HOLLYWOOD - Oh no, George Clooney couldn't possibly be cruel. One just has to look into those soulful eyes to know he's one of the good ones. That's the truth, isn't it? Actually, the title refers to the next film Clooney may do, called Intolerable Cruelty, with Joel and Ethan Coen, his compadres from O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Clooney would play a divorce lawyer who finds himself the target of revenge by a client's ex-wife. Of course, the inevitable romance ensues.
Rumor has it that Universal is trying to sign Julia Roberts to star with him. Hmmm, that's very curious. Clooney and Roberts have been awfully chummy since making Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven. Oh well, good for them.
The film has been labeled as a black comedy. But when have the Coen brothers ever made a "white" comedy? It's getting redundant to keep labeling their films as black comedies, don't you think? We all know what we are in for when we walk into one of their movies.
Starsky and Hutch rule!
Starsky and Hutch is the latest television show to be made into a movie, with Ben Stiller, of all people, attached to star. Even though I am getting really tired of Hollywood making bad '70s TV shows into movies, I just loved Starsky and Hutch when it was on the air. Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul totally rocked as the hot crime fighting duo driving around in a cool red 1974 Ford Torino with a big white stripe (Starsky's, of course). They were just too damn cute and had great chemistry. But the film version already sounds bad--Ben Stiller? He's supposed to be Starsky? I don't think that's gonna work, folks. Maybe they'll try and get Owen Wilson to play Hutch. The real question is, who are they going to get to play Huggy Bear, the skinny street informant with the great pimp hats?
Watts in "Plots"
Actress Naomi Watts, hot off her brilliant turn in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, will star opposite Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina and Christopher Walken in Miramax's Plots With a View. The story centers on two competing funeral parlors in a small U.K. town. I guess funeral parlors are now the "in" thing since HBO's Six Feet Under made such a huge impact. This will probably be one of those smaller independent films not many people will get to see but will get lots of critical praise. Watts is an interesting actress, though, and is absolutely wonderful in Mulholland Drive.
Driver zooms to "New Cardiff"
Quirky actress Minnie Driver is set to headline with Colin Firth and Heather Graham in Buena Vista's New Cardiff. Based on Charles Webb's novel of the same name, the story is about a British man (Firth) who is dumped by his fiancée (Driver) and is then introduced to an American girl (Graham). Sparks fly between the two, but things go awry when the fiancée shows up looking for him.
Okay, what's different and unique about this movie? Good lord, they keep making the same general movies over and over again and we continue to flock to them. In all fairness to the talent, maybe they can make something of the script and turn it into a great character piece--but I have my doubts.
Kattan receives next call
Chris Kattan's Corky Romano has just been released in the theaters and already he's got a second pitch going to bat at Disney Studios. The studio brass are pleased with the tracking results (the tracking results?) of Corky and are looking to do another comedy with the SNL comedian. The current pitch has Kattan starring as a figure skater who ends up playing for a losing NHL hockey team and, through a series of wacky circumstances, helps turn the team around. Ah, but here comes the soft underbelly of the story--at the same time, the skater must mend an unresolved relationship with his father, an old, crusty, retired hockey player who's upset that his son never followed in his footsteps. How sweet. Well, more power to Kattan, I say. Having seen Corky Romano, I actually think he has potential as a leading man. He just has to get past the silly stuff.