FEBRUARY, 11

MOVIES RELEASED

1-STYX AND STONES

Comedy
Directed by Marcus Trax
Starring Hugh Grant, Owen Wilson, Jennifer Anniston, John Malkovich, Queen Latifah
Box Office: 17 mill.
Net Loss: 15 mill.

CMP Reaction: A shame. Audiences just didn’t get the joke of the whole thing.

2-CORSAIRS. THE SEARCH FOR NANTAYALAH

Action Adventure
Directed by Martin Campbell
Starring Antonio Banderas, Naomi Watts, Ralph Fiennes, Sigourney Weaver, Isaiah Washington
Box Office: 67 mill.
Net Gains: 45 mill.

CMP Reaction: Far away from the first Corsairs movie results. It made some profits but, to be honest, it’s been disappointing.

THE MOVING THUMBS

1-STYX AND STONES

“A good premise with a bad development. The movie could have been much funnier but Hugh Grant and Owen Wilson are not at their best this time. A missed opportunity to have made a great comedy”.
-Jack Harrison, ‘People’

“In some moments, I just had the feeling that Grant and Wilson were not working together, but competing to be the funniest one. The best finding of the movie was Queen Latifah playing God”.
-Billy Conn, ‘The New York Post’

“A screenplay full of good ideas. But the truth is that, once translated to images, they just didn’t work. I admit I went to watch it full of expectations and I went out disappointed. The movie was supposed to make me laugh and it just made me smile”.
-Jack Baxter, ‘Hollywood Reporter’

2-CORSAIRS. THE SEARCH FOR NANTAYALAH

“In this sequel, the franchise has tried to get closer to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. The first movie was a classic adventure movie. This time, special effects have gained space, with all the evil forces in the island of Nantayalah, stepping away from the classicism of the first movie. I’m not very sure if that was the right choice”.
-Amy Ratched, ‘Today’

“The sequel is not as fresh as the first movie. But, again, it is a thrilling adventure, with a new and nice touch of comedy. Martin Campbell hasn’t been afraid of making the characters laugh at themselves a bit. That’s the best. The worst: as soon as the characters reach Nantayalah, the movie turns into a special effects show that changes the spirit of the story,”
-Jessica Tyne, ‘ET’

“Martin Campbell has been braved enough to not repeating the first movie in this second one. The saga has advanced and Banderas and Watts characters have gained in depth and strength. Fiennes makes a great villain and Sigourney Weaver makes a solid performance as the evil duchess. The sequel was worthy.”
-Charlie Kiggs, ‘Variety’

AWAITING RELEASE

1-DR. JONES AND THE SWORD OF FAITH

The Cast: Ewan McGregor, Aishwarya Rai, Daniel Craig, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams.

The Director and Producer: Steven Spielberg

The Plot: Henry Jones (E.McGregor) has a quite and nice life. He works as a teacher and investigator of the Middle Age. He has recently married with his sweet and adorable wife (R.McAdams). But one day everything changes for him. His colleague and best friend, Prof. Julius Humpting (P.S.Hoffman), a clumsy and scatterbrained nice man, writes him from an archaeology excavations in Egypt, begging him to meet him there urgently and without making any questions. Worried for his friend, Dr. Jones travels to Egypt. When he gets there, his friend has mysteriously disappeared. But Jones finds a hyeroglyphic in his personal notes: a map to find the Excalibur sword. Jones, although not an adventurer at all, decides to follow the map to find both the sword and his friend. That will be the beginning of an adventure full of action, danger and enemies. Jones will meet in the desert a tuareg woman (A.Rai), brave and intelligent, that will join him in his search. Together, they will face Hans Grutten (D.Craig), a German explorer that leads the Brotherhood of the Sword, a group of fanatics that have captured Humpting and protect the Excalibur sword as a relic of the Gods. Grutten manipulates the believers of the Sword for his own personal benefit. Jones is taken as prisoner too. Grutten shows him the sword. It is back in the stone, as in Arthur’s times. The Brotherhood believes that only a holy and innocent man will be capable of taking it from the stone. Prof. Jones gives it a try. And the sword gets out of the stone. He gets the respect of the members of the Brotherhood, so when Grutten runs away with the sword, Jones, Humpting and Rai will get the help of the Brotherhood to chase him and finally recover the sword.

The Comment: The reborn of old franchises is always a risky move. But everyone at the Studio is so satisfied with the results that not succeeding with this one would be a major surprise.

2-THE PASSION BENEATH

The Cast: Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Kiefer Sutherland, Tim Robbins, Willem Dafoe

The Director: Brian Kelley

The Plot: A famous fashion writer (J. Roberts) abandons the glamour world after she becomes pregnant and moves to a small northeastern town to raise her child. She then begins an affair with a black garbage collector (J.Foxx). Their affair is a passionate one but they tell no one about it. Then one day she turns up murdered, although it's not known wether she's been dead for either 2 or 4 days. Her daughter is left unharmed and was caring for her mother's corpse for this period of time.The police ask for every man in town to give a DNA sample. For years the case goes unsolved, until they find that the local trash collector's sperm and saliva was on her body. Of course no one believes his story about the affair, and he's charged with Rape and Murder.There's a whole host of other suspects however. Her father involved in the seedy underworld, an ex-boyfriend stalking her, and an ex-husband (T.Robbins) she threatens with a lawsuit. Not to mention a drug dealer (K.Sutherland) whom the police are protecting, and a suspicious car that speeded out of her driveway around the days she may have been murdered. They eventually get a confession out of the garbage man, but it's neither recorded or consistent with what Prosecutors (W.Dafoe) believed happened, so many doubt the validity of the confession or if it happened at all. All of this falls on deaf hears with the jury who convicts him. But some of the jurors were coerced into their verdict and contact the defence attorney (K.Spacey) to try to right the wrong. Only to find that it's too late and their decision cannot be reversed.

The Comment: A passionate love story that turns into a tragedy and a criminal case. Intense and thrilling. It promises to be one of the best movies of the season.

SPECIAL – STAR WARS PRESS CONFERENCE

Director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas and star Tobey Maguire have given a press conference in Los Angeles to present their new movie ‘Star Wars: New Order’. There was a big expectation around this event and journalists from all over the world came to know more about this upcoming production that is expected to become the major event in the movie business for quite a long time.

Here are some quotes from what they said during the press conference:

Steven Spielberg

“George asked me to direct the movie. I had never imagined myself involved in a Star Wars movie but I always dreamt about it. So I just couldn’t say no.”

“I don’t want to talk about ‘Tales Of The Jedi’. Peter Jackson made his Star Wars movie and I’m going to make mine and there’s no relationship between them. He took his risks and I’m going to take mine.”

“All I can tell about the story now is that it has a great villain. I think we will create a mean character that will be remembered as much as Darth Vader himself.”

George Lucas

“When I read Marcus Trax’s screenplay I felt like if I could have written it. It’s the perfect continuation for Episode VI. In some way, I would consider this movie like Episode X.”

“Steven and I are good old friends. I didn’t want to get involved in the direction process so I could not think on anyone better than him to do it”

“I liked ‘Tales Of The Jedi’. I would really love to see the story going on.”

Tobey Maguire

“I play Luke Skywalker’s grandson. So I feel so responsible, as the heir of the most important dynasty of the galaxy.”

“If this movie flops, I just don’t know where are we going to hide.”

“After being Spiderman and a member of the Skywalker family, I think I can retire and feel proud of my career for the rest of my life.”

MOVIES IN DEVELOPMENT

T.Y.M.: THE SECOND CHANCE: Jennifer Love Hewitt will be Brendan Fraser’s partner in this sequel. Both, we’ll have to face an evil entity decided to control human race. Love Hewitt had not worked for CMP since the megahit ‘The Mogulers’.

STAR WARS: NEW ORDER: Well, there it is. Steven Spielberg could not say no to George Lucas. And, after working with him in ‘Dr. Jones and the Sword of Faith’, it is rumoured that Daniel Crag will remain in Spielberg’s team for this one, playing again the villain of the story.

WESTWORLD: David Duchovny will be the visitor of the amusement park ‘Westworld’. And he will not only meet the clone of Lara Croft / Angelina Jolie there but also other famous movie characters that director and producer Michael Bay has not revealed yet.

SAVING SAMANTHA MOSS: Dark, very dark. That’s what test screeners have mainly said about this David Fincher’s thriller. The director of ‘Seven’ will disturb audiences even more with the complex relationship established between Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Robin Williams. Just a hint: the ending is quite different from what we usually see in Hollywood movies!

HAPPY HAMSTERS: Complete voices cast for this Robert Zemeckis’ animation comedy: David Schwimmer, René Zellwegger, Martin Lawrence, Lisa Kudrow and Anthony Hopkins… playing a snake with a whispering voice that will remind very much of certain famous cannibal.

CURSED NEVERLAND: What if Peter Pan was in fact a kidnapper of kids? What if Neverland was a parallel world of nightmare and fear? That’s the premise of this horror movie – ‘a sick fairytale’ is how he has described it - that M. Night Shymalan is going to direct as soon as he finds the right talents for it.

ACE BANNER 2: Shootage finished. And here is the complete cast of John McTiernan’s movie: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Romijn (‘Dead Man’s Song’), Wesley Snipes, Michael Caine (‘Fools Game’) and Ken Watanabe.

THE LAST LAWMAN: Jack Hammer’s new proposal is a trilogy sited in a post-apocalyptic America. It seems like another lonely hero is coming up. And, according to rumours, he may have the face of George Clooney, Will Smith, Nicholas Cage or Leonardo DiCaprio. The Studio is still considering the options after greenlighting the project.

RED LIGHT (previously known as THE LIVES WE LEAD): Demi Moore is in control. The actress has also become the producer of this love story. Her first decision: changing the title of the movie. Her second decision: hiring her husband Ashton Kutchner to co-star. It is said that her third decision failed: ex husband Bruce Willis has rejected to play a supporting role. Now, Moore is looking for a director.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: Marcus Trax’s new story follows the life in a circus during the 1920’s. Action, love story and mobs are involved. And the Studio would like Clint Eastwood to both star and direct the movie. Tom Hanks has also showed a certain interest in doing both things. Nothing more is known about it by the moment.

RUMOURS AND GOSSIPS

The Secret Plan. And now not so secret anymore: Julian Jones, Production Department CEO, will wait to see if ‘Star Wars: New Order’ become as successful as it is expected. And, if so, he pretends to take advantage of the inevitable ‘starwarsmania’ to produce the sequel of ‘Tales Of The Jedi’.

According to good sources, George Clooney is, in fact, the main candidate to star the new Jack Hammer’s saga, ‘The Last Lawman’, but it seems like the actor is not very keen on the idea of becoming attached to a trilogy. As Jack Hammer is not very happy with the Studio’s second choice, Nicholas Cage, it seems like it will finally be something between Will Smith and Leo DiCaprio.

Hard worker Spielberg. The offer to direct the new Star Wars movie took Spielberg by surprise while editing his new movie, ‘Dr. Jones and the Sword of Faith’. Although he had ended up quite exhausted after this tough shootage, he felt so happy to work again together with Lucas that he immediately accepted.

RUMOURS AND GOSSIPS 2
GOLDEN MOON AWARDS NOMINATIONS SPECIAL

This time, 13 movies will be fighting for the awards (first edition was 14 movies). But any of the movies has reached 6 nominations, as it happened in the 1st edition with both ‘Deadly Sins’ and ‘The Crusades’. The possible reason: there are more good movies in this edition than in the previous one.

The Ignored Top 5:

1-Tom Cruise: All his cast mates in ‘Chevrolet’ have been nominated. Although he made a wonderful job in the movie, it seems that his popularity is lower than ever.
2-The Bridge: Probably, the best screenplay of the season. But box office results were so bad that nobody seemed to remember it.
3-Deep Silence: The best box office of the season. But not a single nomination…
4-Jonathan Demme: A wonderful directing job in ‘Turning Point’. Risky and creative. But forgotten (together with the whole cast!).
5-Benicio Del Toro: After playing the same villain for three times, good old Darkman did not get a nomination just for a couple of votes.

The Surprise: Wild Cards. Although it’s been always recognized as one of Harry Stark’s favourite movies, nobody at the Studio expected that Matt Kubrick’s pulp story would reach so many nominations. Comic based movies usually do not appear in nominations lists. A nice surprise.

And other curiosities:
-Paul Giamatti reaches his third nomination. Last edition, he won Best Starring Couple together with George Clooney and was nominated to Best Actor. This edition, he will fight in Best Supporting Actor with two heavy-weights, Nicholson and Buscemi.
-This edition, it is Catherine Z. Jones the one with two options to be rewarded for her role in ‘Fools Game’: Best Actress and Best Starring Couple.

-But she's not the only one with a double option this time. Matt Kubrick could be awarded both as director and screenwriter for 'Wild Cards'. And Ridley Scott has a chance not only as director but also as producer of 'Uncommon Valour'. Screenwriter James Bradley also has two options but only one possible award, as he is the author of two of the screenplays nominnees, 'Fools Game' and 'Chevrolet'.
-Last edition there were clear favourites in male categories. This edition it is the other way around: according to nominations votes, female categories have clearer favourites.
-Confirmed: there’ll be no host for the gala. An off-voice will introduce the stars that will present the nominees and winners.

YOU CAN STILL VOTE FOR THE GOLDEN MOON AWARDS WINNERS. DO IT BEFORE TOMORROW!

COMING SOON – THE ADD