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January 20, 2000

Source: Game Informer

Wow, things are getting pretty cool in the world of entertainment technology. Here comes word from the producer of the upcoming TOMB RAIDER movie, Lloyd Levin, that various "links" will exist between the movie, the video games and the future DVD of this film. What kind of "links", you may ask? Well, for one, several sets from the film have been scanned and digitized for implementation in future Tomb Raider games. Furthermore, codes will apparently be "hidden" in the movie, some of which will reveal secrets in the video game. And as if all that wasn't enough, some of the codes will also work on the DVD, to unlock special features. Nothing is apparently finalized on any of this, but the talk itself is pretty exciting. 
  

January 20, 2000

Source: Joey Baloney

The websites for THE ADVENTURES OF JOE DIRT (David Spade, Christopher Walken, Denis Miller...), SIMONE (Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Jay Mohr, Rebecca Romjin-Stamos...) and MONKEYBONE (Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, Rose McGowan...) have all gone up and at least two of the three prove to be pretty interesting visits. JOE DIRT and MONKEYBONE both have pretty dynamic sites with a lot of content and interesting things to occupy your time at work while you're slacking off. SIMONE offers really nothing but some teaser images and a tagline or two, but it is interesting to note their spelling of the film's title:  S1M0NE. Go check 'em out.
   

January 20, 2000

Source: New York Post

If reports coming out of Hollywood are true, producers are desperate to get on with BASIC INSTINCT 2, with a new female actress in the famous Catherine Trumbell role. Reports say that producers are so frustrated that Stone is
frightening away any kind of talent and they are wondering if she is worth all the money and the aggravation.  Recently, Harrison Ford and Kurt Russell both turned down the male lead. To their credit, both reps from MGM
and Sharon Stone's camp deny these reports.
  

January 20, 2000

Source: Aint it Cool News

In case you're not up to speed on MOULIN ROUGE, it's the latest from Baz Luhrmann, the director who brought you ROMEO & JULIET (not the one you watched in English class, the one with Leo and Claire). It's a period piece and a musical...wait, where are you going? It's not as bad as it sounds. Luhrmann's trying to do to musicals set in the 19th century what he did for Shakespeare. Spice it up a little bit. So this musical may be set in 1899 but it features music from today. It stars Ewan "Obi-Wan" McGregor and Nicole Kidman and take a gander below at some of the songs you can expect to hear come this May:

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, Like A Virgin, Addicted To Love, Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves, Roxanne
Heroes, Nature Boy, Children Of The Revolution, One Day I'll Fly Away, Love Is Like Oxygen, Your Song, Rhythm Of The Night, One More Night, Silly Love Songs, Pride (In The Name Of Love), Come What May, Chamma Chamma, Material Girl, Macho Man, Slave To The Rhythm, Physical, Diamond Dogs, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, All You Need Is Love, The Show Must Go On, Lady Marmalade, Don't Leave Me This Way, The Sound Of Music, I Will Always Love You, Don't Leave Me This Way, I Was Made For Loving You, and the Granddaddy of them all...Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Now that doesn't sound half bad does it?
   

January 19, 2000

Source: Joey Baloney

Woo-hoo, here's a pretty cool scoop. The cover art for Kevin Smith's CLERKS animated 2-Disc Uncensored Animated Series. It's hip, it's cool....it's Kevin Smith. All new episodes, Kevin Smith commentaries, DVD-ROM stuf... If you want to buy yourself a copy, click here

< Click pic to see bigger version >
            

January 19, 2000

Source: Aint it Cool News

Ain't It Cool scored a pretty neat promo poster for Michael Mann's ALI. It's not an official one-sheet or anything, but it's got a pretty cool picture of Will Smith throwing a punch on the front. Now, I hate Will Smith as much as the next guy, but I gotta admit, he really looks different. Here's hoping for a great movie. Check the poster out below.

< Click pic to see big version with more info at AICN >
            

January 19, 2000

Source: Variety

Variety reported Thursday that Steven Spielberg is working as fast as he can to finish editing A.I. so that he can begin production on MINORITY REPORT in March and have the project finished before the potential actor's/writer's strike. It just so happens that the star of REPORT, Tom Cruise, will finish up his involvement with Cameron Crowe's VANILLA SKY in March and will be free to begin working with Spielberg. Expect things to really start heating up in a month or two as casting gets underway. REPORT revolves around a cop in a future (Cruise) where police know who will commit a crime before they actually do so. But Tommy's brother (Matt Damon? Colin Farrell?) gets himself into a little hot water when police find he will commit a murder in the future. Can Tom stop him before it's too late??
           

January 19, 2000

Source: Dark Horizons

There's a really neat shot over at Dark Horizons of Leonardo DiCaprio in character for Martin Scorcese's epic, GANGS OF NEW YORK. It's neat only because you can't really tell that it's Leo underneath all of that facial hair
(baby's all grown up!) and costume dress. Check it out below.

< Click pic to see the larger version at DH >
            

January 19, 2000

Source: Coming Attractions

Man, you direct one sweeping, critically-acclaimed, martial-arts, romance saga and your name gets mentioned in conjunction with every film currently in development. Add HOUDINI to the list of possible projects on Ang "CROUCHING TIGER" Lee's list of potential follow-ups to his current hit. Directing HOUDINI would not preclude Lee from directing Universal's THE HULK as HULK has quite a bit of pre-production time before filming gets underway.
In that downtime, Lee could possibly fit this picture into his schedule, if he were so inclined. Will he? I don't know, but MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 is beginning to look less and less like a viable option for Lee.
          

January 19, 2000

Source: News Askew

More JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK casting news. David Duchovny is out and James Van Der Beek is in. Seems like a pretty crappy trade-off but I'll trust Kevin on this one. Duchovny told AICN that EVOLUTION was just running too long and he wouldn't be able to finish up with JAY AND SILENT BOB before the X-Files started again. He did say that we would love to work with Smith sometime in the future and he sounded generally upset by the situation. As for Dawson, I have no idea what that's all about. No word on what role he'll play either.
            

January 19, 2000

Source: Aint it Cool News

The upcoming Jim Carrey/Frank Darabont collaboration has changed its title from THE BIJOU to THE MAJESTIC.  This news comes after Darabont's earlier film, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, received heaps of criticism for its title, on which some blamed the film's poor box office performance. I think this is a pretty good title change. I don't love THE MAJESTIC, but it's better than THE BIJOU, that's for sure.

Read a script review for this film over at CHUD
            

January 18, 2000

Source: Movie Headlines

The major movie studios have revealed some of the movies that they plan on promoting during next Sunday's Super Bowl (go Giants!). Here is a listing of some of the commercials/trailers you can expect to see:

HANNIBAL
JURASSIC PARK III
LORD OF THE RINGS: Not specified by New Line, but this is most likely what they bought the prime time for
VALENTINE
PEARL HARBOR
THE MUMMY RETURNS
A KNIGHT'S TALE
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCEROR'S STONE
TOMB RAIDER

Also possible is a PLANET OF THE APES teaser, the AI teaser, OSMOSIS JONES, and Universal bought a third slot but they are not revealing which movie it is for (JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS?? AMERICAN PIE 2??). We will all have to tune in on the 28th to see (and to watch the Giants kick Raven ass!).
         

January 18, 2000

Source: USA Today

Despite the "now you see it, now you don't" disappearing act performed by Joe Berlinger's BLAIR WITCH 2: BOOK OF SHADOWS at your local cineplex, Artisan Entertainment is still planning on a third WITCH movie. The next
film will be a prequel, revolving around the origin of the Blair Witch legend, from the Witch herself to the Rustin Parr murders of the 1940s. Artisan head Amir Malin says he would like to take more time with directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez (who directed the first film) to ensure a higher quality film (his words, not mine) than BOOK OF SHADOWS. The studio hopes to get the film into theaters in 2002.
        

January 18, 2000

Source: Cinescape

Does anyone know why a project like this is having as many casting rumors as STAR WARS: EPISODE II? First, Sarah Michelle Gellar was in as Daphne for the live-action SCOOBY-DOO movie (actually, Jennifer Love Hewitt was in first...), then she was out, then she's in, then out and now in again? BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER producer Doug Petrie "confirmed" that Gellar has signed for Scooby while talking with a British fan site. This comes despite the rather catty comments Gellar made regarding the production to Seventeen magazine. This comes straight from the horse's mouth: "When doing a film such as Harvard Man, with that high of content and level, I doubt any actor would then stoop to do a Disney genre type movie. Freddie has signed on to it, but I haven't even looked over the script." And now that Gellar and Prinze have broken up as a real life couple, it probably doesn't bode well that they'll be working together anytime soon. We'll keep you posted as to any details.
           

January 18, 2000

Source: Daily News

It looks like Variety may have jumped the gun when it announced that a MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE movie was on the way. Series producer Linwood Boomer said that they were approached by Fox about doing a movie, but none of the details have been hammered out. Boomer was quoted in the New York Daily News as saying, "Really, it comes down to nothing is going to happen at all unless we come up with a terrific story that we couldn't do just for the series and then, once we do that, there's a million other obstacles." Doesn't exactly sound good for Malcolm. They'd have better luck waiting twenty years until the show is on Nick-at-Nite, then play on 2000 nostalgia and plan a movie version starring then current stars (i.e., CHARLIE'S ANGELS, THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE, MOD SQUAD).
          

January 17, 2000

Source: Movie Headlines

While talking with Premiere magazine, director Oliver Stone revealed that the film he shoots after BEYOND BORDERS will be his last. The director revealed that he has been working on his swan song for some time now and it looks to be like a big one. He was quoted as saying, "I want to write one movie where I write everything out and not worry about the consequences, and walk away. F**k it! Sunset time! You don't have to make movies all your life."
You mean that all this time he'd been worrying about consequences? If so, I can't wait to see what this movie will be like.

Incidentally, another cool little tidbit somewhat related to Oliver Stone was Sean Penn's appearance on the David Letterman show last night. When asked if he got along with the director with whom he shot U-TURN, Penn replied that he generally likes most animals but not "pigs". Yikes! You gotta respect Sean Penn on that front. The man tells it like it is (according to him).
       

January 17, 2000

Source: Popcorn

Director David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB) will jump from his current project, THE PANIC ROOM (starring Nicole Kidman and Jared Leto), directly into his next, the Morgan Freeman produced RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA. Producer Lori McCreary from Revelations Entertainment confirmed that Fincher would direct the film and stated that pre-production would begin in November as soon as filming for THE PANIC ROOM was complete. RAMA will be a photo-realistic CGI animated film about a mysterious ship that enters the Earth's atmosphere.
        

January 17, 2000

Source: Cinescape

Writer/Director M. Night Shymalan hasn't decided whether or not he wants to pen the fourth installment in the INDIANA JONES series, but his parents have said that he is close to making a decision. While talking with a local Indian newspaper, the parents remarked that M. was wary of writing a sequel because he likes to stay original in his works. If his parents' word is any indication, expect a decision to be reached by the end of this week.
        

January 17, 2000

Source: Variety

He was in, then he was out and now Variety confirms that Charlton Heston, WILL BE be making an appearance as an ape in Tim Burton's revisioning of PLANET OF THE APES. Producer Richard Zanuck was able to convince Heston to test out the make up process and see if he would enjoy playing a small part. The actor conceded and said he would as long as he was only needed for one day. The movie is due out this summer and a teaser could be seen as early as Super Bowl Sunday (go Giants!).
       

January 17, 2000

Source: Variety

Elliott Gould has just been added to the star-studded cast of the Steven Soderbergh/George Clooney crime flick OCEAN'S ELEVEN. The actor will play the role of Ruben Tischkoff, "the money guy who finances Danny Ocean's
casino heist." Producers are also in talks with original Rat Pack-er, Peter Lawford's son, Christopher, to join the cast in a minor role. The film goes before cameras in Atlantic City starting mid-February.
        

January 16, 2000

Source: Cinescape

Producers of the upcoming HANNIBAL are getting so excited about their movie that they're planning to remake the first movie in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, RED DRAGON. Anthony Hopkins has been offered $20 million to play a younger version of Hannibal in the movie which takes place before the events in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. The book RED DRAGON, written by Thomas Harris, was made into a disappointing movie called MANHUNTER by Michael Mann (HEAT) with another actor, Brian Cox, playing the part of Lecter. Producers now want to expand the character's role in the prequel and use a computer program called Erasure as a digital fountain of youth, to make Sir Hopkins appear a many years younger. You may remember this computer program as being integral to the making of the failed (?) GEMINI project in which a man is being hunted by a younger version of himself. All this RED DRAGON talk may very well depend on the performance of HANNIBAL which opens February 9th.
      

January 16, 2000

Source: Cinescape

CHUD posted a full picture of a model for the Spinosaur toy from JURASSIC PARK 3.  It doesn't look too menacing but it's not in the right proportions. When its head is poking in an airplane trying to eat Tea Leoni, it'll probably look much more frightening. Mmm...eating Tea Leoni (droooool...). Check it out below.

< Click pic to see more at CHUD >
     

January 16, 2000

Source: Digital Bits

Digital Bits has posted a list of DVDs that are supposedly in production and could be coming to a store near you in the next year or two. They list quite an impressive collection of titles including STAR WARS - THE PHANTOM MENACE, BACK TO THE FUTURE, ET, SCHINDLER'S LIST, FORREST GUMP and the Holy Grail (pun intended) of DVDs...The INDIANA JONES Trilogy, all slated for release in late 2001 or 2002. Hopefully they're right on with these possibilities, cause I'd love to see all of these puppies in DVD format (except FORREST GUMP...Blecch!).
       

January 15, 2000

Source: American Mule

Here courtesy of American Mule (that bizarre website that doesn't post often, but when it does, it's good shite!), are some amazing shots of all the different kinds of apes you'll see in this summer's PLANET OF THE APES! These pictures are quite an improvement from the ones posted previously and you can definitely tell the amount of development and the evolution.  By contrast, check out the two pics of the female - very different stuff.  Also included are two concept sketches of the human characters and their costumes.  We've also learned that their characters names in the picture are Leo (Mark Wahlberg) and Daenna (Estella Warren).  Check them out below and let the debates begin!!

< Click pics to see a whole slew more !! >
    

January 15, 2000

Source: Reuters

I wonder if BLESS THE CHILD and I DREAMED OF AFRICA had anything to do with this? Oh, all kidding aside, here's yet another Hollywood marriage gone sadly awry. Who's left? Arnold and Maria, Tom and Nicole...is that it? After seven years of marriage, one baby girl and apparent "irreconcilable differences", this celebrated couple filed for divorce. Basinger, 47, and Baldwin, 42, met on the set of the romantic comedy THE MARRYING MAN and got married themselves, on the 19th of August, 1993. They have one 5-year old daughter named Ireland. This is Basinger's second divorce, Baldwin's first.
   

January 15, 2000

Source: Aint it Cool News

First, the SPIDER-MAN costume comes out looking awesome and now, Will Smith, the man nobody believed could ever realistically step into the shoes of legendary boxing champion Muhammed Ali in the Michael Mann adaptation ALI, looks pretty darn good himself. Wow. Is that really Smith or an early pic of the real Ali? Either way, click on the pic to see a bigger and better version over at the scoopsters themselves, AICN. 

< Click pic to see it bigger and better at AICN >
      

January 15, 2000

Source: Psycomics

In his most recent weekly column at Psycomics, director Kevin Smith revealed that while David Duchovny's schedule prevented him from playing the role Smith had originally offered, Duchovny enjoyed the script so much he told the director he would jump on board for a smaller role. No word on what role the Fox, er, I mean David would play, but Smith said it would not interfere with Duchovny's commitment to the X-Files. A great cast that just keeps getting better.
   

January 15, 2000

Source: Cinema Confidential

Of course, you've already entered all of our Cool Movie Contests, right? You can win signed posters from Willem Dafoe, soundtracks, comic cooks and more SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE posters here. You can win a cool Dolce & Gabanna "Snatch" shirt, along with a soundtrack, posters, stickers and much more on SNATCH here. You can also win DVDs for both HOLLOW MAN here and BATTLEFIELD EARTH here, along with many other goodies.

And as if that wasn't enough, Cinema Confidential is also giving away plenty of cool free stuff for the slasher movie VALENTINE, which is coming out around Valentine's Day of this year. To enter the contest, click here or the pic below:

< Click to enter Valentine contest >
 

January 15, 2000

Source: Aint it Cool News

Current rumors have Jude Law (TALENTED MR. RIPLEY) close to signing a deal that would have him playing the title role in Christopher McQuarrie's epic tale ALEXANDER THE GREAT. So far, any information is just a rumor and there is no official deal yet, but this would seem to be a perfect bit of casting. Although I still feel that Law would've made a better Commodus than Joaquin Phoenix did.
      

January 15, 2000

Source: Hollywood Reporter

An action thriller starring Charlize Theron and Courtney Love, directed by the man who did MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE and WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN? Uhhhhmm.....okay! Well, that's the word on the street according to The Hollywood Reporter. Theron is apparently in final negotiations to co-star opposite Love in a film called 24 HOURS. The story is about a physician and his wife (Theron) who take matters into their own hands when their daughter is abducted by two experienced kidnappers -- one of whom would be played by Love -- with a seemingly foolproof plan.