Kit Bowen's Weekly Role Call, Aug. 20
By Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com Staff
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Friday, August 20, 2004
Duo most in need of a make-over... |
Freddy vs. Jason vs.--Ash?
The resurrection of tired movie monster franchises continues its meteoric rise. First, it was Freddy vs. Jason, then Alien vs. Predator and now back to Freddy vs. Jason with a new foe added, Ash--not to be confused, of course, with that pesky Pokemon-slingin' kid but the cynical antihero survivor of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy. New Line Cinema began plotting a new face-off for its horror favorites, Freddy Krueger (from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series) and Jason Voorhees (from the Friday the 13th series) after last year's film did well at the box office. The studio began negotiations with director-producer Raimi for the proposed sequel, in which Freddy and Jason would go up against Ash. Raimi will direct, with Bruce Campbell, who played the character in the trilogy, set to play him again if the deal were to close. Let's get them all together, I say--Alien, Predator, Freddy, Jason, Dracula, Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, just one big giant monster mash. C'mon! It'll be brilliant!
Fur may fly
Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Morton, currently starring in the futuristic indie Code 46, is in negotiations to star in a biopic titled Fur about influential yet rather strange photographer Diane Arbus. Considered one of the greatest American photographers of the 20th century, Arbus was known for her often disturbing and bizarre images of everyday people. She committed suicide in 1971. The biopic will be directed by Steven Shainberg (Secretary), who is an avid collector of American photography. The screenplay, from Secretary scribe Erin Cressida Wilson, will be based on Patricia Bosworth's book Diane Arbus: A Biography.
Calista's Fragile
No kidding--have you seen how thin she is? After taking a break when her Fox show Ally McBeal went off the air, raising her adoptive son and spending time with beau Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart is heading back to the big screen, starring in Fragile, a Spanish indie film shooting in Barcelona. The actress will play a nurse who takes a new job at a desolate children's hospital during its closing days. She struggles to keep the kids safe and uncover the mystery behind apparent attacks of an unknown origin that hurt the kids so that they cannot leave the premises. Huh? A Spanish film about kids getting hurt from an unknown origin? That's such an odd choice for an actress known for being a neurotic lawyer who imagines she's dancing with weird babies.
CGI penguins go surfing
Ash Brannon and Chris Buck are set to co-direct Surf's Up, Sony Pictures Animation's latest addition to its feature slate. The CGI mockumentary will be a clever riff on the cult-surfing film Endless Summer with one catch--it'll star penguins and will be based on the groundbreaking revelation that surfing was actually invented by water fowl. In it, a crew will take audiences behind the scenes of the most competitive, heartbreaking and dangerous display of surfing known: the Penguin World Surfing Championship. Chris Jenkins is producing, with surf apparel giant Quiksilver on board to serve as a creative consultant. I'm belly laughing already.
Video game BloodRayne comes to the big screen
Michelle Rodriguez and Michael Madsen have joined Kristanna Loken in BloodRayne, an indie film based on the popular video game of the same name. Loken (Terminator 3) plays the title role, a sexy supernatural huntress who hunts down and eliminates supernatural threats around the globe for a secret society called Brimstone. Cool. Rodriguez (S.W.A.T.) will play Katarin, who runs the local Brimstone Society chapter, while Madsen (Kill Bill) is set for the role of Vladimir, one of the greatest vampire hunters.
Until next week…
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