MARCH, 25


ESCAPE FROM HELL

Sci-Fi / Horror

The Cast: Christian Bale, Denzel Washington, Milla Jovovich, Mackenzie Vega. Voice of Dennys Haysbert.

The Director and Producer: Sam Raimi
The Screenwriter: Josh Collins

The Plot:

Heaven or Hell. Those are the places we are told we are going to go after we die. Saint Peter decides if we're worthy of stepping into absolute paradise. If not, we are sent to hell. But can heaven make the same mistakes the judicial system can make on earth? Can good upstanding citizens destined for heaven end up in the fiery pits?

That's what this film challenges. A man (C.Bale) who dies in a car crash doesn't even get the free ticket to heaven because it didn't qualify as a murder. But he was still condemned by Saint Peter to be sent to Hell. Dantiel (Not his earth name, but the name he is branded with in Hell) knows there is something wrong when he ends up floating on a raft made out of bones in the lake of fire.

As the lake takes him deeper into the bowels of Hell, he overhears the screams of tormented souls and demons speaking in Latin. He screams out to the voices telling him there was a mistake, and everything goes silent. A few seconds later, beams of fire shoot up through the lake, signs that tell him there is no mistake and no escape.

The raft stops at land and Dantiel gets off. The details of Hell look phenomenal in the film. It's as if an entire new world really does exist where condemned souls go when they are no longer a part of Earth.

He first notices other souls when he gets off the raft. Some of them are quiet as if they were asleep. Others are screaming and begging mercy. Dantiel tries to talk to them but they completely ignore him and suffer in their own hells. At least that's the person who he first meets, Ibares (D.Washington), says they are doing. Dantiel wonders why Ibares can speak to him and Ibares says that his punishment is wandering aimlessly through Hell with no rest, but he's always tired, thirsty and hungry. Ibares asks Dantiel what it is that he did to end up here and Dantiel answers, "Nothing!" and Ibares says, "that's what they all say."

Dantiel asks how he can get out and of course, Ibares says the only way to get out of hell is to survive the journey to speak to Satan. Fight Satan in a battle he chooses and if you win, you might get back into heaven. But nobody ever wins and tells Dantiel that he shouldn't even try.

Naturally, Dantiel doesn't listen and goes on the journey anyway, in an action packed epic as he fights with demonic creatures. Ibares also wants to help and while the two fend off their fiends, they discover a couple more wrongfully damned souls: One is a woman by the name of Ophlem (M.Jovovich) and the other is a girl by the name of Delplis (M.Vega) who drowned on earth. Dantiel makes it his mission to protect his friends and get them out of Hell and into Heaven where they belong.

On top of the demons who try to keep them in Hell, they only have a certain amount of time to face Satan before they are doomed to remain in it and become demons themselves. Of all of them, Ibares seems to be the only one throughout the film closer to becoming a demon since he is already suffering in his own personal Hell while the others have a little bit of time left.

Ibares does become a demon but manages to make his big heroic rescue of the others by defeating one of Satan's demon lords. This allows Dantiel and the girls to make it into Satan's lair. Satan (Voice of D.Haysbert) says that if Dantiel defeats him, he will grant the wish of releasing him and his friends to Heaven.

It all comes to a head as Dantiel faces the dark prince himself. And as you would have guessed it, Dantiel defeats Satan (doesn't kill him, just defeats him) and he is given the promise of being released back to Heaven with the others.


Stark’s Comment:
Sam Raimi returns to CMP soon once ‘The Dark Tower’ series is over. And he does it with this sophisticated production that has appealing elements enough to become a box office’s success.

Behind The Scenes:
-Josh Collins considered many options to choose the director and the main stars for this movie. Some directors considered were James Cameron, Michael Bay, Ridley Scott and the Wachowski Brothers.
-Tom Cruise was considered to play Bale’s character.
-Will Smith was considered to play Washington’s character.
-Charlize Theron and Natalie Portman were considered to play Jovovich’s character.
-This is the 15th work of Christian Bale for CMP. That turns him by far in the most active talent in the Studio. Past Season, he suffered his first box office’s flop in his long CMP’s career with ‘Modern Warfare’.
-Denzel Washington worked with Collins past Season in ‘Foreclosed’. Mackenzie Vega has also worked before with Collins in ‘Woodland Creatures’ and past Season’s ‘Little Miss Dollface’.
-Satan is becoming a regular at CMP as he already visited CMP’s world past week in ‘The Prince Of Darkness’.

WOMAN

Drama

The Cast: January Jones, Scarlet Johansson, Jeffrey Donovan, Kasia Smutniak, Anna Friel, Sofia Vergara, Emille de Ravin, Lauren Conrad

The Director: Sophia Coppolla
The Screenwriter: Chad Taylor
The Producer: Silver Lining Entertainment

The Plot:

1953. Marie (J.Jones) is an abused trophy wife of famous crooner Frank Martin (J.Donovan). She fell in love with him at a young age, while his career was just beginning. His popularity has skyrocketed over the years, making him more egocentric, and less like the lovable man she once knew. But the couple have two kids together, which is the driving force in keeping them together.

Behind her back, he is a promiscuous man. He hangs out with a group of four popular singers, and runs around with them, drinking and gambling. While at a casino, he falls in love with a worker named Samantha (S.Johansson), and flirts with her. They develop a relationship, which Marie is not aware of.As Frank embarks on a world tour, his alcoholism begins to kick in around the house, resulting in beatings of Marie, who is hurt physically and mentally.

While in France, Frank is out at the clubs with his entourage, and Marie is left to go to a quiet tea shop all by herself.While there, she is served by a beautiful waitress named Aimée (K.Smutniak).They strike up a conversation and end up developing a friendship. Marie finds out that Aimee is also abused, and looking for a way out of her relationship(divorce was not as common then). She tells her that she is down to her last option…suicide.Marie,being the sweet girl she is, talks her out of it, telling her that she’s figured out that there is a better life. She’s always inspired to be a writer her whole life, but Frank tells her she can not succeed and must be a housewife.But that doesn’t mean she can’t become a writer. Marie travels to Aimee’s house where she meets her husband, finding him to be very nice. She ends up sitting down with the couple, and consoling them, fixing their relationship.They thank Marie, as she must travel away, to continue the tour.

They next travel to England, where she meets Dana (A.Friel) at one of the clubs where Frank is performing. She is a divorcee who’s came to the club looking for love. They jokingly point out a few cute guys, making Dana smiles. She then explains how much she dislikes marriage, and why she’ll never get married again. This saddens Marie, and makes her notice just how much being married can bring down a happy woman.

Next stop is Spain, where Frank visit’s a friend he has in the area, before one of his performances. While at their house, Marie meets his wife, Ana (S.Vergara). She has only good things to say about Frank. Marie laughs it off, and tells her about his abusive ways. Ana seems interested and sympathetic for Marie. So she describes to her the relationship she has with her husband. She is a strong woman, who tells her husband how it is, and is never looked down on. Marie is fascinated by this and asks her she does it. Ana tells her it is all within her heart, and the husband has nothing to do with it.

Last stop on the tour is Australia.There she meets a beautiful young ambitious blonde named Rachel (E.de Ravin) at her husband’s show. She is there with her young, working, geek husband. It is evident that they are in love, but both are the shy type. Marie feels a weird feeling, as it reminds her of the days her and Frank were in love.Rachel tells her that she wants to have a kid, but her husband is not so sure just yet. She is obviously frustrated,but Marie calms her down, and tells her to take their relationship step by step, and enjoy the great moments they have.

When they head back to the States, she puts the kids to bed, and confronts Frank about his attitude, while he talks to his friend on the phone.Frank, thinking he’s the most powerful playboy in the world, slaps her and tells her to leave him alone while he is on the phone. She thinks about the four ladies she met around the world, and about what each of them are expiriencing. With tears in her eyes, she slaps him and tells him she is leaving him, and taking the kids.

She then sets on a life of her own, with her two kids by her side. She begins her writing career, and hires young Jessica (L.Conrad) as an assistant to help her out with her two kids, while she works in her home office. Marie visit’s a local library, looking for novels to inspire her, and while there she meets another aspiring writer…Samantha. They strike up a friendship, and end up helping each other along the way. Marie decides her first book will be about her own expiriences.

Marie and Samantha have many conversations, but one day Marie brought up men. Samantha describes a kind,compassionate,charming alpha male with a good head on his shoulders and a warm heart inside. To Marie this sounds a lot like Frank. She tells Marie that he is a popular crooner named Frank. Marie replies with anger, noticing it was Samantha that was the “other girl”. Jessica comes in to calm her down, telling her that she should know that everyone has their faults, just like she does. Marie is finally calmed and apologizes, telling Samantha that she is happy for her, and wishes her the best of luck with the man she couldn’t love.

But in the last arch of the film, we learn Marie has been diagnosed with cancer. Jessica,and the kids help her along the way, but it begins to be too much to fight. She loses her hair and is in bed all day. One by one, Aimee,Dana,Ana,and Rachel visit Marie while she is dying,all reminiscing about their memories.Even Frank makes one last visit, holding her hand, and reciting his wedding vows. Before her death, she lives to see her book released, and become a top selling hit.The kind-hearted,sweet soul named Marie is now popular world-wide, and the face of a feminist movement within the United States.

A storybook ending to the life of Marie Martin.


Stark’s Comment:
An extremely female audiences oriented movie. That’s an audience segment I trust very much as it responds pretty well. But still this is the kind of release I don’t feel completely sure about.

Behind The Scenes:
-Sophia Coppolla has only directed one movie before for CMP: Season 8’s ‘Maleficarum’. The movie – a witch hunting story written by David Makalaster and starred by Nicole Kidman – flopped at box office but Sophia won the Best Director GMA.
-Scarlet Johansson has stated that she accepted to work in this movie playing a minor role mainly due to her personal friendship with Sophia Coppolla, who directed her in ‘Lost In Translation’.
-Scarlet was seen past Season making a cameo as herself in ‘Queens’. But her last work for CMP was back in Season 11 in Woody Allen’s comedy ‘Suspicions And Dishonors’.
-January Jones makes her debut in CMP with this movie.
-Jones refused an offer to be in the upcoming ‘Short Of Time’ due to agenda problems while shooting this movie.

FOOD AND OTHER LANGUAGES

Romantic Comedy

The Cast: Adrien Brody, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Caine

The Director: Ron Howard
The Screenwriter: Jack Adkins

The Plot:

Franklin Charles Hale (A.Brody) is a quiet, quirky man who has lived his life as both captive and caretaker for his aging father. Arthur Hale (M.Caine), Franklin's father, took a lucrative import/export business, that his family started after landing in America generations ago, and turned it into an empire.

A tragic auto accident thirty years ago left Arthur widowed and paralyzed from the waist down. He relies heavily on his son, Franklin, as his company's lead accountant and the sole heir to his legacy. The problem is, Franklin is 40, unmarried and has only showed interest in one woman; a fiery, beautiful Hispanic woman who works as a waitress in a cafe the two men frequent.

After years of watching Isa (M.Rodriguez) Franklin decides to try out the Spanish he learned at Columbia. Despite the Spanish Franklin knows being vastly different from what Isa speaks, she is impressed. The two begin a friendship in which the very extroverted Isa softens the very private an introverted Franklin.

Working hard to keep the relationship a secret from his father, who's health continues to decline, puts a strain on every area of Franklin's life.

Everything comes to a head when Franklin discovers that Isa has lied about much of her life, including a young son. Arthur has Isa fired and tries to connect Franklin with a fine young lady from a prominent New England family.

Franklin leaves his father's business and follows Isa and her son to Puerto Rico in hopes of winning her and finally freeing himself from his father's grasp.


Stark’s Comment:
First screenplay written by Jack Adkins for CMP. And I am almost convinced that it will also be the last one, as I have never heard from him again since he sent me this one (in fact, we have no ‘5 Questions’ section this week because he was the man to be interviewed). A nice low budget production that could become the first sleeper of the Season. Hope so.

Behind The Scenes:
-Ron Howard has directed before for CMP the movies ‘Court Appeal’, ‘McMillan & Wife’, ‘McMillan & Wife: Murder By Game’, ‘Ugly’ and ‘John Wayne Must Die’. All of them made net gains.
-Ben Kingsley was considered to play Caine’s role but it was the Studio who finally chose Caine.


HEAVY RAIN: Green light at last for a long awaited game adaptation written by Steve Connors. It was announced long ago that he was adapting this dark and violent whodunit thriller. Peter Jackson, who has been working with Connors lately in the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ movies, has accepted to direct and produce this movie, willing to try something different from his usual fantasy and sci-fi works. And the starring couple of the movie will bring back to CMP two faces not seen for a very long time in a movie from the Studio: David Duchovny, only seen in CMP in ‘Westworld’ and ‘Lyra’, and Selma Blair, not seen in the Studio since the two ‘Sonja Blue Chronicles’ movies.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS: Another long awaited green light. Third installment of the ‘Justice League’ saga coming up after the amazing success of the second one. Remember that ‘JL2’ made the highest net gains ever for a CMP’s production (588 millions of net gains) and the third best box office ever. Christopher Nolan is back behind the cameras to direct the usual members of the League: Batman (Christian Bale), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Cobie Smulders), Green Lantern (Ryan Reynolds) and The Flash (Joshua Jackson).

DRAGONLANCE: DRAGONS OF SPRING DAWNING: Dakota Fanning is back to this saga again. Also Ian Mcellen returns, with the surprising peculiarity that he will be playing three different characters in this movie. And two new names join the long cast of this mega-production: Cary Elwes, only seen before in CMP in ‘When Dreams Die’, and the inevitable Ron Perlman, a regular in any mega-franchise developed by CMP.

KITE: Carla Gugino, who already worked before with Dawson Edwards in ‘Gaspipe’, has been cast by him again here to play Emma Stone’s mother. The young Bailee Madison will also be seen in the movie in her first work for CMP, making an uncredited cameo.

ALABAMA: Another long awaited return to CMP. Kirsten Dunst, who used to be a regular in CMP during its first Seasons, including three nominations at the GMA, disappeared after her work in Season 10’s drama ‘Weigh Anchor’. Seven Seasons later, she returns to the Studio in this drama starred and directed by Will Smith playing the lover of Matt Dillon, Natalie Portman’s husband.

DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON 2: Two men will join the adventures of the two female lead characters of the movie, played by Cameron Diaz and Halle Berry. And they are Paul Walker, whose last work in CMP was ‘Earth 3K2’, and Kiefer Sutherland, who has been making voice-only works for the Studio lately in movies like ‘Metroid’ and ‘Mouse Guard’.

JASON VS LEATHERFACE: Jerry O’Connell seems to be becoming a fetish actor for Matt Kubrick in his horror flicks lately. He will be seen again in this one after his works in ‘Pinocchio’s Terror’ and ‘The Shield’. The cast also includes some CMP’s debutantes like Derek Mears, Corey Bowles and Sid Haig. And also another return: the veteran actress Karen Black is back after having worked with Kubrick before in ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’.

THE UNDERCOVERS: Andy Garcia will make a parody of the mobsters he has played before in and out of CMP from ‘The Godfather – Part III’ to CMP’s ‘Gaspipe’ in this action comedy being directed by Chris Weitz and starred by Steve Carell and Renée Zellwegger.

RESTRAINT: Josh Hutcherson plays here Cameron Bright’s best friend in this dark story being directed by Neil Jordan about the sick relationship between those two friends. Hutcherson has worked with Josh Collins, author of this screenplay, before in the drama ‘After The Storm’. His last appearance in CMP was in the blockbuster ‘Superman: Last Son’.

SHORT ON TIME: Green light for the second movie written by D.R.Cobb. This time it is a thriller about a man trying to solve a crime before he himself dies as victim of it. John Dahl is directing the movie in his first work for the Studio. And the lead star of the show will be no other than the extremely active lately Johnny Depp, who succeeded past Season with ‘Noon’, ‘The Respected’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’.


DENZEL WASHINGTON

He is one of those actors that upgrades the quality of any movie with only being in it. A couple of weeks ago he won his first Golden Moon Award thanks to the eccentric villain he played in Spike Lee’s ‘The Cool’. But, although he is not one of those hyper-active stars in the Studio, Washington has developed a solid career in CMP: seven works for the Studio and all of them have made net gains, including two ‘+100’ releases. This week we take a look at the CMP’s filmography of this trustable talent.


DARK
Season 1
Michael Mann / Tom Figgs
B.O.: 110 mill / N.G.: 71 mill.
Denzel made a successful debut in CMP in its very first Season. ‘Dark’ was the story of a sexual triangle formed by Halle Berry, Clive Owen and him. The steamy sequences were the main appeal of the movie and audiences responded nicely to the proposal.

AMERICAN HEARTLAND
Season 5
Sean Penn / Matt Kubrick
B.O.: 67 mill. / N.G.: 31 mill.
Sean Penn directed and Martin Scorsese produced this interesting movie based on the real story of the teen murderers known as the Memphis 3. Denzel played a journalist covering the trial in the movie, starred by Daniel Radcliff, Shia LaBeouf (who won a Best Supporting Actor GMA with it) and Haley Joel Osment.

THE TOWERING INFERNO
Season 6
John McTiernan / Bill Cougan
B.O.: 51 mill. / N.G.: 0.1 mill.
Denzel and Clive Owen met again after ‘Dark’ to play the two lead characters of this remake of one of the most famous ‘disaster movie’ from the 70’s. Box Office wasn’t as good as expected for this spectacular production and it hardly avoided net losses.

FALLEN KINGS
Finally, Denzel met in CMP with his good old friend Spike Lee. And it was thanks to Dawson Edwards, who wrote this violent and tough story about cops, crime and betrayal. Again, Halle Berry and Denzel played a married couple here, in their second CMP’s movie together after ‘Dark’. Jay Hernandez and Eva Mendes completed the starring quartet. The movie was critically acclaimed and got 5 GMA’s nods but finally it didn’t win any award. Many critics still consider this one the best work of both Edwards and Lee in CMP.

CONSPIRACY OF LIFE
Season 13
D.J. Caruso / James Bradley
B.O.: 115 mill. / N.G.: 97 mill.
The best box office in Denzel’s career in CMP was this very mainstream action thriller about organs traffic in a hospital. Michelle Monaghan and Leonardo DiCaprio played the lead roles and Denzel played the villain of the story, a Police Chief corrupted to save his own daughter's life.

THE COOL
Season 16
Spike Lee / Dawson Edwards
B.O.: 53 mill. / N.G.: 9 mill.
Second reunion of Denzel with Lee and Edwards in CMP after ‘Fallen Kings’. A most peculiar gangsta movie inspired by the lyrics of songs from Lupe Fiasco. Derek Luke leaded the cast but Denzel has won the Best Villain GMA thanks to his creation of a mysterious villain with red eyes. Box Office did not treat fairly this interesting movie.

FORECLOSED
Season 16
Darren Aronofsky / Josh Collins
B.O.: 73 mill. / N.G.: 93 mill.
One of the sleepers of past Season. Collins and Aronofsky took a look to the consequences of the economic crisis through the eyes of Denzel’s character. The movie was almost a one-man-show and Washington was nominated for the Best Actor GMA for his splendid acting work in it.


January Jones makes a splendorous debut in CMP this week starring the new Sophia Coppolla’s movie written by Chad Taylor, ‘Woman’. And you bet she is quiet a woman… Here is the cover of ‘Premiere’ magazine to prove it.



This week, I am going to take a look at what CMP’s writers are busy with now so you all can guess what we may see on screen in future Seasons…

Steve Connors, who is about to release the action comedy ‘The Undercovers’, has stated that for some time he is going to concentrate in writing sequels of some of his latest works. And, according to him, that will include ‘Assassin’s Creed III’, ‘Uncharted 2’, ‘The Revengers 2’ and ‘Fantasy World 2’… But he hasn’t mentioned in the list a new installment of the ‘Invasion’/’Freddom City’ saga, so it is not sure if there will ever be a third movie of this successful series or not. Anyway, it’s ‘Sequelmania’ time for Connors.

A few Seasons ago, Josh Collins succeeded with an animated musical, ‘Bird Of A Feather’. Now, he has decided to try luck again with musicals but this time it’ll be a live action movie. Its title will be ‘Somewhere Other Than The Night’ and it will be focused on country music. Sophia Coppolla, who is releasing this week her second work for CMP, ‘Woman’, has been confirmed as the director of this new approach to musicals produced by the Studio.

After nearly 500 movies released, we have seen in CMP almost each and every iconic character and universes of popular culture: all the main superheroes created by Marvel or DC Comics; the Star Wars’ universe; Indiana Jones’ family; literature icons like detectives Philip Marlowe or Sherlock Holmes; music idols like Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, The Beatles or Lady Gaga; legendary explorers like Stanley and Livingstone or even mythological characters like Heracles and Athena… But, believe it or not, there are still iconic characters left to show up in a CMP’s production. So D.R. Cobb has decided to cover one of those absences. Cobb has decided to bring to CMP’s world no other than Tarzan, in a new adaptation pretty loyal to the original novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

But not everything are upcoming movies… There are also some projects that go into hiatus. Matt Kubrick has announced a temporary retirement and that will mean that some projects he had in mind will have to wait for his return to writing activity. And that includes projects like ‘The Shield 2’, a fourth installment of the ‘Deep Silence’ franchise and the return of no other than Darkman in his sixth appearance on screen. Let’s just hope that Kubrick’s retirement does not last too long.

And I have kept the best news for the last. Yes, you already know it by now: Ben Tyler is back to CMP! For those of you who joined the Studio later, Tyler was a pretty active and very creative screenwriter who worked for the Studio between Seasons 6 to 11. He won the Best Screenplay GMA with his very first work for the Studio, the acclaimed comedy ‘Schroedinger’s Litterbox’. In Season 9, he was nominated again for the same award with ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’. Besides those, some of his best known works for CMP are ‘Monolith’, ‘Borgel’, ‘Lobo’ or ‘Captain Planet’. For his return, Tyler has chosen a most peculiar experimental movie inspired by the music of the legendary rock band Genesis. And I won’t say anything more about it to avoid spoiling it. You will have to wait until Season 18, when this new Tyler’s movie is expected to be green lighted.