NOVEMBER, 11


GOD OF WAR

Action Adventure

The Cast: Vin Diesel, Maria Bello, Rosario Dawson, Nicholas Hope, Anthony Hopkins, Odette Yustman, Stephanie Janusaukas

The Director and Producer: Guillermo Del Toro
The Screenwriter: Josh Collins

The Plot:

In this adaptation of the playstation computer game, we see Kratos (V. Diesel) standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Aegeon Sea. "The Gods of Olympus have abandoned me" he jumps off the cliff and just before he hits the sea, the screen goes black.

Kratos is the captain in the Spartan army. Kratos led his armies to several victories, but was almost outnumbered by a horde of barbarians. Before he is killed by the Barbarian King, Kratos calls upon Ares, the god of War (N.Hope). Kratos promises servitude to Ares if he spares the lives of his Spartan brothers if he provides the power to destroy the barbarian enemies. Ares hears the cries and gives Kratos The Blades of Chaos (chain blades) and Kratos uses them to decapitate the Barbarian King.

Kratos then goes on to wage war against all of Greece, leading him to attack a village full of Athena's worshippers. Ares does an unthinkable and tricks Kratos, luring his wife (O.Yustman) and daughter (S.Janusauskas) into the village and ultimately leading to their death with the intention of making Kratos the perfect warrior, but all through the rage of the attack on the village, Kratos' final victims of the town were his family. Kratos reknowns his loyalty to Ares. The Oracle of the destroyed village puts a curse on Kratos, covering his skin in the ashes of his dead family. Kratos is haunted with the nightmares of his terrible deeds, commiting to a decade of servitude to the Gods of Olympus and being constantly haunted by memories of his family and what he did to them: At one point he made his daughter a flute and she would eventually become a talented flute player.

Kratos summons Athena (M.Bello) and tells her he has grown weary of the servitude and asks for forgiveness of his sins. Athena says if he can perform one more act, he will be forgiven for the murder of millions, including his family. The act is for Kratos to kill Ares, a deed she nor other God would be able to help perform as Zeus (A.Hopkins) forbids divine intervention.

Kratos then proceeds to battle creatures such as the Hydra and a giant Minotaur. When Kratos gets to the Oracle of Athens (R.Dawson), he learns from her that the only way to kill Ares is to find Pandora's Box, opening it will grant a mortal the powers of a God. Kratos learns that Pandora's Box is in the Desert of Lost Souls, inside a temple on the back of the Titan Cronos, chained to him as a punishment from Zeus for his role in the Great War.

Kratos climbs the temple for 3 days before reaching the entrance and finding the box after overcoming some not so friendly fiends. When Kratos is successful, Ares actually kills Kratos and Pandora's Box is delivered to him. Kratos falls into the Underworld and manages to escape. Kratos has literally been to hell and back to get to this point! Kratos recovers Pandora's Box upon his return to Athens where the final showdown between he and the God of War take place.

Kratos manages to kill Ares, and as promised by Athena, she says that his sins are forgiven. But she can not grant the nightmares to go away. We are back to the beginning of the film when Kratos jumps from the cliff into the Aegeon Sea. Instead of dying, Athena casts him back to the gate of Mount Olympus. She states that with Ares being killed, there is nobody else worthy to take his place except Kratos, awarding him as the new God for War, for his servitude to the Gods.


Stark’s Comment:
This one has potential enough to be the first ‘+200’ release of the Season. I am going to keep my expectations up in the sky ‘til Tuesday’s numbers come out.

Behind The Scenes:
-Josh Collins wanted Robert Rodriguez to direct this movie. It was Harry Stark himself who told him that Del Toro might be a better choice. Collins agreed and Rodriguez was out while Del Toro went in.
-Vin Diesel and Guillermo Del Toro meet again after having worked together in the three ‘Dragonlance’ movies.
-Vin Diesel worked with Collins before in the megahit ‘Metroid’.
-The role of Ares was initially offered to GMA Winner Ralph Fiennes. When he rejected the offer, John Malkovich and Dolph Lundgren were considered before Nicholas Hope got the job.
-Angelina Jolie already played the goddess Athena in the blockbuster ‘Athena’, the character now played by Maria Bello.
-Anthony Hopkins had not been seen in a CMP’s movie since he played Leonardo Da Vinci in ‘Assassin’s Creed II’.

STATE OF MIND

Action / Crime

The Cast: Andrew Garfield, Michael Chiklis, Martin Freeman, William Fitchner, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Olivia Wilde, Dennis Quaid, Boris Kodjoe.

The Director: Neil Blomkamp
The Screenwriter: Chad Taylor

The Plot:

Leo Cambridge (D.Quaid) has just entered one of the most important meetings in Feldspar Industries history. As CEO of the company, Leo is about the announce the acquisition of rival company, Nidus Inc. Kendrick Nidus(W.Fitchner),owner and founder of Nidus Inc., sits across the table from Leo, as a table full of executives sits and await’s the news. They both stand up, announce it, and shake hands.

Nidus, off to a press conference in downtown Manhattan, must leave, as Leo ponders to his office. He puts the paperwork aside, and turns on his TV, watching stocks. He takes a long sip from his coffee as the dark clouds outside part, and the sun shines through his floor-to-ceiling windows. A smile arrives on his face, as six stories down, the door opens, and Blair Cambridge (A.Garfield) enters the building. The music picks up and sweat falls down Blair’s forehead. Shaking with his breifcase in hand, he nods very to security, keeping his cool. He enters the elevator and gets to the sixth floor. Dana (O.Wilde),Leo’s secretary, enters his office to inform him of the mail that was sent for him. He smiles and thanks her, but then the door opens up. Blair stands there, opens his briefcase and pulls out a gun.

Time starts to be counted by heartbeats, Leo inhales,and Dana screams. He closes the door, locks it, and sets up a barricade. He threatens to shoot them both, unless he gives away vital information. The hallways of the office are in panic,everyone is dialing 911. Finally, police chief Michael Rogers (M.Chiklis) arrives on the scene, and attempts to talk to Blair, to no avail. He calls in Kendrick, a friend of his, and asks him if his son has said anything dangerous the last few days. But he is a normal kid, and Kendrick knows none of his motivations. Rogers goes to his last resort and calls in his psychiatrist friend Harry (M.Freeman).

It is this part of the film, where Harry sets up outside of the door and starts to enter Blair’s mind. At first, he rejects the questions, but Harry soon figures out what’s important in Blair’s life. Two of those are his fiancee Rose(M.E.Winstead) and his mentor Cameron (B.Kodjoe). Rose seems to be someone who actually understands him. While his dad is busy at work, Cameron is someone Blair looks to for advice and provides him with something “special”, which is unknown to Harry, Kendrick, and the audience. Harry turns to Rogers, signaling him to call the both of them, but doesn’t make a sound. Leo then pleads for help, turning Blair hostile. He turns the gun on Leo, making him shut up.

30 minutes has passed and no progress has been made. The TV in the office still shows the news of the acquisition, prompting Blair to shoot it. Leo then figures out that he is mad that he bought his dad’s company. Cameron and Rose arrive, in shock. Cameron, a SWAT member who met Blair at a coffee shop, wants to take action. Rose is saddened as she thinks she saw it coming. Cameron tells Rogers that he can get him, and springs into action. He finds his way to the window of the office, and breaks in. But Blair is alert, looks up and shoots, hurting one of his only friends. Dana, trained in nursing, is told to go help the dying Cameron, as Blair breathes heavily. Meanwhile, Harry continues to dissect Blair’s mind.

He eventually finds a break in the plane, noticing a seemingly normal hatred for his dad. Normal because sons tend to dislike their father at some point in their life. But it was odd, because he worshiped his father his whole life.Kendrick then notices the pattern and tells Rogers he knows what is happening. Blair is angry at him, because he sold his company to Leo, who has cheated thousands out of money, and pulled off many dirty business moves. Blair is mad that Kendrick never brought up this information in public. Kendrick is friends with Leo and wouldn’t do it.

Harry notices that Blair is autistic, with a deep admiration for his father. And he knows how much his father loves his company, which sickens Blair that he sold it to a cheater. Blair surrenders, and Rogers charges in, arresting Leo, the innocent smile who's been the victim this whole time. Blair is also put into custody, but he sacrificed himself for the lasting of his father's legacy.


Stark’s Comment:
I will be honest: I have bad vibrations about this movie. I have the intuition it is not going to work at box office. But I have no reason for it. Maybe it is just that I am depressed after the latest weak box offices we are making…

Behind The Scenes:
-This movie went through many changes during pre-production phase. Originally, Martin Scorsese was going to direct it. When Scorsese abandoned the project, Duncan Jones replaced him. But then, Jones also abandoned it when he was offered to direct the sequel of ‘The Question’. Finally, Neil Blomkamp took control of it. Blomkamp has never directed a CMP’s movie before.
-After Scorsese left, the cast also suffered many changes Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Sean Penn also abandoned the project, being respectively replaced by Chiklis, Freeman and Fitchner.
-Scoundrels Productions was going to produce this film. But when Brad Pitt abandoned it, his production company also left with him.
-Andrew Garfield could also be seen this Season in past week’s release ‘Bad Family’.
-Mary Elizabeth Winstead made her CMP’s debut two weeks ago with ‘Sub-Mariner’.
-Olivia Wilde returns to CMP in a minor role after the box office’s disaster of his latest film for the Studio, ‘Game Of Truth’, back in Season 15. Olivia got two nominations at the GMA with that film, Best Actress and Best Starring Couple.

PRETEND TO SMILE

Drama

The Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Vera Farmiga, Alfred Molina, Jeremy Sumpter. Cameo by Joshua Jackson.

The Director: Tom Ford
The Screenwriter: Dawson Edwards

The Plot:

A beautiful young girl (A.Seyfried) steps out of a shower and grabs a towel. The bathroom that she is in is filthy. She walks out of the room and we see that she’s in a motel room. A man bursts through the door and starts taking off his clothes. “Come on, we have to do this quick. I’ve got somewhere to be.” He says. She watches as the six hundred dollar bills he threw in the air slowly fall to her feet. She starts undressing as well, and we see her beautiful body completely nude. The man grabs her and throws her down on the bed hard. The two start having sex. Faster and faster he goes, grunting along the way. We cut to the man bursting out the room. He turns to a much older woman smoking nearby and says “Tell that bitch to smile or something.”

The older woman (V.Farmiga) peeks inside the room to see the young girl putting some jeans on. The girl looks up to the woman but can’t muster up a word to say. The older woman lets out a small chuckle.

We flashback to just a few years ago and see the young girl sitting in a small diner. The girl is eating with an elderly man (A.Molina). “Your family sounds fucked up” the man says. We hear a narration voice of the girl:

“It WAS fucked up. It still is, but at this point I didn’t care. I didn’t know this man. He saw me on the corner all alone and invited me to dinner. I figured there were much harder ways to get a free meal.”

“OK, let's go back to my place and I’ll just play with you. I’ll give you $250 if you just let me play with you” he says. The girl narrates as we cut: “We went back to his house and ... he just wanted to look at me naked and touch me and kiss me and say dirty things to me ... I didn't know how to pretend I liked it, so I was tense and rigid. I think he liked that; he knew I'd never done it and it was like breaking my cherry or something.”

We see her looking up at the ceiling as the man thrusts and grunts. She narrates as we watch her expressions change. “If you pay attention you can see the exact moment where I tried to ignore the pain and when I started thinking of how great that crack rock would be. And there? Yep, that’s when I realized I’m a fucking crack whore.” The man looks down at her and stares into her eyes and says “Hi. I’m Jonathan.”

2 Years Later:

We see the girl walking out of the motel room. She asks the older woman for a cigarette, but she doesn’t have one. The two of them start walking through the parking lot and down the street, not saying a word. They arrive at a McDonald’s where they order some food. The young man behind the counter checks out the girl’s body and notices needle injection marks. “Would you like some crack with that?” he mumbles under his breath. The girl hears him and chooses to ignore him, but the older woman isn’t so nice. She instantly starts insulting the boy and screaming. The manager (J.Jackson) comes out from the back and tries to calm them down. He tells the boy to shut up or he’s fired, and then offers the women their meal for free. They accept and even choose to stay inside and eat.

As the two eat, the older woman asks what the girl planned on doing the rest of the night. She asks if Jonathan was on the agenda. The girl shakes her head and whispers a soft ‘No.’ They continue their silent eating until the girl speaks again. “Club. I was thinking that I’ll go to the club tonight.”

We cut to the club and its loud music and flashing lights. The young woman is sitting alone at the bar drinking slowly from her glass. A young man (J.Sumpter) approaches her and says “For the next couple of minutes, I’m going to be your boyfriend.” The girl chuckles a bit, but before she can reject him he interrupts with “You don’t have to be alone tonight. Just pretend that I’m your man tonight.” She finishes her drink and invites him to dance. The two dance but when the song goes off she whispers in his ear that he’s no longer her boyfriend. He grabs her arm before she can walk away and says “He doesn’t say you’re beautiful. If he did, you wouldn’t be here and you wouldn’t have such a hard time walking away from a great guy like me. Let me buy you another drink.”

Cut to the two of them kissing their way through the man’s apartment towards his couch. He lays her down and starts taking her clothes off. She flips him over to be on top, and he says “I know I’m not your boyfriend, but I’d love to do this again in the morning.” Fade out.

We then see the woman walking down the street and stopping at a gas station. She calls someone on the while grabbing a bagel and coffee. “Hello Jonathan? It’s good to hear your voice again.” she says. We then flashback to see the girl back at the diner sitting across from an older man we now know is Jonathan. The girl begins to tell him her life story. Her father was an alcoholic, and her stepbrother, five years older, sexually abused her from the time she was 6 until she moved to her mother's. “He would make me give him blow jobs and hand jobs and make me do that to the babysitter's kid, who was about my age. He completely controlled me my whole young life.” He then says “Your family sounds fucked up.”

We then cut to the girl walking out of the gas station with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry; I don’t think I heard you right. Can you say that again Jonathan?” she says. Split screen of the young woman and Jonathan. We see the exact moment where she starts to break down but we don’t hear anything.

“He’s getting married. I couldn’t even tell him my good news before he could break my heart.” She narrates as she falls to the street. “This isn’t ‘Pretty Woman’ and I’m not Julia Roberts. There is no happily ever after. He’s marrying that woman and I have nothing but years worth of drug filled memories that he helped me get over. ” We see someone stand over her and lower their hand to help her stand. She looks up to see it’s the guy from the club. Through the sobs and tears, she manages to say that she brought him a bagel. She cries into his shoulder.

“He was the only one who can get me off sexually, the only one to help me when I needed it. Now he’s getting married, and here I am rushing into something unpredictable. In the morning I told him that I’m not Julia Roberts, but he told me that I am a ‘Pretty Woman’. He told me not to pretend that I was smiling but to actually smile.”

We see the two of them hold hands and walk down the street until the screen fades black.


Stark’s Comment:
Another risky release… A pretty artsy movie. And, to make it even more difficult, it has been rated ‘R’. It will be almost a miracle if we make net gains with this one.

Behind The Scenes:
-Both Tom Ford and Amanda Seyfried make their CMP’s debut with this movie.
-Vera Farmiga made her CMP’s debut two weeks ago with ‘The Jungle’.
-Jeremy Sumpter joined the cast when Shia LaBeouf rejected the job.
-After making his cameo in this movie, Joshua Jackson is back to work with Edwards starring the upcoming ‘Tell Me You Love Me’.


ORIGINAL COLONIES: One of the main appeals of this dramedy written by Josh Collins and directed by Noah Baumbach is the group of popular CMP’s actresses that play supporting roles in it as Jesse Eisenberg’s lovers and possible mother of his son. The list of lovers gets longer with Katherine Heigl, not seen in CMP since the end of the Silver Sable saga; Anna Kendrick, who has already worked with Collins before in ‘Salintology’; and no other than Emma Watson, who has accepted laughing at herself playing a Harry Potter freak. Kevin James (‘Queens’) will also be seen in the movie.

TELL ME YOU LOVE ME: Mandy Moore is the third side of a love triangle in this story together with Joshua Jackson and Kate Hudson. Moore makes her CMP’s debut with this film. Before she was chosen, stars like Natalie Portman or Scarlet Johansson were considered to play the character Moore will be finally playing. GMA Best Director Winner Sofia Coppola is directing this drama written by Dawson Edwards.

FLICKER: John Malone has written a completely different kind of story for his second work after ‘Sub-Mariner’. ‘Flicker’ is an adaptation of Theodore Roszak’s book. It tells a strange and most peculiar story involving the movie industry and twisted psychological elements. Francis Coppola works for the Studio for the fourth time directing this movie after being the director of ‘The Toymaker’ and ‘Prison Letters’ and the producer of ‘A View From The Bridge’. Alden Ehrenreich leads the cast finally making his debut in CMP after being ruled out by David Fincher to star ‘Sub-Mariner’. Ehrenreich and Coppola have worked together before out of CMP in ‘Tetro’. Some big names will also play main characters in the movie, like the four times GMA Nominee Kirsten Dunst, whose latest work for the Studio was the acclaimed ‘Alabama’; and GMA Winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, seen past Season in ‘The Sky Is Grey’.

JUNGLE OF THE DEAD: Past Season, Matt Kubrick only released one movie: the horror flick ‘Island Of The Dead’. And it seems like he established a pattern with that movie as now he presents this ‘Jungle Of The Dead’, another horror flick produced by Midnight Movies. This time, as the title obviously says, horror does not take place in an island but in a jungle and cannibals replace zombies. Rob Zombie, who has worked twice with Kubrick before in CMP directing ‘Damnation Road’ and ‘Shotgun Joe’, teams up again with him for this new horror proposal.

GRAND THEFT AUTO II: Some cast changes took place during the pre-production phase of this sequel written by Chad Taylor. Edward Norton didn’t accept to play a minor role in it and his surprising replacement has been no other than Omar Epps, only seen before in CMP in Dawson Edwards’ ‘Fallen Kings’. And Best Villain GMA Winner Guy Pearce joined the cast replacing Kyle Chandler. Pearce’s latest work for CMP was another Taylor’s story, ‘Raiders On The Storm’.

THE CAPED CRUSADER: Cam Gigandet, who made his debut in CMP also working for Chad Taylor in ‘WW3’, returns to the Studio in this Batman’s movie being directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Morgan Freeman, not seen in CMP since ‘A Jazz Tale’, will also show up in the movie.

SUSPIRIA: Back in 1977, Dario Argento directed ‘Suspiria’, the story of a ballet student who discovers that her dance academy is controlled by a coven of witches. 34 years later, D.R. Cobb has decided to return to the horror genre writing a remake of that movie. To direct it, he has chosen the artsy and experimental director of movies like ‘Cube’ and ‘Splice’, Vincenzo Natali, working for the first time in CMP. And the lead star of the film will also be a CMP’s debutante : no other than the gossip girl Blake Lively. Cobb has tried luck in the horror genre before as writer of other remakes, ‘The Prince Of Darkness’ and ‘Midnight’, and as director of Matt Kubrick’s ‘Island Of The Dead’. None of those films worked at box office.

GABRIEL: Tim Roth, seen past Season in ‘Tarzan’, keeps working regularly for CMP. He will be seen in this Ben Goldey’s story being directed by Ron Howard playing the evil Beelzebub (and yes, we have had Beelzebubs before in CMP in movies like ‘Jack Vance: A True Hollywood Story’). Frank Langella, seen before in CMP in movies like ‘Booster Gold’ and ‘The Impossible Dream’, has also joined the cast of this movie to play a priest.

ALAN WAKE: The young British actress Rebecca Hall makes her debut in CMP with this game adaptation written by Yuri Redding, directed by David Slade and starred and produced by Tom Cruise. Together with her in the cast, we have another debutante in the Studio, Elizabeth Olsen; an experienced talent in CMP like Oliver Platt, not seen in the Studio since he played Orson Welles in ‘The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay’; and Rosamund Pike, only seen before in CMP in ‘The Blacksmith’s Sword’.

SURVIVOR: The veteran actress Mary Steenburgen makes her debut in CMP with this D.R.Cobb’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s book directed by Mark Pellington and starred by Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. The young actor Adam Scott is also making his CMP’s debut with this movie.


JOSH COLLINS – ‘GOD OF WAR’

When we think of Josh Collins, we all think of hard dramas mainly based on family conflicts. But that’s not completely fair. From time to time, Collins likes to try luck with other movie genres, from animation to sci-fi or genre. Although usually – and unfairly - stereotyped as ‘Mr. Drama’, Collins is a much more versatile author than that. This week, he releases the top budget fantasy adventure movie ‘God Of War’, an ambitious videogame adaptation directed and produced by the man behind the successful ‘Dragonlance’ trilogy, Guillermo Del Toro.

1.If I'm not wrong, this is the first time you adapt a videogame... Why have you chosen 'God Of War'?

Ah, you have forgotten Legend of Zelda and Metroid. I've always enjoyed the game series, despite the insane difficulty of it. It's a game that is just looking for a cinematic adaptation like Assassin's Creed. I figured we could jump on the boat before Hollywood decides to mess it up.

2.Is this movie the beginning of a new CMP's franchise or you are not interested in writing possible sequels of it?

Possibly, when it comes to sequels I don't really think of many unless I have an actual idea to come up with it. The first ones are always better cuz you get to introduce the world and characters, the next sequels involve trying to find that balance in doing something new but staying close to the original material. Most games are difficult to adapt movie franchises out of because they stick to the same formula as their predecessors.

3.Do you plan to keep working in this kind of top budget projects or do you feel more comfortable developing the dramas we are more used to see coming from you?

To be honest I think I do feel much more comfortable with developing the dramas and the few comedies I manage to get hits out of. Last season I was surprised to get great numbers out of Somewhere Other Than the Night and Born again. Metroid did great in the box office and God of War may do pretty well too and if they do they really just feel like money for the studio to be able to make the better respectable films. I just feel like a real writer when I'm not locked into a film that relies on whose in it and how "cool" it looks.

4.You will be releasing soon 'Original Colonies'. What can you tell us to present this movie?

Original Colonies is a comedy/drama directed by Noah Baumbach, who also directed my hugely successful Lyra film, and in a way, the comedic style is similar to that of Lyra: The it's kind of funny, but also kind of sad. I really hope it can match wits with James Bradley's comedic screenplays to be honest. Our main characters are Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska; brother-sister roommates sharing an apartment. Both of them are pretty much what you'd expect of young people & siblings for that matter: irresponsible, rude to each other, hard partiers and drinkers, but also very confused in what they want in life and in a way it kinda makes them the losers. Several months before, Jesse took a road trip with friends to visit "The Original Colonies" of America with the sole purpose of getting laid in each of them. Now has come the time for Jesse to face the consequences: he has a mysterious baby dropped off at his doorstep, saying that he is the father and the mother just doesn't want it. Well naturally, this is just inconvenient for him, but he wasn't given a clue at all as to who the mother is, so he decides to retake that trip to find the mother, his sister tags along for company and she learns a little more about her brother than she needed to know. I do hope it's worthy of attention!

5.You are not as active as screenwriter as you used to be. How do you see your future in CMP? Will you be again a most productive writer or we will see less stories coming from you in the future?

Unfortunately, I don't see myself as active as I once was 4 years ago, but I try to pitch when I can, it's just not as often nowadays. You may see a lot more adaptations from books, games, TV, movies, public figures etc but I don't know if I'll ever jump on the adapting superhero bandwagon as they all seem to get covered already and what's left are the 2nd and 3rd tier superheros that nobody's even heard of. For right now it seems like I may be taking Franzwa's place in having one or two films released a season, or even have a season when I don't even have a film at all.

Who really is left nowadays from the earlier seasons? I know I wasn't here from the beginning, but I came in Season 5 and here we are in the 18th Season and not many writers have survived since then.

Fortunately we have a great number of new writers who are always pitching films. I remember being that young in the studio, having a thousand things to pitch, it catches up to you pretty fast! But I know I'm not fully done with CMP just yet!


ANTHONY HOPKINS

Anthony Hopkins, 73, has always been around in CMP from almost the very beginning of the Studio. Usually, he has been playing supporting roles (and mainly villains) but he is one of those talents whose work never goes unnoticed. Hopkins has had a most successful career in CMP. 8 out of his 9 films for the Studio have made net gains. 5 of them have been ‘+100’ releases and 1 of them has been a ‘+200’ release. He has won two Best Villain GMA and he has been nominated at the same category a third time. In short, his name is written with golden letters in CMP’s history.

CAPTAIN AMERICA
Brett Ratner/ Joey Stark
B.O.: 198 / N.G.: 176
Long before Hollywood developed another version of the character and even before CMP itself launched The Avengers franchise, Joey Stark began with this movie the first superhero saga in CMP back in Season 1. Heath Ledger played Captain America and Hopkins was the villain of the show. And he won the Best Villain GMA with this film. Some creative conflicts between Brett Ratner and Bryan Singer, producer of the film, provoked a redefinition of this franchise. Tim Burton took control of the two next installments of it. Finally, in the third movie of the saga, ‘Captain America: Destiny’, Captain America was killed by terrorists. And Heath Ledger himself died only a few months later. The superhero was resurrected by Matt Kubrick later for The Avengers saga being then played by Adam Baldwin.

HAPPY HAMSTERS
Robert Zemeckis / Marcus Trax
B.O.: 24 / N.G.: 4
Hopkins’ second work for the Studio was a voice-only job in this animated feature. David Schwimmer and Renee Zellwegger were also in the cast of voices. The film didn’t make an impact on audiences and it hardly avoided net losses.

WESTWORLD
Michael Bay / Steve Connors
B.O.: 155 / N.G.: 151
The remake of 1973’s ‘Westworld’ has become an icon of sci-fi in CMP’s world. Steve Connors completely redefined the premise of the original movie: now, the story took place in a theme park where humans could interact with extremely realistic clones of famous movie characters. David Duchovny starred the movie. In it, he meets an evil version of Lara Croft played by Angelina Jolie, a helpful version of Storm played by Halle Berry… and Anthony Hopkins playing no other than Hannibal Lecter, who would finally help Duchovny’s character to survive. A wonderful premise that turned the movie into a blockbuster and a CMP’s classic.

THE LIBRARY
Anthony Minghella / Marcus Trax
B.O.: 3 / N.L.: 41
Here is the only box office’s flop in Hopkins’ career in CMP. A historical movie set in the Roman times. Hopkins worked again with Marcus Trax after ‘Happy Hamsters’ and, for the first and only time in CMP, he was leading the cast. The film was a commercial disaster, although Hopkins made a quite impressive acting work in it.

THE GUARDIANS
Ridley Scott / Steve Connors
B.O.: 160 / N.G.: 172
Back to success for Hopkins in CMP. His second work with Steve Connors after ‘Westworld’ was a top budget sci-fi movie produced by Steven Spielberg and starred by Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe. Again, Hopkins was the villain of the story, playing a mean dictator. And, again, he won the Best Villain GMA.

SILVER SABLE
Bryan Singer / Joey Stark
B.O.: 130 / N.G.: 113
Hopkins met again with Singer and Stark after ‘Captain America’ in this new superhero franchise. He played Uncle Morty, mentor and trainer of Silver Sable, in this first movie of the saga. Later, there would be three more Silver Sable’s movies and the second one would become the alltimes best box office ever made by a CMP’s movie. But Hopkins decided not to return to the saga after this first movie and he was replaced by Bo Hoskins.

SHERLOCK HOLMES
Tim Burton / Matt Kubrick
B.O.: 190 / N.G.: 179
One box office’s success after another for Hopkins… This time, he played the legendary Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ main enemy, in this Burton’s version of the legendary characters. The movie was not only a huge box office’s success but it also won the Season 9’s Best Picture GMA. And Hopkins got his third nomination at the Best Villain category, although this time he did not win the award.

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY
Steven Spielberg / Joey Stark
B.O.: 41 / N.G.: 6
Hopkins had worked before with both Spielberg and Stark and they called him back to play a minor role in this movie. For the first time in a very long time, a CMP’s movie with Hopkins in it wasn’t a box office’s success. But it became the most nominated and then the most awarded movie ever in CMP’s history. For the second time in a row, Hopkins had worked in a Best Picture GMA Winner.

ASSASSIN’S CREED II
Peter Jackson / Steve Connors
B.O.: 224 / N.G.: 224
Hopkins and Connors met for the third time after ‘Westworld’ and ‘The Guardians’ in this second installment of the adaptations of the popular videogames saga. Again, Hopkins was offered to play a real historical character. This time it was Leonardo Da Vinci. The film meant the biggest box office’s success in Hopkins’ career in CMP. As it will happen again in ‘God Of War’, where he plays Zeus, Hopkins seems perfect to play iconic epic characters, real or fictional, as much as villains.


Amanda Seyfried makes her debut in CMP this week with the artsy movie written by Dawson Edwards and directed by Tom Ford ‘Pretend To Smile’. And, trying to make us all smile, she has posed with a sexy pin-up styling in a photo session for ‘Premiere’. Also, in this week’s issue of the magazine, Andrew Garfield talks in an exclusive interview about his latest CMP’s film, ‘State Of Mind’.



During these five years and after more than 500 movies released, CMP has not only developed its own franchises but the Studio has also produced spin-offs from the most iconic and legendary franchises ever. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Blade Runner, together with Batman, Superman and almost any other main superhero imaginable have had their own installments developed by CMP. Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, The Beatles, Elvis and many other cultural icons have also starred CMP’s movies. But, believe it or not, there is a main franchise from out of CMP that had not been considered yet by any CMP’s author. The quiz question is: what main Hollywood franchise has never had a CMP’s movie yet? And the answer is… Star Trek. Surprisingly, none of the many writers that have worked for CMP along these years has shown to be a trekkie. But that will change soon. Ben Goldey has written a Star Trek movie to be produced by CMP. Goldey’s first film for the Studio, ‘First Flight’, already showed some influence from this legendary saga. And now, he has decided to face the challenge of making a Star Trek movie to be probably released next Season. JJ Abrams, director of the last Star Trek movie made in Hollywood, will be probably linked to this project either as director or producer of it.

There’s future for Taylor Kitsch in CMP after ‘Tarzan’. And no, it won’t be a sequel of this film… at least by the moment. Kitsch is expected to star an ambitious project leaded by Yuri Redding: a live action adaptation of the iconic anime ‘Akira’. Back in 1988, ‘Akira’ already had a big screen version, an animated feature that has become a cult movie for many anime fans. Now, Redding has written a live action adaptation and the chosen one to play Akira has been Kitsch, who confirms this way the promising future he has in CMP’s world after playing the most famous ape man ever.

And more live action versions of animated characters are on their way. In these cases, the projects consist on making live action movies based on animated tv series. And two very different ones. Chad Taylor is planning to make a live action adaptation of the Cartoon Networks series ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’, while Dawson Edwards is behind a project to turn into live action characters the classic animated series ‘Jonny Quest’. There’s no release date for these movies but both screenplays are already waiting for the green light at CMP’s offices.

CMP’s authors have always liked to show up on screen. Traditionally, many CMP’s screenwriters have made cameos in either their own movies or somebody else’s. Films like ‘You Can’t Do That In The Movies’ or ‘Celebutantes’ are good examples of that trend. Matt Kubrick even starred a movie, the last installment of the Darkman franchise, ‘Raise Of The Darkman’, in which Kubrick himself ended up killing the popular character he had created. Now, Chad Taylor will go another step further. Taylor is not only going to direct but also to play the lead character of a most peculiar artsy movie about a lonely man’s fantasies titled ‘Imagine’. The film will be in a 99% of its length a silent movie and, same way it happened with ‘Grow Old With Me’, the music of John Lennon might be heard in it. I know it sounds strange… just because it is a strange project.