THE WEEKEND GAZETTE # 5

MOVIES RELEASED
Christians, muslims and a Rabi

1-Deadly Sins
Courtroom / Thriller
Directed and Produced by Sydney Pollack
Starring Robin Williams, Bruce Willis, Susan Sarandon, Edward Norton, Gene Hackman, Bill Murray, Glenn Close, Diane Keaton
Box Office: 143 mill.
Net Gains: 103 mill.

2-The Crusades
Action / Epic
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Starring Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, Ben Kingsley, Jessica Lange, Aishwara Rei, Ving Rhames, Sean Connery
Box Office: 199 mill.
Net Gains: 170 mill.

THE MOVING THUMBS

1-Deadly Sins

“Brilliant. Probably, the best movie ever produced by CMP. You keep hooked to the plot from the very first minute. It is perfect how you either hate, understand, forgive and blame William’s character during the movie, never knowing what will you feel next minute”
-Charlie McGowan, ‘Variety’

“A perfect lesson of what a courtroom movie must be. The pace of the story is so good. Pollack knows exactly what to do with the splendid Kelley’s screenplay.”
-Billy Conn, ‘The New York Post’

“The cast is so good. Williams makes an award winning performance. Norton shows his great dramatic acting range. Sarandon is so disturbing as the lover. And Willis, Murray and Close make the trial’s twists and contradictions so believable.”
-Lilly Stevens, ‘USA Today’

2-The Crusades

“A great historical show. Verhoeven has shown us how violent, unglamourose and tough the Crusades wars probably were. He doesn’t get lost in historical speeches or moral lessons, but goes to the heart of a family passionate drama.”
-Matt Davies, ‘ET’

“Powerful. The love and hate triangle between Hawke, Connelly and Sutherland is so exciting. Verhoeven has made a movie full of passion, violence and feelings. Five stars”
-Ray Winslow, ‘The Los Angeles Times’

“It has a bit of ‘Gladiator’, a bit of ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and a bit of ‘King Arthur’. It puts it all together. And the result is so tasty. Good work!”
-Jake Harrison, ‘People’

AWAITING RELEASE
The good and the bad

1-Captain America

The Cast: Heath Ledger, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Anthony Hopkins
The Director: Brett Rattner
The Producer: Bryan Singer
The Plot: The adventures of the classic superhero with all the traditional elements of this kind of movies: lavish production (Singer), sweet sexy girl (Beckinsale), grumpy boss (Baldwin) and crazed villain (Hopkins).
The Comment: One of the last superheroes to reach the screen is finally here. CMP has produced a big budget movie closer to the look of Superman movies and far from the darkness of the Tim Barton’s Batman movies. The only doubt is if audiences are still interested in this kind of stories.

2-The Long Dark Night (Fear the Darkness 2)

The Cast: Michael Keaton, Michelle Monaghan, Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Bill Pullman
The Director and Producer: Wes Craven
The Plot: On Halloween, a tv channel decides to send a tv crew (Keaton, Monaghan and Dawson) and a presumed psychic (Pullman) to the old Darkman house for a special. But when the psychic makes mysterious links with ghosts of the dead they learn that this might not be all fun in games. The house twists and morphs into a surreal passages and dead end hallways as Darkman returns to pick them off one by one and their only hope of survival is the ghost of a young girl. Meanwhile, tv viewers at home think it is all an elaborate hoax.
The Comment: the character of Darkman returns after the nice box office of its first movie. CMP has turned the suspense of the first movie into a show of visual FXs trying to upgrade the franchise. If it works, probably Darkman will stay around for a while.

MOVIES IN DEVELOPMENT
Returns and resurrections

VORHEES: THE EARLY YEARS: Matt Kubrick is already directing Jaimie Lee Curtis, Amanda Bynes and William H. Macy in this revitalization of the Friday 13th franchise. A curiosity: the actor who plays young Jason Vorhees is kept as a secret.

THE HEIRS – PART 2: The mafia is back to NYC streets as Scorsese is filming there the second part of his trilogy.

THE WOMEN CLUB: Previously known as ‘Desperate Heroes’, Sandra Bullock as producer and star is behind this action comedy about women taking revenge from the miseries of ordinary life.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND: Dakota Fanning (‘Fear the Darkness’) as Alice, Jude Law as the Mad Hatter and Queen Latifah (‘Court Appeal’) as the Queen of Hearts are the human characters of this appealing version of the classic tale that Mike Newell is directing under Steven Spielberg’s production.

DARK: This erotic thriller is ready to release. Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Clive Owen and Thandie Newton have been directed by Michael Mann.

SINGLES: New project greenlighted. A comedy about a group of people in their 30’s going through divorce. The peculiarity about it is that the story is based… in a computer game!

PRIEST: Provisional title of a violent sci-fi / action story still in development that will probably be directed by John Woo. CMP has not confirmed yet any cast members as the pre-production hasn’t started yet.

RUMOURS AND GOSSIPS

Some of the most prestigious writers of CMP are working hard lately in finishing new screenplays for the Studio: Brian Kelley (‘Deadly Sins’) is getting into comedy with ‘The Women Club’, James Bradley (‘Bill and the Rocket Man’) has nearly finished another peculiar story about a man obsessed with building a gothic cathedral in the middle of Africa titled ‘Cathedral’, Matt Kubrick is not only directing the Jason Vorhees movie but he’s also the author of ‘Priest’ and Tom Figgs (‘Dark’) is working together with director James Cameron in the screenplay of an underwater thriller titled ‘Deep Silence’.

‘T.Y.M. 2’ has been definitely postponed by CMP. The Studio has enough franchises to work on to get in trouble with a movie that had no director after Bryan Singer decided not to get involved in it.

‘Robotech’ will become another franchise. The outstanding box office’s results of the original movie has decided CMP to go on with the saga. Michael Bay will produce the next movie but it is not confirmed yet if he will also direct it.

Matt Kubrick might direct the sequel of ‘Corsairs’. The successful writer and now director has shown to CMP’s President, Harry Stark, his interest in filming the sequel. Martin Campbell was the director of the first movie. Stark hasn’t decided yet who will be behind the cameras when the corsairs return, as this sequel has not been greenlighted yet.

INSIDE CMP
Awards and money

CMP is launching another innovative idea: the Golden Moon Awards. After each 25 movies released, CMP will award its movies in a gala. Everybody will have the chance to vote in different categories and CMP will host a gala where all the awards will be conceded. More information about this initiative will be given soon.

The Studio is considering to make a revolutionary movement. Their movies could be managed in the new and final version of ‘Hollywood Mogul’ (.38) soon, abandoning version .28. That could mean a complete change of the box office’s results for CMP’s movies, which worries Harry Stark. Although CMP’s movies make a lot of money, maintenance costs of the studio are very high, so Harry Stark is worried about the financial future of the company. The CMP’s Executive Board will debate soon wether to move to .38 or stay at .28.

(The superb Hollywood Mogul game, in which CMP is based, can be purchased at www.hollywood-mogul.com)

CMP’S NET GAINS TOP 5

1. The Mogulers - 230
2. T.Y.M. - 172
3. The Crusades - 170
4. Corsairs - 144
5. Taurus 3 - 135
   

COMING SOON – THE ADD