Cool News
Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP
Father Geek here with Elston's weekend edition of all the Hollywood news from the past week, however, the BIG news this weekend is that ATTACK OF THE CLONES doesn't stink, in fact it is quite good, thrilling even. Yes ol' Father Geek was the only other person with Harry in that seedy hotel room on the edge of what used to be Austin's warehouse district late this afternoon when the not-too rough cut was shown to us by a(some) mole(s) burrowed deep into the northern California mountains. He/She/It/They let us see the print/disc/tape once, we do not have a copy. In fact He/She/It/They had to return the print/disc/tape we saw to someone/place today. Its beautiful, action packed, and a delight. Fear not geeks you will be thrilled at this one. Read Harry's review for more, or come to Harry's LA book signing if you're in the area. It will be at BOOK SOUP Tuesday evening. Now on to Elston and...
The WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER...
CASTING
The WEEKLY RECAP...
TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER...
CASTING
CASTING
* Frankie Muniz ("Malcolm in the Middle," BIG FAT LIAR) is in talks to star
in MGM's AGENT CODY BANKS about a teen who is recruited by the U.S.
government for covert missions requiring youth-sized participants.
Production begins June 1.
* Rachel McAdams joins Rob Schneider as a spirited high school student who wakes up one morning to find her body
transformed into that of a 30-year-old man. Tom Brady is directing from a
script he co-wrote with Schneider for Happy Madison Productions.
* Harrison Ford will star in an Intermedia Films project about the heroic
life and tragic death of humanitarian worker Fred Cuny. Alejandro Gonzales
Inarritu (AMORES PERROS) is in talks to develop the pic. William Nicholson
(GLADIATOR) is writing the script based on Cuny's life rights as well as
David Fanning's "Frontline" documentary, "The Lost American." Intermedia is
hoping for a spring
2003 production start.
* Neal McDonough ("Band of Brothers") joins the cast of TIMELINE for
Paramount and director Richard Donner. Paul Walker, Gerard Butler and
Frances O'Connor also star.
* Denis Leary and Robin Tunney have joined Hope Davis and Campbell Scott in
the cast of Alan Rudolph's indie pic THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS, based on
the novella by Jane Smiley, for Holedigger Films.
* Stephen Dorff will star opposite Ben Kingsley in the indie crime drama ALL
FOR NOTHIN' for director Predrag "Gaga" Antonijevic. Production begins in
April in south Florida. It's based on the true story of telecommunications
pioneer Walter L. Shaw and his son Walter T. Shaw, the confessed "Dinner
Time Burglar."
* Sarah Polley and Mark Ruffalo are in talks to star in MY LIFE WITHOUT ME,
about a terminally ill trailer-park mother who decides to live life to the
fullest along with her husband and two little girls without telling anyone
that she is dying. Isabel Coixet (THINGS I NEVER TOLD YOU) will direct from
her adaptation of Nanci Kincaid's short story "Pretending the Bed Is a
Raft." Amanda Plummer, Alfred Molina, Deborah Harry and Maria De Medeiros
will also star.
* Jeremy Davies joins the cast of SOLARIS for director Steven Soderbergh and
20th Century Fox. Shooting begins April 29 for a Dec. 13 release. George
Clooney and Natascha McElhone star.
* Newcomer Omar Benson Miller will star as the title characer in 20th
Century Fox/Davis Entertainment's live-action pic FAT ALBERT for director
Forest Whitaker. Production begins next month in L.A. and Philadelphia.
The project follows Fat Albert and friends, who come to life when they walk
out of the cartoon and into the real world. Bill Cosby and Charles Kipps
wrote the original draft of the script.
* Viggo Mortensen is in talks to star in BORGIA for Myriad Pictures,
Imagemovers and director Neil Jordan. Shooting is aiming for a summer
start. It's about the corrupt 15th century Borgia family that includes
siblings Lucretia and Cesare and their father Roderigo, who went on to
become Pope Alexander VI and ran the 16th century Vatican as a crime
syndicate. Mortensen would play Cesare.
* Jon Voight will join Sigourney Weaver in HOLES, based on the book by Louis
Sachar, for director Andrew Davis. It's about a young boy punished for a
crime that he did not commit. Under the watch of the warden, the boy and
his fellow detainees are forced to dig holes in order to "build character."
The boys soon find out that they are actually being tricked into unearthing
a secret buried treasure.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed on to star in and produce the remake of
WESTWORLD, the Michael Crichton sci-fi action thriller, as well as his role
in the new CONAN THE BARBARIAN project for John Milius.
* Albert Brooks is set to join Michael Douglas in TILL DEATH DO US PART, a
remake of the 1979 comedy THE IN-LAWS for Warner Bros. Andy Fleming (DICK)
will direct.
* Bebe Neuwirth joins the cast of LE DIVORCE for Fox Searchlight, director
James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. Shooting is underway in Paris.
Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stockard Channing, Sam Waterston,
Matthew Modine, Stephen Fry, Leslie Caron, Thierry Lhermitte, Romain Duris,
Melvil Poupaud, Jean-Marc Barr and Lambert Wilson star.
* Maggie Gyllenhaal (40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS) joins John Sayles' CASA DE LOS
BABYS as well as Lodge Kerrigan's IN GOD'S HANDS.
* Daryl Hannah is set and Lucy Liu is in talks to join Quentin Tarantino's
KILL BILL for Miramax Films. Uma Thurman, Warren Beatty and Michael Madsen
star.DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS
* Columbia Pictures has picked up an untitled thriller pitch by writer Dario
Scardapane that Mutual Films will produce. It focuses on former FBI agents
who work as free-lance security consultants. The consultants hook up with
the bureau's bank robbery unit to track down an elusive and murderous master
thief.
* Writer-director Richard Kelly (DONNIE DARKO) will rewrite and helm the
thriller KNOWING for Columbia Pictures and Escape Artists. It's about a man
who digs up a time capsule that was buried in the 1950s with children's
drawings predicting the future. One child's drawings predicted several
horrible events that have already come true; however, one of those events
has not yet occurred.
* Milo Addica (MONSTER'S BALL) will write an untitled revenge thriller for
Warner Bros. and Section Eight that's being developing as a directing
vehicle for Don Cheadle. The project, based on an original idea by Steven
Soderbergh, is about a man who takes the fall for a crime and goes to jail.
Upon his release, he seeks revenge on those who framed him. Soderbergh and
George Clooney will produce.
* MGM has purchased Pablo Fenjvez's thriller script MAN ON A LEDGE for
producer Gavin Polone about a man who checks into a Manhattan hotel,
apparently to commit suicide. However, as the police move in and shut down
the block it turns out he's really running a jewelry store heist across the
street.
* Geoff Rodkey sold his comedy script DADDY DAY CARE to 20th Century Fox's
for Davis Entertainment to produce. It's about a father who loses his job
and turns his house into a day care in order to make ends meet.
* Nicolas Winding Refn (PUSHER) is directing FEAR X, starring John Turturro,
Deborah Unger and James Remar. Winding Refn and Hubert Selby Jr. wrote the
project about a man, haunted by visions, searching for the truth behind his
wife's murder.
* Kevin Bray (ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS) has come aboard to develop and direct
an English-language remake of the 1998 French pic TAXI for 20th Century Fox.
* Disney has picked up CAMP WOODWARD, an X Games-themed pitch from Craig
Zadan and Neil Meron's Storyline Entertainment. David Rothenberg will write
the script set at an X Games summer camp.
* Spike Jonze may soon be in negotiations to direct MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA,
based on the novel by Arthur Golden, for Columbia Pictures and Red Wagon
Entertainment.
* Gerald DiPego and sons Justin and Zachary will write THE OUTER LIMITS, a
feature based on the long-running sci fi TV series, for MGM.
* Sony's Screen Gems has snapped up the thriller script STREAMING EVIL,
written by Robert Fyvolent and Mark R. Brinker, about a serial killer with a
Web site that graphically displays his murders and the FBI investigator on
the case.
* John Wells Prods. has acquired writer Dana Glazer's untitled pitch based
on the life of Civil War hero and college professor Joshua Chamberlain, with
Mimi Leder attached to direct and produce. The project will follow focus on
Chamberlain, who was a professor at Bowdoin College in Maine and is
recognized by some scholars for helping to turn around the fortunes of the
Union, leading a charge at the Battle of Little Round Top. He also is
remembered for leading the Army of Northern Virginia to surrender at
Appomattox, Va.
* Charles Herman-Wurmfeld (KISSING JESSICA STEIN) will direct THE YES MAN,
written by Noah Hawley, for Wind Dancer Films. It's about a man on a
fast-track to nowhere whose life takes a strange turn when he decides to
stop making decisions and says yes to everything.
* Misher Films has hired writers Peter Speakman and Michael Galvin to pen
DUCK IN HIGH HEELS, a sports comedy about two men who vie for the last spot
on the Olympic team and the love of a woman in the world of competitive
racewalking
* Nickelodeon Movies and Gary Ross are developing IMAGINARY FRIEND, to be
written by Anne Spielberg (BIG), about a boy whose imaginary friend takes
him out of the real world and into his: an animated universe of a child's
imagination.
* Columbia Pictures and Scottish filmmaker Susan Montford are developing
SPEED TRIBES, a remake of the cult film HELL'S ANGELS '69 about two brothers
who join the Hell's Angels before a Vegas casino robbery, only to fall prey
to them. Peter Dowling will write the script.
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS
* Radar Pictures has both optioned Poul Anderson's BRAIN WAVE, about a
phenomenon that drastically increases the intelligence of all life forms on
earth, and William Tenn's horror film CHILD'S PLAY, about a man mistakenly
receiving a Christmas gift from 500 years in the future.
* Paramount and producer Alan Ladd Jr. have optioned the Dennis Lehane novel
GONE, BABY, GONE and will develop the drama as a potential franchise for Ben
Affleck. The story revolves around an unlikely pair of Boston private eyes
Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.
* 20th Century Fox has grabbed the feature film rights to the Japanese anime
property DRAGONBALL for Fox 2000 to develop into a live-action franchise.
Created by Japanese writer Akira Toriyama, the franchise has followed an
epic story between good and evil, centering on the character Goku and his
friends who battle for the Earth against the deadly forces of the Saiyans.
Their best chance for survival rests with the Namekian DragonBalls, which
give them the power to summon a mighty dragon.
* Producer Larry Kasanoff (MORTAL KOMBAT) has purchased all remake rights to
the Japanese 1994 anime blockbuster NINJA SCROLL for a possible live-action
feature. It's a samurai sword-and-sorcery epic about a masterless ninja for
hire who joins forces with a powerful female ninja after her team is
destroyed by a man-monster.
* Warner Bros. and Outlaw Prods. are in talks to make a TRAINING DAY sequel,
with Ethan Hawke in negotiations to reprise his role.
* Miramax Films has purchased the English-language remake rights to Italian
director Ettore Scola's 1974 comedy-drama C'ERAVAMO TANTO AMATI (WE ALL
LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH). Gabriele Muccino will direct the project from a
script he's written with Mike Weller, which sets the story in New York.
* New Line Cinema has picked up the rights to Rebecca Reisert's novel THE
THIRD WITCH, a retelling of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" through the eyes
of one of the story's legendary witches.
Until next week....
Elston Gunn
elstongunn@hotmail.com
elstongunn@hotmail.com
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+ Expand All
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It should look good, what with how "Shaolin Soccer" and "zu Warriors" looks.
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and shouldn't the Macbeth thing be thru the EYE (singular)?
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As much as I am a Bruck&Bay fan the idea of them recycling the first scares me. The only thing that saved the awful script and bad performances was M.B's visual flair lessons. There were some stuff that he overdid but the shot wher Lawrence fell off the cab and Smith saved them then get up as the camera slowly circles them was neat and the entire airport car chase was awsome. Though the rest was junk. I think Bay should be making a Rock 2 instead. And when the hell is Brucheimer teaming up with John Woo? For Wrestlemania, no surprises, no big angle movements. Fuck. BTW here is my top five directors: 1) John Woo 2) M. Bay 3) Tony Scott 4) Dave Fincher and 5) Brian Depalma
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Was it the Macbeth girls who only had one eye between them?? I thought that was some fantasy movie (Krull?)
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I like lists. Here's mine...1) Kurosawa Akira 2)Ang Lee 3)Takeshi Kitano 4)Tarantino 5)John Woo. In no particular order. Although if we discount dead guys then it'd be 1)Takeshi Kitano 2)Ang Lee 3)Tarantino 4)Miike Takashi 5)Wong Kar-Wai.
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Spike Jonze is gonna do Memoirs of a Geisha??? WTF? O.K, if the Rush Hour guy can do Red Dragon and Michael Bay can do Chainsaw Massacre then anything's possible. Not that think Jonze is a talentless like the other two or anything, but I thought he preferred dark surreal stuff.
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I pressed reload and the Talkbacks reversed themselves. I'm not first anymore. AAARRRGGHH! My life is over, immediate Seppuku is called for.
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Mar 18, 2002 2:57:41 AM CST
I think Spike Jonze could really do something great with Geisha.
by lenny nero
Just because he did Malkovich doesn't mean he can't do a heartfelt drama that chronicles a life. Spielberg, while a good choice, would have made a landscape movie. Jonze could very well make an astonishing character study. The book is amazing, and I think would translate extremely well to film.
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Oh no, my mistake. My post was just deleted because it included a negative statement about Dragonball Z. Well darn, if I can't post my opinions then what's the point in the Talkback? It's not that I think Dragonball Z couldn't work as live action (judging from Shaolin Soccer and the end of Dark City) it's just that in the hands of a big hollywood studio I'm pretty sure the end result (no matter how interesting) just wouldn't be Dragonball anymore. It'd be chaps who shoot fireballs (and I bet they don't have proper hair either). That said, I'll wait and see.
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Of course, I was always against Speilburg doing the film, because you know he'd include hundreds of sweeping shots of Kyoto (on the biggest reconstructed-historical-city set ever at a cost of $x,000,000,000). And he'd make the WW2 section go on too long, and it would certainly be an overly moralizing story about how evil Japanese pre-war society was. I'm sure Jonze is capable of pulling off something a bit more 'human' and closer to the book than Speilburg could manage nowadays.
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yes thats the only reason I am posting...
oh and to say AOTC is going to rule
like ive been saying
I believe harry and gunn DID see it like they said
Just because you dont have the connections harry does doesnt mean you shouldnt believe him -
Mar 18, 2002 5:56:58 AM CST
Wow! For the first time I read this whole thing without vomiting
by cash bailey
I may need to read it again, but I think there was actually some good ideas in there. As much as Jeremy Davies shits me, the more SOLARIS news we can get, the better.
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Apparently he was just about to start it and produced extensive notes about it's design and tone. get someone really good to follow them to the letter. Hell, it'd HAVE to turn out better that A.I.
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anybody see this show lately? is it me or has ebert lost all movement on the right side of his face? just wondering
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Believe it or not, Sony did consider making such a monster, back in the early Nineties. The cost would have been something like $300M in 1990s dollars. It was understandably nixed.
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Kurosawa's prostitutes are being produced as we speak. I believe it's the same folks who made Ame Agaru (his other just-about-to-start project). Now, whatever happened to that script he wrote for a remake of Masque of the Red Death?
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The fantasy film you're thinking of, with the three witches sharing one eye, was "Clash of the Titans." sk
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actually i am not too excited about another Spike Jonze movie, especially if it is a mainstream one like Memoirs of a Geisha. Spike Jonze should always remain off-beat, like a Cronenberg or a Lynch. This big movie coming too early in his career might ruin his freshness. I think he should continue to make around 2 or 3 off-beat movies before he goes mainstream. So he made Being John, Adaptation, he should make one more and then go mainstream.
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HEEL-TO-TOE - Tom Cruise is a brash hot-shot rookie in the no-holds-barred world of professional Racewalking. Rupert Everett plays the evil current champion, James "Mosey" Forbleau. PASS THE PERIWINKLE - a detective must prevent a serious tragedy from happening after a time capsule containing 4 crayola-ed visions of the future in which the first 3 have come true. The final vision involves a giant oreo cookie crushing a house containing a dog that is saying 'arf'. ***** on a more serious note, didn't "Hercules" (Disney version) contain the eyeball-sharing witches also? ***
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Mar 18, 2002 3:35:34 PM CST
Not Buzz Maverick's Weekly Recap, but OVERACTIVE LUNATIC FAN
by kingkrypton
Yet another WKK1978 Hollywood News Update!---Warner Bros. has given the green light to the Jon Peters/Jerry Bruckheimer action flick CYBORG VIXEN COMMANDO, about a female welder-turned-stripper-turned interpretive ballet dancer (Jennifer Garner) who, after a breast enlargement gone horribly wrong, is rebuilt as a half-human, half-machine, all-sexy engine of righteous destruction dressed in nothing but scanty cybernetic lingerie who wages war against Islamic extremists and infuriates them with the open display of her body! Oh, yeah, and when she
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Durhay makes fun of the idea of the film involving the unearthing of a time capsule, with unexpected results. I think it souns kind of interesting, if done right. As long as it doesn't turn into (shudder)FREQUENCY II. And as for hamster79's observation about Ebert, yes, it would appear he has suffered a mild stroke. I worked in a hospital and several nursing homes as a student and all of my family are medical people, and I think I can spot a stroke when I see one. That Roeper guy should suffer a major stroke! He is worthless!
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I think Spike will do an amazing job, just like he does with every other project he's done. He's already done plenty of "mainstream" projects, i.e. commercials for Nike, Levi's, etc., as well as many videos for some pretty popular bands/musicians, even ones as dorky as Puff Daddy. Not that he has to prove himself to the indie crowd, as he can do anything he likes, but I just think it's kind of odd to try and dictate how the man runs his career.
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That Kill Bill news is as old as my underwear...Jonze doing Memoirs of a Geisha? I believe it when I see it, but it will be interesting to see his next film and see if the real genius behind Malkovich was Jonze or screenwriter Charlie Kaufmann (personally I believe the latter)...Westworld remake? Give me a break...Training Day 2? REALLY give me a break. Denzel shouldn't come anywhere near that, although I would love to see him play a couple more immoral bastards before his career is over and done with. He is quite good at it.
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TAKEN FROM THE WORK OF OTHERS...Current "it-girl" Jennifer Garner will play Jane Fonda in Frank Oz's comedy HANOI JANE, from a screenplay by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The Fox production depicts Jane's travel woes -- from lost luggage to a pilot on acid-- as she journeys into Vietnam to consort with the enemy in the 1960s. Jane is depicted as vapid eye candy who takes on the point of view of her current man, in this case, French leftie director Roger Vadim (Jean Reno). Jared Leto will play Peter Fonda; Halle Kate Eisenberg will play Bridget Fonda; Kevin Costner will play Henry Fonda; Jack Black will play Abbie "Fuckin'" Hoffman; Noriyuki "Pat" Morita will play Ho Chi Minh; and Marget Cho will play Jane's starstruck lesbian interpreter...John Hughes reclaims his writer/director title with Walt Disney's DADDY IN THE WINDOW. Jonathan Lipniki plays a vengeful tyke who drugs his deadbeat dad (Ben Affleck) with GBH and sells him to a couple of aging bondage boys (Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford)...New Line will release DIFFICULT, directed by Tony Kaye working from a screenplay by Robert Towne. The Scott Rudin production stars Mickey Rourke, Debra Winger, Val Kilmer and Juliette Lewis, with Jack Palance in a cameo...Jim Carrey will star in director Hoyt Mendelbaum's HALFWAY DECENT for Columbia. Carrey will play a 40 year old guy who would like to have sex with a 22 year old with a pierced tongue and navel ring (Meena Suvari) but decides to settle for any halfway decent female (Lisa Kudrow)... Michael Bay's Kaboom Films will produce a remake of the 1957 Roger Corman film THE ASTONISHING RADIOACTIVE GINORMOUS. Anthony Minghell had signed to direct with Jeff Bridges in talks to star. Christopher McQuarrie is currently rewriting the Tom Stoppard screenplay...see you as the Oscars.
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Mar 18, 2002 7:51:28 PM CST
He also is remembered for leading the Army of Northern Virginia
by kojiro
Nope. Chamberlain officially accepted their surrender, not what that says. I know, I know, but I just have to doi it. It's like picking at a damn scab.
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I wonder if the character he plays will be creepy and nervous or just eccentric and twitchy.
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Mar 19, 2002 12:05:34 AM CST
If Harry is the Hunter S.Thompson of AICN and Moriarty is the He
by cash bailey
...then Buzz Maverick is the Kinky Friedman of Ain't It Cool News. Your recaps are utter genius, Buzz. You should put them all together and publish the bastards. Or, at least, email them all to me.
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I get a post deleted cuz it states that Ethan Hawke is not a big enough box office draw to warrant a Training Day sequel? WTF? Sorry that I offended the strong Ethan Hawke contingent that runs this site. Hell, they guy deserves to get ripped. If he could keep his dick in his pants, Kill Bill would already have been filmed. And the Harry comment I made was at best a mild dig. Grow some humor already.
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nice to read some confirmations on Kill Bill casting! Thanks Elston!!
(www.tarantino.info) -
SPIKE JONZE does geisha. Genius. Pure un..un..unadulterated genus.
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...sources close to the production say that the first scene in HANOI JANE takes place on the set of BARBARELLA. Somebody told me that earlier drafts had it starting on the set of TALL STORY.
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Seems like they could fit the entire book into a half hour or so.
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Now you've gone and hurt my feelings. (cries himself to sleep)
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Ninja Scroll is not a campy action flick like Mortal Kombat. In my personel opinion it is one of the best animes ever. Ive been a huge fan of that particular movie for years. So they better make a bad ass, hard R samurai movie. I cant wait to see it already. There better do the Bamboo forest fight scene.
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Mar 20, 2002 9:48:04 AM CST
You know...there was one true nugget of information in this week
by lostoptimist
Lodge Kerrigan doing IN GOD'S HANDS. Don't know a damn thing about the project but it's nice to see Kerrigan is doing another movie. You want anti-commercial odd-as-fuck films, there's your go-to guy. As for those disparaging Jeremy Davies, I only got one thing to say: Of all the "talented" up-and-comers who starred in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, his was not only the only character I cared about but he was also the only actor of the bunch who seemed to convey a full-range of emotions. Also, as far as Jonze doing GEISHA...Well, think about it. He's in "Section 8" with Clooney and Soderbergh, two guys who seem to alternate between mainstream fare and more personal, challenging stories. Perhaps he's come to the conclusion that to write his own ticket (like they have) it's a good idea to do one for the 'Wood every once and a while to show you're bankable. I mean if he becomes a hot property (commercially) the studios would likely fund his pet-projects to keep him happy which, in turn, would keep all of US happy.
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