FEBRUARY, 21

MOVIES RELEASED

1-HAPPY HAMSTERS

Animation / Comedy
Directed and Produced by Robert Zemeckis
Voices of David Schwimmer, René Zellwegger, Martin Lawrence, Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Hopkins

Box Office: 24 mill.
Net Gains: 4 mill.

CMP Reaction: Too average result for a funny animated comedy. At least, it didn’t cost money to the Studio.

2-ACE BANNER 2

Action
Directed by John McTiernan
Starring Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Romijn, Wesley Snipes, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe
Box Office: 30 mill.
Net Loss: 3 mill.

CMP Reaction: Banner survived to the prison camp but didn’t survive to box office.

THE MOVING THUMBS

1-HAPPY HAMSTERS

“There’s nothing wrong in this movie. It could have been a hit. It’s funny, nice, entertaining and it is so well produced. The problem is that it’s got things we have recently seen in so many movies: ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘Over The Hedge’ or ‘Open Season’, just to mention a few. Animation fans are getting more and more demanding and they just want something new in every new release.”
-Amanda Wilson, ‘Entertainment Weekly’

“Robert Zemeckis has offered such innovative products in animation lately as ‘Polar Express’ or ‘Monster House’. This time, he has decided not taking so many risks. And the final product is a nice but too forgettable movie”.
-Bob Felton, ‘What’s At’

“I enjoyed it. I loved those cute little hamsters. But maybe audiences – even children - are losing the innocence too soon too fast. This movie would have been a big hit something like ten years ago. It is so sad that it hasn’t succeeded now. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with the movie but with audiences’ preferences”.
-Lilly Stevens, ‘USA Today’

2-ACE BANNER 2

“Ace Banner is not the younger brother of James Bond anymore. In this second movie, he has become the younger brother of Rambo. From bad to worse.”
-Charlie McGowan, ‘Variety’

“CMP has spent a lot of money in producing this movie. Couldn’t they find any better way to spend it?”
-Billy Conn, ‘The New York Post’

“John McTiernan should have directed the sequel of ‘Bullit’ instead of getting involved in this other sequel. Ace Banner was a kind of sophisticated secret agent in the first movie. Now, he has become a violent savage suffering in a third world prison and causing pain to the bad guys in a third world jungle. Why? But the worst of all is Rebecca Romijn. She jumps into the jungle from a helicopter to help Banner. She fights with all the mean Asian army. She falls in a river and jump from a mountain. But, after all that, her hair is as perfect as it was in the very first moment…”
-Andrew Dobson, ‘The Chicago Tribune’

AWAITING RELEASE

1-SAVING SAMANTHA MOSS

The Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Robin Williams, James Franco, Ben Foster

The Director: David Fincher

The Plot: At a small town university, psychology student (Gyllenhall) develops a crush on Samantha Moss (Portman), who doesn't know he exists. Gyllenhall learns of the Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition where captives begin to relate with their captors...and combines this with his love of James Bond movies, where James and his femme fatale always fall in love after being in a dangerous situation. He wonders if there has been any study on the psychological effect of two strangers who have to depend on each other for survival...
A discussion with his psychology professor (Robin Williams) unexpectedly results in the following plan: Williams, in disguise, will "kidnap" both Gyllenhall and Portman, seemingly at random. Gyllenhall will then "rescue" Portman and himself, thus becoming a hero in her eyes, winning her love, and co-writing a research paper with Williams on the event (as if it were real, and the kidnappers were never caught.)The plan plays out seemingly without a hitch...until Gyllenhall discovers that Williams doesn't plan to release either of them. Unknown to Gyllenhall, Portman had been falsely accusing Williams of sexual harassment to save her grade point average...an accusation which was about to not only destroy Williams's career, but also caused his family to leave him. Enraged over this completely false accusation that has destroyed his life, Williams plans to kill them Portman...and Gyllenhall, if necessary.
Meanwhile, Gyllenhall's roommate (Ben Foster)...who has a closeted crush on Gyllenhall...and Portman's boyfriend (James Franco) team up when they discover that Gyllenhall and Portman have been kidnapped, and try to find the pair. Their search leads them to Robin Williams’ farm, where a battle ensues, in which Williams kills both Franco and Foster.
Shocked at how his seemingly innocent plan has spun so far out of control, Gyllenhall confronts Williams... Williams fires a shotgun at Gyllenhall...but Portman, who still doesn't know about Gyllenhall's involvement in her kidnapping and has, as predicted, fallen in love with him, jumps in front of the gunshot at the last second. Portman is killed, and Gyllenhall is devastated over the loss of both the girl that he loved and his best friend.
Williams, meanwhile, continues to spin out of control and is panicking...he orders Gyllenhall to get into the driver's seat of his pick-up truck, with Williams in the passenger seat...half holding Gyllenhall hostage, half co-conspiring with him.Gyllenhall, while driving full-speed down a back country road, grabs at Williams’ shotgun...the gun goes off, shattering the windshield and temporarily blinding them both. Gyllenhall slams the breaks, and Williams goes flying through the windshield. Gyllenhall gets out of the truck and discovers that Williams has died.
The movie ends with Gyllenhall walking down the country road, alone, as rain begins to fall.

The Comment: Uncertain future for this movie. A brilliant screenplay by Ted Froats, but too dark for the regular preferences of main audiences.

2-WESTWORLD

The Cast: David Duchovny, Angelina Jolie, Jeff Goldblum, Noah Emmerich. Cameos by Anthony Hopkins, Halle Berry.

The Director and Producer: Michael Bay

The Plot: ‘Westworld’ is a new and unique amusement park, created by a genetic genius (J.Goldblum). In an enormous ranch, with different scenarios, after paying a very expensive entrance fee, visitors can spend a few days living with clones of their favourites movie characters. Duchovny and Emmerich are owners of a small but profitable computer company in Texas. They make a lot of money but have a boring life. Emmerich convinces Duchovny to visit ‘Westworld’. There, Duchovny meets the clone of Lara Croft (A,Jolie). Clones have their brains manipulated to act like the movie characters and be always nice with visitors. But Duchovny notices something strange in Lara Croft’s clone. She is always demanding him information about the outside world. He thinks she is considering escaping from the park. It seems like her brain has developed beyond what was expected gaining autonomy. When he tells Emmerich about it, Jolie / Croft hears it. Duchovny sees how Croft / Jolie kills Emmerich. Is it for real or is it a fake murder as one of the park’s shows? Scared, Duchovny alerts Goldblum, but he denies the danger. But Duchovny is convinced that Croft is getting out of control as other clones are murdered by her. Finally, Duchovny confronts Croft. She chases him trying to kill him before he can get out of the park’s precinct. In his fight, he will count with the help of X-Men’s Storm (H.Berry) and he will meet and get some help from Hannibal Lecter’s clone (A.Hopkins) too, while Goldblum believes it is all his imagination and protects Croft.

The Comment: An amazing premise. Steve Connors has adapted in a wonderful way the old ‘Westworld’ movie. The perfect story to seduce audiences... or to become another unexpected flop.

THE STAR PROFILE – MICHAEL BAY

A regular in CMP. Bay has been working for the Studio almost from the very beginning and usually together with his good friend writer and director Matt Kubrick. In fact, Bay is the head of the CMP’s Animation Division, responsible of the Robotech saga and the recent Happy Hamsters. Producer and director, his directing style is as loved as hated, but the truth is that he has brought CMP money enough to be highlighted in this profile.

ROBOTECH (Michael Bay, B.O.: 127 mill.): Bay directed and produced an anime movie written by Matt Kubrick that nobody trusted so much in CMP. But it became a surprising blockbuster and the beginning of a profitable movies and merchandising franchise.

ROBOTECH 2 (Tony Scott, B.O.: 121 mill.): This time, Bay was only producer of the movie. The sequel didn’t disappoint at all. Big stars joined the saga with their voices and Tony Scott made his debut as animation movies director before taking care of another blockbuster, ‘Hitman’. Matt Kubrick has the intention of writing six Robotech movies, so Bay may stay busy for a while.

WILD CARDS (Matt Kubrick, B.O.: 39 mill.): Kubrick asked his friend Bay to produce this one. A critically acclaimed movie and a visually outstanding project that did not reach a wide audience. Winner of two GMA, a sequel is announced and maybe Bay will return to this franchise again.

WESTWORLD (Michael Bay, awaiting release): First live action movie directed by Bay for CMP. A remake of an old 70’s movie translated to our days. It is expected to become a major hit. Angelina Jolie, a clone, and David Duchovny, a bored business man, are the strange starring couple.

MOVIES IN DEVELOPMENT

STAR WARS: NEW ORDER: New names are slowly announced while the movie is being shot in locations around the world under stricts security measures. Katie Holmes and Adrian Brody are the last ones mentioned to be working in the megaproject.


UNCOMMON VALOUR: BROAD PENDANT: Julian McMahon could join the cast of the sequel, already being directed by Ridley Scott with the same other talents from the first one. McMahon would compete with GMA Winner Johnny Depp as the main villain of the saga.

THE LAST LAWMAN: Although ‘Dark Omens’ was a major disappointment for the Studio, CMP has decided to give director Robert Rodriguez another chance and he will be directing Will Smith in what pretends to be the beginning of a new trilogy.

SMOKE SIGNALS: Talking about Johnny Depp, he is going to lead the cast of this David Mamet’s drama about heavy smokers dealing with their addiction… and life. Sounds like one of those CMP’s prestige operations…

RED LIGHT: Jane Fonda and Gene Hackman (‘Deadly Sins’, ‘Checkmate’) hate Demi Moore. At least, they hate her as Ashton Kutchner's parents when knowing she wants to marry him. The starring couple keeps denying that it might have something to do with real life… Maybe we should ask Ashton’s real parents.

TYM: THE SECOND CHANCE: That’s the final title of Barry Sonnenfeld’s action comedy. And the final cast: Brendan Fraser (‘T.Y.M.’), Jennifer Love Hewitt (‘The Mogulers’), Dennis Hopper (‘Dirty Sanchez’) and Kathy Bates, playing an eccentric medium.

CURSED NEVERLAND: Kiefer Sutherland is becoming another CMP’s regular. His fourth work for the Studio will be playing Peter Pan. But Peter Pan according to M. Night Shymalan’s vision of the character. So do not expect anything close to Disney.

HOME: Matt Kubrick begins the production of his fourth movie as director. A totally different one from the previous movies he has directed. A three hours drama about war and its casualties. And he has teamed up with the most experienced talent in this kind of stories: Oliver Stone will be producing the movie.

POOR LITTLE RICH BOY: ‘Entertaining Mrs. Sullivan’ was a historical event: the first movie ever released by CMP. It made a nice 78 mill. box office. And it was directed by Jay Roach and starred by Jason Biggs. Now, both are back with this brand new teen comedy.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: Tom Hanks will not only direct but, probably, play a supporting role or at least make a brief cameo in his new movie. Other names sounding related to it (but not yet confirmed) are Adrian Brody, Rachel Weisz or Gary Sinise.

RUMOURS AND GOSSIPS

Robert Rodriguez and Jack Hammer are extremely interested in having Gene Hackman in their movie, ‘The Last Lawman’. Hackman is currently working in Joel Schumacher’s ‘Red Light’. But they are both so decided to have him in the movie that they have offered CMP to delay the shooting of all the scenes with Hackman in them until he can join the shootage.

Battle of the egos. The story is as follow. Demi Moore, star and producer of ‘Red Light’, begged Jane Fonda to accept being in the movie, although Fonda is semi-retired. Fonda finally agreed. And everything went great at the beginning. But ego is bigger than admiration and it is said that the set of ‘Red Light’ has become a silent battlefield between both stars.

New James Bradley’s story is expected to become the biggest production ever for CMP (beside ‘Star Wars: New Order’ and ‘Tales Of The Jedi’). Director and producer of the movie are almost decided and as soon as the chosen ones agree, the project will get green light. Surprises can be expected.

INSIDE CMP

The Studio has decided that, from now on, each season will comprehend 30 and not 24 movies. This way, it will be even more challenging at the Golden Moon Awards.

Why ‘Dr. Jones And The Sword Of Faith’ did not reach 100 millions in box office? Harry Stark is so mad with his Production Division CEO, Julian Jones. Jones had the chance to release the movie in 7.500 theatres. But he was afraid that ‘Dr.Jones…’ could become another disappointment, as some other recent CMP’s pretended blockbusters productions. So he decided to release it only in 7.000 theatres. The movie has been critically acclaimed and audiences have loved it, so probably, with those other 500 theatres, box office breakdown would have been even better. A wrong decision with Dr. Jones, Mr. Jones.

The production deal between CMP and Trax Star Productions is not coming out very well. Both companies have released three productions: ‘The Bridge’ (B.O.: 11 mill), ‘Styx and Stones’ (B.O.: 17 mill.) and ‘Happy Hamsters’ (B.O.: 24 mill.). CMP’s President, Harry Stark, likes so much TSP’s ideas, so he’s worried that these poor results may cause a break up in their production deal. Stark hopes that this bad streak will change when releasing TSP’s ‘Star Wars: New Order’, as he is convinced it will be a major hit.

COMING SOON – THE ADD