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Monday, June 30, 2003
Katharine Hepburn, 1907 - 2003
Four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn, star of beloved films like Bringing Up Baby, The Lion In Winter, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, has died at the age of 96. She'll be missed.
Read the full story at BBC.co.uk.
posted by Christopher 7:06 AM | Comments
FoyWonder's News Roundup for June 30, 2003
Good morning, Mr. & Mrs. Fanboy and all the geeks at sea…let’s go to press!
First and foremost, three stories reported last week have apparently been revealed to be untrue. Ain’t It Cool News Harry Knowles says that he has been assured by a New Line Studio’s exec (I mistakenly said Warner Brother was developing it.) that The Rock/SHAZAM! rumor is just that. Also, Sharon Stone spoke with Access Hollywood recently and denied rumors she's been approached to play Hillary Clinton in the A&E movie, HILLARY’S CHOICE. And according to Superhero Hype, Jonathan Frakes has denied knowledge of having been given the directorial reigns on SUPERMAN. Oh, it seems one of those EPISODE 3 title choices should have been AN EMPIRE DIVIDED and not A REPUBLIC DIVIDED. That last one was my mistake. Oops.
Superhero Hype is also reporting that Brad Pitt is the frontrunner to play CAPTAIN AMERICA in a big-screen version. Personally, I think he’s way too old for the part but considering the last Cap rumor had Freddie Prinze Jr. playing the part I really shouldn’t complain. Direct-to-video action star Gary Daniels has also expressed interest in playing the patriotic superhero. Yeah, like that’s going to happen. Production will begin as soon as a lingering lawsuit with CAPTAIN AMERICA co-creator Joe Simon has been settled. Uh oh, that sort of thing kept SPIDER-MAN off the big screen for over a decade. I should also mention that Leonardo Di Caprio is the name being bounced about to play IRON MAN. Leo as Tony Stark? I’ll buy that for a dollar!
MGM, a studio absolutely desperate for a hit movie, is planning a remake of Rodney Dangerfield’s 1986 comedy hit BACK TO SCHOOL. Eighty-plus Dangerfield won’t star in the film but will serve as a producer and most likely make a cameo if health permits. In other news, nobody wants a remake of LADYBUGS. Or MEET WALLY SPARKS. Or ROVER DANGERFIELD either!
According to Variety, CHARLIE’S ANGELS screenwriter John August has been hired to write a new, megabudget movie version of TARZAN for Warner Brothers. Expect this Tarzan to be “more ferocious and wild, like Wolverine without the claws.” Oh joy! I’m sure somewhere out there Casper Van Dien weeps. I guess this also speaks volumes for how little time the WB expects their new modernized Tarzan and Jane TV series to last. Also, what do they mean screenwriter? Most of the time when a script undergoes a rewrite during shooting they will color code the pages so that people will know who wrote what and when. It’s been widely reported that the first CHARLIE’S ANGELS movie went through every color of the spectrum three times over! Seriously.
And talk about a major surprise at the box office this weekend. CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE, despite being (over)hyped on practically every major entertainment outfit, only pulled in $38 million, which is less than the $40 the original pulled in on it’s opening weekend. Considering the $120+ production cost, God knows how much in advertising costs, and the fact that most of the movie’s this summer just haven’t had much box office staying power, we could be looking at one of the summer’s biggest flops. However, the frontrunner for that prize may turn out to be THE HULK, which saw a 70% drop-off in business this past week. Ouch. It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on Hollywood’s obsession with making a big budget blockbuster out of every comic book superhero. One thing’s for sure, don’t expect to see anymore superhero movies in the future that attempt to have as much depth to it as HULK did.
Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson isn’t happy with the new live-action THUNDERBIRDS movie. Amongst his negative comments on the feature film he made to Dreamwatch magazine, "And then I saw Penelope's new car, which was published in the papers, and I thought it was a monstrosity! I thought if that's the kind of thing they're doing, how can I possibly support the picture? Could I lean against the car and have my picture taken and say, 'Isn't it terrific?' I couldn't do that." Ouch! Give the guy credit for being honest though.
God help us, but Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin have apparently settled on a storyline for ID4 2 or whatever the hell they are going to call it, which, as previously reported in this column months ago, will somehow use the events of 9/11 as inspiration. Bill “Not like I’m doing anything better!” Pullman will return as the wimpiest President in cinematic history along with the perpetually stammering Jeff Goldblum. Wisely, Will Smith won’t be back.
Dark Horizons is reporting a rumor that Artisan is considering a remake of CHOPPING MALL, the campy 1986 horror film about a group of teens being killed off by security droids in a mall overnight. Seeing as how Dark Horizons didn’t even list a source for this rumor I can’t help but to be highly skeptical. CHOPPING MALL is one of the only bright spots on Jim Wynorski’s directing career. Please don’t take that away from him, Artisan.
In a major surprise announcement, the Sci-Fi Channel has announced that GODZILLA X MEGAGUIRUS and GMK: GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH will make their American debuts on their network on August 31st. Preceding them that day will be a rerun of all three new MOTHRA movies. The marathon of badly dubbed modern kaiju movies being August 31st at 9am EST.
Also, on the evening of August 31st, the Sci-Fi Channel will present the world premiere of DEEP SHOCK, a movie I previously reported on. Just to refresh your memory: A group is sent in to investigate a distress call from a high-tech oil drilling facility below the Arctic Circle. They find that the hull has been ruptured and everyone inside is seemingly dead. Soon, they have to fight for survival against the creature responsible for the carnage – a giant electric eel! Yep, a giant eel with jaws of steel that can track prey via electrical signals. Just remember though, this movie is from UFO Films, the makers of EPOCH, DRAGON FIGHTER, PYTHON, and ANTIBODY so the odds of it even being an entertaining b movie are slim. Sadly, DEEP SHOCK will probably get more shilling on the network than either of the two Godzilla movies debuting that day.
Coming out on video/DVD tomorrow is GHOST RIG. From what little information there is on the flick, it’s a cheap knock-off of GHOST SHIP (Is that really a movie you’d want to emulate?) but set on an oilrig. Seems people on the rig are being possessed by a murderous, body-jumping entity. In other words, there really isn’t any reason to rush out to the video store tomorrow.
Finally today, let’s start the week with an incredibly stupid quote, shall we?
"It's not supposed to be 'In the Bedroom.' And movies the critics like, I don't understand. Sorry, I'm not that artsy. I loved 'Waterworld.'" -- Kelly Clarkson, on her new movie 'From Justin to Kelly.' In Touch, June 16, 2003
God bless her simple little mind. IN THE BEDROOM is basically DEATHWISH with an art house pedigree so what’s not to understand? Something tells me if you showed her a Kubrick film like 2001 it would cause her head to explode like a scene from SCANNERS.
–Scott Foy
posted by Christopher 6:52 AM | Comments
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