DECEMBER, 4


DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON

Action / Superhero

The Cast: Cameron Diaz, Halle Berry, Ken Watanabe, Jet Li, Gong Li, Geral Okamura

The Director: McG
The Screenwriter: Joey Stark

The Plot:

Colleen Wing (C. Diaz) is a half american half japanese woman. She works as teacher of Asian Culture at Shanghai University. Her father was an American professor expert in Asian History who married a Japanese woman. Both parents died when she was a kid. She has grown up living with her maternal grandfather, Kenji Ozawa (Gerald Okamura). Kenji has always told her stories of their family’s ancestors, who were samurais. Also, Kenji has taught her the ways of samurais since she was a kid and Colleen is now very skilled in samurais’ meditation and fighting techniques.

One day, Kenji tells Colleen that he needs her help. Kenji reveals Colleen that he has been for years the head of the secret Golden Samurais Brotherhood, an ancient brotherhood that reunites and trains the descendants of old samurais. Now, the brotherhood has a problem: one of its most powerful and skilled members, Emil Vachon (J. Li), has disappeared. Last time he was seen, he was in New York, investigating the resurrection of another brotherhood, the Dark Samurais, an ancient order that has always used the powers of samurais for evil.

The Dark Samurais may have identified all the members of the Golden Samurais Brotherhood, so somebody new and unknown has to be sent to look for Vachon. Kenji has always kept Colleen apart of the Brotherhood to avoid her any danger. But now he needs her to find Vachon. Colleen accepts the mission.

Colleen flies to NYC. Upon arrival, she is assaulted by a gang of thugs. Luckily, a female police officer appears to help her and Colleen gets in the middle of a gun fight between the police officer and the thugs. The police officer that helps her is Misty Knight (H.Berry), who eventually becomes her new friend.

Misty agrees to help Colleen in her search of Vachon. Colleen’s grandfather told her to look for a woman named Lana Linn (G.Li), a sophisticated Japanese woman owner of an Asian ancient art gallery. Colleen and Misty visit her and discover nothing. But, that very same night, a quartet of ninjas assault Colleen at her hotel room and kidnap her.

Colleen is taken to the presence of a mysterious man dressed up with elegant traditional samurai’s clothes that introduces himself as Master Khan (K.Watanabe). Khan, surrounded by ninjas, asks her what is she looking for in New York. When Colleen refuses to answer, she is tortured by being introduced in a tank full of scorpions.

Meanwhile, Misty is looking for her. She follows Linn and watches her meeting with Master Khan in an apparently abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn. Misty gets into the warehouse and finds Colleen there. Once Colleen is free, Misty puts a bomb in the warehouse to help them run away from the ninjas that are there. But before they can leave the warehouse, the ninjas discover them. They have a big fight. The bomb explodes before they can leave the warehouse. Colleen and Misty hardly survive to the explosion. Misty is severely injured. Colleen helps her to escape and take her to a hospital.

Misty’s right arm has to be amputated. It is replaced by a bionic steel arm. Due to the amputation, her chief informs Misty that sadly she cannot be a police officer anymore.

A man visits them at Misty’s hospital room. He introduces himself as Emil Vachon (J.Li), the man Colleen was looking for. Vachon tells them that he faked to have disappeared to get rid of Master Khan’s ninjas. But the truth is that he was close to capture Master Khan, who is in fact the leader of the Dark Samurais. But then Colleen appeared and Master Khan has reinforced his security when his spies in Shanghai informed him that she was coming to New York. Master Khan ordered the first attack Colleen suffered from the thugs and when it failed he decided to kidnap her trying to know what is she looking for in New York. Vachon has known all this spying Master Khan. Now, he offers both women to join forces against him.

So, once Misty leaves the hospital, the three of them fly in a light aircraft to Labrador Island, where Master Khan is supposed to have his hideout.

They get into an elegant oriental style mansion at night. They find Khan praying in a temple built up in the gardens of the property. When Khan notices them, something amazing happens: Master Khan transforms in front of their eyes into an evil dragon. The dragon attacks them with blazes. The whole temple is on fire. Khan’s ninjas run to the temple. A big fight takes place.

Vachon stays to fight the dragon inside the temple and shouts Colleen and Misty to go out to fight the ninjas.

While Misty tries to control the ninjas, Colleen gets into the house. There, she faces Linn. They have a karate duel and Colleen knocks Linn, thinking she is dead.

Meanwhile, Misty is surrounded by warriors in the gardens. She needs to retreat back inside the temple. And she finds something strange there. In the middle of the fire, Vachon is on his knees in front of the dragon: ‘I brought you the two women as you demanded, Master’, he is saying. Then he notices Misty. When she asks him what’s going on, Vachon tells her the truth: he has decided to serve Master Khan.

The Dark Samurais are much more powerful than the Golden Samurais. The Dark Samurais have the ancient power of transforming in any creature they want, something that the Golden Samurais can’t do. Vachon wants to learn from them to become the mightiest samurai ever.

Then, he attacks Misty while Master Khan returns to his human form and enjoys the situation.

Right when Vachon is going to kill Misty, Colleen appears in the temple. She fights back Vachon. But in that moment, the roof and walls of the temple on fire fall.

Colleen gets to rescue Misty and run out of the temple. When they look around, Vachon and Master Khan have disappeared. But the ninjas are waiting for them.

As they are fighting the ninjas, a strange creature comes out of the house. A half human half snake creature. It’s Linn. She wasn’t killed by Colleen. She tells them with a hissy accent that she is Master Khan’s wife. ‘The dragon and the snake will rule the world together in the name of the Dark Samurais’, she tells.

The ninjas back down, even them are scared by the impressive creature. Both women fight against her. At some moment, the snake woman introduces Misty’s arm in her mouth. What the creature does not know is that she cannot inject her poison because she is biting Misty’s bionic steel arm. The other thing the snake woman does not know is that Misty was holding a grenade in her hand and has dropped it inside her mouth.

‘A present for you’, tells her Misty, ‘This is for my arm’. The snake woman explodes in a thousand pieces.

Colleen and Misty escape from the mansion. Once safe at home, Colleen phones her grandfather to tell him everything that has happened. ‘That’s too dangerous for you’, tells her Kenji, ‘Maybe you should return home so the Golden Samurais can protect you’. But Colleen tells her grandfather she is staying in New York. ‘I am a samurai now’, she says, ‘I can protect myself’.

Colleen and Misty make a pact: they will work together to find Vachon and Master Khan. To do so, they decide to form a partnership as private investigators. They agree to call it ‘Daughters Of The Dragon’.


Stark’s Comment:
After the amazing success of ‘Silver Sable and the Wild Pack’, Joey decided to try luck again in the world of superheroines. The chosen ones are two minor characters from Marvel, Colleen Wing and Misty Knight. As it happens with Silver Sable, their strength does not come from special powers but from their fighting skill. The movie is shot ala McG’s ‘Charlie’s Angels’ style: ignoring realism, using slow motion and providing a touch of self-parodic sense of humor to the story. The target of this production is to attract the legion of fans of superheroines created with the Silver Sable’s movies. We’ll see if the strategy works…

Behind The Scenes:
-In the Marvel comic, Colleen Wing is an asian girl. Joey has changed a bit the family origins of the character so the blonde Cameron could play it.
-In the first draft of the screenplay, Iron Fist was a main character of the story. But Joey decided to change that as he considered that another superhero could detour the focus from the girls. He is considering Iron Fist could appear in possible sequels of the movie.
-McG has worked before with Cameron Diaz in the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ movies and with Jet Li in CMP’s ‘Yeoman’. 'Yeoman' was the first collaboration between McG and Joey Stark.

RIDERS ON THE STORM

Drama / Social Drama

The Cast: Will Patton, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Kristen Stewart, Guy Pearce, Vince Gallo, John Turturro. Cameo by Julia Roberts.

The Director: Darren Aronofsky
The Screenwriter: Chad Taylor

The Plot:

Two Las Vegas alcoholics Samuel (Patton) and Dick (Rourke) meet at a AA meeting and notice similarities between each other. Divorced. Heavy Drinkers. Unemployed. On the brink of extinction. But both got a call inviting them to this meeting. The woman on the phone had an unfamiliar voice, but they figure out it was the same person for each.

After the meeting, they go a few days without contact, but Samuel finally calls Dick. He asks if he wants to go get a drink at the local bar, Ricky’s. While there, the owner Ricky (Turturro) is introduced to Dick by Sam. He asks him about his interests and one of the things he says is football. So Ricky changes the TV to a game between the Las Vegas Outlaws and San Francisco 49ers. The Outlaws happen to their favorite team. And there they find another bond between each other.

Dick goes with Samuel on a ride around town after the bar. Samuel tells Dick about his marriage, which ended 7 years ago, and his daughter whom he hasn’t spoke to since then. Dick suggests they go see him. So they visit Sam’s ex wife Dana (Barkin) and his daughter Michelle (Stewart) who thinks nothing of him. Things start off rocky, with Dana angered that Samuel would bring Dick, but things would gradually get better over time.

A week later, they hang out at Dick’s house to watch football. The Outlaws are in a heated game with their nearby rival the Denver Broncos. Near the start of the game they get a knock on the door. When they answer, at the door is Heath (Pearce) and Elvis(Gallo) Prime. They are brothers, and famous retired football players, considered the two best players in Las Vegas Outlaw history. Sam and Dick are shocked to see them standing right in front of them. The brothers ask if they can come in and they accept. They watch the game, while having conversations between each other. Dick asks Heath how he found them, and he said he got a call from a woman telling him this address to meet their biggest fans. Dick and Sam come to an agreement again that this is the same woman.

Since they now consider themselves Best Friends, they wonder who the woman is that set the whole thing up. With the help of the brothers, they trace the calls. They find that they came from a payphone in Los Angeles.

Sam tells Dick that they have nothing better to do in their life, and they should go on a trip find this woman. But they both agree they don’t have enough money. Heath overhears the conversation and asks if he and Elvis can come to any assistance, which props a smile on Dick’s face.

Two weeks later, the four of them are on a plane to L.A. They set off on an adventure for this mystery woman. In their days in L.A., they find friendship with multiple people they meet on the street, Sam calls his daughter everyday, trying to fix their relationship, and Sam and Dick grow tired of each other.

Sam warns Dick he is going to go back to Vegas and see his daughter. But while at the airport they Sam gets a call from the woman. She tells him to go to the Staples Center at 4. He goes there and finds tickets waiting for him to the Lakers game. When he goes inside, he finds his tickets are courtside. On one side of his seat is an empty seat, and on the other is two empty seats. First arrives Dick, who finds that he is sitting next to Sam. The two apologize to each other for having a fight, and agree on giving the friendship another try. Then Dana and Michelle get there and see Sam.

They give him a big hug, and he tells them he is sorry for ignoring them for the last seven years. Michelle tells him that he should go to her graduation in a few months, which brings a tear to his eye. They sit down and enjoy the game, which halfway through, Sam receives a text message from the same number that called him at the airport. It reads “Morrison back”. Sam seems confused and looks around and see’s Adam Morrison sitting on the Lakers bench.

He looks behind him, and finds a woman (Roberts) staring at him. She slowly smiles and winks.


Stark’s Comment:
I promised an artsy CMP’s Season and here is one example of it. An ‘auteur movie’. As usual, the Studio will do its best to make a drama work in box office, but you know that’s not exactly our specialty… I am conscious that the spirit of ‘The Wrestler’ flies over this production, even more than in ‘The Rock Star’, as this one has the same director and star and a common spirit.

Behind The Scenes:
-The cameo by Julia Roberts at the end of the movie has not been mentioned at all in the marketing campaign of the movie and it has been kept as a secret until the very last moment of the movie’s release.
-This is the first full-length movie directed by Aronofsky for CMP. Before, he has only directed one of the short stories in ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’. This movie also means the CMP’s debut of most of the cast: Will Patton, Ellen Barkin, Vince Gallo and John Turturro.

24 HOURS TO LIVE

Drama / Action

The Cast: Don Cheadle, Derek Luke, Anthony McKie, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington

The Director: Spike Lee
The Screenwriter: Dawson Edwards

The Plot:

An off screen voice asks the question to 3 randomly chosen men from New York, “If you had 24hrs to live, what would you do?” We see each man sitting in seemingly the same room but in 6 different panels in black and white getting their initial reactions to the question.

Then close up on one man named Mason (D.Cheadle) sporting a lettered S jacket, who tells his story as the scene transitions into color. We see Mason deciding that he should confront his father (D.Glover) who left his family early on. His father is now an elderly man who never left the city despite his abandonment. Mason takes the elderly man for the day to see the city.

Mason tells his father that he’s a high school football coach, and he helps kids become better every day in spite of not having a father to do the same. As the two are walking down the streets of the Bronx, Mason reaches into his pocket pulls out his wallet and hands every dollar he has to the homeless man on the street, telling him to use it for inspiration. As Mason drops his father off at home he is told that without his initial abandonment that he would never have become the good man he is today, and that he should be thanking him. Mason leaves to die at home, crying on the way.

We then see 2 panels back in black and white, closing in on a man named Robert (D.Luke) who’s dressed in baggy clothes and an Atlanta Braves cap. Robert is leaving his home, and heads to his weed dealer. He gets a jar full and he rolls up in his car. As he starts smoking he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a list of things to do. Next on that list is “Kill the Connect”. He opens the glove compartment and pulls out his gun.

Rob heads to Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, making hotel reservations as he drives. He arrives at a bar, nods to the bartender and heads to the back room. He immediately starts screaming at the Latin men for selling him flour instead of cocaine. The men are telling him to put the gun down, but by now Rob know that the bartender is going to be coming through the door soon, so he kills both men, and waits for the bartender. When he does, he’s killed as well.

Feeling the adrenaline from the murders, Rob calls his three girlfriends and tells them to meet him at the same hotel on three different floors. Rob decides to get a haircut, but as he finishes up, he is shot from behind by affiliates of his connect.

The last panel extends to show the third man, named Damon (A.McKie) as it says “D” on his Buffalo Bank name tag. We see Damon in his basement working on packaging something. We then see Damon closing the trunk of his SUV. He calls his brother-in-law on his cell telling him that he has a gift for him and he should pick it up today. Damon convinces his brother-in-law that he should meet him by City Hall later today.

Damon begins to drive slowly down the streets, being extremely cautious. He arrives at the small ad modest Buffalo Bank where he works. He walks in with a limp and greets the usual co-workers. He then asks the very attractive Elise (K.Washington) to help him retrieve something from the safe. The two walk back there, and Damon pulls a pipe from pants leg and hits her. He begins to take rape the unconscious girl and leave.

He then tells a co-worker to assist the girl in 10mins if she isn’t finish yet. Damon leaves and heads for city hall. Once there, his brother-in-law jumps into his car upon request. Damon tells him that he’s going to finally mean something now that it’s over. He unveils a C4 explosive in the trunk of the SUV and detonates it, killing them both.

The film ends with the voice simply saying SAD.


Stark’s Comment:
Another very difficult release in terms of box office’s success. At CMP’s Executive Board, we have had long discussions about the strategy to follow with this peculiar artsy movie. Finally, we have decided to release it in a limited number of theatres: something around 2000 theatres, when the usual number for CMP’s dramas is something around 4000 or 4500. That way, and considering it has not been an expensive production, maybe we can reach slight net gains. At least, we will give a try to a new strategy for releasing low budget cult dramas and see what happens.

Behind The Scenes:
-Chiwetel Ejiofor was considered to play Cheadle’s character. But he finally got involved in another Edwards’ movie coming up (see below), so the dilemma was solved by itself.
-This will be the fourth time that Derek Luke works in a Dawson Edwards’ movie. The previous ones were ‘The Killing Run’, ‘The Flash’ and ‘Fallen Kings’.
-The time for shooting this movie had to be cut down by CMP cause some of the talents in it are committed to work in another Studio’s productions coming up soon.
-Spike Lee, who has succeeded in CMP with his two previous works – ‘Dream Of A King’ and ‘Fallen Kings’ – deliberately asked Harry Stark to make this movie with the lowest budget possible, conscious that this is more an artistic project than a potential box office’s success.


BEING BEN STILLER: Ben Stiller keeps calling some old friends to have them in this comedy. Hank Azaria, who already worked with Stiller in CMP’s ‘LOL’, will play here his agent. McKenzie Vega, seen with him in ‘Woodland Creatures’, is also in this movie. And there will be a short appearance playing a peculiar mystic man by Steve Martin, who co-starred with Stiller one of the very first CMP’s movies, ‘The Perfect Candidate’. They were nominated together as Best Starring Couple for that movie. Also, this movie will mean the return to CMP for somebody not seen around for a very long time: Jennifer Anniston, whose last CMP’s movie was back in Season 3, ‘Styx and Stones’. She has also worked with Stiller before in ‘Along Came Polly’. And the cast is completed with Dane Cook, seen for the first time in CMP past Season in ‘Crossovers’.

EDGE OF HUMAN: Two talents playing violent replicants here: Tyrese Gibson, in his first work for CMP, will be a replicant and blade runner who tries to capture Ethan Hawke and another CMP’s debutante, Claire Forlani, plays a mix of sexy and aggressive replicant also giving hard times to Hawke.

THE BEATLES: Past week, we already announced that Jamie Bell was going to play George Harrison in this biopic of the famous band directed by Sam Mendes (Liam Neeson will play the character in his oldest days). Now, we can confirm the rest of the guys joining him. Rumors are confirmed: Daniel Radcliff will be John Lennon, Jim Sturgess will be Paul McArtney and Emile Hirsh will be Ringo Starr. It has also been announced that the real McArtney and Ringo, the only living beatles, have collaborated with Chad Taylor supervising the screenplay of the movie.

RUNNING ON EMPTY: Actress and director Anne Fletcher, responsible of movies like ’27 Dresses’ and ‘The Proposal’, will make her debut as movie director in CMP with this dramedy about a comedian who falls into drug addiction. The film will mean the awaited return to CMP of Season 9’s Best Actor GMA Winner Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Trent Nielsen is the author of the screenplay.

UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE: Steve Connors seems to have overcome the bad experience of ‘Gears Of War’. He is ready to launch another console game adaptation. Now is the turn for the successful game ‘Uncharted’, based on the adventures of Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter very similar to Indiana Jones. Gerard Butler - seen in CMP’s movies like ‘Faction 12’, ‘Blood Meridian’, ‘L.A. Wolf’ and ‘Silver Sable and the Wild Pack’ – has been the chosen one to play Drake. Stephen Sommers (‘London Underground’, ‘The Legend Of Zelda’, ‘Fallout 2’) is going to direct and produce the movie. This project is expected to be one of the most expensive productions of the Season.

THE PRINCESS AND THE CAPTAIN: Ewan McGregor leaves aside for a while his usual heroic characters in CMP (the latest one was past Season in ‘Earth 3K’) to play Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip. And Queen Elizabeth herself will be played by no other than Rachel Weisz, whose last work for the Studio was precisely the flopped ‘Gears Of Wear’. Weisz and McGregor already met before in CMP back in Season 5 in James Cameron’s ‘Planetside’.

AMERICAN TABLOID: Another actor playing a real life character in this Martin Scorsese’s movie: GMA Winner Matt Damon returns to CMP after his Season 9’s hits ‘Devil Trigger’ and ‘Foul Karma’ playing Bobby Kennedy. Scorsese has explained that President JFK will also appear in the movie but he will never be really seen in it: his voice will be heard, he will be seen from his back… as a figure in the middle of the plot but always kept in a certain kind of mystery. So no big name will be playing him.

STORM AT HOME: Green light at last for this Dawson Edwards’ drama. This movie was going to be produced past Season but some casting problems obliged the Studio to postpone it. Now, once the problems are solved, everything is ready to shoot this dramatic story with the background of the Katrina hurricane. Michael Mann, usually related to thrillers and action films (he has directed for CMP movies like ‘Dark’, ‘Dive In The Sun’ and ‘The Funeral Drum’), will try something different directing it. Chiwetel Ejiofor (‘The Experience’) will be playing the lead character, replacing the initially considered Denzel Washington.

IN SPIRIT: Josh Collins introduces another young star in CMP. Jodelle Ferland, seen in movies like ‘Tideland’, makes her debut in CMP playing Benicio Del Toro’s daughter in this mystery movie directed by John August. Jodelle had to refuse an offer to be in Matt Kubrick’s ‘Teenage Wasteland’ due to her commitment with this project.

TEENAGE WASTELAND: So Jodelle won’t be in this one. But other teen stars will. Anne Popplewell, better known for The Chronicles of Narnia saga, will make here her debut in CMP co-starring this movie with Logan Lerman. And also in the movie will be Sammi Hanratty (‘The Dead Walk’) and Cameron Bright, seen past Season in ‘Married To The Supervillain’.


DAWSON EDWARDS – ’24 HOURS TO LIVE’

Edwards keeps jumping from superhero movies to adult dramas in his CMP’s career. With ’24 Hours To Live’, he teams up again with GMA Nominee Spike Lee after the acclaimed ‘Fallen Kings’ to show us how different can be the last days in the life of three very different characters. A moral movie that means a new experience in the versatile Edwards’ creative career.

1.Where did the idea for this new movie, '24 Hours To Live', came from?

It was mostly inspired by a song from an 90s song by Mase and other artists but the story is all about the drastically different lives we live. I wanted to tell a story about counting the days down, but after hearing that song I knew this would feel more personal.

2.Spike Lee already teamed up with you in 'Fallen Kings' and Derek Luke looks as your favorite talent. Do you feel more comfortable working with people you already now than experiencing with new talents?

I don't know. I love being able to see Derek on screen, he's an amazing actor that all captures the role. But I'll never force someone into a role that they have no business playing. I think I've come a long ways since my debut at CMP, the stories and suggestions I sent back then are truly embarrassing to think of now. As for Spike, again I don't want to force things but there are people you can trust instantly. With '24 Hours', I knew Spike would bring an element that would fit perfectly with my original vision.

3.Your adult audiences oriented story seem to be very much supported by voters at the GMA. 'Fallen Kings' and 'Gaspipe' got quite a bunch of nominations, although they didn't win much at the end. How do you feel about your movies being nominated at the GMA?

Extremely thrilled and humbly grateful. I sat there in audience and jumped out of my seat when Ray won for his work in 'Gaspipe'. Of course I wanted to sweep the GMAs but I guess that's just fuel to work even harder.

4.I've heard that 'Gaspipe' was almost cancelled. Why? Can you tell us that story?

Super close to being canceled! I had wrote the film a long time ago, and began to doubt my work when I was writing an upcoming film. I was pretty sure that it was a piece of crap, but after some very comforting words from Mr. Stark, the project was greenlighted and became the critical success that it is today. I still get a disgusting taste in my mouth when I read my old scripts. I love my writing one day and hate the next.

5.I've also heard that, finally, sequels of your biggest hits are on their way. So what sequels can we expect in the future? 'The Flash', 'Wonder Woman', 'Aquaman', 'Zoids'...?

I'm not sure how much I can about any superhero projects. I think the focus should be on 'JUSTICE LEAGUE' right now. I'm not sure how I feel about a direct Aquaman sequel either. I have many ideas but I may have to make a call to Chad Taylor to discuss my plans for Orin. Zoids 2 will be coming eventually, and I'm working on what to do with Wonder Woman. Its all depending on the League though!


HALLE BERRY

She is one of those stars that appear regularly in CMP’s movies since its very beginning. Once nominated for a Best Actress GMA, Halle is like part of the family for the Studio. This week, she is back home with her seventh movie for CMP, the action show ‘Daughters Of The Dragon’. And we take a look at her CMP’s career so far…

DARK (Season 1)
Michael Mann / Tom Figgs
B.O.: 110 mill / N.G: 71 mill.
Halle made her debut in CMP with a daring character written by the now retired Tom Figgs. Not being afraid of the steamy sex scenes in it, she starred one of the very few CMP’s movies defined as ‘erotic’. She shot explicit nude scenes and had sex sequences with both Denzel Washington and Clive Owen in this film noir. The reward was her only Best Actress nomination at the GMA.

WESTWORLD (Season 3)
Michael Bay / Steve Connors
B.O.: 155 mill. / N.G.: 151 mill.
Halle played here a clone of her character in the X-Men franchise, Storm. ‘Westworld’ was the peculiar remake of a sci-fi classic from the 70s about a theme park with clones of famous movie characters that gets out of control. Other clones in the movie were played by Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft) and Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter).

THE LAST LAWMAN (Season 3)
Robert Rodriguez / Jack Hammer
B.O.: 68 mill. / N.G.: 35 mill.
That same Season, Berry co-starred with Will Smith the first movie of this iconic CMP’s franchise. She did not return in the two sequels. After working in two hits of the Season, she had the honor of being invited by Harry Stark to present Season 3’s GMA nominations together with Colin Farrell.

GET CHRISTIE LOVE! (Season 5)
Antoine Fuqua / Bill Cougan
B.O: 17 mill. / N.L.: 9 mill.
The only flop in Halle’s career in CMP. The now retired Cougan wrote this big screen version of a popular tv series from the 70s, same way he had successfully done before with ‘McMillan & Wife’. Halle co-starred it with Samuel L. Jackson. And the movie became an unexpected flop against all predictions.

CIVILIZATION M (Season 8)
Roland Emmerich / Josh Collins
B.O.: 150 mill. / N.G.: 153 mill.
Halle took a rest after the disaster of ‘Get Christie Love!’ She returned to CMP three Seasons later with this sci-fi show written by Josh Collins about aliens behaving as humans and vice versa. And the movie also meant the return of Halle to box office’s success.

FALLEN KINGS (Season 10)
Spike Lee / Dawson Edwards
B.O.: 89 mill. / N.G.: 105 mill.
This time, Berry left aside her usual action characters to play Denzel Washington’s wife in this acclaimed cops drama directed by her old friend Spike Lee. It was her second work with Washington after ‘Dark’. And the movie got the applause of both audiences and critics and 5 nominations at the GMA. A prestige work for Halle.

DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON (Season 12)
McG / Joey Stark
Awaiting release
Halle has decided to have some fun starring this wild action flick together with Cameron Diaz. She plays a New York’s police officer with a bionic arm. She looks brave and sexy. And, if box office responds, she will probably have guaranteed a nice salary in the predictable sequels. Maybe not a big challenge from an acting point of view, but not every actress’ work has to be serious and pretentious after all.


Here is a promotional picture distributed by CMP as part of the marketing campaign for ‘Daughters Of The Dragon’. You can see in it the three beautiful ladies involved in the story: on the side of the goodies, Cameron Diaz and Halle Berry; on the side of the baddies, Gong Li.




Christian Bale keeps negotiating his participation as Batman in ‘Justice League’. He has made a final condition: Bale will only wear again the Batman costume if Christopher Nolan directs it. So it all looks like if Nolan, whose last work for CMP was the successful ‘Human Axis’, might be offered to take care of the movie. Joss Whedon was considered the main candidate to direct it before Bale made this final condition. But it all looks as Stark will accept Bale’s demand.

As James Bradley mentioned in his past week’s interview, I can confirm that a new Flashman’s movie is on its way. The fourth adventure of the rogue Harry Flashman will be developed some time during this current Season. This time, after his travels and adventures in Asia and Africa, Flashy will finally come to America. And again, as it has happened in each Flashman’s movie, a new director will take care of this one. Stephen Frears, director of ‘Flashman and the Mountain of Light’, is already attached to the upcoming ‘The Princess and The Captain’.

This story could be titled ‘Curse Of The GMA’. It tells the story of a talent that was demanded often by CMP’s authors until the day he won a Golden Moon Award. Since that moment, everything turned bad luck for him. And no, I’m not talking about Shia Labeouf. This time I’m talking about director Cameron Crowe. Since he won the Best Director GMA for the musical ‘Only In America’ back in Season 7, everything has gone wrong for him in CMP. His name has sounded related to many CMP’s pitches since then. But that never turned into a reality at the end. His latest frustrations? He was Harry Stark’s favorite candidate to direct ‘The Beatles’, but Chad Taylor finally chose Sam Mendes. He was also considered to direct movies like ‘Haight-Ashbury’ (it finally went to Oliver Stone) or ‘The Rock Star’ (again taken by Mendes). And, lately, Stark also thought of him to direct ‘The Princess and The Captain’, finally directed by Stephen Frears. Now, he sounds as the main candidate to direct ‘Graceland’, the Elvis Presley’s biopic written by Josh Collins. But who knows? It seems like sometimes winning a GMA becomes a kind of poisoned present for some talents.

Confirmed. The legendary ‘Uncommon Valour’ saga will be back. A fourth story about the frigate captain played by Pierce Brosnan has been submitted to CMP’s Executive Board by Jack Hammer. The last movie of this epic sea adventures saga based on John Stevens’ books was released back in Season 4. The three previous movies were directed by Ridley Scott and it is more than probable that he will be involved again in this new installment. Great news.

And only rumored. Steve Connors keeps looking for the right story to take back the Star Wars’ universe to CMP. He keeps considering adapting some of the many books that develops the Star Wars’ movies. But he hasn’t made his mind yet about what era of the saga to choose: before Episode I, after Episode VI or some time in the middle of it all? Only two things are for sure: first, his story won’t have nothing to do with the trilogy developed by Marcus Trax for CMP (that begun in what could be considered as Episode X of the saga) but won’t contradict it neither in any way (Harry Stark has made him this condition to green light his pitch); and two, none of the main characters of the original movies will appear on his. That’s all that we (and probably Connors himself) know by now about this.