THE MIDWEEK NEWS # 7

NOW IN HM's v.38a

MOVIES RELEASED

1-INDIGO PROPHECY
Action / Thriller
Directed by Brian Kelley
Starring Matt Damon, Kate Beckinsale, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo, Brittany Murphy
Box Office: 45 mill.
Net Gains: 12 mill.

2-DEAD MAN’S SONG
Detective/Thriller
Directed and Produced by George Clooney
Starring George Clooney, Kim Bassinger, Morgan Freeman, Vincent D’Onofrio, Rebecca Romijn
Box Office: 99 mill.
Net Gains: 92 mill.

THE MOVING THUMBS

1-Indigo Prophecy

“There is something unbelievable along the whole picture. The plot may work for a computer game, but when turning it into a movie, it just does not make sense completely. Matt Damon tries to do his best, but it’s hard to understand how his character accepts so easily that he has murdered an unknown suffering a possession.”
-Ray Winslow, ‘Los Angeles Times’

“I loved how Kelley has put up the wonderful persecution scenes in the movie. He knows where to place the camera to show us the thrill of an action scene with so many cars, helicopters and people involved. But the plot gets so twisting as the story goes on that I just had to disconnect, unable to follow it”
-Robin Carson, ‘Hollywood Reporter’

“Kelley has translated the spirit of the pc game to the screen, both for the good and the bad. The movie is over the regular action show, with an intelligent plot and solid characters that will trap you in a hypnotizing visual show. Good work”.
-George Fett, ‘The Chicago Tribune’

2-Dead Man’s Song

“Clooney, the director, knows how to wrap the audience in the atmosphere of the jazz clubs. The setting is perfect, a brilliant recreation of the old Cotton Club days, with mean gangsters, dangerous women and jazz musicians mixing in the smoke of a night club. Clooney, the actor, honours Bogart and is not embarrassed of deliberately acting just like a 40’s movie star playing a Raymond Chandler’s tough detective type”.
-Billy Conn, ‘The New York Post’

“A great work from the cast. Bassinger remembers so much the role she played in ‘L.A. Confidential’ and she knows she’s good at it. Freeman is again the nice reflexive and a bit cynical guy. D’Onofrio pretends to be De Niro. And Rebecca Romijn, probably the most surprising, is great as the lonely defenceless prostitute.”
-Amy Ratched, ‘Today’

“The movie is like a sip of good old wine. Clooney knows what he wants to do and he does it perfectly. A way of making movies that we don’t see very often in our days. Thank you”.
-Charlie McGowan, ‘Variety’

HE SAID, SHE SAID

“I thought I’d never had the chance to play a comic hero. I’m not the Superman type, you know. So ‘Sam & Twitch’ is like a dream come true to me”
-John Goodman

“I have no intention to compete with Lucas’ movies. My idea is to create a whole new universe that will only have a far contact with the original Star Wars’ world”
-Peter Jackson

“They are going to need a lot of make up to make me look like a spaniard. But I think I already look a lot like Clint Eastwood”.
-Jack Black

“The best thing about ‘The Women Club’ was having the chance to kiss Pierce Brossnan. Beside that, the movie was just ok.”
-Reese Witherspoon

“I played Jason Vorhees’ mother the same way I would have played Whitesnow’s stepmother”.
-Jamie Lee Curtis

AWAITING RELEASE

1-Cathedral

The Cast: Russell Crowe, Charlize Theron, Merryl Streep, Don Cheadle
The Director: Peter Weir
The Plot: London, 1895. Crowe is a brilliant architect with a successful career and a beautiful wife (Theron). But, after suffering a silly accident that almost takes his life, he becomes obsessed with an idea. He wants to build a gothic cathedral in Africa only by himself. During 40 years, up until the day he dies, Crowe will live dedicated to his dream, in a life full of renounces, dangers and discomfort. His wife will try to support him in his dreams, but finally will lose her mind living like that and will abandon him. During all those years, Crowe’s only friend will be a missionary nun (M.Streep), who shares his dream and helps him to deal with the natives. Cheadle plays a local political leader that will begin hating Crowe and finally admiring him for his perseverance.
The Comment: A beautiful story about a man and his dream written by James Bradley (‘Bill and the Rocket Man’). A story about how a man can face all kind of adversities following his dream.

2-Deep Silence

The Cast: Keanu Reeves, Jessica Alba, Benjamin Bratt, Lawrence Fishburne, Eva Mendes
The Director and Producer: James Cameron
The Plot: When the Government loses contact with the huge underwater scientific station they have in the depth of the Pacific Ocean, a rescue team is sent to see what may has happened. A scientific (Reeves), a professional diver (Alba), a marine (Bratt), a biologist (Mendes), and a navy officer (Fishburne) will find that all human beings have disappeared without a trace. And, soon, they’ll begin to suffer the attack of strange amphibian creatures decided to kill them. Is it possible that those creatures ar mutated humans? What was the Government really experimenting down there? When Reeves discovers that Fishburne is in fact a CIA agent sent to avoid them to find the truth, trying to escape from there will become a desperate nightmare for the team.
The Comment: Cameron will show the most spectacular underwater scenes ever shot. And Tom Figgs (‘Dark’) has written the kind of action / sci-fi story that usually gives a lot of money to Studios. A movie with the aspiration to become a blockbuster.

MOVIES IN DEVELOPMENT

TALES OF THE JEDI: It seems like Peter Jackson misses so much the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ gang, as some of the names that are said to have been contacted for this one are Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen and Live Tyler. But no talent has been cast yet, as Jackson is still considering so many options.

ROBOTECH 2: Tony Scott is already directing this sequel. It is not decided yet if he will look for some stars to be the voices of the main characters. Michael Bay, now only producer, did not do it in the first movie.

THE AVENGER: New title for ‘Priest’. It seems like CMP has accepted certain pressures… Beside that, John Woo finally has a cast for the movie. Eric Bana and Elisha Cuthbert are leading it, while Gary Oldman plays the villain. The shooting has begun at last.

THE TEMPTING DIAMOND: Donald Sutherland, Alan Alda and Richard Dreyfuss have joined Bill Murray in the band of robbers determined to steal the most valuable diamond on earth. Tommy Lee Jones will be the cop trying to avoid the robbery and Sharon Stone will interfere in the band’s intentions too. Ivan Reitman is already directing this appealing story.

SAM & TWITCH: James Gandolfini and Salma Hayek have joined the starring couple of this one. The name of the big stars making cameos is kept under secret by the movie director, Matt Kubrick.

DIRTY SANCHEZ: Peter and Bobby Farrelly are in charge of this parody of Dirty Harry’s movies that will count with an attractive co-star for Jack Black: Jennifer Lopez has agreed to play a prostitute that is protected by the wacky policeman.

RUMOURS AND GOSSIPS

Wes Craven has made a tough statement during a tense press conference. Craven says that CMP has suddenly fired him without any reason when he was already working on the pre-production of 'Fear The Darkness 3'. Craven admits that he had no contract signed yet for this movie. But he alleges that there was a verbal agreement between CMP and him, so he may initiate a legal action against the Studio for what he considers an unloyal behaviour. CMP has not answered yet to this but rumours has it that the author of the saga, writer and director Matt Kubrick, wasn't very happy with Craven's work in the previous movies.

'Space Quest' is the title of the space saga written by Steve Connors. CMP has bought the rights of the story and will star the pre-production of the first movie soon. The story begins after Planet Earth has become uninhabitable due to a global nuclear war and the only survivors of human race have to live in a huge spaceship travelling through out space.

CMP has closed a deal with Hammer International Productions to take to the screens the brilliant John Stevens' books saga 'The Uncommon Valour'. The adventures on board of a british frigate during the 18th century, in a similar line to 'Master and Commander', could become a new CMP's trilogy.

Russell Crowe and Merryl Streep had a difficult relationship during the filming of 'Cathedral' in the heart of Africa. Crowe was so obsessed with hunting that it affected the shooting because of his delays returning from hunt expeditions. Streep used to get so mad at him, considering he had not a professional behaviour. Also, it's been said that Theron demanded Crowe to take showers more often, as she considered that the actor wasn't too worried for his hygiene under the tough conditions of the shootage.

After being rejected to star both 'Indigo Prophecy' and 'Captain America', Ben Affleck has said that it will be very hard to see him in a CMP's movie in the future. Affleck has declared that he doesn't like the lack of sensibility that CMP's President Harry Stark shows in his relationships with talents. Affleck tells that Stark invited him to an elegant Beverly Hills restaurant to announce him that the Studio wanted him to star 'Captain America' but then, only one week later, his agent received a cold phone call from one of the members of CMP's Executive Board announcing that finally he would not be in the movie.

INSIDE CMP

As it happened before with 'The Mogulers', 'The Heirs-Part 2' has become CMP's number 1 hit due to DVD sales and rentals. Martin Scorsese's movie has reached an outstanding income of 100 millions in the DVD market. It means that 1/3 of its benefits have come from that source.

Using Hollywood Mogul’s v.38 has proved to be harder. CMP expects an important reduction of net gains from its movies. Inside sources have unofficially confirmed that the Studio considers very difficult to reach the income amounts they were having until now.

Harry Stark has officially presented the Golden Moon Awards figure. It represents, according to his words, the spirit of the Studio, always trying to reach the stars with its projects. The voting for nominations is going on and nominees are expected to be announced soon.

COMING SOON – THE ADD