JULY, 3
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STANLEY & LIVINGSTONE

Drama / Epic

The Cast: Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Jeremy Davies, Liam Neeson, Leighton Meester, Pierce Brosnan, Gael Garcia Bernal

The Director and Producer: James Cameron
The Screenwriter: Chad Taylor

The Plot: In 1864 Livingstone (C.Bale) returned to Africa and mounted an expedition through the central portion of the continent with the objective of discovering the source of the Nile River. As months stretched into years, little was heard from the explorer. Rumors spread that Livingstone was being held captive or was lost or dead. Newspapers headlined the question "Where is Livingstone?" while the public clamored for information on the whereabouts of their national hero. By 1871, the ruckus had crossed to the shores of America and inspired George Bennett (L.Neeson), publisher of the New York Herald, to commission newspaper reporter Henry Stanley (B.Pitt) to find Livingstone.

Henry Stanley was a remarkable man. Orphaned at an early age he spent his formative years in a workhouse in Wales, crossed the Atlantic at age 15 as a crewman of a merchant ship and jumped ship in New Orleans. Befriended by a local merchant, he took the man's name - Henry Stanley - as his own and went on to fight in the Civil War before working his way into a career in journalism. New York Post publisher James Gordon Bennett decides to send Stanley to Africa, to get a story about Dr.Livingstone.

On March 21, 1871, Stanley, along with travel-expert Jeff Slocum (J.Davies), led a group of 2,000 on a journey. On the way, they meet Lord Tyce (P.Brosnan), a British writer, who had written earlier that Livingstone is dead (After his son's expedition failed). He calls them crazy ,but they keep going. Also along the way, they meet Lord Tyce's son Gareth John Kingsly (G. Garcia Bernal) and his daughter Eve (L. Meester). She is mad at Dr.Livingstone, as she thinks he aged her father. She decides to help out Stanley and give him advice. After nearly eight months he found Livingstone in Ujiji, a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871. And at the first sight of meeting him, Stanley delievers the line "Dr.Livingstone,I presume?"

Stark’s Comment: Cameron returns to an epic historical production after the successful ‘Pompeii’. This is a bigger risk. This first Chad Taylor’s project is not an adventure or an action movie but an epic drama, a more difficult genre to make a big box office. Considering the high production budget, it becomes a ‘top risk’ release. We’ll see…

HAWKEYE. THE PREY

Action / Superhero

The Cast: Orlando Bloom, Claire Danes, Benjamin Bratt, Logan Lerman, Chase Ellison. Cameos by Kurt Russell, Michael Clarke Duncan

The Director: Louis Leterrier
The Screenwriter: David Makalaster

The Plot: Waverly, Iowa. Young Clinton (C.Ellison) and Barney (L.Lerman) Barton are leading quite the unruly life. Clinton is a crack shot with the slingshot and Barney a deft hand at scrumping apples. But their comfortable life is shattered when they witness their parents die in a car crash. They are taken in at the state orphanage but take an immidiete dislike to it, and soon run away to, that's right, join the circus. The manager of "The Stupendous Circelloni Sisters". relegates Barney to menial duty but is impressed when Clinton, on a whim, tries out a bow & arrow and takes to it like a fish to water.

Over the next years, the brothers work the circus, which ends up with a stead place outside New York. Clinton (O.Bloom) becomes one of the star attractions as "Hawkeye, The Sharp Shot Kid" and partnering with the circus' other main attraction, "The Amazing Swordsman" Jacques Duquesne (B.Bratt), who teaches him acrobatics as well as all about bladed weaponry and archery, for an inventive act combining trapeze artistry, tight rope, blades and archery.

Barney(still played by Lerman) has advanced to head teamster. But one night, after wrapping up a show, Clinton finds Barney bleeding profusely outside the manager’s cart. Barney says that he tried to stop the Swordsman from stealing the month's earnings but was cut down and the Swordsman headed into the main tent. After getting help for Barney, Clinton gives chase and engages the Swordsman, with swordfighting taught to him by the very same. However, his former teacher pushes him back and chases him up onto the tightrope. Once there, Clinton is precariously forced out onto the tightrope before the Swordsman cuts it, sending Clinton falling to his death. He then flees the circus with the money in hand.

However, thanks to Clintons acrobatic skill, he actually managed to break the fall on a lower trapeze platform and survives with two broken bones. Barney, however, is not so lucky as he bled to death on the way to the hospital. Clinton sits through the funeral in a wheelchair and vows to find the Swordsman again and exact revenge. When his bones heal he rejoins the circus and uses it as a base from where he searches for Swordsman. On one of his forays through the slums to look for info, he spots a young woman (C.Danes) being attacked by a thug. After he pins the thug to a wall with a well-placed arrow, he returns her dropped purse to her. She seems surprised, rather than grateful, and hurries off after barely giving her name as Laura Matthers. The bewildered Clinton is left with the thug and, after a brief philosophical discussion with him about how best to help people like this (The thug remarks "Yer a friggin' superhero.") he dumps him at the nearest police station and heads back to the circus.

From then, he decides to help the city fight all crime, not just the one perpetrated by the Swordsman and the thug, while he still searches for the Swordsman.

A few weeks later, he ventures through the same area, only to see someone breaking into a building. He follows the burglar in and stops what turns out to be her at arrowpoint. He is surprised to recognize Laura Matthers, only dressed in combat apparel. As he does a doubletake, she kicks the bow away and lunges at him, telling him not to interfere.The fight rages through the building until an alarm trips and a mass of thugs swarm at them. With their focus shifted, they start fighting together. Hawkeye manages to clear a group of thugs and get his bow back, but Laura gets taken hostage at knifepoint by a remaining thug. Hawkeye spots them with an arrow drawn and manages to plant one squarely in the thugs eye. As he falls dead, Laura scolds him for not leaving anyone to interrogate.

As she starts rummaging through some file cabinets Hawkeye demands to know who she really is. She refuses but relents when he shows her a dog tag she dropped during the fight reading "Natalia Romanova". She reveals that she is a professional catburglar and spy known as the Black Widow, and is on a job to obtain information about the local crimelord Wilson Fisk, called "The Kingpin"(M. Clarke Duncan). Hawkeye remarks that she could use his help since he's been fighting crime in the city for a long time ("Well... A few weeks."). She declines but then finds the files she's looking for and among them is a file on the Swordsman! He is apparently in Kingpin's employ, and Hawkeye demands the file. Black Widow says that her contact requires the files but if he agrees to help her get to the Kingpin, she will help him get to the Swordsman.

The duo, using Hawkeye's contacts, find out about a shipments of stolen electronics going directly to "The Bosses place" is leaving the harbor the week after and they decide to use that as their way in. They use the week to train together and get to know each other, and Hawkeye even gets a bit infatuated with her. On the night the shipment is due, they infiltrate the harbor and hide aboard one of the trucks marked with Kingpin's corporate brand. Once the truck arrives, they find themselves in the parking garage of a skyscraper and sneak their way upwards. After Hawkeye dispatches of a couple of guards outside the penthouse office, Black Widow enters first only to find the Swordsman sitting behind the desk.
BW: "Who are you? Where's the Kingpin?"SM: "The big man's outta town. You've got one more question before I fillet you like a fish."

Hawkeye steps into the office and asks "Remember that time you killed a teamster at a circus?". The Swordsman pales a little, but grits his teeth and lunges at them, determined to finish what he had started. The Swordsman holds his own against them both and throughout the fight he taunts Hawkeye saying that Barney was his partner on a job from the Kingpin to steal the cash, but he chickened out and was about to alert somebody. He then manages to knock Black Widow out and stick a knife in Hawkeye's shoulder. He looks over the two for a bit before grabbing Black Widow and dragging her to the window, which he shatters, and holds Black Widow outside it.("How about that? She'll die how you should have!") But just as he is about to drop her, she wriggles loose and grabs the ledge, giving Hawkeye just enough time to draw an arrow and let it fly. It hits the Swordsman squarely in the chest, and he collapses over the edge.

A couple of days later, Hawkeye is nursing the wound in his shoulder with the help of a bruised Black Widow. She wonders what he will do now that he is done with his quest.

On the TV is an interview with Wilson Fisk, who claims to have no involvement in what happened and will seemingly get off scot-free. Hawkeye takes a look at it and says "Who said I was done?".Black Widow sighs and says that if he won't stop fighting crime, at least find more to help him. To this end, she opens the door and introduces her job contact, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury (K.Russell). Hawkeye scoffs that Nick Fury looks like a scrawny old man.
NF: "My one eye is better than your two at spotting talents...Have you ever heard of the Avengers Initiative?"

Stark’s Comment: Makalaster returns after the megahit ‘Devil Trigger’. It looks evident that his time of making low budget movies like ‘Little Tin Goddess’ or ‘The Metal’ is gone. Now it’s turn for another spin off from Kubrick’s Avengers saga (a prequel, in fact, like it happened with ‘Nick Fury’). Bloom abandoned that saga after the second movie and now returns playing Hawkeye in his own production. Danes, a specialist in box office’s hits, is back after her success with ‘Magic: The Gathering’. It has it all to work.

L.A. WOLF

Action / Thriller

The Cast: Gabriel Macht, Gerard Butler, Andy Garcia, Michelle Monaghan

The Director: David Fincher
The Screenwriter: Josh Collins

The Plot: Anti-heroic police detective David Wolfe (G.Macht) solves gristly cases in his home city of Los Angeles. You may not agree with his brutal methods to get the job done, but you can't argue with his results. His first case is tracking down a psychotic killer (G.Butler) who feels he is only doing the lord's bidding.

In college, David studied psychology and became a police detective for personal reasons which he avoids talking about, even when asked he will refuse and leave the room. He dislikes being close to people, and it shows when his love interest in the film, Desiree MacIntire (M.Monaghan), tries her hardest to get close, but he won't allow it.

The religious fanatic was raised in a devout Christian home. Punishment was usually handed out by his father, which always involved 39 lashes with a belt. He has the good book memorized and often recites passages from the bible before he commits the murders of whom he deems 'evil'

Sure, he's taking out a lot of the trash like rapists, adulterers, and so forth, but by taking the law into his own hands and killing them, he is the criminal himself. By day he is a priest, and no one suspects him as the mass murderer. Unsuspecting citizens who want to make confession don't realize that he waits for them to ensure they will never sin again.

David Wolfe is on the case, thanks to his tough-as-nails Chief, Travis Brady (A.Garcia). David works his magic throughout the film to put the pieces of his case together and to fend off the self appointed Messiah. David indeed catches the villain in a standoff.

Stark’s Comment: Collins returns to his origins (remember ’72 Hours’?) with this classic concept of thriller, psycho killer and anti-heroic cop included. Fincher directs his third movie for CMP after ‘Saving Samantha Moss’ and ‘Chrysalis: Pennies From Hell’. And both pretend this one to be the beginning of a series of movies based on Macht’s character if this one works in box office.


HUMAN AXIS: Two stars will meet with Ewan McGregor in this epic sci-fi adventure directed by Christopher Nolan and written by David Makalaster: Joseph Fiennes and GMA Winner Jennifer Connelly. A curiosity: the last time both stars worked in a CMP’s production was in the same one: the Josh Collins’ drama ‘Change Of Heart’.

BORGEL: This eccentric Terry Gilliam’s comedy written by Ben Tyler not only has human characters. We will also see a talking dog, an anthropoid bloboform – whatever that may be - and a very intelligent computer program. And the voices for them will be no others than Bill Murray, returning to CMP after his personal success ‘Life and Facts of a Dirty Mind’; Seth Rogen, seen this Season in ‘Woodland Creatures’; and Will Ferrell, whose last work for CMP was the successful ‘Q*Bert’.

CHECK, PLEASE: Some of the bad dates Paul Rudd and Drew Barrymore will have in this romantic comedy will be with people like Joan Cusack, finally returning to CMP after the flop ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’, and two debutantes in the Studio: Ice Cube and Anna Faris.

PREACHER 2: This sequel will tell two parallel stories: one following James Marsden and the other one following the vampire played in the original movie by Josh Hartnett, who returns to the saga. Also returning from the first movie, Ron Pearlman will be seen in this one just for a few minutes making a brief cameo.

DEEP SILENCE 2: RED CODE HIGH: Supporting characters in this sequel will be played by Jim Caviezel, never seen before in a CMP’s movie, Eric Balfour (‘Poor Little Rich Boy’, ‘Parody Of Arts’) and Clea Duvall (‘Change Of Heart’), the three of them playing US Navy officers.

UNITED I STAND: More stars for this family dramedy about a Spanish girl, played by Ivana Baquero, moving to New York to live with some relatives. Adriana Barraza plays her grandmother in her first work for CMP and Penelope Cruz returns to the Studio after starring the action comedy ‘The Hooligan’.

AQUAMAN: The complete cast has been finally confirmed. After a few replacements, new talents to add to it are Sean Patrick Thomas (‘The Running Man’), Robert Foster and Alberta Watson. The director of this Dawson Edwards’ comic adaptation is David Yates.

KINGDOM: This will be one of the first releases of Season 11. Matt Kubrick is the author behind this epic fantasy adventure that pretends to be the beginning of a new CMP’s saga. No talent involved is known yet and rumors say that Kubrick wants Zack Snyder (‘Preacher’, ‘Wild Cards: Battle Of The Rox’) to direct it.

SHOTGUN JOE: Green light for another Kubrick’s story. This time, a low budget violent tale about revenge and redemption. Kurt Russell – already seen this Season in ‘The Avengers 3’ and making a cameo in this week’s release ‘Hawkeye. The Prey’ – keeps too busy in CMP starring it. And another Kubrick’s favourite talent, director Rob Zombie, will move the cameras. Zombie and Kubrick already worked together in the cult movie ‘Damnation Road’.

FOUL KARMA: And third Kubrick’s project greenlighted this week. This time, Kubrick has co-written the screenplay with Josh Collins, in their first collaboration. This is a Midnight Movies production too, as ‘Shotgun Joe’, and you all know what that means: there will be pain and blood… Matt Kubrick will also direct the movie. His previous directional job was ‘Reform School Girls’.


CHRISTIAN BALE

Christian Bale is one of the most successful talents in CMP in terms of box office. This week, Bale returns to CMP co-starring with Brad Pitt the ambitious production ‘Stanley & Livingstone’ after his previous success this very same Season with another epic historical adventure, ‘The Gunpowder Plot’. 5 out of his 9 previous works for the Studio made box offices superior to 100 millions (2 of them also overcame the 200 millions and 3 of them also made net gains superior to 200 millions). None of them flopped in box office. Outstanding numbers for Bale. The only black spot in his CMP’s career? Bale has never got a single Golden Moon Award nomination.

CMP’s Filmography

THE HEIRS
Martin Scorsese / Joey Stark
B.O.: 158 / Net Gains: 117
A supporting role for Bale in the legendary Scorsese’s mobs saga. Bale played a Sean Penn’s friend finally assassinated by Robert De Niro.

THE GREAT WAR SERIES: DARKENING SKIES
Peter Weir / Jack Hammer
B.O.: 206 / Net Gains: 238
Bale co-starred with Colin Farrel (also seen in ‘The Heirs’) this other legendary trilogy. An amazing success. The story of a family saga during Second World War became a CMP’s classic and one of the most acclaimed movies from the Studio ever.

THE GREAT WAR SERIES: STORM BREAKS
Peter Weir / Jack Hammer
B.O.: 188 / Net Gains: 205
The second episode of the saga also was an outstanding hit, with benefits over the 200 millions. Bale’s prestige in CMP kept growing.

22:10
Quentin Tarantino / Marcus Trax
B.O: 46 / Net Gains: 12
One of the lowest box office for a Bale’s movie but still a profitable production. Bale worked again with De Niro in this violent look at the mob’s world. It wasn’t as spectacular as expected.

THE GREAT WAR SERIES: FINAL THUNDER
Peter Weir / Jack Hammer
B.O.: 74 / Net Gains: 51
The ending of the saga did not repeat the outstanding numbers of the previous episodes. Maybe the absence of Farrel’s character affected it. Anyway, the trilogy entered into the major History of CMP.

BLINK
Josh Collins / Josh Collins
B.O.: 32 / Net Gains: 4
A quality work from Bale in this classic Collins’ drama about the raping and muder of a young girl. Bale played the girl’s father and hardly survived to his first net losses.

GAME BOY 2: WARLANDS
Robert Zemeckis / John Daws
B.O: 265 / Net Gains: 206
Back to box office success for Bale. He accepted to play one of the villains in this famous mix of live action and digitally generated characters. Not a big challenge as an actor but another blockbuster to his personal balance sheet.

MONOLITH
Christopher Nolan / Ben Tyler
B.O: 55 / Net Gains: 18
This movie pretended to change the History of Sci-Fi. Finally, it wasn’t that much. But still is a quality movie. Bale bet for it and proved to be a favourite for almost every CMP’s writers, as he has worked with almost all of them.

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
Ridley Scott / John Daws
B.O.: 122 / Net Gains: 111
This Season, bale has already starred this luxurious historical recreation. And there’s a strong GMA buzz around him. Maybe it’s time for a GMA nomination for him at last.

STANLEY & LIVINGSTONE
James Cameron / Chad Taylor
Awaiting release
Will this remake about the two legendary explorers work in box office? Bale takes the risk proving again that most of CMP’s authors think of him when wanting to put up a big epic show.


‘Hawkeye. The Prey’ is another twist of the CMP’s superheroes mania. And the starring couple is one of its biggest appeals. Orlando Bloom plays again Hawkeye after the two first Avengers’ movies and his personal success with ‘3’s and 7’s’ and its sequel ‘Drawing Dead’ (both written too by David Makalaster). Claire Danes can be finally seen playing the Black Widow after her work playing the same character in ‘The Avengers 3’ died in the editing room. And here are both at the premiere of the movie in Los Angeles.



Well, well, well, so we are back in business in CMP… Past week, audiences preferred the silly ‘Legend of Zelda II’ better than the wonderful third adventure of Flashman. So I am afraid this week everyone will pay to watch the pretentious ‘Stanley & Livingstone’ better than the brilliant (hey, Mr. Fincher is around) ‘L.A. Wolf’. I am too lazy to write anything about another superhero movie like ‘Hawkeye’…

Anyway, let’s move to some juicy news.

Juicy? Not as much as expected. Harry Stark announced past week that he would announce this week a list of pitches rejected by CMP. But he has not announced what he announced. Only three pitches are confirmed to be definitely canceled: ‘What Goes Around’, co-written by Josh Collins and Matt Kubrick, ‘Batman Beyond’, by Josh Collins, and ‘Rebecca’s Rock’, by Dawson Edwards. The official reason? The Studio did not like ‘Rebecca’s Rock’, as it was considered as having a weak storyline. ‘What Goes Around’ was rejected because CMP considered too tough this horror story about child abuse. And ‘Batman Beyond’ was already cancelled by Collins. For what I know, some other Collins’ pitches were going to be rejected by the Studio but they have been put on a standby as Collins is said to be revamping them.

Following the story of ‘Batman Beyond’, this is what Collins has said to explain why he abandones this project:

‘As much as I love the Batman franchise, I called it quits mainly because the story was a movie-version of the cartoon. I didn't feel like it was my place to retell something people have already heard. Truth be told, I've never actually read Batman, Spiderman, X-Men comics, and my knowledge of superheroes doesn't go beyond films and the 90s cartoon shows for those particular heroes. I only knew a tiny bit of the original Batman Beyond, not enough to make a full-fledged series out of the film. Plus I didn't think it was the time to be bringing in a new Batman series with everyone so caught up in the newest Christopher Nolan saga.
When it comes to adaptations and bringing something to the big screen, I admit I have a tendency to stay too close to the source. This has been established in such adaptations I've done like Change of Heart and even the Zelda series. But when you look at such other works from CMP writers when they adapt, they are actually very good at being able to take what they're adapting from and make their own’.

By the way, Kubrick also talked to the press this week, mainly about – oh, no! – an upcoming ‘The Avengers 4’ and – oh, my God! – a possible sequel of ‘Psycho: Bloodline’:

‘I'm going to write a sequel to ‘Nick Fury’ and it's going to be excellent. It's going to have the son of the main bad guy in the first one trying to exact revenge on Nick for his father’s death and shield in general. He jump starts Hydra and makes major attacks Shield itself and manages to kill some higher ups. There is going to be a double agent named Scarlet I hope the studio loves the finished script.
I would also like to make ‘Psycho: Legacy’ which will be different than the first one and won't be just a straight up slasher. Nathan's mom drops by for a visit and discovers that her son has taken up his mantle and tries to wrestle him away from his other half’s control. There is also a hotshot book writer that is looking to write a book about Norman Bates.
After part 4 of The Avengers I'm leaving the franchise in the hands of the studio. It's getting to hard to try and top each movie and if the studio decides to go on with the franchise I think that a new writer will be able to bring a lot of cool ideas to the franchise, whoever that may be. But in ‘The Avengers 4: Civil War’ it will tie some events together and will have some surprising twists and some super heroe's will be introduced.’

And after these scary words about future movies, let’s talk about records. This week’s release ‘L.A. Wolf’ has reached a peculiar record: more than 20 talents were considered to play the villain of the function. Actors like Colin Farrel, Jude Law, Paul Bettany or Paul Giamatti, among others, were considered by Collins, the Studio or both. CMP did not want a big star overshadowing the leading character, played by a minor star like Gabriel Macht. Finally, the chosen one has been Gerard Butler, who combines two values: he is not a big star neither and he is muscled enough – as the character demanded - to play the fanatic psycho killer.