Hollyweird 10/27 - 11/02

Intro:
Hey kids, welcome to another edition of Hollyweird, the column everyone is talking about! No really! People keep coming up to me in the street. Which is pretty amazing, as there is no way you people could possibly know what I look like, screaming and yelling for autographs! Sweet...

Comics:
One of the Defenders of the Earth is getting a second attempt at movie stardom. Olympic gold medalist turned screenwriter Mel Stewart is going to give THE PHANTOM another go. The original starred Billy Zane and only made $17 million at box office.

Making super hero movies that have already been done are en vogue at the moment. With the above movie, Superman and of course BATMAN are to be expected. Personally I think the first two were fine and they could pick up from there. Or just leave it. Anyway, the producers of the new Batman are looking for two people for their movie. The first is Morgan Freeman for a scientist role (Homer Simpson: Batman’s a scientist, Marge: It’s not Batman). They would also like Sir Anthony Hopkins to play Alfred. Why don’t they just get the guy from Birds of Prey for Alfred?

Last comic news is about a book I have never heard of. THE PSYCHO is set in an alternate reality where the US made super soldier serum instead of nukes. They smoked Hitler in ‘41 and have been fighting America’s battles ever since. The main character, Jake Riley, is an undercover agent whose job is to collect data on these FCO’s (Freelance Costumed Operatives). His cover is blown and he has to take the superhero treatment. He then uses his powers to uncover a conspiracy. Sounds pretty good, as long as they go for comedy.

Video Games:
HEY, there’s actually some game news! Resident Evil: Apocalypse is set to hit theatres on 24th of September. That’s when Underworld opened and it made plenty money even though it’s pretty poor. Maybe Screen Gems hopes this potential “suck-fest” will fair just as well.

Fox now has the rights to American McGee’s Alice. McGee thinks the chances of a film being made are higher in their hands than it was in Dimension/Miramax’s paws.

Horror, SCI-FI and Fantasy:
The cast of SLIPSTREAM has been fleshed out. Ivana Milicevic (Vanilla Sky) joins Sean Astin (LotR) and Vinnie Jones (Gone in 60 Seconds). Slipstream is about a young scientist who invents a time travel device that allows the user to move 10 minutes into the past. He plans to use it to rob a bank but hits problems when someone else tries to rob it.

Doug Bradley continues to prove that he really wants work. The actor is reported as saying that the Hellraiser vs. Halloween film was being planned, and that Dimension wants it ready for a Halloween ‘04 release. This has since proved to be a bunch of bologna.

Robert Lederman (various TV as editor, including some MacGyver!) is attached to direct Bagloria. The film, which Robert DeNiro is attached to as a Producer, concerns a group of children who find a portal to another world in a school closet. Their teacher is sucked in and the kids have to rescue her and save the school, with the help of a lion called Aslan. Just kidding, the ripping off isn’t that blatant.

Robert Englund has spoken up on the suggested Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash movie. He said "it would have to be a phenomenal script. It would have to be Bruce and Sam Raimi locked in a Palm Springs hotel for six weeks. It would be great for him and great for us. We could put the franchises to bed with a big, super, pop-culture, camp epic." Looks like he’s happy with Ash winning then.

Another kid’s book that I’ve never heard of, but you colonists are probably familiar with, is set for potential silver screen success. Spike Jonze (var. music videos) is set to direct Where the Wild Things Are. Tom Hanks originally had this and was going to do it CGI, but Spike wants a live action version. I know absolutely nothing about the book, so it might not fit in this category, but IMDB has a listing for an untitled Spike Jonze/ Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) project. What are the bets that it’s this?

End of Eternity, an Asimov book that most people probably haven’t read, has been picked up for big screen treatment. The book is about a group called the Eternals. They travel through time changing small things to prevent big things like world wars. An example would be breaking into Hitler’s car so he doesn’t make it to the Nazi leader elections and therefore averting WWII.

Helena Bonham-Carter and Ralph Fiennes will be lending their voice to the first Wallace and Gromit movie, Curse of the Wererabbit. HBC will play Gromit and.... oh wait. HBC will voice Lady Tottington, and Ralph is Lord Victor Quatermaine. The movie has a budget of $80 million, which is a lot of clay!

Not theatre news, but I love Godzilla so I don’t care. A couple of weeks ago I brought you a link to a trailer for Godzilla: GMK (Godzilla, Mothra and King Gidhora: Giant Monsters All Out Attack!). While it won’t be hitting any screens near you (unless you live in Japan), expect a DVD release early next year.

Joel Silver’s Dark Castle productions plan to do a remake of horror classic House of Wax. And like the original, he would like to do it in 3D. It would be pretty cool to get some glasses at the theatre, and this might start a new trend. Not sure that’s a good thing...

A few weeks ago I told you that MGM is making a remake of The Amityville Horror. Well, Dimension is making a version of the story too. Both tales are set to take place in the present day, but there’s no chance of a lawsuit as the story is in the public domain. The race is on to see who can get their film in the can first.

Little Magic Films, a Japanese company, is very interested in American Gothic, the TV show from a few years back about evil Sheriff Buck. There were rumours about a big screen version back in July but nothing seems to have happened. The company will decide whether they want to pay the $1 million for the rights that Universal wants. Personally I would love to see what Japan would do with this, as long as Gary Cole is in it.

A lot of new production companies have been born lately, and this week we can celebrate another birth. Kismet Entertainment has spawned a horror arm called Graveyard Filmworks. And they have four films to be getting on with. The first BOO is about a group and friends and some strangers in an abandoned hospital. The second, Servant of the Dark is about a professor who is studying evil, and gets a lesson from a serial killer. The third, Cemetery Gates is about a group of eco-terrorist that unleashes a genetically engineered beast that rampages and kills anything it sees. Didn’t they watch 28 Days later? And finally, Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat (Kismet did the original). The film follows directly from the first and adds some Americans to the mix. I have said in the past the sequel is set on an Oil Rig and I was wrong. Sorry about that. However, another sequel and a prequel are planned so maybe that’s the third film I meant. Can anyone say franchise?

And finally, Guillermo Del Toro. He hasn’t been having much luck with a project to follow Hellboy. Mephisto’s Bridge, which has been under his belt forever, is shelved again. As is At the Mountains of Madness, which is based on the H.P Lovecraft classic short story. So he’s written something. The original story is called Crimson Peak, and is a Victorian era ghost story. Hopefully it will be better than The Others...

The rest:
Del Toro isn’t the only person finding his film projects on the shelves. Jinx, a spin off movie from the Bond franchise cantered around Halle Berry’s character from Die Another Day has been cancelled. MGM has decided to go ahead with Bond 21 instead, which would have followed this. Probably so they can get another film out of Pierce Brosnan before switching Bonds...

Baz Luhrmann’s Alexander the Great has also been shelved. The film has been delayed for at least 6 months for script revisions. Chances are they have gotten cold feet and don’t want to compete, so this may never see the light of day.

Jason Statham has another Transporter movie to come. This time the movie will be set in the US, with a bigger scope, and will be directed by Corey Yeun.

Michael Moore is going to give “Dubya” a bit of a break with his next project. Titled Sicko, the documentary will look in to Mental Health and Health Care insurance.

Christians will have something else to do next Ash Wednesday instead of.... well, whatever it is that they do on Ash Wednesday. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ will be released on that day, which is February 25th to the rest of us.

Anthony Anderson (ER) will hit the big screen next year in Cody Banks 2. He will play Cody’s handler and mentor in London. His character has been exiled there, as he’s pretty inept and the CIA doesn’t have to do much in London. Tony can be seen in Scary Movie 3 at the moment.

Martin Campbell told the Calgary Sun that they are in final negotiation with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas for Zorro 2. He said it’s more than a typical sequel, but I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean...

Speculation on who will be the lead in The Kingdom of Heaven is over, with Orlando Bloom coming out on top. Ridley Scott’s latest epic will be very accurate to the history, as writer William Mohan spent 19 months researching it!

The Alamo has slipped back from a ‘end of the year’ release. The film, based on the holosuite program played by Dr Bashir and Chief O’Brien, will now be released in April 2004. ‘Stand Your Ground’ indeed.

As I stated in my Kill Bill review, I wasn’t sure which version I had seen (pretty sure it was the US one). Quentin Tarantino is in Japan just now promoting the film and says the Japanese version will contain many more violent shots than the US release. Japanese people can currently see the US release in theatres.

And last but not least, the WB obtained the rights to Johnny Bravo from the Cartoon Network over a year ago and plans to make a live action movie. Who will play Bravo? Why, the Rock of course. Dwayne will play Johnny on a quest to find his long lost father.

Trailers:
Not a whole bunch of actual trailers this week. To start, how about an Alien vs. Predator teaser trailer? I know what you’re thinking, the film hasn’t even started shooting yet. Well, that’s not a problem as this is just a collection of candid shots of the two monsters and the tag line.

There’s also a behind the scenes featurette for AvP. It’s not particularly interesting, with Paul W Anderson saying he’s a huge fan (though he’ll probably still stink it up). There are some very pretty concept art shots though. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The hype machine for the new Peter Pan film has been pretty quite. The official site has two trailers, one that slipped below my radar and a new one. They both make the film look great. This may join Pirates of the Caribbean in making this the year of the pirate. Yar. The kid playing John better do a better job than I did a few years ago or I won’t be happy (and I was mighty fine, thank you very much).

And finally three documentary style pieces on Master and Commander: Big Title Due To A Colon. The first contains some of the guys from WETA on the amazing model work they have done for the film. The second deals with the training that the extras, and the star Russell Crowe, went through to make the film look realistic. And finally (ED: GET WEIR’D) is about Director Peter Weir, and his attention to detail on the flick. All three are pretty informative and worth a look, even though Crowe toots his own horn a little...

That's all folks
And that’s the news for this week. Upcoming review from myself is, well there’s a little film called Matrix: Revolutions coming out. I know I said I would review Reloaded before hand, but instead the previous P42 review will be posted. For one, I don’t want to burn out and for another you guys must be sick of reading movie reviews by me. Here’s the short Reloaded review though. With the rave scene it gets a 4 as the energy is sucked out. Without it’s a 4 and a half. And it improves every time I watch it. Until next week...


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