OCTOBER, 17


THE NAKED SUN

Sci-Fi / Crime

The Cast: Bruce Willis, Paul Bettany, Uma Thurman, Ian Holm, Guy Pierce, Joe Pesci

The Director: Brett Ratner
The Screenwriter: Steve Connors

The Plot: Based on Isaac Asimov’s book.

Rikaine Delmarre, a prominent scientist of Planet Solaria (one of the Outer Worlds) has been murdered. The crime is a shock for Solarian government as they suspect robots could be involved in it, which is not possible according to the Three Laws Of Robotic (basically, never cause harm or kill human beings). So they ask to Earth’s government to help them with this unbelievable crime sending an investigator experienced in human and androids relationships. Detective Elijah Bailey (B.Willis) seems to be the right man for the job, due to his experience as one of the very few policemen that has ever had a robot - R. Daneel Olivaw (P. Bettany) - as a partner (see ‘The Caves Of Steel’). So Bailey an Daneel are sent to Solarian.

Solaria is a most peculiar society. The planet has a rigidly controlled population of twenty-thousand, and robots outnumber humans ten-thousand to one. People are strictly taught from birth to despise personal contact. They live on huge estates, either alone or with their spouse only. All communications are done exclusively via holographic telepresence. Delmarre, the victim, was so extreme defender of this way of life that even his wife, although living in the same house than him, rarely contacted him personally and he had not had direct personal contact with any other human being for decades.

There, Bailey and Daneel meet Gladia (U.Thurman), the victim’s beautiful wife; R. Wilbur Lahmar (G.Pearce), Delmarre’s favourite robot, that worked for him as a kind of butler; an Dr. Jothan Leebig (I.Holm), a robotocist colleague of Delmarre and his closest friend, although they had not seen each other personally for years.

Who killed Delmarre and why?

Bailey and Daneel’s investigations take them to discover that Leebig is working in a way of subverting the robots’ inhability to kill humans with the intention of using robots to fight wars. Leebig had talked Delmarre about this secret project and Delamarre – a good man with strong ethics and principles - was strongly opposed to it. In fact, Delmarre was considering denouncing Leebig to Solaria’s government. So it becomes evident for Bailey and Daneel that Leebig killed Delmarre before he alerted the Government. But Leebig and Delmarre never had personal contact with other humans. So, then, how could he kill Delmarre?

Bailey and Daneel start to suspect of Lahmar – Delmarre’s robot. Leebig could have worked on him according to his project to allow him kill humans. When Daneel interrogates Lahmar, the robot suffers a surprising attack of aggressiveness. Lahmar tries to kill Daneel. Both humanoids fight until Daneel finally kills Lahmar on self-defence.

After that, they go to see Leebig. They burst onto his home. As Delmarre, Leebig had not had personal contact with humans for years. When they tell him he is under arrest, Leebig is so feared of having human contact that kills himself.

So the crime seems to be solved: Leebig manipulated Lahmar to kill Delmarre so Delmarre would not alert authorities about Leebig’s plan to alter the Three Rules Of Robotic.

But, when Bailey and Daneel are ready to return to Earth, a mysterious little man (J.Pesci) visits them. He tells them he works for Solaria’s secret services. The man tells he does not agree with what Solaria’s government is doing lately. The man tells them that Solaria’s Government knew about Leebig’s investigations. In fact, the government was supporting and financing his works as they wanted to have robots ready to fight and kill humans just in case any war had to be declared against any other Outer World. The man says he believes in the Three Rules and that’s why he tells Bailey and Daneel so they can alert about this to Earth’s government. Surprisingly, the man mentions a secret meeting he had to talk about all this with Gladia, Delmarre’s wife.

Bailey and Daneel decide to visit Gladia. And, talking with her, Daneel realizes of something so surprising: Gladia is not human. She is a robot. When he tells her, Gladia admits she is a humanoid. Not even Delmarre knew she was a robot. She has always worked for Solaria’s Secret Service. They sent her to meet, seduce and marry Delmarre to control his investigations. And Leebig manipulated her to alter the Three Rules in her.

So it wasn’t Lahmar who killed Delmarre. It was Gladia, manipulated by Leebig.

Discovered, Gladia points a gun at Bailey. But Daneel shoots his gun first and kills her. ‘Thank you for saving my life’, tells Bailey to Daneel. ‘That is what the Three Rules were made for’, answers Daneel.

The movie ends.


Stark’s Comment: Sequel of ‘The Caves Of Steel’ (B.O.: 83 mill, Net Gains: 68 mill.). Also based on Isaac Asimov’s novel. But Connors has made some changes in the storyline of the book to introduce some more action in the plot. Visually appealing, it can be considered as an attempt to make sci-fi for adults and not just a flashy FXs show. It should work decently in box office.

CHANGE OF HEART

Drama

The Cast: Cillian Murphy, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Ariel Gade, Melissa McCarthy, Mark Ruffalo, Clea Duvall, Joseph Fiennes

The Director and Screenwriter: Josh Collins

The Plot: From the author Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart tells the story of a freelance carpenter, Shay Bourne (C.Murphy) convicted of murdering a young girl and her police officer stepfather. He is given the death sentence by a jury. Now, eleven years later he is on death row and only a few months away from his execution. But when he arrives on I-Tier in a Concord New Hampshire prison, strange things happen such as an aids infected inmate, Lucious (M.Ruffalo), goes into remissions. Another fellow inmate's pet bird is brought back to life. The water on I-Tier is changed from water to wine, etc. Lucious is convinced there is something special about his inmate neighbor.

Michael (P.Wilson) was a college aged student who served on the jury that sentenced Shay to death, and now Michael is a priest who eventually serves as Shay's "spiritual adviser" and even he eventually becomes convinced that Shay could be a reincarnation of Jesus when he witnesses a prison guard murdered and brought back to life in Shay's presence. Michael also finds out that Shay is completely innocent. He killed the stepfather in self defense when Shay found the officer was molesting his stepdaughter. The young girl only got in the way and it was an accident. Even though he's innocent, he doesn't want the priest or his lawyer, Maggie (M.McCarthy), to tell anyone of his innocence and to let him be executed.

He wants to donate his heart to the family of the victims, one being Claire (A.Gade), the young girl who needs a heart to live and June (J.Connelly), her mother. Claire wasn't born the time of the murders, but June was 8 months pregnant when they happened. At first they don't want to accept the offer, but time is running short and it's been nearly impossible for Claire to get a perfect match for a new heart. Shay's heart however, is surprisingly the perfect match.

It's Shay's younger sister (C.Duvall) who convinces June to allow Shay to donate his heart. A victim of a house fire that people originally thought Shay started because he took the bullet for his sister who was the culprit (she wanted their foster dad to suffer for violating her)

Maggie's involvement in the film is that she is a lonely overweight lawyer from ACLU whose comes to terms with the idea that her pet rabbit, Oliver is the only male she'll be in contact with. Until she is wooed in by an English doctor (J.Fiennes). Maggie also wants to arrange the death sentence for Shay to have an alternative form of carrying out his execution. Instead of lethal injection which is designed to stop the heart, a hanging could happen and after Shay would be hanged, he could be immediately sent to the nearby hospital to perform the heart transplant.

The judge in the trial allows the form of execution to be done by hanging. But at some point during the trial taking place, Shay began losing hope and in turn, the miracles he performed were just flukes. The bird dies, Lucious dies after his aids reappear, and all the while there is question whether or not Shay is a messiah or just a crazy murderer rousing sympathy.

By the end of the film, Shay is executed, Claire gets the heart she needs, June learns to forgive, Maggie will be fine with the man who loves her no matter what she looks like and Michael continues with the church.

The final moments of the film show Claire in her own point of view after being the support in June's subplot as she discovers that her dog Dudley is not showing a sign of life in him. Claire cradles the dog in her arms and a closeup of the dog's eye is shown when he opens it.

credits begin


Stark’s Comment: Based on Jodi Picault’s best seller, a peculiar story about a convict in death row who can make miracles and whose heart could save his victim’s sister life. A thought-provoking drama. I like the premise so much. And I am so curious about how it will work in box office as it is an obvious ‘hit or miss’ bet.

THE MANOR

Mystery

The Cast: Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Steve Martin, Emma Thompson

The Director: David Lynch
The Screenwriter: Richard Franzwa

The Plot: The movie opens up with a couple (Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Jason Leigh) getting out of a car and walking in the front door of a mansion overlooking Puget Sound. They are greeted by the butler (Steve Martin) and the maid (Emma Thompson) who both seem normal and see to it that the couple are comfortable.

When Jennifer decides to looks around the house she's followed by small cloaked figures who scurry in the background, but always seem to find cover whenever she looks towards them. While she's busy, Kevin takes a look around the grounds and the forest surrounding the mansion. As he walks through the forest he finds an overgrown cemetery, as he looks at some gravestones the camera draws attention to two buried deep in the overgrowth that contain the names of the butler and the maid.

Dinner time comes and the couple are waited on by the servants with the maid cooking and the butler serving the meal. When Steve and Emma are in the presents of the couple they speak English but when they are alone together they speak in an inhuman tongue.

That night, as the couple read in the library, something creeps out of the forest and spies on them through the window. While the couple are sleeping, the little cloaked figures come out of the bedroom closet and studies them while they sleep.

In the morning the car that dropped them off arrives, they get in and it drives away while the Butler and the Maid look on passively.

Throughout the movie, Kevin and Jennifer never talk to each other only to the Butler or the Maid, and they don't seem to notice that their being haunted.


Stark’s Comment: Did I say I’m curious about ‘Change Of Heart’? Well, I am absolutely intrigued about how this one will turn out. Lynch can do the best and the worst and audiences may love or completely hate this strange story. The kind of movie oriented to a minority audience that may become either a cult product or a forgettable rarity.


NETCHASERS: Philip Seymour Hoffman makes his second movie of the Season after ‘Dr. Jones and the Cursed Treasure’, now playing the villain, a man capable of manipulating almost all computers of the world. Facing him, Reese Witherspoon (‘The Women Club’, ‘Cursed Neverland’, ‘The Shrinking Man’, ‘Babes In Toyland’) returns to CMP as the Special Agent in charge of stopping him with the help of Nicholas Cage.

THE CRITIC: Two more cameos playing themselves in this Rob Reiner’s comedy about a frustrated screenwriter that becomes a movie critic. And two big ones. Will Smith, whose last release for CMP was the last Best Picture GMA winner ‘Only in America’, and Julia Roberts, recently seen in ‘The Funeral Drum’.

MALEFICARUM: Kevin Costner does not seem to be anymore the big star he used to be. He has only worked for CMP once, playing the villain of the successful ‘Legend Of The Last Lawman’. Now, he returns to CMP with another minor character in this one, also a villain: the magistrate that enacts a witch hunt. Sophia Coppola keeps shooting this appealing production in locations in Scotland.

LOBO’S BACK: God and the Devil have been seen before in CMP. They were played by Queen Latifah and John Malkovich in the comedy ‘Styx and Stones’. This time, they will be digitally generated characters in this production. And they will have the voices of Samuel L. Jackson (God) and GMA Winner Christopher Lee (Satan). Lee’s voice was previously heard this Season in ‘Bullet Witch’. And he has worked before with Robert Rodriguez in ‘Return Of The Last Lawman’.

THE CHINESE BRIDE: Some big names complete the cast of this James Bradley’s courtroom drama. GMA Winner Michael Douglas (heard in ‘Bullet Witch’ but not seen in CMP since ‘The Heirs – Part 3’) plays Matt Damon’s boss. Gene Hackman, whose last work for CMP was ‘Omega’, plays the judge. And Harvey Keitel (‘The Little Sister’, ‘Crooks’) will be the prosecutor.

DRAWING DEAD: ‘3’s and 7’s’ has been the most acclaimed work from Quentin Tarantino in CMP. The movie did not reach a great box office, but it was surprisingly included in the recent list of the alltimes ten favourite CMP’s movies. Now, as announced, here is the sequel written by David Makalaster. Quentin Tarantino returns behind the cameras and Orlando Bloom returns in front of them.

THE DARK TOWER: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE: Another sequel coming up on Season 9. Here is the second episode of Matt Kubrick’s saga based on Stephen King’s books. This time, the plot splits in three different stories. Sam Raimi, director of the first movie, has been confirmed as the director of this sequel too.

BIRD OF THE FEATHER: CMP’s Animation Department has already started working on this production. But the Studio has confirmed there are certain delays (see ‘The Inner Circle’ below for more info) so they have not confirmed yet any talent involved in this animated feature, although production goes on and there is no intention of cancelling it.

SYNDROME: END OF DAYS: More returns to the closing chapter of the zombies saga. Abigail Breslin, already seen this Season in ‘The Running Man’, will fight trying to escape from the zombies after being captured in the previous movie. Thomas Haden Church, whose last work for CMP was the blockbuster ‘Faction 12’, returns too as the violent Vietnam Vet.

LYING WISH: Josh Collins already took a look at Hollywood’s world with ‘Hollyweird’. Now, he returns to Tinseltown with this comedy that joins what could be called as the ‘inside Hollywood genre’ (let’s remember here not only ‘Hollyweird’ but also ‘Life and Facts of a Dirty Mind’, ‘Celebutantes’ or the upcoming ‘The Critic’). Mark Waters directs.


Paul Bettany / Jennifer Connelly

They are not only two solid regular stars in CMP but also a solid married couple. Both have a wonderful career in CMP and their names have been attached to quite a few major hits from the Studio. And this week, they will compete in theatres with the release of their new works for CMP. Bettany will be again the humanoid buddy of Bruce Willis in ‘The Naked Sun’ while Connelly plays a caring mother in the drama ‘Change Of Heart’. So it all stays in the family and this week we take a look at the Bettany-Connelly family works in CMP.

FILMOGRAPHY

THE CRUSADES (Paul Verhoeven, B.O.: 199 mill.): Connelly makes her debut in CMP with this successful historical epic adventure playing Ethan Hawke and Kiefer Sutherland’s love interest. The first movie to win the Best Picture GMA. A wonderful beginning for Jennifer.

TALES OF THE JEDI (Peter Jackson, B.O.: 12 mill.): Bettany was involved in one of the most legendary disasters of CMP. This new vision of the Star Wars universe was a complete and unpredictable failure. A horrible beginning for Paul.

HITMAN (Tony Scott, B.O.: 99, 125, 93 mill.): Bettany’s career resurrected playing the intimidating villain of the three first movies of the Hitman franchise. He was the evil guy that tortured sweet Keira, crucified poor John Hurt and killed good old Patrick Stewart. A villain to remember.

SMOKE SIGNALS (David Mamet, B.O.: 29 mill.): Connelly chose as her second work for the Studio this low budget drama. She made a wonderful job playing a brokenhearted woman trying to forget her dead boyfriend. The reward? Jennifer took home the GMA for Best Actress.

DIVE IN THE SUN (Michael Mann, B.O.: 53 mill.): Bettany teamed up with Ewan McGregor, Orlando Bloom and Hugh Jackman in this classic ‘commando adventure’ production. A quality action production that did not succeeded as much as it deserved in box office.

THE GUARDIANS (Ridley Scott, B.O.: 160 mill.): Connelly returned to big budget productions with this Scott and Spielberg’s sci-fi adventure where she suffered watching how her beloved Tom Cruise turned into an evil guy. A blockbuster for Jennifer here.

THREE WOODEN CROSSES (Billy Bob Thornton, B.O.: 16 mill.): And then Connelly went back to low budget productions. This adaptation of a standard country song is the only movie with net losses Jennifer has worked in.

THE CAVES OF STEEL (Danny Boyle, B.O: 83 mill.): Bettany was the perfect choice to play Bruce Willis’ buddy in this sci-fi thriller, a humanoid with a positronic brain but very human feelings. Wonderful acting work by Bettany.

GAME BOY 2: WARLANDS (Robert Zemeckis, B.O.: 265 mill.): Bettany joined the group of pc and console games villains that face Daniel Radcliff. The movie is still the alltimes box office top 2.

THE NAKED SUN (Brett Ratner, awaiting release): Bettany returns in this sequel of ‘The Caves Of Steel’. His character has gained presence in the story. And a proof of his growing prestige is that his name now appears in the movie poster together with Bruce Willis.

CHANGE OF HEART (Josh Collins, awaiting release): Connelly keeps mixing big and low budget productions. This time, she has chosen again a dramatic character to return to CMP after a rest and there is already GMA buzz around her work in the movie.


Uma Thurman returns this week to CMP after her Best Actress GMA nomination for her daring work in ‘Life and Facts of a Dirty Mind’. Uma has not been very lucky in CMP. After four movies for the Studio, three of them have been severe flops (‘Hot Iron’, ‘Outer Eye’ and ‘Life and Facts…’) and only one of them has been successful (‘Legend Of The Last Lawman’). In ‘The Naked Sun’, Uma plays the wife of a murder victim. Her character tries to hide that she is in fact an android. But, at the end, the truth is revealed. And Uma’s android nature is put in evidence, as we can see in this promo picture from the movie (courtesy of Worth1000).



Battle of the stars. ‘Maleficarum’ is an appealing production any star would be interested to work in. In fact, the lead female role, the loving wife accused of being a witch, is probably the most appetizing female character of the Season. And Nicole Kidman has proved that. For what I know, David Makalaster’s original intention was having Charlize Theron playing the character. But when the screenplay felt in Kidman’s hands, she liked it so much that directly asked – or should I say begged? – Harry Stark to give her the work. Nicole also insisted to director Sofia Coppola and writer David Makalaster… and although Charlize had already accepted the offer, they finally decided that it would be Kidman the chosen one. So CMP has had to indemnify Theron, who had already signed a contract, and Nicole will star the movie. Kidman and Theron worked together in ‘The Heirs – Part 3’. Why do I have the feeling that they won’t accept working together again?

Joey Stark has recently confirmed that next Season a new Wild Cards spin off will be released. Stark, who already wrote ‘Chrysalis: Pennies From Hell’, has stated that it will be his last screenplay for this franchise. ‘I think that a trilogy of spin offs is enough’, has said. The new movie will try to be a sequel of both ‘Yeoman’ and ‘Chrysalis’ and to close the story of the characters involved. ‘I want to concentrate in the future in another project, ‘Silver Sable’, which I hope will become a new franchise for the Studio’, said Stark. About the future of the Wild Cards franchise, Harry Stark’s younger brother only said: ‘I think seven movies is pretty enough. But I don’t know Matt Kubrick’s plans about it.’

Well, I know some Kubrick’s plans. Also next Season, CMP expects to release a new adventure of Sherlock Holmes written by him. Although other Hollywood’s Majors have announced the development of new movies based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary character, Kubrick wants to offer his own vision of the British detective. Tim Burton has already accepted to direct the movie and it is rumoured that his fetish star, Johnny Depp, could play Holmes himself.

And some more plans I know from Kubrick. Here is what he has recently said in an interview about other one of his recreations, ‘Preacher’:
‘Everyone here at CMP is happy about the results of Preacher at the box office and with how it sold on DVD. I'm happy to report that I've been given the greenlight to write the next one. It will be titled Preacher 2: All American Family In the next one you will meet Jesse's evil grandmother Jody his Grandma's enforcer and his partner T.C. God will also make an appearance in the second feature. Meanwhile Cassidy will be off on his own adventure in New York city. It's going to be much darker than the first movie with a lot of twists and turns and I can't wait till you all can watch it.’

The upcoming ‘The Chinese Bride’ has among its main appeals a few steamy explicit sex scenes between Matt Damon and Ziyi Zhang. Rumours say that the movie will show some of the hottest scenes ever seen in a CMP’s movie. But I have a secret to reveal (and I know Harry Stark will want to kill me for revealing it). It won’t really be Zhang the one you will see nude on screen. As it previously happened in other Zhang’s movie, ‘The Banquet’, Chinese actress Shao Xiaoshan has substituted her in the nude scenes. As an appetizer of what you’ll see in the movie, here is a pic of Shao.


Does anyone remember ‘Happy Hamsters’? Yes, it was an animated feature directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis for CMP before his success with the Game Boy movies. Well, the experience was so bad for Zemeckis that now, although he initially accepted to, he has surprisingly refused CMP’s offer to direct the upcoming animated production, ‘Bird Of The Feather’. So now the Studio is urgently looking for someone to replace Zemeckis as the production has already been green lighted and is ready to be developed.