JANUARY, 25

MOVIES IN DEVELOPMENT

THE CAVES OF STEEL: British director Danny Boyle will try something really new for him with this sci-fi thriller. Boyle has stated that he wants to make ‘an adult sci-fi story’ following the line of classics like ‘Blade Runner’. And he already has a main star for the cast: Bruce Willis.

GOTHS: A LOVE STORY: This teen love story will have Norman Jewison behind the cameras while Haley Joel Osment (‘American Heartland’) is rumoured to star. No news yet about who will be his partenaire.

TOWERING INFERNO: Two big names for this remake. They already worked together in Michael Mann’s erotic thriller ‘Dark’. Now they are back together in CMP with this one: Clive Owen and Denzel Washington will play the characters based on the ones originally played by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.

HF: Will Smith (‘Chevrolet’, the Lawman saga, ‘Game Boy’) teams up with director Michael Bay for this action adventure. It looks as this project is one of the big bets from the Studio for the new Season.

DREAM OF A KING: Spike Lee has announced that the movie will be in black and white ‘to capture the feel of the 1950’s/60’s’. Although it can be dangerous for box office, Stark has accepted it. Rumours say that Lee has rejected Halle Berry to play Dr. King’s wife, as the Studio wanted, and it will finally be Angela Basset the one to co-star together with Laurence Fishburne.

T.Y.M. 3: Slow development for this one. It is not confirmed yet if Barry Sonnenfeld, director of the previous episode, will be directing this one too. Also, some rumours say that Stark is trying to convince Jessica Alba to return to the franchise. Alba starred in the first movie but did not appeared in the second one. Nobody knows if Alba’s decision will affect the presence of Jennifer Love-Hewitt in the new movie.

POMPEII: This is going to be something really big. Stark has greenlighted an astronomical budget to build a replica of some parts of the city destroyed by the Vesuvius volcano. Some parts will be built in Spain, some others in CMP’s Studios in Los Angeles and some others will be digitally generated. It is said that director Wolfgang Petersen could abandon the project due to some ‘creative differences’ with Stark.

MCMILLAN & WIFE 2: Kathy Bates will join again Harrison Ford and Rene Russo in this sequel. Also, Ron Howard is again directing it and he will be also the producer this time.


BLOOD BEACH: Eli Roth (‘Vorhees: The Bloody Years’) has been selected again by Matt Kubrick to turn one of his horror stories into images. Roth will direct a group of college students having some troubles in a California beach resort when a mysterious killer decides to join them during their Spring break holidays.

OMEGA: A peculiar plot. The story of political intrigues in the imaginary nation of Kuristan in the Soviet Block. Gene Hackman (‘Deadly Sins’, ‘Checkmate’, ‘Red Light’, the Lawman saga) is the first name heard attached to the project, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

A LOOK AT… GENRES IN CMP

Which genre is the easiest one to succeed? Which one is a guarantee for a failure? What is the perfect date to release a movie? CMP has always tried to produce movies for all kind of genres but luck – and quality – hasn’t always been equally generous with all of them. Here is a look at the story of genres in the Studio:

ACTION / ADVENTURE

Difficulty Rating: Here is The Genre Par Excellence. The easiest one to make a movie work in box office. Take a big star – or two -, a director with some experience and a simple plot full of FXs of any kind… and you have to be too bad not to attract audiences enough to make some profits… and a sequel.
A CMP’s Classic: 'Hitman'. Pure violence and appealing stars: the perfect formula. Even if the lead male character decides to kill the lead female character to avoid her from suffering in the second movie, fans will just love each and every episode.
Something to forget: 'Ace Banner'. Pure violence and appealing stars: the perfect formula? Even if you suddenly decide to change the star playing the lead male character from the second to the third episode, the flop is guaranteed when a concept just does not work.
Perfect release date?: 4th of July is Popcorn Day.

SCI-FI

Difficulty Rating: Put the Digital Effects Department to work. Write a story taking place many many years ago in a galaxy far away… Do not hesitate to invest a crazy amount of money. And you’ll have a show that will attract moviegoers even if there’s nothing new under the sun.
A CMP’s Classic: It has to be: the new Star Wars trilogy. Tons of money for the Studio, although the last episode showed some worrying signs of exhaustion in the audience.
Something to forget: 'Tales Of The Jedi'. There are still a few CMP’s ex-executives in the unemployment line wondering why, oh why, this movie just didn’t work.
Perfect release date? Go for Christmas but, if you don’t have Will Smith shooting his gun on 4th of July, that’s a good date too.

COMEDY

Difficulty Rating: Make‘em laugh is not as easy as it may seem. Releasing a comedy is always an uncertain adventure. It may take you to the sky or make you feel really embarrassed.
A CMP’s Classic: 'Fools Game'. Quality, talent, intelligence and sense of humour in the perfect doses. Far away from cheap sex jokes to make brainless teenagers laugh.
Something to forget: 'Poor Little Rich Boy'. Oh, please, lets never mention this one again…
Perfect Release Date? Uncertain. For some mysterious reason April seems to be a decent month to laugh.

DRAMA

Difficulty Rating: Make’em cry – or even make'em think – is even harder than make’em laugh. Most of moviegoers are teenagers and they run as hell from a movie defined as ‘drama’. The only hope for a drama is that audiences over 35 years or so feel interested in it. And that’s not easy at all, so usually not too much money is invested in this kind of productions, as they are good for prestige and awards but not for box office.
A CMP’s Classic: 'The Great War Series'. A tricky dramatic trilogy, as it also includes big war action scenes and a touch of epic and adventure. It was a surprise its huge impact in box office.
Something to foget: 'Outer Eye'. John Cusack is still trying to recover from the disaster of trying to make a visionary drama.
Perfect Release Date? Any. But maybe November is cold enough to feel like watching a warm drama at the theatres.

HORROR

Difficulty Rating: Take loads of blood, a seriel killer with an exotic mask, a few bimbos gifted by Mother Nature ready to scream and then die and you have it. Hard to make a blockbuster but not that hard to make profits enough to feel satisfied..
A CMP’s Classic: 'Cursed Neverland'. We want a sequel and we want it know!
Something to forget. 'Vorhees: The Bloody Years'. Lets call Freddy Krueger to kill Vorhees forever, please.
Perfect Release Date? Ok, lets go for the obvious one: Halloween.

ANIMATION

Difficulty Rating: The cursed genre for CMP. Everybody at the Studio loves animation but they have not discovered yet how to make this genre progress. CMP feels too far away from Pixar…
A CMP’ss Classic: 'Robotech'. Such a big hit in CMP that it seems like soon there’ll be a Robotech movie released in the real world (CMP is not the real world?).
Something to forget: 'Happy Hamsters'. Well, Ratatouille is a rat and it worked, why hamsters wouldn’t?
Perfect Release Date? Yes, they should be released on Christmas and oriented to a Family and Children audience. CMP knows that. But…

MUSICAL, EPICS AND OTHER MINORITIES

Difficulty Rating: Don’t look for a pattern. Some times they work, some times don’t. Minor genres are just like throwing a coin in the air and closing the eyes praying for luck…
A CMP’s Classic: Carousel. Nobody could just even dream that it would become such a big hit.
Something to forget: Piece Of My Heart. Better wait for a Britney Spears’ biopic.
Perfect Release Date? Hahaha, good question…

TALK OF THE TOWN

Honouring Heath Ledger: He’s gone. And it is quite a shock. One of CMP’s favourite stars passed away this week. Ledger was our Captain America in CMP’s successful trilogy. He was also the lead star in Francis Coppola’s ‘The Toymaker’ and the lead voice in the animated saga ‘Robotech’. Together with Nicholas Cage, Ledger was nominated for Best Starring Couple at the GMA for ‘Captain America vs Superman’. And now, we will all miss a young rising star forever gone. Farewell, Heath.

Too many offers, too little names: some CMP’s stars are getting too demanded from screenwriters. Names like Johnny Depp, Daniel Radcliffe, Keira Knightley or Clive Owen, among others, are included so often in the desired casts that the Studio is getting ready to send many bad news about it to the authors in its Production Reports.

Searching out for a hero: Since Captain America died in ‘Captain America: Destiny’, CMP is looking for a new superhero to replace him. There are ideas like making a movie based on Marvel’s The Avengers or giving a chance to Captain Planet, but nothing has been decided yet.

Murphy to choose: Harry Stark has asked Eddie Murphy to choose between a sequel of ‘Crooks’ or a new Ultraman’s adventure. Although those movies were not big hits, Stark wants Murphy to return and try again.

Remember ‘He-Man’?: First it was going to be a John Daws’ movie. Then Matt Kubrick showed some interest in the character. And then Marcus Trax announced he would write a movie based on the character. It is rumoured that finally CMP will take He-Man to the big screen, but the screenwriter to do it hasn’t been made public yet.

The return of CMP has been so successful that Stark has pitches enough for at least a couple of Seasons. Authors will have to be a bit patient to see their ideas developed.

SALT AND PEPPER

SALT

Bruce Willis: Old action heroes never die. Willis could initiate a new saga with ‘The Caves Of Steel’. And that can turn his agenda really busy, as he is also involved in other CMP’s big franchises such us Wild Cards and Dungeons & Dragons, which are expected to go on in the future. It seems like a shining future in CMP is waiting for this veteran star who has proved to be something more than just an action hero along his long acting career. No doubt, Willis is one of CMP’s favourite stars.

PEPPER

Jason Biggs: He was the star of the first movie ever released by CMP: ‘Entertaining Mrs. Sullivan’. The movie made a nice box office of 74 mill. and Stark had big plans for him. CMP’s President wanted to make a series of comedies starred by Biggs. The first one was ‘Poor Little Rich Boy’, starred by Biggs and another upcoming star, Jessica Alba. And box office was a disaster, with only 4 mill. So that was it. Other young comedians like Zach Braff replaced Biggs in Stark’s plans and we have never heard from him again in CMP.

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