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Dan Owen reviews

DAN'S   MOVIE   DIGEST

I s s u e   # 9

1 3   S e p t e m b e r   2 0 0 2

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** MOVIE NEWS **

"28 Days Later" - British Zombies!

Just thought I'd mention a rarity in film - an upcoming British movie that isn't (a) a James Bond flick, (b) an Northern comedy, or (c) involves the wearing of tights and/or corsets.

The movie in question is post-apocalyptic zombie flick "28 Days Later", the latest project from director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting") and the screenwriting debut of author Alex Garland ("The Beach").

"28 Days Later" is about the accidental release of a virus that turns those infected into a permanent state of killing rage. Carried by animals and humans, the virus is impossible to contain, and spreads across the entire planet. 28 days after its release, a small group of survivors are trapped in London, caught in a struggle to protect themselves from 'the infected'. As they attempt to salvage a future from the apocalypse, they find that their most deadly enemy is not the virus, but other survivors...

Sounds unoriginal I know... but show me a zombie movie that doesn't owe a debt to George Romero! Anyway, it's just nice to see a new trend in British horror movies hitting the multiplexes - after the fantastic fun of werewolf hit "Dog Soldiers".

"28 Days Later" stars Christopher Ecclestone, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, Naomi Harris and Cillian Murphy. It should go on release next year. Keep an eye out for it!

"AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS" - ...with Jackie Chan!

Yes, pint-sized martial arts star Jackie Chan has signed on to play Phileas Fogg's intrepid English adventure in another movie adaptation of "Around The World In 80 Days". The movie will be directed by Frank Coraci ("The Wedding Singer"), and will retain the 18th Century setting.

"BLADE III" - Luke Goss Speaks!

'Teletext' has reported that ex-'Bros' pop star Luke Goss looks likely to reprise his role as Jared Nomak in the third "Blade" movie.

Goss said: "I don't know how I reappear in the movie - it's possible I emerge from the embryos that you see at the end of Blade II. I'd like to appear in less make-up. Writer David Goyer is thinking about a 'Planet Of The Apes' type of twist - it's very, very interesting".

Goss is about to start work on "Charlie", a biopic of British gangster Charlie Richardson, and is hoping to fit in a role in "Tomb Raider 2". He's also working on a script for Snipes and himself: "It's a heist-buddy sort of film, a bit like 'Mission:Impossible'."

Cover "CHARLIE'S ANGELS 2" - In The Pink!

Pop starlet Pink has been hired to provide the title track for "Charlie's Angels 2: Halo" - continuing a trend started with Destiny's Child with their "Independent Women" hit. Pink is also set to cameo as herself in the new movie.

"FLUSHED AWAY" - Rodent Release!

Bristol-based studio 'Aardman Animations' are working on "Flushed Away" for their US partner studio 'Dreamworks'. The film is the story of a pampered rat who finds himself flushed into London's impoverished sewers.

The project is being undertaken while 'Aardman''s next major release - "The Tortoise & The Hare" - goes through a frantic rewrite. Once work is completed on these films award-winning animator Nick Park is then scheduled to bring his Wallace & Gromit characters to the big-screen in "Wallace & Gromit & The Great Vegetable Plot". Can't wait!

Cover "THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW" - Eco-Thriller!

Director Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day") is bringing another disastrous scenario to cinemas - in the shape of eco-thriller "The Day After Tomorrow". The movie will show the catastrophic after-effects of global warming with a variety of natural disasters; such as hurricanes, blizzards and storms.

'Digital Domain' will handle the 300+ effects shots, and will also storyboard the entire movie using 3D computer visualisations.

"HARRY POTTER 3" - New Director Being Primed...

Producer of the Harry Potter movies, David Heyman, has talked about "Harry Potter & The Prizoner Of Azkaban", the third movie of the franchise that should start filming next year under the direction of Alfondo Cuar�n (who takes over from Christopher Columbus)

Heyman said: "He [Chris Columbus], just as I am, is really excited about Alfonso Cuar�n coming in. Alfonso has already met with the kids, with the three leading actors [Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint], and has gotten along incredibly well with them. But Chris is here for support and for guidance and for us all to benefit from his great wealth of experience, having directed the first two."

"The third film will grow out of what has already been created. The third book is slightly more mature, so I think the approach will be slightly more mature. The film will be a little darker, more mature and more adult, just as the book is. Also, Alfonso Cuar�n is a different filmmaker from Chris, and I think the film will necessarily reflect that, because film is a director's medium."

Cover "FREDDY vs JASON" - Pinhead In & Renfro Out...?

A "Friday The 13th' fan-site (yes, you read that right - they do exist) has suggested that horror icon Pinhead, the sadistic villain from the "Hellraiser" movies, is set to cameo in the "Freddy Vs Jason" crossover movie - currently filming.

Pinhead, played by Brit actor Doug Bradley, is said to feature early in the movie talking to Freddy in Hell. But it's unknown if Bradley is attached to the movie...

But one person who definitely isn't starring in the movie now is Brad Renfro - who has been fired according to the 'Creature Corner' website. No official reason was given for Renfro's unceremonious sacking, but producers scrambled for a last-minute replacement so they can keep their September 9 start date for filming and have now cast Jason Ritter ("Swimf@n"). Monica Keener ("Dawson's Creek") has also joined the teen cast.

Cover "HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE" - Immortal Franchise Continues!

The fifth instalment of the curiously popular franchise begins filming in early-2003. The fifth movie has been pushed into production on the back of a successful DVD release for the original 80's hit starring Christopher Lambert as immortal Scotsman (with French accent!) Connor MacLeod. Lambert will not feature in the new movie, however.

"LEGALLY BLONDE 2" - $15m Pay-Out!

Reese Witherspoon will land herself a cool $15 million to reprise her role as airhead lawyer-wannabe Elle Woods in "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde" for 'MGM Studios'. In the sequel, directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfield, Witherspoon's character now finds herself running for political office!

"THE MATRIX 2" - 'Reloaded' Titbits!

French magazine 'Cine Live' has managed to pry some information from crew working on the sequels to "The Matrix", both due next year.

Producer Joel Silver states that "The Matrix Reloaded" will explain precisely how characters can now fly through the air (isn't that kinda obvious, Joel?), the film's lead villain (played by Collin Chou) is named Seraph, Monica Belluci's character is called Persefone, and Lambert Wilson (playing Belluci's husband) is a character described as the 'king of the virtual world' who can program himself into any language he wants (huh?).

Second-Unit Director David R. Ellis also described the infamous car-chase sequence in the sequel: "Even if you have already seen impressive car chases, you have never seen one where guys jump from car to car and fight in the air in a 'Matrix' style."

"MIMIC 3" - The Insects Return!

The second sequel to "Mimic" will star Amanda Plummer ("Pulp Fiction"), John Kapelos ("The Breakfast Club") and Lance Henriksen ("Aliens") according to the 'Moviehole' website.

"OCEAN'S ELEVEN" - Get A Twelth Member...

Steven Soderbergh ("Full Frontal") has spoken about the possibility of a sequel to his hit remake of heist movie "Ocean's Eleven".

He said: "I know we can make a better film than 'Ocean's Eleven'. I've been playing with ideas in my head, but nothing is materialised. I know we'll shoot in Europe and that all actors are in on it. I'll make a sequel that'd be cheaper to make than the first one. The actors took large pay cuts to make the first one, this time they work for free. And none of them has protested against that". Shooting on "Ocean's Twelve" (?) is loosely scheduled for 2004.

"THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" - All Aboard!

Orlando Bloom (Legolas in "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy) has landed his next major role as Will Turner in an adaptation of 'Disney' theme-park ride "The Pirates Of The Caribbean" - produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

His character is the friend of the film's pirate-hating Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Geoffrey Rush has also signed to play the lead villain, who kidnaps a governor's daughter.

Filming begins next month under the guidance of director Gore Verbinski (currently enjoying plaudits for his remake of Japanese horror smash "The Ring").

"PORNO" - Begbie's Back?

Author Irvine Welsh's novel "Porno" - a sequel to "Trainspotting" - is soon to be released, and could be adapted into a movie.

Robert Carlyle, who starred as Scottish maniac Begbie in "Trainspotting", would apparently consider revisiting the role that made him famous: "It depends on the development of the character, on where Begbie has gone. Jail probably. Normally, the salaries would exceed the budget but I'd do it for very little if we could get that same feeling back again. It would have to be Danny Boyle directing, nobody else. If a script of the quality as 'Trainspotting' comes out of this - that would be great."

Cover "RED DRAGON" - Ratner & Tally Tell All!

'Cinescape' have a great interview with "Red Dragon" screenwriter Ted Tally, who details the task of adapting Thomas Harris' novel into a movie that would fit with the canon of previous Lecter movies.

Tally also spoke about the fact "Red Dragon" is essentially a second attempt at the novel - after Michael Mann's "Manhunter": "One of the things I hope to do in this adaptation was to sort of dig more out of the book than I felt 'Manhunter' had done."

"'Manhunter' is a film that I like and respect, but you make choices in any adaptation, and one of the choices that Michael Mann made was to turn the Francis Dolarhyde character [now played by Ralph Fiennes] into something of a cipher. I didn't think we understood [in 'Manhunter'] where that character was coming from, what had made him into a monster..."

"As good as 'Manhunter' was, I felt there was room for another adaptation that would find different colours from the novel and emphasize them more. I saw it more as the movie being shared among Will Graham, Lecter and Dolarhyde."

In related news, director Brett Ratner has spoken about the public's common perception that "Red Dragon" is a remake of "Manhunter". He says: "It makes my skin crawl when people say, 'Oh, you're doing a remake of 'Manhunter'. It really isn't. If you know the book well, 'Manhunter' doesn't even end at all like the book � it's like nothing like it."

"Michael Mann made 'Manhunter' [FBI profiler] Will Graham's story, but it's really not. It's mostly [serial killer] Dolarhyde's story, and that's what I did. Also, 'Manhunter' doesn't incorporate the idea that [Dolarhyde] had a facial disfigurement; a cleft palate, that he had that huge tattoo on his back. You didn't know why he was a serial killer. The book explained his history and background, and that's what we do in our movie."

He also praises Ted Tally's high regarded screenplay. "I was completely blown away by the script. It wasn't 'Manhunter', it wasn't 'Silence Of The Lambs' � it was a unique movie. Ted captures the voice of Hannibal Lecter like no other."

"STAR WARS EPISODE III" - The Final Chapter Begins!

The 'Star Wars' official website has stated that work on "Star Wars Episode III" has begun. Producer Rick McCallum said: "They've been doing research on some different scenes and potential new environments. We meet with George [Lucas] once a week for review. These preliminary visuals serve as inspiration for writing, more than anything else."

"We're really going to pump up the 3-D matte department at ILM. We're looking to cast for that in early September, in the next few weeks. We expect to have twice as many as we did for 'Episode II', where they did a fantastic job."

"TERMINATOR 3" - Production Terminated!

"Terminator 3: The Rise Of The Machines" finished filming very soon, with the final scene being 'Terminatrix' villain Kristanna Lokken arriving in Beverly Hills stark naked.

"THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE" - Who Is Leatherface?

'Coming Attractions' has suggested that "Gladiator" star Ralph Moeller is in line to play cannibalistic maniac Leatherface in the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

"THREE MEN & A BABY" - Part 3?

The French movie "18 Years Later" is to be released next year. So? Well, it is the third French movie of the original film that was remade in the US as "Three Men & A Baby".

Well, an American studio is already working on a remake of this third French film for US audiences - which will reunite Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson and Tom Selleck from the first US version and its sequel "Three Men & A Little Lady".

"THUNDERBIRDS" - 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!

Jonathan Frakes (actor/director of various "Star Trek" episodes/movies) has spoken about his next directing job - "Thunderbirds"!

In an interview with 'SCI-FI Wire' Frakes admitted he didn't know anything about Gerry Anderson's cult 60's series before landing the role of director: "I know a lot about it now. It's about a family international rescue team that functions under the radar of the public. This family, the Tracy family, is called in to save falling bridges and burning buildings that firemen can't save."

"It's one of those situations where someone calls a hotline, and this family comes to the rescue. There's also a wonderful international spy named Lady Penelope, who drives a six-wheel pink Rolls Royce. The original show was done with marionettes, and it was pretty wacko."

"What I understand from being over in England already is that 'Thunderbirds' is as popular with the English as 'Star Trek' is with Americans. It's a huge favourite there, with the toys and the Tracy family action figures. All of those things are still huge sellers at Christmas every year. As I understand it, England, Australia and Japan have a passionate audience. Anyway, our version of 'Thunderbirds' will be entirely live-action, with a 'Spy Kids'-meets-James Bond kind of vibe."

Production begins in February 2003, with filming taking place in South Africa and London. 'Universal' will release Thunderbirds in 2004.

Cover "THE UNTITLED JAMIE KENNEDY EXPERIMENT" - Jamie Back In Cinemas!

Jamie Kennedy ("Scream") recently hosted a TV show in the States (airing here on 'E4' and 'Channel 4') called "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment", in which he fooled members of the public "Candid Camera"-style by pretending to be various outrageous characters.

Well, the success of his show has spawned a movie currently known as "The Untitled Jamie Kennedy Experiment" which utilizes a popular character Jamie played on his hidden-camera show called Brad Gluckman - an dumb white rapper from Miami.

The movie will see Brad Gluckman's billionaire father running for governor and who needs to do something about his troublesome son. So he hires two actors to take Brad into the "hood" (South Central L.A) to show him what the "gangsta" lifestyle is really like. After the actors get Brad involved in L.A gangster life � real gangsters find out about Brad's family fortune and kidnap him for ransom.

Producer Mike Karz has said: "This is really one of the quickest production stories in the history of Hollywood. This movie came together so quickly that we still can't believe we're in the middle of the movie now. Basically, what happened is that the show came on in January, the first season, and luckily it was an instant-hit. The show is on the 'WB', which is part of the 'Warner Brothers' family and the studio, they just loved the show and were interested in doing a Jamie Kennedy movie for the summer."

"Jamie had this character he had been working on for ten years, Brad Gluckman, which was one of the break-out characters of the show. We basically came up with an idea to do a movie based on this character and it was written while we were shooting the show. We were literally in pre-production on the movie within a few weeks after we finished up our first season."

Jamie Kennedy himself says: "We're three-quarters of the way done and we got a lot of the big stuff done. It's just hard to have all these little babies. When you're writing it and you want to get this in and you want to get that in and you don't have time. Sometimes it's hard because you have to take off your writer-hat and put your actor-hat on and vice versa."

The movie should be released early next year. It will be interesting to see what impact Kennedy's character has in the UK - seeing as Ali G pioneered the same basic idea with far more satirical meat on British television years ago(we'll forget his recent hit-and-miss film venture...)

Cover

US TOP 10 (CINEMA)

1. Swimfan ($11.3m)

2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding ($10.3m)

3. City By the Sea ($8.9m)

4. Signs ($7.8m)

5. xXx ($5.2m)

6. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams ($3.0m)

7. Austin Powers in Goldmember ($2.7m)

8. FearDotCom ($2.3m)

9. Spiderman/Men in Black 2 ($2.1m)

10. Blue Crush ($1.8m)

UK TOP 10 (CINEMA)

1. The Bourne Identity (�2.1m)

2. Insomnia (�0.8m)

3. The Guru (�0.6m)

4. The Importance of Being Earnest (�0.5m)

5. Men in Black 2 (�0.47m)

6. The Sweetest Thing (�0.44m)

7. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams ($0.33m)

8. Reign of Fire (�0.32m)

9. Spiderman (�0.27m)

10. Austin Powers in Goldmember (�0.25m)

** TRAILERS **

Cover The Core: A better quality trailer for action movie "The Core" - which is about a team of scientists who must drill down to the centre of the Earth to detonate a nuclear device to stabilize the planet.

Buzz Rating: 3/5 - bound to be a dumb movie, but the effects are bound to please and if it lives up to its 'underground "Armageddon"' premise - it should be enjoyable popcorn hokum for 2003.
CLICK HERE

Die Another Day: The 20th James Bond adventure on the 40th Anniversary of the character's birth. Pierce Brosnan continues his reign as 007, with Halle Berry providing the eye-candy and John Cleese replacing Desmond Llewelyn.

Buzz Rating: 4/5 - there's a lot to prove for Brosnan's fourth outing, particularly with the '20th film, 40th anniversary' expectancy from fans. The trailers look good (as always) but the real buzz has been with the script - which apparently shake the franchise up a little for once. Doubtless a mega-hit, but is this the movie to push 007 into the 21st Century?
CLICK HERE