SEPTEMBER, 9


THE TEAM

Action Adventure

The Cast: Ben Affleck, Kate Hudson, Ellen Page, Jay Baruchel, Dwayne Johnson, Leighton Meester, Ian Holm

The Director and Producer: Michael Bay
The Screenwriter: Joey Stark

The Plot:

Alexander Mckenzie (I.Holm) is an eccentric millionaire obsessed with what he calls ‘alternative science’. For years, he has been investing money in investigating the existence of a world parallel to ours. Now, his team of scientists has finally developed a device capable of teleport people to that parallel universe he calls MIX. Now, McKenzie needs to recruit the team to be sent to MIX.

When McKenzie is looking for the right candidates to be sent to MIX, Affleck contacts him. Affleck tells McKenzie that confidential sources have told him about McKenzie’s project and offers him his own team.

The members of Affleck’s team are supposed to be the main specialists possible in very different areas:

-Ben Affleck is an ex marine and now mercenary who has fought in any world conflict imaginable for the last ten years.
-Dwayne Johnson can drive almost anything that moves from airplanes, boats, cars or whatever.
-Kate Hudson is a world renowned mountaineer used to survive in the toughest environments.
-Jay Baruchel is the most skilled hacker in the world.
-Ellen Page has an over gifted brain for maths and she can decode any formula in seconds.

There is only one little problem McKenzie does not know: it is all a lie.

Affleck is only a professional swindler with no war or fighting experience at all. He was expelled from the army years ago. But an old friend of him from his Army days, now working at the NSA, talked to him during a heavy drinking night about McKenzie’s experiments and the big money he was ready to pay to a team of specialists and Affleck smelled a nice business in it. Things have not being going to well for Affleck lately, as he owes a lot of money to too many and not too friendly people, so he is ready to take any risk for money.

Affleck falsifies the profiles of the members of his team and made his offer to McKenzie.

The truth is that Dwayne is only the truck driver with more traffic tickets of America. Jay knows nothing about computers and he is only a jobless actor. Affleck met Kate when she was working as a waitress in a club. And Ellen is Affleck’s younger sister and has always wanted to be a professional swindler herself like his brother is and their father was.

When McKenzie meets them all, they make an impressive performance pretending to be what they are not and McKenzie fully takes the bait.

The mission of Affleck and his team will be to stay at MIX for one week before they are teleported back. Then, they will make a full report of what MIX is.

Affleck and his team discuss about the dangers. ’72 hours surviving at that stupid place. Then, we go back home and tell McKenzie a few stories about MIX and we will get our money and be rich for the rest of our lives.’ That’s what Affleck proposes to his team. And they all finally accept to take the risk.

According to McKenzie’s experiments and investigations, MIX is a parallel world where ages and civilizations are mixed without any logical pattern of evolution. It is as if all ages of Human evolution co-exist there at the same time.

That parallel world is where Affleck and his team are teleported to.

And problems begin as soon as they arrive to MIX.

First person they meet is Leighton Meester, a woman from a village nearby the forest where they show up. She is a friendly woman that invites the team to visit her village. She tells them that there is a war going on between the peaceful farmers of the region (who live and look like if they were from the 17th Century) and the so called Thalions, a tribe of warriors that use the most sophisticated weapons and want to enslave her people.

In fact, that very same evening, Leighton’s village suffers a ‘raid’ from the Thalions. They attack the village riding futuristic flying bikes. The flying bikes shoot laser-guns that destroy the houses and put the village on fire. Everybody tries to escape. The Thalion capture people with nets as if they were animals. It’s a big chaos. Ellen is captured by the Thalions.

According to Leighton, the Thalions take their prisoners to become their servants at their futuristic underwater city. Next morning, Ben, Kate and Jay decide to travel to that town to rescue Ellen while Dwayne stays at Leighton’s village to help their people to organize a defense against the Thalions’ attacks.

From that moment, action splits in three different plotlines:

Ellen is taken to the Thalions’ underwater city and imprisoned in a labyrinth of wet caves with the rest of the prisoners. The rest of the prisoners are innocent and scared people weaken by hunger and cold.

Ben, Kate and Jay go through different adventures on their trip to the Thalions’ city. They are attacked by a band of outlaws with the looks of cowboys. They have to travel through a river full of rapids in a small boat. And to find the exact location of the underwater city, they visit a cantina full of pirates-alike thugs where Kate has to act dancing while Ben and Jay interrogate people and it all ends up in a big fight. Finally, they end up in a port of little sophisticated submarines and they steal one of them to travel to the city. Underwater, they are also attacked by primitive creatures used by the Thalions as guardians of their city before reaching the entrance of it.

Dwayne stays with Leighton. A traditional event is going to take place. It’s a kind of Roman circus where representatives of each village compete every year. Dwayne is chosen to represent Leighton’s village. So he participates in boxing fights and a spectacular race of quadrigas. He wins the competition. But at the end of the event, the Thalions attack the circus looking for more slaves. Dwayne takes one of the flying bikes and two of the armors used by the Thalions and, together with Leighton, they pretend to be Thalions and travel with the rest of the squadron to the underwater city.

The final showdown of the story takes place in the Thalions’ futuristic city. Ben, Kate and Jay provoke a explosion to attrack the Thalions’ soldiers attention while they look for the caves of the slaves. Meanwhile, Dwayne and Leighton steal some weapons and also look for the caves going through gunfights against the guardians.

The explosions open leaks of water in the underwater city. Alarms begin to sounds. At the caves, water begins to flood everything. Ellen convinces some other prisoners to face the guardians and fight for their life.

It all comes to a final meeting of all the members of the team at the caves. It is obvious that the underwater city is going to collapse. They have to leave before drowning.

Ben and the rest of the team lead the prisoners in a final battle against the Thalions. During the battle, they are shocked to discover that the Thalions are not humans but cyborgs.

Finally, they reach a bigger submarine and the team and the rest of the prisoners escape from the underwater city and reach the surface just before the whole city collapses.

Back at Leighton’s village, the team teaches the people how to protect from the Thalions’ attacks. After what happened with their city, they hope that the Thalions won’t attack them in a while.

It’s time to be teleported back home.

But Dwayne surprises his team mates telling them that he has decided to stay at MIX to help Leighton and her people just in case the Thalions reorganize again. They understand he has feelings for Leighton.

At the end, Ben, Kate, Ellen and Jay return to our world while Dwayne stays at MIX.


Stark Comment:
Michael Bay used to be one of the most important moviemakers during the first CMP’s Seasons. Then, after the box office’s disaster of ‘Gears Of War’ and the partial disappointment of ‘Command & Conquer’ back in Season 11 he completely disappeared from the CMP’s scene. My brother Joey very much wanted to bring him back and this movie has been specifically conceived by Joey as a vehicle for Bay’s splendorous return.

Behind The Scenes:
-This is the first lead role played by Affleck in CMP since he was Elvis Presley in ‘Graceland’. After that, he had only made two cameos in ‘Queens’ and ‘Lemieux’.
-Both Kate Hudson and Ellen Page are Best Actress GMA Winners.
-Ian Holm’s sequences were the first ones to be shot when making the movie, as he had to join urgently the shootage of ‘Oedipus Rex’.
-The five members of the team have already signed a ‘sequel contract’ just in case Stark and Bay decide to develop a sequel of the movie.

OEDIPUS REX

Drama / Tragedy

The Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Michelle Pfeiffer, Al Pacino, Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Angelica Huston, Ian Holm. Cameos by Mel Gibson, Robert De Niro.

The Director: Martin Scorsese
The Screenwriter: D.R. Cobb

The Plot:

King Laius (M.Gibson) and Queen Jocasta (M.Pfeiffer) of Thebes birth a baby boy. A messenger arrives with what he claims is a message from the Gods. The messenger tells King Laius that he will be killed by his son. Laius orders Jocasta to kill the infant. She instead orders a servant (I.Holm) to do the deed. The servant takes the baby to a mountain top to die of exposure. A shepherd (R.De Niro) happens upon the infant and names him Oedipus. The shepherd takes the baby with him to Corinth, where Oedipus is taken in by King Polybus (I.McShane) of Corinth, and raised as his own.

Several years pass and all is well until as a young man, Oedipus (G.Hedlund) hears rumor that he is not the biological son of King Polybus and his wife Merope (A.Huston). He questions them and they deny the rumor. Oedipus then asks an oracle who his real parents are. The oracle tells Oedipus that he is destined to marry his mother and kill his father. Wanting to avoid this, Oedipus leaves Corinth.

Along the road to Thebes, Oedipus meets Laius. They get into an argument at a bridge over whose chariot gets to go across first. King Laius strikes the youth with his scepter, and Oedipus throws him down from the chariot in retaliation. Laius' head strikes a rock, killing him. Out of self-preservation, Oedipus kills Laius' traveling companions, although one servant escapes.

Oedipus arrives in Thebes, where the townspeople are trying to solve a riddle. Answering the riddle correctly is said to end the epidemic afflicting the people of Thebes. "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?" Oedipus answers that: Man crawls on all fours as an infant, walks upright later, and needs a walking stick when older.

When news of the death of King Laius arrives in Thebes, the town elders decide a new king must be elected as Laius had no heir. Oedipus is chosen as the new King of Thebes and is given the hand of marriage to Queen Jocasta.

The epidemic returns and the townspeople ask Oedipus to help. Oedipus sends his brother-in-law Creon (T.Olyphant) to ask for help from the oracle. Creon arrives back with news that the plague is due to the murderer of King Laius never being caught. Oedipus vows to the people that he will find the murderer.

Oedipus calls upon Tiresias (A.Pacino), a blind prophet, for help. Tiresias tells Oedipus that he knows the answers to his questions, but that Oedipus should stop his search for the murderer. Oedipus thinks Tiresias must have had something to do with the murder. Tiresias then tells Oedipus that he, Oedipus, killed the king. Oedipus cannot figure out how he could have killed the king and believes that the prophet has been hired to undermine him by Creon. Tiresias storms out muttering that when the murderer is found he will be from Thebes, a brother and father to his own children, and a son and husband to his own mother.

Oedipus demands that Creon be executed, but is convinced to hold off by the townspeople. Jocasta tries to comfort Oedipus. She tells him that years ago she and Laius were given word by an Oracle which never came true, that Laius would be killed by his own son, but everyone knows that Laius was killed by bandits at the bridge. Upon mention of the bridge, Oedipus asks for more details. He asks her what Laius looked like, and becomes worried that Tiresias' accusations are correct. Oedipus sends for the one surviving witness of the attack to be brought to the palace. A confused Jocasta asks Oedipus what's on his mind. Oedipus tells her everything. He tells her about the man accusing Oedipus of not being his father's son, the oracle telling him that he will kill his father and marry his mother, that he encountered a carriage which attempted to drive him off the road, that he killed the travelers, including a man who matches Jocasta's description of Laius. Oedipus' only hope that he didn't kill Laius is that in the story he was killed by a gang of robbers.

A messenger (R.De Niro) arrives from Corinth with word that Oedipus' father, Polybus, has died. Oedipus becomes excited, believing the news to prove half of the prophecy false, for now he could not murder his father. He now only fears that he may commit incest with his mother. The messenger tells Oedipus not to worry, because Merope is not his real mother. The messenger tells Oedipus that he was once a shepherd on Mount Cithaeron, and that he was given a baby one day, which the childless Polybus then adopted. The baby had been given to him by a servant from the Laius household, who had been told to kill the child. Oedipus asks who this servant is. He is informed that he is the very same servant who witnessed Laius' murder. Jocasta, who now has figured out the truth, begs Oedipus to stop asking questions.

When the servant (I.Holm) arrives at the palace, Oedipus questions him, but the shepherd asks to leave without answering. Oedipus threatens him with execution unless he answers. The servant tells him that the child he gave away was Laius' son, and that Jocasta had given him the baby to leave for dead on the mountain top. Jocasta runs off to her room and hangs herself. A short while later Oedipus calls upon his servants to bring him a sword so that he can kill himself. He storms through the house until he comes upon Jocasta's body. Oedipus takes her down, removes the gold pins that hold her dress together, and plunges them into his eyes. A blind Oedipus then asks to be exiled.

The End.


Stark’s Comment:
Can a movie based on a classic Greek tragedy succeed nowadays? That’s the big question and I have no answer for it. Maybe Scorsese and the star power of the cast will be able to make it work. Anyway, this is one of the prestige releases of the Season, probably more oriented to win awards than to make big money.

Behind The Scenes:
-Three times Best Director GMA Winner Martin Scorsese has worked 10th times before for CMP as director and / or producer. None of this 10 previous works has flopped at box office.
-Garrett Hedlund has succeeded this Season working with D.R. Cobb in ‘Green Arrow: Year One’.
-De Niro has worked with Scorsese before in CMP in ‘The Heirs’ trilogy, ‘The Toymaker’ and ‘American Tabloid’.
-Al Pacino has starred this Season the western ‘The Sheriff, Saloon and The Storm’.
-Pacino and De Niro met before in CMP in Quentin Tarantino’s ’22:01’
-Angelica Huston has worked before with Cobb in past Season’s ‘Midnight’.
-This is only the second acting work of Mel Gibson in a CMP’s movie. The other one was Sidney Pollack’s ‘Warland’. Gibson also directed ‘1066’.

SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THE NIGHT

Drama / Musical

The Cast: Perla Haney-Jardine, Thomas Dekker, Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly, David Morse

The Director: Sofia Coppola
The Screenwriter: Josh Collins

The Plot:

The film starts right after the birth of a child, a girl in the arms of her mother. A voice-over narration of the child in a southern-accent is heard as she narrates her life “before it all came crashing down,” as she puts it. She says she never really met her daddy (D. Morse) because he ran out on her mom (M. Tomei), older brother (T. Dekker) and her when she was two. She states that her brother said it was a good thing because he was a wife beater. By the time she was going into kindergarten, mom had met another man and shortly married him; her current stepfather (J. C. Reilly).

She says that things really began to change when she was nine years old and was heard singing to herself in the shower by her stepfather. He convinced her mother to speak to get in touch with a recording studio. When they heard me sing, they signed me. Sounds like a dream come true, she says, “but I never really had this dream. My stepdaddy just wants to be rich.”

Now, she is just 12 years old and is a young-country music singing sensation. We see her on stage in the lights and in front of the cheering crowd of all ages. She steps up to the microphone, the music starts up and she starts singing: indeed a truly blessed voice. After the song and crowd heard cheering, we see her after the concert as she is led out to a limo in front of her cheering fans. She puts on the cute happy look until she is no longer in sight. Once the limo drives away, she looks miserable: how much longer can I wear this façade? She asks.

What façade we wonder? Turns out her stepfather doesn’t love her like a daughter, as she stated in her narration, he just loves that she is making him rich. He spends her money, doesn’t work and abuses her physically and verbally; usually when her mother isn’t there. Not like she is much help when she is there, her mother constantly fights with her about her stepfather and ends up siding with him on everything. Basically saying to her, “Just because you’re famous doesn’t mean you can act like a spoiled little bitch.” Her slightly older brother is not much help either. He is jealous of his sister’s success. She doesn’t really have much in the way of friends her own age either; they too assume she is a showoff.

She does enjoy singing and songwriting, though most of her songs involve the pain she feels on the inside. When she’s not in front of a bunch of strangers who admire her youth and talent, she is suffering from depression; including a purging disorder. She often sneaks alcohol, cigarettes and pills (sleeping pills) from her stepfather.

In the film, she also tries to seek out her biological dad. When she finds that a city she is touring in is where he resides, she goes to find him. Not a hard thing to do, seeing as how he is mayor of the city. When she shows up at his door, she is taken aback to find he has a brand new life, completely forgotten of his old family; new wife and kids, as if she never existed. He thinks she showed up to stir up trouble for his upcoming reelection and offers her money to ‘keep her mouth shut’ she leaves, tearing up the money he gave to her and leaving the pieces on the ground. She has a meltdown shortly after.

She makes herself sick and during a concert, she ends up vomiting on stage. She runs of the stage and passes out in her dressing room. She winds up in the hospital. It is then when her mother sees truly the pressure and stress her daughter has been dealing with. In an act of a guilty conscience, she finally stands up to her husband and demands a divorce. It causes him to get in such an angry rage that he is about to attack her, but his stepson tackles his stepfather and beats the crap out of him.

Back at the hospital, our young singer is visited by her mom and brother. Her mom basically says there was no excuse for the way she had been acting and allowing the girl’s stepfather to manage her career. She gives a heartfelt apology to her child and in a sign of forgiveness; she takes her mom’s hand and holds it to her heart.

In the dénouement, we find that the girl turns out to be ok. She is no longer doing drugs and doesn’t purge anymore. She has retired from the country music business, but she still sings on her own time; when her, her mom and brother move away, she gets to start life anew in a new town and school. Her relationship with her mother is just as strong as before her stepfather came into the picture. One day, she is sitting in her classroom. A boy approaches her and inquires about her singing career and asking why she isn’t out there instead of cooped up in stupid school every day. She smiles and says, “Maybe at another time. But right now, I just like being a kid.”

The film takes it home with the girl singing in front of her classmates in her middle-school.


Stark’s Comment:
Not an easy movie to make it work at box office. High risk of having here the first flop of the Season. Let’s cross fingers…

Behind The Scenes:
-Thomas Dekker replaced the initially considered Robert Pattinson. Pattinson didn’t find the role interesting enough for him.
-Michelle Pfeiffer was the first option to play Perla’s mother. But she was already committed with ‘Oedipus Rex’ so Marisa Tomei was chosen to replace her.
-Sofia Coppola won the Best Director GMA with her first work for the Studio, ‘Maleficarum’. After that, she directed past Season ‘Woman’.
-Perla Haney-Jardine sings in the movie although she had never been a singer before.


TARZAN: Green light for D.R.Cobb’s version of the iconic character. Cobb has stated that he wants to make a most loyal adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s original book. To direct it, he initially chose Jonathan Mostow (‘Nick Fury’). But, after some creative differences between Mostow and Cobb during pre-production phase, he was replaced by Joe Wright (‘Misplaced Affections’). As it has already been announced, Tarzan will be played by actor and model Taylor Kitsh, who makes here his debut in CMP. And a debutante in the Studio has been chosen too to play Tarzan’s beloved Jane: the Bond girl seen in ‘Quantum Of Solace’, Gemma Arterton.

GROW OLD WITH ME: Chad Taylor tried to put together a new generation of CMP’s stars in ‘Hunger Games’. And to settle down that generational spirit, he has written now this love story that will reunite again some of those same talents. After the partial disappointment of ‘Dark Shadows’, Nick Cassavetes returns to CMP to shoot this romantic story. And the main appeal of this production will be without doubt its starring couple. Two idols for teenagers: Emma Watson and Robert Pattinson. Emma already worked with Taylor in ‘Hunger Games’ and Pattinson was the very bad boy of Taylor’s The Forgotten Trilogy.

WOMAN OF GOD: Ridley Scott and James Bradley have chosen a quality cast for this historical movie that tells the legend of the only woman said to have become Pope of Rome, played by Cate Blanchett. Together with her, we’ll see in the film prestigious talents like Ian Holm, who can be seen too in this week’s releases ‘Oedipus Rex’ and ‘The Team’; Jeremy Irons, who already worked with Scott in CMP in ‘The Gunpowder Plot’; Liam Neeson, seen past Season in ‘L.A. Wolf’; and Jonathan Pryce, who makes here his debut in CMP.

BORN AGAIN: As in almost every Josh Collins’ movie, there will also be young talents showing up in this drama. And more than one this time: Preston Bayley, seen before in CMP in ‘Dark Shadows; Cayden Boyd, who worked with Collins before in ‘The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon’; Bailee Madison, who has worked with Collins in ‘Bedtime Stories 2’ and ‘Restraint’; and Collins’ daughter herself, Allison Collins, seen before in some of his dad’s movies like ‘After The Storm’ and the Best Picture GMA Winner ‘The Rock Star’. Allison and Cayden have also met before in Matt Kubrick’s ‘Hell Night’.

JONESTOWN: Oliver Stone is directing and producing this film written by D.R. Cobb about the mass suicide that took place in Guyana in 1978 by the members of the so called People Temple community. Josh Brolin and David Strathairn are the lead stars of the movie. Also in it, we will see Val Kilmer, whose latest work for CMP was ‘The Importance Of Being Honest’; Scott Speedman, only seen before in CMP in ‘Bedtime Stories 2’; and actor and director Tony Goldwin, working for the first time for the Studio.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has already starred this Season the funny comedy ‘Cousins’, returns to comedy with this Richard Linklater’s film written by Ben Tyler. Gordon-Levitt is the third side of a love triangle formed with Zach Braff and Anne Hathaway. But the most surprising thing is that he plays in the film an android of the so called PleasuireBot 6000 series. And that means a humanoid designed to keep women sexually happy… Yes, his character is a kind of parody of the character played by Jude Law in Steven Speilberg’s ‘A.I.’

AT CROSS PURPOSES: Laurence Abernathy made his debut as screenwriter in CMP with the sci-fi action flick ‘Thrust From Skyline’. He has taken some time before writing his second film. But here it is at last. John Hillcoat is going to direct this action thriller to be starred by Tom Hardy, seen before in CMP starring the successful ‘Grand Theft Auto’, and Josh Hartnett, finally working in front of the cameras again in a CMP’s film after being attached during a few Seasons to his voice-only job in the ‘F-Zero’ series.

WONDER WOMAN III: Two cameos to add to the cast of this third installment of the Wonder Woman franchise directed by Zhang Yimou: Ryan Philippe, making his debut in CMP, and Jeremy Piven, who could be seen past Season in the acclaimed ‘Kite’ after the problems he went through when being cast and then fired from ‘The Question’.

SKIN TIGHT: D.R. Cobb often casts debutantes in CMP for his movies. In this comedy directed by Harold Ramis, together with the experienced Oliver Platt, not seen in CMP since he played Orson Wells in the multi-awarded ‘The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay’, we will also see some debutantes like Michael Shannon, seen in movies like ‘The Runaways’, and two beauties from different tv shows: Bonnie Sommerville and Alana De La Garza. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thronton are the starring couple of the film.

THE SKY IS GREY: GMA Winner Joseph Fiennes, already seen this Season in the Clint Eastwood’s western ‘This Far From Heaven’, joins the cast of this drama written by Chad Taylor. Darren Aronofsky is the director of the film and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Daniel Craig play the leading roles of the story.


JOSH COLLINS
SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THE NIGHT

Josh Collins teams up with Best Director GMA Winner Sofia Coppola to tell us the story of the prize a girl has to pay to become a country music star. Collins is also about to release his latest film as director, ‘Born Again’. We have talked with him about these two films and other stories…

1.With 'Somewhere other than the night' you return to some of your usual issues: youngsters' conflicts, family relationships... What's new in this movie in relation with some other of your previous works?

It's about a fictional country singer child sensation. I don't really listen to much country music, but I thought this one would relate to today's audiences as they seem to be all into the "country scene" and I use that term loosely and in quotations as a lot of the country these kids are listening to these days is as fake as pop-punk music. It's been a few seasons since I've had my usual youngster conflict, so it was just a chance to have a callback. There also seems to be better redemption in the family-unit in this film whereas in most of my films involving family relationships, things don't always turn out as good as peaches 'n' cream.

2.Perla Haney-Jardine is a surprising cast choice. How is it that you didn't choose some of the young actresses you have usually worked with to star this film?

I like to keep a lookout for newer talent and the lower the profile the better, especially if they have great talent that keeps getting overlooked. Also Perla looks to be a normal kid and the story happens to be about a normal kid who has a hidden talent.

3.You are also releasing soon 'Born Again', a movie about reincarnation. Why were you interested in this issue?

You don't get very many dramatic films about reincarnation. It seems to be a rule that if it involves reincarnation, it has to be a horror or thriller. I wanted to take that concept and apply it with a surreal drama approach and see how it translates.

4.Do you believe in reincarnation?

I don't think it should be ruled out as not happening. Stranger things have happened like ghosts walking around and there have been accounts of divine intervention for people. I believe it's possible and I agree matter can neither be created nor destroyed, but only changed. I think past lives are possible. Maybe it's just wishful thinking.

5.Why did you decide to leave the 'Metroid' saga and not getting involved in the sequel? And what's your opinion about the work made by Dawson Edwards with 'Metroid: Prime'?

Even while Metroid was sitting on the waiting list, I knew for a long time that Dawson was interested in making a film of the game. It's not that I left it, it's just there wasn't an idea for a sequel so it would just sit there until an idea would come about, but I came up with other films since pitching Metroid and it kept getting pushed back. A lot of the problems I seem to experience myself is I guess I try to stick too close to the source material. Fans of the series don't want to see something they can play on their Nintendo; but at the same time if I get too far away from the source everyone would bitch about how it's not like the game. The first Metroid quite honestly got lucky with the box office it received. You don't have very much to go when you're on top. I myself am surprised Metroid Prime did well, and it looks to be true that a CMP writer can pass the torch onto someone else and still have a successful release.

The Metroid series has reminded us yet again that females can kick ass and even bring in more money to the studio. Men get to see hot women blowing stuff up (and you women out there can't roll your eyes at that, because you know damn well that you drooled over Vin Diesel walking around with his shirt off in XXX or Taylor Lautner in Twilight) and the women out there get to see their kind in roles better than the damsel in distress or just 'the love interest' So I am very happy with the direction Metroid Prime had taken. The first film took a few steps and the new one took leaps. I stick by my comparison that it received the Terminator 2/Aliens/Godfather II and Toy Story 2 complex. It fell into the right hands and it gave the film a chance to expand when the first one left so much open for a sequel to take it somewhere else.


METROID: PRIME

Past week, ‘Metroid: Prime’ made the alltimes 3rd best box office ever and the highest net gains ever generated by a CMP’s movie: 598 millions. Every time a CMP’s release becomes a record-breaker, we take an in-depth look at it. So this week we look closer to this spectacular production.


THE SOURCE

‘Metroid’ is a series of videogames developed by Nintendo. The series includes 11 games released between 1986 and 2010. The games series focuses on the adventures of Samus Aran and her assignments to wipe out threats to the Galactic Federation presented by the Space Pirates and their attempts to harness various biological weapons such as the Metroids and Phazon. The series has been highly praised by critics, being ranked by IGN as the eighth best videogame franchise ever.

THE FILM

‘Metroid: Prime’ is the sequel of ‘Metroid’, released by CMP in Season 15. ‘Metroid’, also directed by Zack Snyder, entered too into the alltimes box office and the highest net gains’ lists. The film made 279 million at box office and net gains of 406 millions. ‘Metroid’ was written by Josh Collins.

Dawson Edwards replaced Collins as the screenwriter of the franchise and wrote ‘Metroid: Prime’. Only Charlize Theron and Laurence Fishburne return from the cast of the first movie. Joaquin Phoenix’s character was initially offered to Russell Crowe but he refused the job.

‘Metroid: Prime’ is one of the most expensive movies ever developed by CMP. Most of its production budget was spent in creating the digital creatures and the futuristic scenarios seen in the film.

THE DIRECTOR

Zack Snyder has become lately one of the most successful and powerful directors in CMP’s world. His first films for the Studio were a succession of box office’s disappointments. ‘Preacher’, ‘Wild Cards: Battle Of The Rox’ and the two ‘Kingdom’ movies didn’t turn out to be as successful as expected.

But his three latest works for the Studio – ‘Metroid’, ‘Athena’ and now ‘Metroid: Prime’ – have all become ‘+200’ releases. No other moviemaker has had such a successful strike ever in CMP. He also fought past Season to win his first Golden Moon Award as producer of the Best Picture nominee ‘The Question’.

His plans for the near future are producing the sequel of ‘The Question’ and directing the already announced third installment of the ‘Metroid’ franchise.

THE LEAD STAR

Charlize Theron has been for long one of the big names in CMP’s History. She has worked in 9 movies from the Studio. Her CMP’s career includes two Golden Moon Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Season 2, ‘Cathedral’) and Best Actress (Season 16, ‘Love Lost’).

Besides ‘Metroid’, she has been seen in other successful CMP’s franchises like ‘The Heirs’ and ‘Lieutenant USA and his Warm Steel Gang’. Her only box office’s flop was ‘Nathan Zachary and the Pylfered Prototype’, a movie where she only made a cameo.

Theron has also starred the controversial ultraviolent film ‘Damnation Road’ and the box office hit ‘Fantasy World’. This Season, she has been seen too in the critically acclaimed Coen Brothers’ drama ‘Frontier’.


THE SCREENWRITER

Dawson Edwards already is a veteran in CMP. He is best known for his superheroes movies, including The Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Superman.

Together with that, he also writes dramas regularly, mainly focused on the afro-american community. He has teamed up with Spike Lee in four movies: ‘Fallen Kings’, ’24 Hours To Live’, ‘Get Down’ and ‘The Cool’. Other remarkable works in his writing career are the thrillers ‘Ms. Jordon’ and ‘What You Deserve’ and the mafia movie ‘Gaspipe’. He also begun a new Star Wars series with ‘Star Wars: Holocron Initiative’ but the weak box office made by this film seemed to discourage him from going on with it. Edwards is also the writer of the very successful animated series ‘Mouse Guard’ and a less successful but still popular animated saga ‘F-Zero’.

His fetish talents are Joshua Jackson, Derek Luke and Cobie Smulders.

He has three nominations for the Best Screenplay GMA: ‘Fallen Kings’ (Season 10), ‘Ms. Jordon’ (Season 13) and ‘Rebel’ (Season 14).

THE FUTURE

Dawson Edwards has already written the screenplay for a third installment of the ‘Metroid’ franchise. Both Snyder and Theron have confirmed that they will be more than happy to return to the saga.

This third movie of the series is not scheduled to be developed by the Studio at least before Season 20.


THE ROBOTS TRILOGY

This week, CMP presents the fifth and last DVD Box Set to celebrate the 500 releases of the Studio. ‘The Robots Trilogy’ is a prestigious sci-fi saga that taught us what the positronic brain is…

Steve Connors adapted these three robots novels written by Isaac Asimov and starred by the human police detective Elijah Baley, played by Bruce Willis, and the android R. Daneel Olivaw, played by Paul Bettany. Connors made free adaptations of the books introducing changes in the storylines, essentially to provide the films with more action sequences. The final result was three very interesting sci-fi thrillers. Only the third of them became a big blockbuster but the three of them got critical acclamation. They have become a cult CMP’s saga still remembered as some of the best futuristic movies ever developed by the Studio.


THE CAVES OF STEEL
Danny Boyle / Steve Connors
B.O.: 83 mill. / N.G.: 68 mill.
Cast:
Bruce Willis, Paul Bettany, Laura Linney, Ray Liotta, William Hurt, Salma Hayek
Comment:
The first film takes place in a futuristic city on Earth built under a dome of steel. It very much focuses on the character of Baley (Bruce Willis playing Bruce Willis), a skeptical cop that very much dislike robots (yes, think of Will Smith in ‘I, Robot’). But Paul Bettany’s screen presence playing the humanoid partner of Baley very much became the stealer of the show. The film wasn’t the blockbuster expected but critics praised the quality of it.
Curiosities:
-Laura Linney plays Willis’ wife in the film. Her character is mentioned but not seen again in the two sequels.
-The film was the directional debut of Danny Boyle for the Studio. Boyle quickly became a very demanded director in CMP’s world.

THE NAKED SUN
Brett Ratner / Steve Connors
B.O.: 91 mill. / N.G.: 86 mill.
Cast:
Bruce Willis, Paul Bettany, Uma Thurman, Ian Holm, Guy Pearce, Joe Pesci
Comment:
Brett Ratner replaced Boyle behind the cameras for this second installment. With that change, Connors wanted to improve the action pace of the film. The plot here is more elaborated than it was in the first movie. The film was launched putting more the accent in the starring couple than only in Willis himself after the impact made by Bettany’s work in the first film. Another one of the appeals of the movie was the presence of Uma Thurman playing a sexy android.
‘The Naked Sun’ brought a deserved Best Starring Couple GMA for Willis and Bettany. Thurman also won the Best Supporting Actress award. And it was also nominee at the Best Production Design and the Most Wanted Sequel category.
Curiosities:
-Uma Thurman’s character died in the movie although she didn’t die in Asimov’s book.

ROBOTS OF DAWN
Brett Ratner / Steve Connors
B.O.: 219 mill. / 207 mill.
Cast:
Bruce Willis, Paul Bettany, Uma Thurman, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Evan Rachel Wood
Comment:
Finally, the third installment became the big blockbuster the two previous films had not been. That proved that the fans of this trilogy had been growing as time passed. ‘Robots Of Dawn’ is undoubtedly the best movie of the trilogy. The elaborated plot connected with the events told in ‘The Naked Sun’. Thurman returned to the saga playing a clone of her character in the previous movie (in the books, it was the same character, but Connors had killed her in ‘The Naked Sun’). One of the highlights of the movie was a sex sequence between the human Willis and the humanoid Thurman (although Willis’ character is married and used to hate humanoids).
The film got five nominations at Season 11’s Golden Moon Awards: Picture, Director, Starring Couple, Cast and Production Design. It did not win at any of them.
Curiosities:
-Willis and Bettany are the only talents being nominated twice at the Best Starring Couple category for playing the same characters.
-Connors liked so much the work of Evan Rachel Wood in this film that he chose her later to be in the two CMP’s sequels of ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Edge Of Human’ and ‘Replicant Rebel’.
-Connors and Ratner would team up later again in the sci-fi films ‘Invasion’ and ‘Freedom City’.
-Although Asimov did not write anymore books with both Baley and Olivaw together, Connors has mentioned in different occasions that he would like to make another movie with these characters.


Best Actress GMA Winner Ellen Page returns this week to CMP with the action adventure movie ‘The Team’. Due to it, ‘Premiere’ has interviewed the popular star from CMP’s films like ‘Nude!’, ‘Crossovers’ or ‘Woodland Creatures’. Also in this issue of the magazine, you can find an interview with Perla Haney-Jardine, lead star of this week’s release ‘Somewhere other than the night’ and an in-depth report on Martin Scorsese’s new film for the Studio, ‘Oedipus Rex’.



Ben Affleck will have to wait. Yes, Affleck returns to CMP this week starring the new top budget production by Michael Bay, ‘The Team’. But he will have to wait to make his first film as director for the Studio. Affleck’s plan after ‘The Team’ was to direct a movie titled ‘The Life And Death Of Jesse James’. The film was going to tell a most peculiar story about bloggers and fake identities. It was a story based on true events and written by Chad Taylor. But after considering it for a long time, Harry Stark has decided not to develop this film. Stark is afraid the Studio could get into legal problems telling a true story of real life characters… and pretty freaky ones, by the way. So after keeping the screenplay on the waiting list for a long time, the Studio has definitely decided to cancel the project. And Affleck will have to wait to make his first directional job for the Studio.

This week, Josh Collins releases a drama with music in the background of the story, ‘Somewhere other than the night’. But he will focus more directly in music with one of his upcoming projects. Collins has written a new big screen adaptation of the Broadway classic ‘How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying’. Last time this popular musical was seen on stage in Broadway it was this very same year and Daniel Radcliff starred it. It is not known yet who will star Collins’ movie. Josh Collins already succeeded with a musical in CMP: the still remembered animated feature ‘Bird Of A Feather’.

Will there ever be a ‘Daughters Of The Dragon 3’? The two installments of this CMP’s franchise, written by Joey Stark, became big box office’s hits. When releasing the second one, Stark stated that he was not interested in writing a third movie of the series. But I have been told he was reconsidering it lately. The problem now is that Halle Berry has also stated that she has no intention of returning to this saga. It seems like she felt mistreated during the promotional campaign of the second movie in comparison with the co-star of it, Cameron Diaz. You know how jealous stars are… The funny thing here is that Halle Berry might play again her character in this series, the police woman with a bionic arm Misty Knight, in another future CMP’s movie not written by Stark. So maybe we’ll see Misty / Berry again but we will never see the Daughters of the Dragon together again.

Tom Clancy’s ‘Splinter Cell’ video games will have a CMP’s big screen version. During a press conference presenting this week’s release ‘Oedipus Rex’, D.R. Cobb announced that his future projects include a movie version of this series of action games. Cobb didn’t confirm who will be directing or starring the movie. And talking about Cobb, don’t miss at his blog his opinion about David Slade abandoning the sequel of ‘The Question’ as I announced past week… (by the way, I highly recommend this very interesting blog!)

And I end up this week with a question: what has happened with ‘Midnight Movies The Edge’? Matt Kubrick announced months ago that he had created this Department in his production company, Midnight Movies, to develop adult oriented animated features to be released on DVD market only. In fact, Kubrick already released one film, ‘Demon Hunter’. Since then, we have never heard of Midnight Movies The Edge again. Does that mean that Kubrick, not as active as he used to be in CMP anymore, has definitely abandoned this peculiar initiative? My sources at CMP’s offices have only told me that they have no idea if there will be new movies coming from MMTE or not…