JANUARY, 24

MOVIES RELEASED

1-HOT IRON

Cops / Action
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., Uma Thurman, Billy Bob Thornton, Ray Liotta, Al Pacino
Box Office: 9 mill.
Net Loss: 32 mill.

CMP Reaction: Shit happens.

2-TURNING POINT

Medical / Drama
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Starring Jodie Foster, Meg Ryan, Gregg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, David Schwimmer, Anne Hathaway
Box Office: 71 mill.
Net Gains: 62 mill.

CMP Reaction: Studio’s executives would never make a living as futurologist. Every time a hit is expected (‘Hot Iron’), the movie flops. Every time a movie commercial future worries (‘Turning Point’) it becomes a surprising success.

THE MOVING THUMBS

1-HOT IRON

“This movie would have been a major hit back in the 80’s. But audiences have changed so much since then. So there’s not any specific reason for its flop. It is just an innocent victim of the lack of interest of young viewers for solid adult action movies so far away from the Lord Of The Rings culture”.
-Ray Winslow, ‘The New York Times’

“I went into an empty theatre. Lights went off. The movie begun. And I got absolutely hypnotized by a dense and tense plot that took me back to the best of old Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese or William Friedkin movies. And when it finished, I went back to the street and wondered why it was only me in the theatre”.
-Bill Holloway, ‘Entertainment Weekly’

“All the cast makes a great job. And Christopher Nolan proves again that he is one of the most interesting directors of the moment. But there was something missing in it. It does not work as a serial killer movie the way the recent ‘Checkmate’ did. It also fails as a realistic picture of cops life. It does not define where the story wants to go and what genre does it want to belong to. And finally, that lack of definition is a heavy weight for the movie."

-Anne Roman, 'At The Movies'

2-TURNING POINT

“In some way, it could be said that this is a kind of American Dogma movie. Demme keeps the camera in movement all the time, in a vibrating and a bit exhausting way of shooting. He tries to give the story a hyper-realistic look, with long takes and avoiding any kind of tricks. It’s an interesting and brilliant experiment that hides the lack of interest of all the stories told in the movie”.
-Amy Ratched, ‘Today’

“Here is a ‘director-movie’. Demme has got a story full of stereotypes and has shot it with experimental techniques. The result is so appealing and what could have been a boring medical drama becomes an exciting exercise of moviemaking.”
-Charlie Kiggs, ‘Variety’

“The formula: ‘Grey’s Anatomy + House x E.R.’. All put into a cocktail shaker by director Jonathan Demme. The result: what could have been a regular tv series episode becomes a brilliant and absorbing movie”.
-Bob Felton, ‘Today’

AWAITING RELEASE

1-DARK OMENS (FEAR THE DARKNESS 3)

The Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Benicio Del Toro, Luke Wilson, Geoffrey Rush

The Director: Robert Rodriguez

The Plot: A young college student by the name of Amy (S.M.Gellar) is haunted by strange visions of a weird dark robed man. Continuously haunted by these visions she seeks therapy to try and find the problems. Looking for some rest, she decides to spend the summer in her family old house in the small quiet town of Waverly, a place that harbours dark secrets. There, she will seek therapy with an enigmatic doctor (G.Rush) that tells her about certain dark legends and uncovers stories about the haunted house and old news items about a cult responsible for murders that have taken place in the town. Also, she initiates a relationship with a nice guy (L.Wilson) that will accept to follow her in her search for truth. Soon she uncovers secrets she herself has been hiding. Her parents were former cult members and after they both died she was sent away to foster care. Now the Darkman (B.Del Toro) has called her home and a new chapter in terror opens.

The Comment: CMP’s classic character Darkman returns. The franchise completely change the cast in every picture. Darkman is the only link between this franchise’s movies. And a fourth story will come if this one works in box office.

2-THE BRIDGE

The Cast: Liam Neeson, Ethan Hawke, Cate Blanchett, Sean Connery, Ben Kingsley

The Director: Wolfgang Petersen

The Plot: In the time of the vikings, on a day of battle, two warriors march. One a pagan who believes in the old gods and a veteran of war, the other a young man with no experience of war who has turned to the new religion sweeping the world Christianity. Liam Neeson is the 'veteran', who is a mentor to Ethan Hawke’s character, the 'young'. Neeson likes the good life, drinking, women, fighting etc and has come to terms with his beliefs. Ethan Hawke is fresh faced and is about to go into his first battle, as he thinks he is doing gods work by fighting in the battle even if others do not believe his beliefs. Both men get slain during the battle and each has a different vision/hallucination upon death and how they perceive the journey from this life to the next. Connery plays an aging warrior who Hawke has friction with but overcomes in the heat of battle. He is one of the last berserkers, fierce warriors who go into a battle rage and basic cause chaos. Kingsley plays the lord of the forces, who is urging the men to battle to 'defend' their lands, even though he is leading his men to the attack. Cate Blanchett is the woman Hawke leaves behind to go to battle and on the way considers giving her up entirely to join the church, if he survives the battle.

The Comment: A quality epic movie in the line of the awarded and acclaimed ‘The Crusades’. This time, the story gets more introspective as it follows the day when a group of Vikings warriors face their destiny. Elegant production, high budget, prestigious cast… and a box office mystery.

THE STAR PROFILE – DARKMAN

Created by screenwriter and director Matt Kubrick, Darkman has joined the horror movies hall of fame together with other nice guys such as Freddy Krueger or Jason Vorhees. It is one of those characters that devour the actor playing it, so now it is impossible to think on Benicio Del Toro without thinking on Darkman and vice versa.

CMP’S FILMOGRAPHY

FEAR THE DARKNESS (Wes Craven, B.O.: 117 mill.): An ordinary American family (Dennis Quaid, Laura Linney and Dakota Fanning) made the mistake of moving to the haunted house where Darkman and his followers live. Nobody believed Dakota when she said there was something strange in that house. Until Darkman came out from the unmaterial world to say hello for the first time.

THE LONG DARK NIGHT (Wes Craven, B.O.: 122 mill.): Horror live on tv. Michael Keaton, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson and Bill Pullman dared to get into Darkman’s home to shoot a tv special. And everyone at home enjoyed as a ‘reality show’ how he took good care of all of them. The legend of Darkman grew… and CMP’s incomes too.

DARK OMENS (Robert Rodriguez, awaiting release): Wes Craven became another victim of Darkman. In this third movie, Robert Rodriguez shows the dangerous decision of a depressed girl under therapy feeling curiosity for Darkman. Luke Wilson chose the perfect girlfriend to get in troubles.

FEAR THE DARKNESS 4 (??): Matt Kubrick wants to close his popular saga with a fourth and finale Darkman’s adventure. Box Office will decide about it when the third part is released.

MOVIES IN DEVELOPMENT

CAPTAIN AMERICA VS SUPERMAN: Ving Rhames (‘The Crusades’) has joined the cast to play Brainiac, the evil character that takes control of Superman / Nicholas Cage brain. The actor will appear in the movie under a sophisticated make up to make him look like the classic villain taken from old Superman’s comics.

HITMAN. THE MYTH OF JOHN JACKSON: The film is already finished. But director Tony Scott is re-editing it in order to reduce the explicit violence of some of its scenes.

CHEVROLET: Scarlett Johansson is the fourth name to join Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Rosario Dawson in their trip across the US. Lawrence Kasdan is close to finish the shooting of this dramedy.

LOL: Complete cast for this romantic comedy written and directed by Nora Ephron: Ben Stiller (‘The Perfect Candidate’), Marisa Tomei, Merryl Streep (‘Cathedral’), Hank Azaria and Kate Hudson.

STYX AND STONES: Hugh Grant and Owen Wilson are confirmed as the starring couple of this afterlife comedy. The movie will be the return to CMP of Jennifer Anniston (‘The Clown Smile’).

CORSAIRS.THE SEARCH FOR NANTAYALAH: Some delays for this one. Banderas suffered an accident when filming a risky scene in locations in Indonesia. He has broken his arm. Due to this, the few remaining scenes of the movie will have to be shot with a double.

THE PASSION BENEATH: Finally, the new Brian Kelley’s (‘Indigo Prophecy’) movie has got a title and a cast. Julia Roberts and Jamie Foxx will live a passionate relationship in this tragic drama that has begun its shootage.

DR. JONES AND THE SWORD OF FAITH: Spielberg is keeping quite secret everything around this movie. A new name has been confirmed to join Ewan McGregor, playing his best friend: Philip Seymour Hoffman.

HAPPY HAMSTERS: CMP’s Animation Division has greenlighted this Marcus Trax’s project focussed in the life of a group of hamsters. Far away from Robotech, this is a new and thrilling experience for the Studio.

RUMOURS AND GOSSIPS

It was a mouth to mouth rumour running through all Hollywood’s offices. Now it is official: CMP will produce a new Star Wars movie! It is not a sequel of ‘Tales Of the Jedi’. The story takes place a few decades after Episode VI. It will be co-produced by CMP and Trax Star Productions. And nothing else is said in the brief press release in which CMP has announced it.

CMP has got bad critics in the movie business specialized media due to the cast of ‘The Bridge’. Most of the talents involved were previously together in the awarded ‘The Crusades’. Why? CMP considers that an epic movie cannot be epic enough if Ben Kingsley, Sean Connery or Ethan Hawke are not in it?

Rumour has it that Tom Cruise and Will Smith have reduced so much their usual salary to be in ‘Chevrolet’. Some bad intentioned critics have pointed out that maybe that was their only way to be hired in a CMP’s movie, as the Studio has ignored both stars when looking for actors to star their big action and sci-fi productions.

CMP had planned to produce a series of comedies starred by Zach Braff. But, after the failure of ‘Don’t stand so close to me’, the idea has been abandoned. The Studio might be turning back its eyes to Jason Biggs to make him the teen comedies idol they are looking for instead of Braff.

‘Captain America vs Superman’ is the next risky move of the Studio. The production is so expensive but the hopes are kept high. After the bad streak for CMP’s blockbusters initiated with ‘Tales of the Jedi’ and continued this week with ‘Hot Iron’, everyone at the Studio is so scared watching how Captain America’s costs keep growing and growing.

INSIDE CMP

The 2nd edition of the Golden Moon Awards will be coming soon. Another 24 movies will have been released by the Studio in a few dates and the awards will return then. Everyone at CMP is preparing the second ceremony from now. About the offer made by Daws Studios to put up another awards together, Harry Stark has stated: ‘That’s a nice idea that we will consider in the future, when Daws Studios have released its own movies and has gained some experience. But, even if those awards are created, we will go on with our GMA, as it is a kind of a family party for us.”

Debutant writers will see their stories in the big screen soon. New writing talents like Marcus Trax, John Daws or Ted Froats have provided the Studio with stories that will hit the screens in the near future, proving the good health of CMP.

It seems like CMP is overcoming its first financial crisis. Unexpected hits like ‘Fools Game’ and ‘Turning Point’ have balanced the financial situation of the Studios after the flop of its more expensive productions.

CMP’S SEASON 2 WORLDWIDE GROSS TOP 5

1. DEEP SILENCE - 141


2. CATHEDRAL - 131
3. ROBOTECH 2 - 121


4. DEAD MAN'S SONG - 99
5. TURNING POINT - 71

COMING SOON – THE ADD