DECEMBER, 2


ALAN WAKE

Action / Mystery

The Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt, Rosamund Pike, Elizabeth Olsen, Brent Sexton, Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Brad William Henke, Cristine Ross

The Director: David Slade
The Producer: Tom Cruise
The Screenwriter: Yuri Redding

The Plot:

Best-selling novelist Alan Wake (T. Cruise) has been suffering from writers block for a long time, not having been able to write anything for two years. He and his wife Alice (R. Pike) decide to take a trip to the small town of Bright Falls, Washington for a vacation. The couple go to the town diner to pick up the key to the cabin from a man named Carl Stuckey. At the diner they are greeted by waitress, Rose Marigold (E. Olsen), who claims to be Alan's biggest fan, as well as Rusty (B.W. Henke), a local park ranger. Alan is directed to the back of the diner where the restrooms are to look for Carl. He knocks on the men's room door. After receiving no answer, he is confronted by an old woman (S. Spacek) holding a lantern who tells him that Carl couldn't make and gives him the keys and a map to the cabin. Alan and Alice get back in the car and follow the map to the cabin which is located on a small island on Cauldron Lake.

Later, while they are unpacking, Alan discovers that Alice has set up a typewriter for him in the study in order for him to try and write. Alan, angered by Alice's persistence, goes outside for a walk. While standing on the bridge leading to the cabin, the power goes out and Alan hears Alice scream his name. He races back to the cabin to find that Alice has fallen into the lake. He dives in after her.

Suddenly, Alan wakes up in his car with his head bleeding due to an apparent car accident. Alan decides to head to the nearest gas station to make a phone call as his cell phone doesn't get a signal. He opts to cut through the woods to save time. Along the way, Alan comes across some manuscript pages. The first page reads "Departure," which was a book Alan was going to write but never could. The next page describes the protagonist being attacked by an ax-murderer in the woods at night. Alan then comes across a lumber yard and Carl Stuckey. Alan tries to speak to him, but when Carl turns around, something is off about him, and finds himself surrounded by a dark presence. He is then attacked by the shadowy presence. He ends up eventually having to kill Carl. He then runs toward the gas station.

Along the way he notices a sign that has the date on it and realizes that it's been a week since he jumped in the lake after Alice. Inside the gas station, Alan calls for the police and waits on their arrival. Sheriff Sarah Breaker (R. Hall) arrives and Alan tells her that his wife has gone missing on Cauldron Lake. She tells him that there is no cabin on Cauldron Lake, not since the island sank during a volcanic eruption 40 years earlier. Sarah then asks Alan if he's seen Carl Stuckey, the owner of the gas station. Alan lies to her in order to keep the focus on his missing wife. Sarah drives Alan to the lake to show him that there is no cabin or island, and to Alan's horror, she is right, the island and cabin are not there.

After being interrogated by Sarah, Alan receives a call from a kidnapper telling him to meet him at Lover's Peak in Elderwood National Park. Soon Alan's agent, Barry Wheeler (O. Platt), shows up at the police station. He made the trip after not being able to get a hold of Alan for a week. Alan and Barry head toward a cabin in the woods. Alan sets out to meet the kidnapper while Barry stays at the house. On the way, Alan finds Rusty, who is badly wounded after being attacked by the shadows. Rusty, possessed, turns on Alan, who manages to kill him with a rock. Alan continues to Lover's Peak and finds the kidnapper. The two are attacked by the "Taken" but they manage to hold them off. The two then get into a scuffle when Alan demands to get his wife back. The two end up tumbling off the edge of a cliff, though neither are critically harmed. Alan receives a call from Barry, who says the power has gone out at the house. The kidnapper tells Alan that he has two days to deliver him the completed manuscript at the old coal mine, or he'll kill Alice.

When he gets back to the house, Alan sends Barry into town to see if anyone knows a man matching the kidnapper's description. Later, Barry receives a call from Rose. Rose tells Barry that she has the manuscript.

Alan and Barry head to Rose's trailer to get the manuscript, but when they arrive they both fall unconscious after drinking coffee offered by Rose. When Alan awakes, he has only twelve hours left to deliver the manuscript. Barry is still knocked out, and Alan drags him out to the car. Outside, Alan is confronted by FBI agent Nightingale (B. Sexton). The trailer park manager had called the police when he noticed that Alan and Barry hadn't left. Alan tries to evade Nightingale, who then opens fire on Alan. Alan flees into the woods, leaving the still asleep Barry behind. Alan heads to the local radio station for directions to the old coal mine, but Nightingale turns up again. Alan flees once again as the pursuing police is decimated by the shadowy "Dark Presence" in the woods. Alan finds a car by sunrise and heads to the coal min. He arrives on time and waits, until getting a call from the kidnapper, telling him to find him at Mirror Peak. At Mirror Peak, the kidnapper reveals that he never had Alice. Just then, a tornado of the Dark Presence engulfs them.

Alan wakes up in the Cauldron Lake Lodge, a formal hotel that now runs as a mental institute for "artists," lead by Dr. Emil Hartman (T. Wilkinson). Hartman informs Alan that his wife died and all of the recent events were a figment of his imagination. Alan refuses to believe him, and as night falls, two other patients begin to cause havoc in the institute. In all the chaos, Alan manages to escape and soon reunites with Barry, who has been poisoned by Dr. Hartman. Soon, the Dark Presence engulfs the institute, killing Hartman. Alan and Barry flee and come across a farm. They find a message that tells them to "Find the Lady of the Light." Alan then remembers the woman, Cynthia Weaver, who was holding a lantern in the diner when he first arrived in Bright Falls. They agree to go find Cynthia in the morning. The two spend the night at the farm, drinking some homemade moonshine they find.

As Alan falls asleep, he dreams of the night of Alice's disappearance… When he jumped to save Alice, he couldn't find her and thought she drowned. He broke down crying on the dock before heading back into the house. The Dark Presence, in the form of Barbara Jagger (C.Ross), a writer from the 1970s, tells Alan to start writing a story, saying that the story will come to life and he can write Alice back into existence. After writing for a week, Alan realized he was under control of the Dark Presence, and wrote his own escape into the story. He ran to his car, but was tired, and drove off the road.

Alan wakes up and is greeted by Agent Nightingale at gunpoint. He takes Alan and Barry down to the police station and locks them up. When the power goes out at the station, both Sheriff Sarah Breaker and Nightingale come to watch over them. Nightingale reaches into his pocket to check a page of the manuscript he had been reading. The Dark Presence sweeps Nightingale away. Sarah frees Alan and Barry. They tell her that they need to find Cynthia Weaver. Sarah tells them that she lives in the old power station. While Barry is left behind to make some phone calls for the Sheriff, Alan and Sarah start to make their way to a helicopter. The power starts malfunctioning again and Barry makes a run for it and winds up in a shop not far from Alan and Sarah. Barry grabs flares and flashlights from the store and regroups with Sarah and Alan. The three of them reach the helicopter and fly it to the old power station. On the way there, the helicopter is attacked by crows. Sarah drops Alan off, while she and Barry remain in the helicopter. Alan finds Cynthia. She tells him to go to the Well-Lit Room.

Alan, Barry, Cynthia, and Sarah all meet there. Alan finds a page that mentions a "clicker," a snapped-off light switch that Alan was given by his mother, that turns on a magical light and gets rid of all the darkness. Alan now knows that he needs to go to Cauldron Lake and use the clicker to save Alice and the town.

Alan begins to drive to Cauldron Lake, telling Barry, Cynthia, and Sarah to stay in the Well-Lit Room as this is something he must do alone. After several encounters with large groups of the "Taken", he reaches the lake, dives in, and presses the clicker. He ends up in a world filled with darkness. Illuminated pieces of giant text begin to form the house that disappeared. When the house reappears fully, he hears Barbara talking and Alice screaming for help. Alan heads into the house and sees Barbara in front of his with a hole in her chest from her husband's attempt to kill her in the 1970s. He grabs her, puts his hand in her heart and clicks the clicker. The light fills her body, coming out of her eyes and mouth before the house is engulfed by light as well. Alan then walks to the typewriter his wife set up and starts writing, saying that he knows how to write the ending.


Stark’s Comment:
It is surprising that Cruise has only made 3 movies in CMP – ‘Chevrolet’, ‘The Guardians’ and ‘Trail Of The Lost Empire’ -, but all of them have worked nicely at box office and I think this one will do so too.

Behind The Scenes:
-This movie is based on a video game.
-This is the first time that Cruise produces one of his CMP’s movies.
-After directing ‘The Question’, David Slade abandoned the pre-production of its sequel, the upcoming ‘The Question: Dark Tomorrow’, when Cruise offered him to direct this movie.
-Cristine Ross replaced the originally considered Angelica Huston.

SUSPIRIA

Horror / Mystery

The Cast: Blake Lively, Ophelia Lovibond, Angelica Huston, Helena Bonham-Carter, Daniel Bruhl, Dianna Agron, Hugo Weaving, David Hewlett

The Director: Vincenzo Natali
The Screenwriter: D.R. Cobb

The Plot:

Suzy Banyon (B.Lively), a young American ballet student, arrives in Munich on a stormy night to enroll in a prestigious dance academy in nearby Freiberg. She gets out of a taxi and sees a young blonde woman leaving the building in a panic, and shouting at someone on the inside, but the storm keeps Suzy from making out what it said. Once the girl is gone, Suzy goes up to the door. The person on the other side refuses to let Suzy enter the building. Suzy goes back to the taxi and heads back towards town. As the taxi drives through a forest that separates the school from town, Suzy notices the blonde woman running through the trees.

The blonde woman, Patricia (D.Agron), makes it to a friend’s apartment in town. Patricia locks herself in the bathroom. She becomes transfixed by something outside the window. Suddenly an arm smashes through the glass, grabbing her. She is pulled out the window and onto the roof, where she is stabbed numerous times. Patricia’s friend overhears her screams and tries to call for help, hoping one of her neighbors will hear the commotion. Patricia is bound with a cord and is hanged when she falls through the apartment’s skylight. Patricia’s friend is impaled by the falling glass and metal.

The next morning Suzy arrives back at the academy, and is greeted by Madame Blanc (A.Huston) and Miss Tanner (H.Bonham-Carter). Madame Blanc is friendly towards Suzy, as she is old friends with Suzy’s aunt Carol. Detectives are there investigating Patricia’s murder. Suzy is shown a picture of Patricia and recognizes her as the blonde leaving the night before. Suzy is escorted to the locker room, where she meets Sara (O.Lovibond) and Olga. Suzy is then told that even though she had requested to board at the school, the rooms are full, and it has been arranged for her to live with Olga at her apartment off-campus.

The next morning, Madame Blanc tells Suzy that a dorm room has opened up, but Suzy tells her that she would rather live with Olga. On her way to class, Suzy passes by the cook polishing up some silver and the cook reflects a beam of sunlight at Suzy, who starts to feel ill. In class, Suzy struggles and eventually passes out, bleeding from her nose and mouth.

When Suzy wakes up, she finds that she has been moved into a dorm room against her wishes. The school doctor puts Suzy on a restricted diet of cheese, fruit, and a glass of red wine a day. Suzy’s dorm is next door to Sara’s. As Suzy and the rest of the students dress for dinner, hundreds of maggots fall from the ceiling. Ms. Tanner goes to the upper floor and finds that crates of spoiled food have caused the maggot infestation. Madame Blanc apologizes to the girls and arranges for them to sleep in the practice hall. The teachers are going to stay at the school for the night. A wall of sheets separates the teachers from the students.

Sara is woken up by the sound a whistling snore, spooked by the snore, she wakes up Suzy. Sara tells Suzy that last year she had to sleep in a guest bedroom, and late that night she had heard the same snoring in the next room, Madame Blanc had told her that the snoring had come from the directress’ room. Sara and Suzy find that suspicious since all the girls had been told that the directress would not return to the school for a few weeks.

The next morning, Sara asks Ms. Tanner if the directress showed up last night, but Tanner denies it. As classes are starting, Madame Blanc’s nephew, Albert, is attacked by a guide dog belonging to a blind pianist named Daniel (D.Bruhl). Ms. Tanner tells Daniel to never bring the dog back or she’ll have it put to sleep. Daniel yells that his dog would never harm anyone. Tanner throws Daniel’s cane to the ground and tells him to get out.

That night after dinner, Suzy and Sara listen while the teachers supposedly leave, but Suzy notices that the footsteps are moving away from the front door, and therefore headed somewhere inside. Sara counts the number of footsteps as they pass the room and writes down the number, while Suzy becomes extremely drowsy and falls asleep.

Meanwhile, Daniel leaves a bar with his dog. They walk through a plaza in the city, when his dog starts to bark at something. Daniel tries to calm the dog, but becomes frightened when he hears that someone else is there. Suddenly the dog attacks and kills Daniel, tearing out his throat.

After hearing of Daniel’s death, Suzy goes to see Madame Blanc as she is troubled by the sudden number of deaths. She tells Madame Blanc that she heard Patricia say something the night she died, but could only make out the words “secret” and “iris.” Madame Blanc tells Suzy that she’ll inform the police of the information. That night, Suzy and Sara go for a swim where Sara reveals that she and Patricia were close friends, and that she had been saying strange things and taking notes about strange occurrences at the school. When Sara goes to show the notes to Suzy she discovers that they’re gone. Suzy suddenly falls asleep again. Sara hears footsteps and flees Suzy’s room, and hears someone else enter. Sara goes to hide in the attic. Someone attacks her in the attack, but she manages to make it to a room and latches the door shut. The attacker tries to use a knife to unlatch the door. Sara notices a small window near the ceiling, so she stacks several boxes, and crawls through the window, falling into the next room, which is completely filled with razor wire. She tries to reach the door, but keep getting tangled and cut. Just as she reaches the door, the attacker emerges and slashes her throat.

The next morning, Ms. Tanner tells Suzy that Sara is her room is empty and nobody has been able to find her on campus. Later while she is in town, Suzy meets a friend of Sara’s, who turns out to be Sara’s psychologist, Dr. Frank Mandel (D.Hewlett). He tells Suzy that Sara had become obsessed with the notion of witches. Sara had told him that the school was founded by a Greek émigré named Helena Markos who was believed to be a witch. She had opened the school for the study of the occult, but when she died her favorite pupil turned the school into a dance academy. Dr. Mandel introduces Suzy to his friend Professor Milius (H.Weaving), who is an expert on the occult. He tells Suzy that witches are negative forces that change events to do harm, their goal is personal wealth that can only be achieved by injury to others, that a coven of witches can only survive with their queen, and that whoever kills a witch supposedly inherits their power.

When Suzy arrives back at school, she finds that all the students have gone to the theater. Suzy pours her prescribed wine down a sink. She hears footsteps and remembers counting them with Sara. Suzy follows the footsteps to Madame Blanc’s office. She opens the door, but no one is inside. Suzy notices some irises painted on the wall. She suddenly recalls what Patricia said, “The secret! I saw behind the door! Three irises! Turn the blue one!” Suzy turns the blue iris and a hidden door pops open.

She sneaks down a corridor discovering Madame Blanc, Ms. Tanner and other staff members performing a ritual, and discussing how they’ll kill Suzy. Suzy begins to back away and stumbles upon Sara’s corpse. Suzy flees to a nearby room, which appears to be a bedroom. Behind a curtain, is a shadowy figure snoring loudly, the same weird snoring of the directress, who Suzy now realizes is Helena Markos. Frightened, Suzy accidentally knocks over an ornamental statue, waking up Helena Markos. Suzy picks up one of the sharp glass feathers from the statue and pulls back the curtain, but the bed is empty. Suzy looks around while Markos taunts her. A door slowly opens, and Sara’s corpse, wielding a knife approaches Suzy. Lightning strikes, and Suzy notices a slight outline of Markos still sitting on the bed. Suzy stabs her in the neck. Sara’s corpse disappears, and the burnt features of Markos become visible as she dies. Things begin to explode in the room, and Suzy rushes out. She passes by the meeting room and sees Madame Blanc, Ms. Tanner, and the others, all on the ground and bleeding. Suzy runs away, and everything in her path is destroyed. Doors explode outwards before she can open them, walls crack as she passes. She finally reaches the exit and walks out into the rain as the building burns behind her.


Stark’s Comment:
Horror is always a risky movie genre in CMP. But I have the feeling that this one can work decently at box office. It’s author-esque horror after all.

Behind The Scenes:
-This movie is a remake of a 1977 film directed by Dario Argento
-Cobb had agreed with Guillermo Del Toro that he would be the producer of the movie. But Del Toro abandoned the project when he was offered to direct and produce ‘God Of War’.
-The role of Sara was initially offered to Emma Watson but she rejected to be in the movie playing a role less important than Lively’s.
-Angelica Huston rejected the offer to be in ‘Alan Wake’ to be in this movie.

JUNGLE OF THE DEAD

Adventure / Exploitation

The Cast: Nana Visitor, Daniel Roebuk, Rainn Wilson, Bruce Campbell, Sarah Paxton, Tony Todd, Eli Roth, Adam Weisman

The Director: Rob Zombie
The Producer: Midnight Movies
The Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick

The Plot:

After the credits the movie begins with a flyby over the Amazon jungle and these words appear as wild life and the incredible sights of rivers and jungle wilderness are shown. There are a hundred uncontacted tribes in the world. What are their lives like? could they be dangerous to outsiders? the words fade out as the camera finally settles onto a dock.

The year is 1977 and a group of travelers are waiting for their plane to show up and land on the water. They have all been staying at a small rustic motel that has been built by tourists who come here for nature hikes and to take in the breathtaking scenery. There are 6 people. Jillian Forbes (N.Visitor) and her husband Frank Forbes (D.Roebuk), a nature photographer who has come here to take pictures and write an article for a magazine named Keith Jenkins (R.Wilson), a rich business Tycoon named Bob Walters (B.Campbell) and his much younger girlfriend Tiffany Bortle (S.Paxton) who is in her early 20s as well as nature survivalist Blake Wilson (T.Todd).

After minutes of talking amongst themselves and everything they have experienced in the jungle the plane finally lands and they get on board. The plane is flown by Louis (E.Roth) and his co pilot Ricky (A.Weisman). Their plane will take them to the main runway which is 2 hours so they can fly out of the country and go back to their proper homes.

Their flight back goes smoothly enough but soon they run into trouble, Their navigation system craps out leaving them flying blind and soon enough heavy winds begin taking their plane off course, Ricky tells Louis that they need to find a suitable place to set the plane down safely so they can try to repair but Louis is sure that he get them back on course and tries to convince him that they aren't lost. A warning light goes off saying that they are running out of fuel and as the plane begins to sputter the plane heads into a nose dive threatening to crash into jungle. Louis tries to pull up and manages to level out some but they crash anyways into a smoking ruin. The small group of people manage to climb their way out of the wreckage to assess the situation. They find that Louis is dead a tree limb has impaled him through the face, the co pilot Ricky is badly injured with a badly broken leg bent at a bad angle, his arm wrenched with the bone sticking out he screams in pain and he coughs up some blood.

They manage to get him out of the plane but he dies from his internal injuries. Sparks jut out of instruments in the cabin and the some fuel is leaking out on the ground all over one spark could blow the plane up. Frank Forbes tries to call for help on the cb as a spark causes the fuel to ignite. Everyone scatters trying to get away as the plane explodes into a fireball. The small group comes back to the wreckage all with a look of hopelessness on their faces.

Finally night arrives and the survivors band together around a fire that Blake Wilson has built. He says that he can lead them out of their and alive. He decides that since he has the most experience he should take charge. The others agree and decide that working together is the best way they can survive. He tells them that it won't be easy but they can do it. He says the best bet is to find a stream or a river and follow it till they can find human life. When day breaks they set about finding food and water, Blake tries to hunt. Finally they set out to try to find some means of getting out of the thick jungle. They come upon all sorts of hazards, snakes, wild bores, dangerous insects.

After a few days, they are all hungry, tired, sweaty they look terrible and depleted and it doesn't look like they will ever make it out and they come upon old statues made of sticks and masks. Blake believes that the group has wandered into a tribes territory, he thinks that they may help lead them out of there. After hours of searching they finally come across the tribe community but what they see haunts them, shrunken heads, and dead bodies strung from trees as a warning. Bob and Tiffany manage to steal a small trinket made of stone which belongs to the tribe, what they don't know is that the tribe has eyes and ears they have known since they wandered into their territory and they know that that they have been robbed.

Eventually the tribe captures them all surrounding them with poison tipped spears and herd them into the camp. That night one by one they are slowly mutilated and killed one by one, arms cut off, heads removed, stabbed with spears, soon only Blake and Tiffany are left, Blake manages to free himself and tries to help Tiffany, who is overcome with madness at watching people brutally killed and cooked. Blake smashes the head of a tribe man with a stone and manages to create a small fire with some wood and tinder which begins lighting the small community on fire and begins spreading out into the jungle as families of the tribe flee in every direction. Blake manages to drag Tiffany off fleeing into the night as quickly as possible not caring where they are headed, but he isn't paying attention and they both stumble down the side of a large hill, Blake lands on a large group of rocks and boulders smashing his body he lays coughing up blood and choking. He tells Tiffany to run as fast as she can which she does.

As the morning arrives she is still walking drained of energy sweaty, she is walking slowly and stumbling and then she feels a a slight poke in the neck she has enough time to feel a poisoned dart before she falls over dead.


Stark’s Comment:
Is this movie Matt Kubrick’s farewell from CMP? It would be such a sentimental release if we are saying here goodbye to one of the most iconic CMP’s writers. At least, this will be his last movie for some time, as we don’t have any other pitch written by him right now. I hope he returns soon.

Behind The Scenes:
-Rob Zombie has teamed up before with Kubrick directing ‘Damnation Road’ and ‘Shotgun Joe’. Both movies made net gains.
-Some of the talents in the cast have worked before with Kubrick: Nana Visitor (‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’), Bruce Campbell (‘Legends Of The West’) and Sarah Paxton (Syndrome Trilogy).
-Eli Roth makes his debut as an actor in a CMP’s movie with this film. But he has worked before with Kubrick directing ‘Vorhees: The Bloody Years’, ‘Blood Beach’ and one of the stories in ‘Bedtime Stories’.
-Past Season, Kubrick released ‘Island Of The Dead’, directed by D.R. Cobb. Besides the similar title, that movie has nothing to do with this one.


THANK YOU & GOODBYE: James Bradley has written this original story inspired in the scandal the British tabloid ‘News Of The World’ went through some months ago. And Tom Hanks is going to direct it. The film will be the 5th directional job by Hanks in CMP. Hanks has teamed up with Bradley before as an actor in the two Best Picture GMA Winners ‘American Tabloid’ and ‘The Show’. Jesse Eisenberg, seen this Season in ‘Original Colonies’, will play the lead role as a young journalist who gets involved in a web of manipulation and corruption. The film is expected to have a top-notch cast including some regulars in Bradley’s movies. Two of the main characters in the film will be played by no other than Paul Giamatti – in his 8th collaboration with Bradley – and George Clooney. Giamatti and Clooney won together the Best Starring Couple GMA back in Season 1 with ‘Bill And The Rocket Man’, also written by Bradley.

DEUS EX: GMA Winner Ben Kingsley returns to CMP after a long time away – his latest work for the Studio was the blockbuster ‘Bullet Witch 0’ – with this futuristic adventure written by Steve Connors and being directed by the Wachowski Brothers. Michael Douglas will also be seen in the film playing a minor role, as a mean and nasty millionaire. Douglas had not worked in a CMP movie since the end of The Forgotten Trilogy.

NETWORK: Two GMAs Winner David Strathairn leads the cast of this remake being directed by David O. Russell with a screenplay written by Chad Taylor. Together with him in the cast, we will see Hillary Swank – away from CMP since ‘Bullet Witch’ – playing the Head of Programming of the tv channel Strathairn works for. Also, Lea Michele, who already worked with Taylor in The Forgotten Trilogy, plays a young intern at the tv network and Richard Gere, seen for the latest time in CMP in ‘The Prince Of Darkness’, plays a tv show runner.

THE QUESTION: DARK TOMORROW: Kyle Chandler recently refused an offer to be in ‘Grand Theft Auto II’ so he could join the cast of this new installment of Vic Sage’s adventures. Jason Isaacs also joins the cast, making this way his debut in CMP. Duncan Jones is directing this movie written by D.R. Cobb and being produced by Zack Snyder.

Y: THE LAST MAN: Francis Lawrence already is directing this comic book adaptation also written by D.R. Cobb and starred by Shia LaBeouf. As the premise of the story is that all male creatures have died in a post-apocalyptic world, we will see quite a few female characters in it. And some of them will be played by actresses like Katherine Waterstone, Anne Dudek or Maggie Q, all of them making their debut in CMP. With more experience in the Studio, Zoe Saldana will also be in this movie. Saldana’s latest work for CMP was the blockbuster ‘First Flight’, directed by JJ Abrams, now producer of this film.

ALADDIN: LEGACY OF THE LOST: John Malone has written this big screen adaptation that resurrects the classic character of Aladdin. The film is based on the comic book by Ian Edginton. The Indian director specialized in commercials and music videos Tarsem Singh will work for the first time for CMP with this top budget fantasy adventure production. The character of Aladdin will be played by Alden Ehrenreich as soon as he finishes his work in another Malone’s project, the Francis Coppola’s film ‘Flicker’.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING: Green light for a big screen adaptation of this Broadway classic. Since 1961, this musical has periodically returned to Broadway’s stages always successfully. The last revival was starred by no other than Daniel Radcliffe. It is Josh Collins who has written this adaptation and veteran director Frank Oz will make his debut in CMP directing it. Oz has previous experience in musical adaptations like the acclaimed big screen version of ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’. The chosen one to star the film has been John Krasinski, also making his debut in CMP with this film.

THE ALAMOGORDO: John C. Reilly, seen this Season in the acclaimed drama ‘The Jungle’, is back to work with this western written by Dwight Gallo and being directed by Sam Mendes. Garrett Dillahunt is going to make his CMP’s debut with this film. But Dillahunt will become soon a regular in CMP as it has been known that he has been offered lately quite a few more works in upcoming CMP’s productions.

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING: Robert De Niro has accepted to play the detective in charge of finding the presumed disappeared Mila Kunis’ daughter in this suspense movie being directed by Rodrigo Cortes. De Niro’s latest works for the Studio were the Best Picture GMA Winner ‘The Show’ and a cameo in past Season’s ‘Oedipus Rex’. Dominic Cooper, never seen before in a CMP movie, has also joined the cast playing Kunis’ brother. Dwight Gallo has written the screenplay of this remake from a 1965 film.

FLICKER: Val Kilmer, seen past Season in the Best Picture GMA Winner ‘Jonestown’, and Ty Burrell, who made his debut in CMP only a few weeks ago with ‘The Jungle’, meet in the cast of this Francis Coppola’s film. John Malone has written this adaptation of the complex Theodore Roszak’s book and Alden Ehrenreich is playing the lead character.


THE DARK TOWER

Meeting the release of the latest Matt Kubrick’s story, ‘Jungle Of The Dead’, CMP releases too a luxurious DVD Box Set with the six movies of what probably is the most successful and acclaimed movie saga ever developed by the Studio: The Dark Tower. Based on Stephen King’s books, Sam Raimi and Matt Kubrick put up a very ambitious, complex and visually creative series of movies that became not only an enormous box office’s success but also one of the most remarkable milestones in CMP’s history.

The DVD Box Set includes a 59 pages book with pictures from the movies and excerpts from the books and an extra disc with a ‘Making Of’ documentary and interviews with Matt Kubrick, Sam Raimi, Stephen King, Russell Crowe, Angela Bassett and Jake Gyllenhaal.


THE FILMS

THE GUNSLINGER
Directed by Sam Raimi
B.O.: 79 / N.G.: 87
The first movie of the saga was a box office’s disappointment. Presented as a big event, it didn’t even reach the 100 millions. Kubrick’s first idea was casting Clint Eastwood to play the character finally played by Christopher Lee, as King himself had always stated that he had Eastwood in mind when writing the books, but Eastwood rejected the offer.

THE DRAWING OF THE THREE
Directed by Sam Raimi
B.O.: 285 / N.G.: 389
After the weak numbers made by the first movie, Raimi and Kubrick considered not going on with the saga. Finally, Harry Stark convinced them to make at least a second film. And, this time, audiences reacted with enthusiasm. This film still is the alltimes top 6 box office. The lead cast of the series – Russell Crowe, Jake Gyllenhaal, Angela Bassett and William Moseley – was definitely settled. And the franchise instantly became a cult saga after the success of this second installment.

WASTE LANDS
Directed and Produced by Sam Raimi
B.O.: 212 / N.G.: 228
Raimi took full control of the saga becoming not only the director but also the producer of the third installment. Considering the impact of the previous film, the huge success of this one wasn’t a surprise. The franchise had definitively become an audience's favorite and one of the most profitable ones for the Studio.

WOLVES OF THE CALLA
Directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet / Produced by Sam Raimi
B.O.: 215 / N.G.: 249
For this fourth movie, Raimi considered that it would be a good idea if somebody else directed it. A change of director would add new visual concepts and a different approach to the story. Kubrick and Raimi chose French director Jean Pierre Jeunet. And Jeunet made an excellent directional job. Never before, three different installments of the same franchise had reached the 200 millions in CMP.

SONG OF SUSANNAH
Directed by Goro Miyazaki / Produced by Sam Raimi
B.O.: 159 / N.G.: 126
Again, Raimi and Kubrick looked for a different director and this time they made a most daring bet: a moviemaker specialized in animation who had never before made a live action movie. The film included an artsy animation sequence. This time, box office was a bit lower. Maybe audiences were getting a bit tired of the saga, so Kubrick decided that the franchise would not last seven movies as he had initially planned but only six.

THE DARK TOWER
Directed and Produced by Sam Raimi
B.O.: 227 / N.G.: 414
Sam Raimi returned behind the cameras to shoot the epic and awaited conclusion of the saga. And the film was again an extraordinary success. In fact, this film still is the alltimes top 4 highest net gains made by a CMP’s movie. With those numbers, Harry Stark stated after the release of this last movie that ‘The Dark Tower’ series had become an icon of Movie History at the same level than ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Indiana Jones’. Looking back at how the films worked in box office and how much they are still remembered by a legion of fans, he might not be exaggerating… Matt Kubrick and Sam Raimi got the honorary Full Moon Award as recognition to the unique creative achievement these movies are.


More and more, the cast of CMP films are being leaded lately by stars from the most popular tv series. This week, one of them shows up for the first time in CMP’s world: the Gossip Girl Blake Lively, lead star of the upcoming horror film ‘Suspiria’. For that reason, Lively shows up also for the first time at the cover of ‘Premiere’ magazine. This issue includes too an interesting article analyzing why Tom Cruise has never been a very demanded star in CMP's world.



Right after directing ‘Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths’, Christopher Nolan already stated that he was feeling a bit tired of superheroes movies. However, he returned to the genre later as producer of ‘Green Arrow: Year One’. And it was rumored that he was going to be too the producer of the recent record-breaker ‘The Caped Crusader’, although he finally wasn’t. Now, it is confirmed that he will change of genre at least in CMP’s world with his next project for the Studio. Nolan has announced that he will be directing the very peculiar thriller ‘Murder Mysteries’, a movie written by Dwight Gallo adapting a short story by Neil Gaiman, that will bring back Lucifer to CMP once more. To direct this movie, Nolan has rejected the offer to direct a sci-fi film coming up soon too written by the newbie Matthew Lee.

By the way, I’ve been told that Lee is going through serious casting problems with his very first pitch for CMP, a fantasy story involving dwarfs and elves. Lee wanted Peter Jackson to direct it and he had offered some of the roles in the film to really big names. But both Jackson and those big names – Daniel Day-Lewis was one of them – have not shown any interest in being in the film. Offering minor roles to big stars is always a complicated and risky bet. Now, for what I know, this project has gone on hiatus until Lee finds another director and puts up a new cast proposal.

I know I make this question regularly and here it goes again: who is the most demanded talent right now in CMP? James Franco used to be it a couple of Seasons ago. Then, Ryan Gosling took his place and Gosling’s agenda is now full of projects for the next two or three Seasons. But somebody has already replaced Gosling as the most wanted talent by CMP’s authors. A sexy young actress? A tv show star? A new and rising name in the industry? No… The star of the moment in CMP is no other than Ian McShane! Yes, believe it or not, McShane has so many offers to be in CMP movies that he now has a hard work ahead of him having to choose which ones to accept or not. Surprising, ah?

But McShane is not the only one with agenda problems. Joshua Jackson and Derek Luke are well known in CMP as Dawson Edwards’ fetish actors. The problem now is that it seems like both have become too Chad Taylor’s favorite talents. Taylor and Edwards’ careers have always been very much linked. Now, their common passion for Jackson and Luke’s talent is another link between them. Both actors have so many offers from both writers that they will have to choose soon who do they love more: dad or mom… I mean, Taylor or Edwards.

Joey Stark insists on developing a career as movie director. Although his two previous directional jobs, the erotic thriller ‘Secret Sins’ and the historical drama ‘The Paper Man’, both became severe box office’s disasters, Stark is not discouraged and he will try luck for a third time. He has announced that he will be directing soon an extremely sentimental drama… and that sounds as a possible third box office’s flop for the young Stark as movie director. We’ll see… Some people just never gets tired of trying… and failing.