NOVEMBER, 28


SILVER SABLE

Action / Superhero

The Cast: Katherine Heigl, Tim Robbins, Anthony Hopkins, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen Dorff, Sam Elliott. Cameo by Robert Downey Jr.

The Director and Producer: Bryan Singer
The Screenwriter: Joey Stark

The Plot: The Sablinova family is composed by Ernst Sablinova (S.Elliott), his wife and their daughter Silver, the future Silver Sable (K.Heigl). They live happily in the State of Symkaria, an Eastern Europe nation close to Latveria. Ernst is a respected political authority. Working in conjuction with the government of Symkaria, he has been leading for years a group known as the Wild Pack, a group of professional soldiers – but no superheroes - whose job is to hunt down Nazi war criminals.

When Silver is still a little girl, she watches how her mother dies in her arms, victim of a terrorist attack. Since then, Sable decides to train willing to fight the kind of criminals that killed her mother. As she grows up, Sable becomes an extraordinary hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist, an expert marksman and swordsman, an accomplished gymnast and an accomplished leader and strategist. She is trained by her uncle and personal assistant, Morty (A.Hopkins).

When she reaches her twenties, her father mysteriously disappears and Silver inherits the leadership of the Wild Pack. Her only family now are uncle Morty and her young cousin Anna (AnnSophia Robb)– orphaned daughter of another one of her father’s brothers.

As the number of former Nazis has dwindled, Sable turns the focus of the Wild Pack more and more toward mercenary endeavors, until the group becomes the major source of outside income for Symkaria. The group apprehends wanted criminals and recovers stolen property for a wide spectrum of clients from major insurance companies to small nations.

Silver Sable and the Wild Pack are hired by a small South African country to neutralize the international terrorist Jason Macendale (T.Robbins), suspected of training rebel forces within the client’s borders. As they search for him in Africa, the group is ambushed by Macendale’s men and captured. Some of the Wild Pack’s soldiers are killed. Silver and the rest are taken prisoners. Macendale visits Silver in her cell and tells her he remembers her, he met her when she was a little girl… he saw her while her mother was dying in her arms. It was him who planned the terrorist attack that killed Silver’s mother.

Silver and her soldiers still alive get to escape from Macendale’s guardians and ran away. As his hideout in Africa has been discovered, Macendale disappears without a trace, so Silver’s mission was a partial success after all. But now Silver’s obsession is to capture Macendale’s, her mother’s murder.

While Macendale’s trace seems to be lost, Silver Sable is hired by New York City Council to apprehend the international jewel thief the Black Fox (S.Dorff) and to recover valuable gems in his possession. Silver and the Wild Pack move to New York.

During the course of their investigations, Sable becomes involved in a daylight robbery that resulted in the death of a young woman, an innocent bystander. The trial of Black Fox takes Silver to an abandoned building where the Black Fox is supposed to hide. There, Silver sees Black Fox exchanging the stolen jewels for money with a man. And the man is no other than Macendale, who turns to be Black Fox’s boss. The two men run away when they find out Silver and her soldiers are there. And Silver has to choose between capturing Macendale or Black Fox, the man she saw killing an innocent woman during the robbery. A responsive chord struck in Sable and she chooses to capture Black Fox, so Macendale gets to escape.

But Silver and the Wild Pack track Macendale to Coney Island Amusement Park. There, they suffer the surprising attack of a group of costumed criminals called the Sinister Syndicate – the Beetle, the Rhino, Hydro-Man, Boomerang and the Speed Demon -, who have been hired by Macendale to protect him.

The Sinister Syndicate easily defeats the Wild Pack. After all, it’s villains with different kind of superpowers against ordinary soldiers. The members of the Wild Pack are killed one after another until only Silver stays alive. It seems like the end has arrived for her.

Macendale tells the Sinister Syndicate to stay apart. He wants to kill Silver himself. So a one-to-one fight between Macendale and Silver begins.

But, suddenly, something interrupts it. Coming from nowhere, somebody has arrived to help Sable. It’s no other than Ironman (R.Downey Jr.). He faces the whole Sinister Syndicate and defeats them one by one. Meanwhile, Silver and Macendale go on with their personal fight.

At the end, Silver kills Macendale after a brutal fight.

When everything is over, Ironman and Silver talk. ‘Now, everything is over’, Silver tells him, ‘All my men have been killed. This is the end of the Wild Pack.’ But Ironman answers: ‘No, this is only a new beginning’.

And Ironman tells Silver he will introduce her to a group of people with ‘the most particular skills’ with whom she will be able to refund the Wild Pack, now prepared to face all kind of enemies. Intrigued, Silver decides to follow Ironman.


Stark’s Comment: At CMP we expect this release to be one of the big events from the Studio this Season. As you know, it is planned to be the beginning of a new franchise that would also connect with The Avengers saga. And I must add I would have never imagined my younger brother writing a superhero movie…

THE DARK TOWER:
THE DRAWING OF THE THREE

Action / Mistery

The Cast: Russell Crowe, Jake Gyllenhaal, Angela Bassett, Roy Winstone, Chazz Palminteri. Cameo by William Moseley.

The Director: Sam Raimi
The Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick

The Plot: Picking up hours after the end of the first movie we find Roland the gunslinger (R.Crowe) waking up at a beach just as he is attacked by a massive lobster from the sea. He manages to shoot it but he is severaly wounded. Continuing his trek along the beach he comes to three doors. Each door opens into New York city but in three different time periods. Each time he enters a door he will share the mind of somone else and will be forced to guide them into his world.

The first door 1980
Meet Eddie Dean (J.Gyllenhaal) a heroin addict and in trouble with a local gang. He is a drug runner who is smuggling cocaine for a man named Enrico Balazar (C.Palminteri). After a violent gun shootout involving some of Enrico's men whom Eddie is in trouble with, thinks this is all strange since he has never used a gun before in battle and soon comes to realize of the other person in his own mind. Eddie is soon guided into Roland’s world after bringing back some medicine for Roland's infection.

The Second Door 1960s
Meet Odetta Holmes (A.Bassett) a rich black woman who is in a wheel chair she is missing her legs from being pushed infront of a subway by a murderer who went free. She is in the midst of the civil rights movement. But Odetta has alot of problems she suffers from multiple personalities one moment she can be as sweet as can be and the next she is a vicious mean spirited lady. Roland must convince Odetta to come to his world.

The Third Door 60s and 90s
Roland will inhabit Jack Mort (R.Winstone) in different time periods and will learn how he is connected to both Odetta and Jake. He is the one that pushed Odetta infront of the subway and he also pushed Jake (W.Moseley) in front of a car which killed him and now Roland realizes what Jake meant when he said let me fall there are more worlds than this. In retribution for these violent acts Roland is able to fully control Jack's body and force him to jump in front of a subway causing his death.

In Rolands world he must deal with the distrust of Eddie who resents him and they feud quite a bit but together they must work together. Odetta holmes second violent personality is quite dangerous and despite having no legs will make several attempts to try and kill them both. She can be a highly intelligent and most dangerous person. But Eddie and Odetta start to fall in love. Roland makes Eddie help him perform a ritual that will force the two personalities together into a single mind who calls herself Susannah....and the tower is one step closer........


Stark’s Comment: I really like this saga. It is not exactly meant to be a succession of blockbusters but quality mystery and absorbing movies. Right before box office’s results come, I announce here that the Studio will green light at least one more Dark Tower’s production whatever happens financially with this release. That proves how strongly I support this franchise.

LYING WISH

Comedy

The Cast: Michael Cera, Dan Byrd, Alexis Bledel, Skye McCole Bartusiak

The Director: Mark Waters
The Screenwriter: Josh Collins

The Plot: Paul (M. Cera) is a dweeb. All he's ever done in his life is prove to the rest of his peers that he is a disappointing loser. In order to prove himself worthy of the time of day, he auditions for films and fails miserably. His only friend, Robbie(D. Byrd) convinces Paul to feign dying of cancer to get a film maker to feel pity for him and sign him as the lead role to fill Paul's dying wish.

It works! A cast and crew for a project take him in for their upcoming romance film where he meets and falls for his love interest in the film, Maria(A. Bledel). In order to keep his lie in tact, Paul constantly continues to keep his head bald. The media catches wind of Paul's illness and he becomes the biggest, bravest most lovable person in the country. Robbie helps keep Paul on his toes. In a funny scene between Paul and Marie, she decides to make love to him and he tries to convince her not to fearing she'll catch what he has and she's like 'it's not contagious'

Turns out Marie has a younger sister, Annie(S.M.Bartusiak) who has a cancer but she might make it through. When Paul finds out about this, he gets even more sympathetic, but Robbie still tries to keep Paul from spilling the beans. The film gets made and released and Paul even gets a nomination for an Oscar where he wins. And it's in his acceptance speech where he remorsefully tells the truth.

The most lovable person in the country now becomes the most hated. His Oscar is taken away, his best friend ditches him, his girlfriend and her sister want him dead. Paul decides to take all of the money he had earned in the film and open an organization specializing in helping children, teens and families dealing with cancer. Paul never sees Robbie again, and he tries to make amends with Maria, Annie, their family and he hopes to show the world that he realizes the error of his ways.


Stark’s Comment: I must be honest. I am not very sure if this little comedy will work in box office. I am an experienced producer by now and I know when we are dealing with a risky release. Well, production budget was pretty low, so it may not be so risky after all. We’ll see if it may become one of those surprising and nice ‘sleepers’…


THE LAND OF NOD: Two more starry names joining the cast of voices of this fantasy adventure directed and produced by Peter Jackson: Sean Connery, seen past Season making a cameo in ‘1066’, who will give the voice to an elderly knight, and Adam Sandler, whose only previous work for CMP was a minor role in the musical ‘Babes In Toyland’, lending his voice here to a wizard.

MARY’S DARK SIDE: Alec Baldwin, not seen in CMP since the end of the Captain America’s trilogy, plays Donald Sutherland’s son and Zach Braff’s father in this comedy. And Annette Bening (‘The Metal’) will be Baldwin’s sister and main enemy.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT: Jake Gyllenhaal, just finished his work in this week’s release ‘The Dark Tower: The Drawing Of The Three’, begins this shootage directed by Alexander Aja, leading a cast that producer Michael Bay pretends it to be a kind of homage reunion with stars that have worked in previous classic horror flicks. Nana Visitor – seen in the recent remake of ‘Friday, the 13th’ also produced by Bay -, Ian McShane and Karen Black are some of the names recovered for this remake. Together with them, a CMP’s star returns: Michelle Trachtenberg, a regular in Kubrick’s horror shows (‘Blood Beach’, ‘Darkman: Resurection’) has accepted to play Gyllenhaal’s girlfriend.

DARE TO BE PERFECT: Dayton and Faris have decided to recover the couple that starred their most famous movie, ‘Little Miss Sunshine’: Greg Kinnear and Abigail Breslin will be father and daughter in this acid comedy about a dysfunctional family. Laura Linney (‘Fear The Darkness’, ‘The Caves Of Steel’) plays Greg’s wife and Abigail’s mum.

HAIGHT-ASHBURY: As it was announced, a group of popular stars will play minor roles in this 60’s tale directed by Oliver Stone recreating main personalities from those days. First known: Tim Allen, right after his work in ‘Bond Scum’, will be here drugs guru Timothy Leary, while GMA Winner Jack Black will be Grateful Dead’s leader, Jerry Garcia.

BOND SCUM: Two starry cameos close the long cast of this parody directed by David Zucker and starred by Jim Carrey: Jude Law, not seen in CMP since his lead role in ‘Omega’, will play a British secret agent particularly similar to Bond himself, while the recent GMA Nominee, Nicole Kidman, has been also confirmed as another special appearance.

FLASHMAN’S TRAVELS: They worked together in ‘Dr. Jones And The Sword Of Faith’ and they will meet again in this one. Ewan McGregor joins this cast playing the heroic ‘White Rajah’, who becomes Flashy’s friend and shows him real bravery, while Aishwara Rai will be a mean Queen of Magadascar that will own Flashy as her slave… and lover.

BEDTIME STORIES: An innovative experience from Midnight Movies for CMP. ‘Bedtime Stories’, a new project written by Matt Kubrick, will tell three different short horror stories, each of them directed by a different talent. Kubrick himself directs one of them while the other two will have his good friends Eli Roth – director of the two Jason Vorhees’ movies written by Kubrick – and Alexander Aja – now directing ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ – behind the cameras. If this new kind of project works, Kubrick has the intention of developing future sequels with more short stories with guest directors. Sounds appealing.

THE GATHERING: SINISTER BLACK: David Makalaster is behind this fantasy adventure movie inspired by the cards game Yu-Gi-Oh. A high budget production that will mean the long awaited return of who used to be one of the most demanded stars in CMP a few Seasons ago: yes, GMA Winner Claire Danes is finally back! And, sitting in the director’s chair, another return: Martin Campbell, responsible of the two ‘Corsairs’ movies and the action comedy ‘Crooks’.

THE FLASH: Here comes another superhero to CMP. Dawson Edwards reappears in CMP proposing this movie based on the fastest superhero comic ever. According to CMP’s sources, this production will look closer to the original comics than to more realistic approaches like ‘The Avengers’. Antoine Fuqua (‘Get Christie Love!’) is the man chosen to direct it. And Joshua Jackson, who already starred the previous Edwards’ pitch ‘The Killing Run’, will be The Flash himself. It has also been known that some big names have rejected the offer to play a minor role in the movie: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Ziyi Zhang among them.


SILVER SABLE
By Joey Stark

I had wanted to try a superhero movie for long. I have written a couple of stories for the Wild Cards franchise, which is not exactly a superheroes story, and I had so much fun, so I decided to look for a more standard superhero to work on.

Why I chose Silver Sable? First, because I wanted to work on a female character. There are so many heroes in movies but not so many heroines. Second, because I wanted a secondary Marvel’s character, not someone already known but someone most of the audience would discover in the movie. And, last but not least, because I liked the fact that Silver is NOT really a superhero. I mean, she has no superpowers. All her skills come exclusively from hard training. I like that. In that sense, I see Silver closer to Lara Croft than to, let’s say, Wonder Woman.

And why Katherine Heigl? Very simple. She is sexy, she is young, she looks vulnerable and she has a strong screen presence. So she had all I wanted for the character. Silver does not look in the movie as extremely sophisticated as in the comic books, but still she dresses and looks so cool and sexy even in the toughest situations.

The movie respects some of the golden rules of a superhero movie. As every first episode does, it dedicates some time to show the origins of the character. In this case, those origins were really interesting, with that father creating a Nazis hunting organization and the death of her mother and all that training and so. After that first part, the movie pictures the traditional villain. But, as Silver, he is not a man with superpowers neither but a contemporary terrorist. Third, the storyline develops in its second half a few interesting events – the action set pieces at South Africa, the search for the jewel robber in New York, the connection between both events and then the final battle. And fourth, the movie establishes the basis for future sequels in case it works in box office, as all these movies do.

But there are novelties too. Mainly – besides the lack of superpowers in both the heroine and the villain which makes a difference from other movies of its kind -, the plot deals with real problems, particularly terrorism. It is not the crazed villain wanting to rule the world once again. Here, the villain is a terrorist that finances his organization with stolen jewels. Yes, there are supervillains involved in the final fight, but most of the movie is based on real life issues and not in superheroes usual conflicts. I like that too.

What about the future? Well, here is a superhero movie not starred by a superhero in the classic sense of it. If it works, I have plans for Silver. As you will see, the plot opens the door for different possible sequels. Discovering what has happened with Silver’s father is one of them. But there are many others. I already have in mind three possible storylines for the sequels.

And there is also the connection with the Avengers. Silver’s Wild Pack in this movie is not integrated by superheroes. But now Silver has met Ironman and he offers her a new option to rebuild her Wild Pack. Obviously, Ironman is not thinking in ordinary soldiers but in something else. That opens up the option to introduce quite a few more Marvel’s characters in future sequels. The sky is the limit here.


RUSSELL CROWE

Although not as active in CMP as other big stars, Russell Crowe has built up a solid career in CMP with a variety of characters and different types of productions that prove his adaptability to any kind of genres and characters. A look at his CMP’s career shows his will of not being typecast and the intelligence in his choices.

FILMOGRAPHY

CATHEDRAL (Peter Weir / James Bradley, B.O.: 131 mill.): Crowe’s debut in CMP was in a most peculiar adventure movie: the adventure of a man obsessed with the idea of building a gothic cathedral in the middle of the Africa’s savannah. Crowe, together with Merryl Streep and Charlize Theron, starred the movie. And he won the Best Actor GMA for it.

THE GUARDIANS (Ridley Scott / Steve Connors, B.O.: 160 mill.): After ‘Cathedral’, Crowe stayed a few Seasons away from CMP. But he returned to work with his friend Ridley Scott in this futuristic adventure produced by Steven Spielberg. Crowe was the good guy while Tom Cruise was the bad guy. A production designed to become a blockbuster. And it was. Second ‘100’ in Crowe’s career.

THE HOLDERS (Ridley Scott / David Makalaster, B.O.: 23 mill.): We all know by now Crowe is Ridley Scott’s favourite star. So it was not surprising that Scott asked him to play at least a minor role in his second work with Steven Spielberg as producer. Of course, Crowe said yes to his friend. And the movie – an esoteric thriller – flopped in box office although DVD market saved it from net losses. A disappointing movie that had it all to succeed but didn’t.

3’s AND 7’s (Quentin Tarantino / David Makalaster, B.O.: 65 mill.): Again, Crowe accepted a minor role, proving he has no ego problems. And he got two rewards. First, being part of a cult and critically acclaimed movie. And second, a GMA Nomination for Best Villain. It was a shame that his character could not return in the recent sequel ‘Drawing Dead’.

THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER (Sam Raimi / Matt Kubrick, B.O.: 79 mill.): First CMP’s franchise for Crowe. And a peculiar one. Nothing to do with superheroes or pc games adaptations. Stephen King’s mystery saga has Crowe as its main star. This first movie worked nicely at box office, with impressive net gains.

THE DARK TOWER: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE (Sam Raimi / Matt Kubrick, awaiting release): Crowe returns as the mysterious gunslinger. The first movie has increased its fans from its release and the Studio expects even a better box office this time. Kubrick has not confirmed how many movies will have this franchise but it seems like it guarantees the future presence of Crowe in CMP.


Comic adaptations have become one of the main lines of production for CMP. This week, the Studio releases one of its big bets for this Season, the big screen version of Marvel’s ‘Silver Sable’. As usual, the Studio has invested in marketing as much as in the movie production itself. And that marketing campaign includes a glamorous premiere in Los Angeles. Here are the star of the movie, Katherine Heigl, and the main villain of it, Tim Robbins, posing in front of a big poster of Silver Sable’s comics at the premiere.



Right when everybody thought that ‘The Killing Run’ would be the only and solitaire movie written by him, Dawson Edwards has resurrected surprising everyone at CMP with a package of pitches that may turn him soon into one of the most active CMP’s authors. According to CMP’s sources, Edwards has joined the superheroes-mania that seem to be suffering lately another screenwriters from the Studio, as he pretends taking to the big screen not only The Flash but also a wide group of classic comic and tv characters like Aquaman or Wonder Woman. Welcome to stay, Mr. Edwards.

But one of the pitches recently presented to CMP by Edwards won’t be developed. It is a big screen adaptation of the popular Xbox game ‘Gears Of War’. And why not? Cause Steve Connors had already presented a screenplay based on the very same game before. Connors pretends to adapt the game reuniting again director Michael Bay and star Will Smith, who have already worked together – besides the ‘Bad Boys’ movies – in CMP’s megahit ‘HF’. As this project is previous to Edwards’ proposal, the Studio has decided to develop it better.

Writers coming and writers missing… CMP has confirmed that there will not be any pitch written by Ben Tyler and John Daws in Season 9 as none of both have presented any screenplay to CMP lately. This will be the first CMP’s Season without a Daws movie and nobody at the Studio knows at this moment if this is a definitive retirement of both authors or just a rest.

As we all know by now, ‘Bond Scum’ will mean the reunion of a wide group of American comedians leaded by Jim Carrey. And it seems like GMA Winner Jim Carrey wants to make that perfectly clear. In fact, he has demanded to CMP that his name will be the only one to appear in the movie’s poster so his leadership is stated without any doubt… I love it when stars take out their egos for a walk…

From time to time, CMP decides to bet strongly for a movie and approve astronomical budgets to produce it. And it seems like ‘The Land Of Nod’, the new Peter Jackson’s production for the Studio, will meet Star Wars, Game Boy, Pompeii or Dungeons & Dragons, in the list of the most expensive CMP’s movies ever. It is said that the movie will count with the highest - and most sophisticated - number of digital effects ever seen in a CMP’s production. Usually, those bets have gone well for CMP as those mega-expensive productions have also become the top box office’s releases from the Studio. But the thrill of this kind of releases always increases with the risk of a financial disaster… specially if we remember what happened with ‘Tales Of The Jedi’, another Peter Jackson’s production.