barry Levy script. The movie chronicles an assassination attempt on the U.S. president (Hurt) and is told from five points of view, unfolding in 15-minute increments.

Weaver will play a TV news producer for a network who will do anything to get the story.

All figures are weekend box-office gross.

• 1. Cars ($33.7m) (total to date: $117m)
• 2. Nacho Libre ($28.3m)
• 3. The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift ($24.0m)
• 4. The Lake House ($13.6m)
• 5. The Break-Up ($9.83m)
• 6. X-Men 3: The Last Stand ($7.82m) (total to date: $216m)
• 7. Garfield 2: A Tail f Two Kitties ($7.29m)
• 8. The Omen (2006) ($5.64m)
• 9. The Da Vinci Code ($5.27m) (total to date: $199m)
• 10. Over the Hedge ($4.34m) (total to date: $139m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

• 1. The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift (£1.81m)
• 2. X-Men 3: The Last Stand (£0.78m)
• 3. The Da Vinci Code (£0.67m)
• 4. The Omen (2006) (£0.57m)
• 5. Hard Candy (£0.52m)
• 6. Poseidon (£0.37m)
• 7. United 93 (£0.32m)
• 8. RV (£0.29m)
• 9. The Wild (£0.26m)
• 10. Thank You for Smoking (£0.18m)

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

• 23rd June 2006: Ultraviolent, The Lake House, Half Light, The Empty Building, Fearless (2006), The Wind That Shakes The BarleyPretty Persuasion
• 30th June 2006: Reeker, Over the Hedge, Little Manhattan, Forty Shades of Blue,
• 7th July 2006: Ju-on: The Grudge 2, Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That!
• 14th July 2006: Superman Returns, Viva Zapatero, The Death of Mr Lazarescu
• 21st July 2006: 13th District, Little Fish, The Break-Up, 11:14, Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
• 28th July 2006: Little Man, The Science of Sleep, Adrift, Cars

Page Content copyright © Dan Owen, 2006.