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As studios start vying for coveted release dates for their summer 2003 blockbusters, Columbia Pictures has announced its release schedule for next summer, starting with the Charlie's Angels sequel. Although the original June 27 release date remains unchanged, the Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu starrer has been renamed Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle--the original title being Charlie's Angels 2: Halo. Other studio release dates include Bad Boys 2 (July 18) and SWAT (Aug. 8). Columbia-based Revolution Studios is expected to provide four films, including Daddy Day Care(May 9), Anger Management (June 13), Gigli (July 11) and Hollywood Homicide (Aug 1), Variety reports.
Celebs
Action veteran Jackie Chan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, just 25 feet from the entrance to the Kodak Theater, The Associated Press reports. "To show my appreciation I will make better films," Chan said at the midday ceremony.Belgian film director Andre Delvaux died in Spain Friday after suffering a heart attack, the AP reports. He was 76. Delvaux was in Valencia where he had just given a speech about cinema at the World Arts Meeting. His films include Appointment in Bray, One Night...a Train and L'Oeuvre au noir (The Abyss).Movies
A group of survivors from Russia's first nuclear submarine disaster who watched a screening of the blockbuster K-19: The Widowmaker St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday were apparently as unimpressed as most U.S. moviegoers. "Only two things in the film are true," the craft's navigator Valentin Shabanov told Reuters. "The bottle of champagne did not break when the submarine was launched and yes, there was an accident with the reactor. The rest are tales from Uncle Sam." The sailors, however, gave high marks to the film for portraying the Soviet servicemen as heroes, a Hollywood first.Anticipation for director Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio, which opens on a record number of screens across Italy Friday, has reached a feverous pitch. One theater that had been closed for some 20 years even contacted the film's distributor and offered to reopen if it could screen the film. Pinocchio is the most widely read book in the country's history. Music
Blackground Records and Universal will release a posthumous album by two-time Grammy nominee Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in Aug. 2001. The as-yet-untitled work will include an undetermined number of new Aaliyah songs recorded before her death as well as old hits such as "Try Again." According to AP, the album is due out in November.It looks as though film studios and record labels are starting to question the high cost and relevance of movie soundtracks. According to The Hollywood Reporter, an average of 25 to 30 movie soundtracks were certified gold or better by the RIAA from 1996-99, compared to 10 only 10 to 15 soundtracks since 2000. The soundtracks that do sell tend to be successful are those where music is an integral part of the film's storytelling, such as the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? Looks like the days of studios licensing a song by a major act for--in some cases--up to a $1 million may be over.