SEPTEMBER, 19


WILD CARDS: DOUBLE SOLITAIRE

Sci-Fi / Action

The Cast: Elijah Word, Liv Tyler, Dwayne Jonson, Jason Schwartzman, Megan Fox, Kenneth Branagh

The Director: Guillermo Del Toro
The Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick
The Producer: Midnight Movies / Matt Kubrick

The Plot: Golden boy (E.Wood), Modular Man (D.Johnson), Peregrine (L.Tyler) and The Great and Powerfull turtle (J.Schwartzman) must reunite when a new threat arises. People with the wild cards are being killed all over the world in suicide bombings and lethal murders. They soon track the threat to a strange cult that wants to purge the world and make it a place for the nats (normal humans not affected by the virus) again. They are soon joined by a new ally Jennifer Malloy AKA the Wraith (M.Fox), a beautiful woman that can turn invisible and move through walls. They must travel to different parts of the world and soon find themselves deep in the amazon where the leader of the cult resides. Modular Man is destroyed and Golden Boy is killed in the final battle between good and evil.

Meanwhile Dr. Tachyon (K.Branagh) must travel to his home planet in his ship baby when he learns that civil war is breaking out. He must lead a freedom group against the enemy which turns out to be his own brother (also played by Branagh) who is vying for power against the government.


Stark’s Comment: Fourth mainstream episode of the saga. As some of its classic characters – Yeoman, Fortunato, Popinjay… - have moved to the spin offs, Kubrick focuses his attention here on the group of Aces introduced in the third episode, ‘Ace In The Hole’. Megan Fox is the only new adition to the saga while Branagh – as Travolta did in ‘Aces High’ – plays two different characters. The movie is not directly based but only inspired in the original books. Loyal followers of this saga are expected to return to theatres for this one.

Q*BERT

Comedy

The Cast: Will Ferrell, Topher Grace, Julia Stiles, Kieran Culkin, Jackie Chan, Harland Williams, Taye Diggs

The Director: David Zucker
The Screenwriter Josh Collins

The Plot: A hilarious satire of '1980s underdog films' but also poking fun at how ridiculous high score setting arcade gamers can be when they are threatened by the little fish in the pond.

Will Ferrell plays Biff. He's the caricature of an 80s big dumb jock bully, but he's the grand master of Q*Bert. He's got everything our protagonist wants. A Letterman's jacket, friends, henchmen (H.Williams & T.Diggs) , fame (known as the Grand PoohBah of 'Pocket Change Arcade,' the local hangout for arcade gamers) and he's got the cute girlfriend (Trixie – Julia Stiles) whom is in love with the hero of the film. Topher Grace plays Danny and is the caricature of the 80s underdog hero. He's just a good ol' boy, never does any harm, but he's Biff's nemesis and the object of his ridicule.

When Biff finds that Danny could very well knock him off his throne, the gloves are off and the quarters are plugged into the machine. It's the biggest one on one Q*Bert challenge of the decade and the humorous journey to the end of the film ensues. Danny, who started out not good at arcade games, decides to defend his brother's honor after his brother was dethroned on the high score board by Biff. This in turn caused Danny's brother (K.Culkin) to be hospitalized and in a coma poking fun at the 80s classic film, The Outsiders.

Danny needs some serious help in order to beat the biggest baddest dog. So he enlists the aid of a living legend in the arcade game world, the mentor being an homage to the classic Karate Kid character, Mr. Miyagi (J.Chan). At the beginning, the mentor refuses to help Danny, saying he is long since retired from arcade game playing and knows how crazy it can make people...bringing up his previous student who committed the mass murdering of arcade gamers when he couldn't get past the third level of 'Burger Time' but he eventually begins helping Danny because Biff is an asshole and he wants to get Danny laid by Biff's hot girlfriend. Danny gets more serious when his brother never comes out of the coma and dies.


Stark’s Comment: To comment this one I pass the word to Mr. Collins: ‘The film is meant to be so insanely outrageous, an homeage to 80’s Underdog films from cheesy 80’s movie style dialogue, montages set to the music you heard in the 80’s (You’re the Best Around, Push It To The Limit, etc.) to grown men obsessing about being the best Q*Bert player in history. It may only appeal to the people who are familiar with the 80’s underdog films, but there are jokes thrown in for everyone’.

FALLOUT

Action

The Cast: Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr., Hugo Weaving, Asia Argento, Chloe Sevigny, Ted Levine.

The Director: Richard Donner
The Screenwriter: Richard Franzwa

The Plot: In a future world, years after a nuclear holocaust, civilization has struggled to reform itself.

In Junktown, one of the larger settlements in the wastes, three groups vie for control of the town. Killian (Robert Downey Jr) fights to uphold the rights of the post-war populous, while Clocker (Hugo Weaving) believes that the strongest should rule the weak. The third group are known as the Skulls, a vicious gang lead by Deadmeat (Asia Argento), who enforce their will on anyone and everyone.

One day a stranger arrives in town (Hugh Jackman) just looking for a little rest after having fought his way across the desert. Against his will, he gets pulled into the struggle and for reasons known only to himself, he sides with Killian. He resolves the problem in the only way he knows how ... brute force.

Chloe Sevigny and Ted Levine play supporting characters.


Stark’s Comment: Franzwa also wants to give it a try to pc games based movies. An action show in the line of previous CMP’s releases. Veteran director Richard Donner gives it a touch of class. Maybe it is not too original, but I have no doubt it will work nicely in box office.


DR. JONES AND THE CURSED TREASURE: Naomi Watts, not seen in CMP since ‘Corsairs’ and its sequel, finally returns to the Studio and to pirates’ land, playing the accomplice of the main villain of the function, who will be played by no other than Tim Roth, recently seen in ‘Chrysalis: Pennies From Hell’.


THE SIXTH AVENUE CASTAWAYS: The new James Bradley’s story will only have two characters, the two only survivors of human extinction, obliged to live together in an empty New York City. And those characters will be played by John Cusack – returning to a lead role after a few supporting ones in movies like ‘A Man Called Dan’ – and the GMA multi-nominated Scarlet Johansson, whose last work for the Studio was ‘The Holders’. Cusack and Johansson have worked together previously in ‘Hollyweird’ and Scarlet has also starred before in another Bradley’s pitch, ‘Paperback Stories’.

LIEUTENANT USA AND HIS WARM STEEL GANG 2: Cast of villains to be completed: Seth Rogen and Chris Rock – who played the same character’s white and black version in past Season’s release ‘Black Guys’ – meet again here to face Lieutenant USA. Also, among the group of villains will be heard Robin Willians, who lends his voice to and old and wise computer. By the way, top model Naomi Campbell makes a cameo in the movie.

THE AVENGERS 2: The announced sequel of ‘The Avengers’ is here. In fact, it is said that some of its sequences were already shot by director Gore Verbinski during the filming of the original movie. Matt Kubrick is again behind the screenplay and CMP expects to overcome the nice box office of 99 millions from the first movie.

PREACHER: It is known that Colin Farrell refused the offer from CMP to play a minor character in this production. Producers have been looking for a nice replacement and finally the chosen one has been Josh Hartnett, previously seen in CMP in the movies ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ and ’22:10’. Hartnett will play a most peculiar character here: an irish vampire whose main hobby are hard liquors.

THE THINKING MAN: GMA Winner Jim Carrey (‘Carousel’, ‘A Standing Eight’, ‘Only In America’) plays the lead character of the new David Mamet’s movie: the thinking man of the title, described as ‘a thinker, not a doer’, who might feel obliged to turn into an acting man after losing his job.

THE FUNERAL DRUM: Jeffrey Wright is making his debut in CMP playing the villain of this movie. Wright will play the boss of a drug traffic organization who pretends to be a human rights social leader. The first victim of his media campaign will be Ryan Gosling (‘Dakota North’, ‘London Underground’, ‘Quadrophenia’), a cop accused of murdering an innocent kid.

THE NAKED SUN: CMP confirms that we are in one of those sequelmania Seasons. This one is the sequel to the sci-fi thriller directed by Danny Boyle ‘The Caves Of Steel’, that made a decent box office of 83 millions (with very good net gains of 68 millions). Again, Steve Connors has written the screenplay based on Isaac Asimov’s books. Boyle, who has recently directed ‘The Running Man’, won’t return behind the cameras. But, in front of them, will return Bruce Willis, playing detective Elijah Baley, and Paul Bettany, as his humanoid buddy.

CIVILIZATION M: He already played the US President in the classic action movie ‘Air Force One’. And he is returning to the oval office in this one. Harrison Ford (‘Cursed Neverland’, the McMillan & Wife movies) will face the alien invasion from the White House. Now, rumours say that Barry Sonnenfeld might leave the director’s seat due to ‘creative differences’ with the Studio. Rumours say that Ford has said to Harry Stark that his director in the McMillan’s movies, Ron Howard, could be a nice replacement.

PATERNAL NIGHTMARE: Jack Black, almost finished his work in the sequel of Lieutenant USA, proves the benefits of winning a Best Actor GMA winner. Josh Collins has written for him this family comedy that will take him back to a lead role in CMP after ‘Life and Facts of a Dirty Mind’.


A GUIDE TO WILD CARDS CHARACTERS

With four mainstream episodes and two spin offs, the CMP’s Wild Cards Universe – based on George R.R. Martin's book and written by Matt Kubrick and Joey Stark - is getting wider and wider and more and more complex. Loyal fans religiously follow this saga of humans with their ADN mutated after a global virus and turned into Jokers and Aces, depending if they got deformities or – some times ridiculous – superpowers.

The Wild Cards movies, although never get to be major blockbusters, have become an obliged reference for CMP. All Hollywood stars love to play one of these freak characters and directors like Michael Bay, Quentin Tarantino, Alexander Aja, Guillermo Del Toro, McG or David Fincher have got involved in the saga.

So, now that the fourth episode is released, here goes a guide of characters for all the lovers of this wild and crazy franchise. The characters, the talents that play them, the movies where the character has appeared and a brief description…

THE MOVIES

WILD CARDS (Season 2)
WILD CARDS: ACES HIGH (Season 3)
WILD CARDS: ACE IN THE HOLE (Season 5)
YEOMAN (Season 6)
CHRYSALIS: PENNIES FROM HELL (Season 7)
WILD CARDS: DOUBLE SOLITAIRE (Season 8)


DOCTOR TAYCHON
Who: Kenneth Branagh
Where: Wild Cards / Aces High / Ace In The Hole / Double Solitaire
He is: An alien come to Earth to study the virus that mutated the ADN of all human begins. Friend of Popinjay, helps to maintain peace against all kind of enemies both on Earth and his own planet.

CHRYSALIS
Who: Angelina Jolie / Eva Green
Where: Wild Cards / Aces High / Yeoman / Chrysalis
She is: A Joker. Runs a nightclub in Jokertown. Manages all kind of confidential information. Friend of Fortunato and lover of Yeoman. She can be seen thru skin at will. Murdered by Ti Malice.

POPINJAY
Who: Bruce Willis
Where: Wild Cards / Aces High / Ace In The Hole / Chrysalis
He is: Private investigator. For a while, he suffered a genetic mix with Chrysalis. Good friend of Dr. Taychon and Yeoman.

PUPPETMAN
Who: John Travolta
Where: Wild Cards / Aces High / Ace In The Hole
He is: Senator working on becoming US President. Insane and evil, he is taken down by the group of superheroes (Golden Boy and the rest) after murdering his wife.

PUPPETMAN’S WIFE
Who: Sharon Stone
Where: Aces High / Ace In The Hole
She is: The wife of Puppetman was the first one to notice her husband was becoming someone dangerous. She was murdered by him.

FORTUNATO
Who: Matt Dillon
Where: Wild Cards / Aces High / Ace In The Hole / Chrysalis
He is: A pimp. Gets superpowers from having sex with women. He chases the Astronomer. For a while, he lived as a monk in Tibet but then returned to NYC to rule a geisha’s business.

YEOMAN
Who: Samuel L. Jackson / Viggo Mortensen
Where: Wild Cards / Aces High / Yeoman
He is: An Ace. His pregnant wife was murdered by General Kien Phuc after the Vietnam War. He then killed Kien Phuc. Uses an arrow. He was Chrysalis lover. After her murder, he is looking for revenge.

THE ASTRONOMER
Who: Ian McKellen / Jeremy Irons
Where: Aces High / Chrysalis
He is: Leader of a strange cult of Masonic insects called The Swarm. His cult was defeated in a big battle. Then, he became a serial killer. Gets younger every time he murders.

JUBE
Who: John Travolta
Where: Aces High
He is: An alien that looks like a walrus. Fought against The Swarm and helped to defeat them.

GOLDEN BOY
Who: Elijah Wood
Where: Ace In The Hole / Double Solitaire
He is: An ace. When he uses his superpowers is surrounded by a golden like glow. Killed in the Amazon.

MODULAR MAN
Who: Dwayne Johnson
Where: Ace In The Hole / Double Solitaire
He is: A battle android. Destroyed in the Amazon.

PEREGRINE
Who: Liv Tyler
Where: Ace In The Hole / Double Solitaire
She is: A beauty and host of a late night show. Survivor of the group of superheroes.

TURTLE
Who: Jason Schwartzman
Where: Ace In The Hole / Double Solitaire
He is: An Ace that lives inside of a giant shell. Survivor of the group of superheroes.

YEOMAN’S WIFE
Who: Rachel McAdams
Where: Yeoman
She is: Pregnant Yeoman’s wife murdered by General Kien Phuc.

GENERAL KIEN PHUC
Who: Jet Li
Where: Yeoman
He is: Yeoman’s enemy since Vietnam War. Leader of the criminal gang The Shadow Fists. Murder of Yeoman’s wife and killed by Yeoman.

HIRAM WORCHESTER
Who: Tim Roth
Where: Chrysalis
He is: An Ace owner of the fancy restaurant ‘Aces High’. Killed Chrysalis when his body was possessed by Ti Malice. His lover, Water Lily, was killed by The Astronomer. Now he looks for revenge together with Yeoman.

WATER LILY
Who: Gong Li
Where: Chrysalis
She is: One of Fortunato’s geishas. Worchester’s lover. Murdered by The Astronomer.

TI MALICE
Who: Don Cheadle
Where: Chrysalis
He is: A strange creature that leaves as a parasite of other people that uses as his ‘mount’. Killen Chrysalis using Worchester’s body.

THE WRAITH
Who: Megan Fox
Where: Double Solitaire
She is: An Ace that can turn invisible and move thru walls.

DOCTOR TAYCHON’S BROTHER
Who: Keneth Branagh
Where: Double Solitaire
He is: An alien that fights in a civil war trying to rule his planet.


What has happened after all the hype around the 200 releases and the list of the 10 favorites CMP’s movies? Confidential sources tell me that this celebration has become a headache for some CMP’s executives. The Studio has already produced a videoclip to commemorate the 200 releases. But they don’t know yet where or how to show it. After all those problems, Harry Stark has demanded a plan B: putting up a special gala to present the 10 favorite films. But time keeps passing by and no final decision has been taken yet: gala or video? Meanwhile, we keep advancing to the 300 releases…

It is funny how some stars have a great career outside CMP and are ignored in CMP’s universe… or vice versa. Cameron Diaz is a good example of that. Out of CMP, she is quite a big name in Hollywood. Inside CMP, we hardly get more than her voice in animated features. Other examples: Renne Zellwegger, a demanded talent out there, has not made her debut yet in the Studio (although I’ve heard that will happen soon). The other way around, Michelle Trachtenberg looks as a more solid star in CMP than out of it. A lot of examples could be given in one direction or the other. That only proves that CMP has its own life, rules and circumstances… and that’s precisely why we all love it!

My friends at CMP – who never want to give their names – tell me that ‘The Funeral Drum’ is not the first team work for James Bradley and Joey Stark, although it is the first one officially signed by both. Stark has always helped a bit Bradley with his screenplays, translating them to English mainly, as behind Bradley’s name hides a non-english speaking author. Both feel very satisfied with their first co-written screenplay and are planning to keep writing some more movies together.

A tough negotiation is going on in CMP’s offices. ‘The Avengers 2’ has already been green lighted. But nobody knows yet who will be playing a new addition to his franchise: The Incredible Hulk. The people at CMP want Edward Norton to be Hulk again – as they did with Robert Downey Jr. and Ironman – but Norton has not said yes yet. Rumours say that a huge amount of money could be offered to Norton to convince him.

So here comes another Wild Cards episode… - yawn… I mean, great! – and I still wonder why everyone loves so much this strange saga that sometimes look as a parody of superhero movies… Anyway, CMP is already planning the next spin off. The question is: will it be a sequel to ‘Yeoman’ or to ‘Chrysalis: Pennies From Hell’? Joey Stark, who will be writing it, is trying to mix the storyline of both productions in just one movie that would be a kind of sequel to both. And I wonder if we have to stand and applaud for that…