Sarah Jessica Parker butters herself up
You’d think with a tease like that, I might be talking about a new Sex and the City movie. But no. Parker is set to star in and produce Spinning Into Butter, an indie adaptation of Rebecca Gilman’s play. Parker will play the dean of students at a New England college who is thrust into the investigation of a racial hate crime. She’s forced to confront her own feelings about race and her administration’s desire to maintain a politically correct posture. Well now. That is indeed a complete departure from the cosmopolitan Carrie Bradshaw, isn’t it? A word of warning, Sarah: just remember how silly Julia Roberts looked trying to be a cool school marm at an uptight university in Mona Lisa Smile.
Eastwood gathers his troops
Just when we thought no one could top Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan as the pinnacle of stirring WWII flicks, Clint Eastwood is getting into the game, betting he can make us cringe and weep all over again. The director has begun assembling his troops for Flags of Our Fathers–good lord, with a title like that, he’s getting close–and has recruited Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach and Jesse Bradford in his World War II epic. The movie is based on James Bradley’s book Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima and was adapted by Paul Haggis, who recently worked with Eastwood on the Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby (new on DVD this week). The Battle of Iwo Jima, which took place in the winter of 1945, was a turning point in the Pacific. In one month, 22,000 Japanese and 26,000 Americans died, and the battle produced one of World War II’s most enduring images: a photograph of U.S. servicemen raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island’s commanding high point. One of the six soldiers was Navy corpsman John Bradley, who never mentioned his experiences to his family. It was only after his death in 1994 that his son James discovered his father’s history and wrote the book. Phillippe (Crash) will play Bradley, while Bradford (Swimfan) plays Rene Gagnon, a ladies’ man who is one of the flag raisers. Beach (Windtalkers) portrays Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who copes with the war experiences by drinking himself to death, inspiring a popular folk tune by Peter LaFarge. Oh yeah, there isn’t going to be a dry eye in the place. But it may be tough to erase the immortal John Wayne classic Sands of Iwo Jima from our minds.
Sept. 11 finally gets a big-screen treatment
With the latest rash of terror attacks in London fresh in our minds, Hollywood seems ready to finally tell the tale of Sept. 11. Oh goody, just what we need. Paramount Pictures will finance and distribute an untitled feature about the rescue of two Port Authority police officers from the rubble of the World Trade Center, with Oliver Stone at the helm and Nicolas Cage attached to star. The project will focus on a much smaller story from the fateful day. Cage will portray one of the two Port Authority police officers, Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, who were among the many rescuers who risked their lives by rushing into the smoking buildings; the duo were among the very few who survived the fall of the towers, thanks to the frantic rescue efforts of other rescuers who pulled them from the rubble before their oxygen ran out. Looks like we are in for more of that Stone-like intensity.
Gladiator 2?
So what if Russell Crowe‘s character got killed off at the end of the Oscar-winning movie Gladiator. There could still be a sequel, at least that’s what Crowe‘s co-star, Djimon Hounsou, told Variety. Crowe won a Best Actor statuette for his role as a Roman general who is betrayed by a jealous prince and returns to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge. Oscar-nominee Hounsou (In America) played an African slave who fights alongside him in the Colosseum. Speaking in New York to promote his latest film The Island, Hounsou said there is “definitely the desire is to do a sequel” to Gladiator. He acknowledged it would be hard for Crowe to return as Maximus given his dramatic death at the end of the first film–um, duh–but he said producers were still working on the script and casting decisions. “They’re not happy about what they have for now, so they’re still working on it. It’s still in development,” said Hounsou, adding that he expects to reprise his role as Juba. “I would probably be in the center of it as one of the leads,” he said. Even if Gladiator producers were tempted to recall Crowe through a flashback or some other plot device, Hounsou admitted there could be other obstacles. How about coming up with a good reason in doing a bloody sequel to begin with?
Sequelitis also hits Sony Pictures
Apparently, Hollow Man 2, Road House 2: Last Call and I Know What You Did Last Summer 3 are in various stages of development at the studio. God, please make it stop. According to the Hollywood Reporter, it has not been determined whether the projects will be released theatrically or become direct-to-DVD releases–or maybe just go away all together. Hollow Man 2 revolves around a Seattle detective and a biologist who are on the run from a dangerous invisible assassin gone rogue as well as the government forces that created him. The 2000 original starred Kevin Bacon who also turns invisible and goes mad. Guess invisibility injected in your veins can do that. I Know What You Did Last Summer 3 focuses on new characters who didn’t appear in the first two movies, which came out in 1997 and 1998. It revolves around four teens in a Colorado town who are menaced by an assailant a year after a Fourth of July prank turns deadly. Ah, nice. And finally–and most incredibly–Road House 2, which centers on a graduate student who must run his uncle’s bar and fight to maintain control as a local crime boss tries to take it over. Why, oh why?
Sunset gets a musical update
Why are all these movies being turned into Broadway musicals, only to be turned back into feature films again as musicals? It’s weird. First, we have The Producers and now Ewan McGregor and Glenn Close are set to star in a $57 million movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Sunset Blvd. According to World Entertainment News Network, Close is thrilled to be returning to the role of Norma Desmond, which she played in the award-winning Broadway run of the show in 1993. The musical is based on director Billy Wilder‘s Oscar-winning original 1950 film about a fading silent movie star, played by Gloria Swanson, who seduces and ultimately destroys a fledgling writer, played by William Holden. Co-producer Austin Shaw told WENN, “Andrew would love Glenn to do the role and she has been approached. The pair have spoken about it privately at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony and she said she would be happy to take it on again. It should be out in time for Christmas 2006.” Oh boy!
Tomei twists in psychological thriller
Craig Bierko, who played boxer Max Baer in Cinderella Man and Regina Hall from The Honeymooners are joining Marisa Tomei in the psychological mind-bender Danika. Tomei plays the title character, a woman whose fears for her children are manifested in premonitions of death and disaster. Bierko plays Tomei‘s husband, while Hall is her psychiatrist. Hmmm, sounds suspiciously like Julianne Moore‘s The Forgotten. At least, one can only hope aliens are somehow involved. Or maybe ghosts. Anything supernatural, actually. Because on its own, its sounds dull and overdone.
Until next week…
