Well a new spy walked onto the scene, this one claiming to have a great deal of knowledge. This one having traveled the world, and studied with the greatest minds in history. His name is Melanthius!!! If he is indeed the great one himself, then he could pluck this information right from the minds that held it. But... is he Melanthius, or some evil creation of Zenobia's, or worse... It will take time to judge whether Melanthius is telling the truth, till then judge what he says with great heaping shovels of salt. The following may be the stuff of myth, so read and enjoy, but keep that in mind at all times!!!
First Melanthius' news of HOBBIT/LORD OF THE RINGS:
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are two of the richest and most powerful men in Hollywood. What could possibly stop them in one of their quests to create an entertaining film? Evidently "The English Patient" producer Saul Zaentz is standing in their way but only because he feels their standing in his way. Saul Zaentz wants to make the Lord of the Rings into a trilogy of films with Director Peter Jackson. The Tolkien family, however, does not approve of his intended interpretations and neither do Spielberg and Lucas. That's why George Lucas is interested in purchasing the film rights to these novels and serving as executive producer of three film adaptations (provided they are sucessful the Hobbit could possibly later be made into a film).
Lucas's production company Lucasfilm would finance the three films and ILM would create the breathtaking visual effects! Spielberg has been interested in distributing the films through Dreamworks and the two of them already have an interested director-writer. Lawrence Kasdan (who penned the screenplays for the Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Arc before going on to become a director) has been interested in making a film based upon Joseph Cambell's hero quest theories (of which films such as Star Wars, the Hidden Fortress, and novels such as the Lord of the Rings are based upon).
(HARRY NOTE: It is at this point that I became suspicious! I believe that Lord of the Rings came before Joseph Cambell's works, but I could be wrong. Now back to Melanthius:)
Kasdan has expressed in interest in writing adaptations of the three segements of "The Lord of the Rings" and directing the three films. This along with a deal with Lucasfilm to write a treatment (not the full script) for the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones Saga is what Kasdan has been up to lately. All Spielberg and Lucas have to do now is convice Zaentz to either sell them the rights or leave Miramax/Dimension and jump aboard with the Dreamworks/Lucasfilm team. This trilogy of films along with the possible merchandise tie-ins could become Dreamworks signature franchise unless of course Lucas allows Dreamworks to distribute the new Star Wars prequels. Twentieth Century Fox has been heavily courting Lucas for the rights (they've already suggested showing the first teaser trailer with the opening of the X-Files film next summer).
(HARRY NOTE: Lots of DREAMWORKS SPECULATION HERE)
If Dreamworks were to get a hold of rights to both of these properties you could expect to see the first Tolkien adaptation in the summer of 2000 folowed in 2002 and 2004 by its sequels. With the Star Wars films being released in 1999, 2001, and 2003, Dreamworks could expect to be the industry leader for five years in a row. Spielberg is almost definately signed on for the fourth Indy flick provided Kasdan writes the treatment. Dreamworks had initially offered Paramount to co-produce and handle overseas distribution of the film. Dreamworks has worked closely with Paramount on Deep Impact and Saving Private Ryan. Paramount, however, has enough confidence in this project to finance it by themselves. Spielberg will not be taking too much time from his Dreamworks duties, however (Indiana Jones is produced by Lucasfilm and not by Amblin).
MEN IN BLACK
Amblin will however produce a second Men In Black Installment (Spielberg is interested in signing on Barry Sonnenfeld and Will Smith).
MASK OF ZORRO
Recently Sony pushed back the release date for the Mask of Zorro due to positive test Screenings and are gearing it up as their companion major release to Godzilla next summer. An equal amount of money will spent on marketing the two films.
JURASSIC PARK 3
No word on Jurassic Park 3 other than Universal would like to make it and Spielberg would serve only as executive-producer.
SONY'S JAMES BOND
Sony is also preparing to enter pre-production on their James Bond film (despite claims by MGM that they have no production rights) and are currently in negotiations with Sean Connery who may get 20 million.
MGM's BOND and SPIDERMAN ... oh and AVATAR too
MGM is attempting to gain the directing services of Martin Scorsese for the next Bond flick and realizing how damaging Sony's film may be are very eager to get Spiderman off the ground. Unfortunately for MGM Cameron's first look deal with Fox does not end untill the Summer of 2000 when he plans to release Avatar and then he plans to go ahead with a third terminator and then work on Spiderman.
SCREAM 3
And finally Neve Cambell has expressed her desire to pursue a different film than Scream 3 during her Summer hiatus this season. In response to this Miramax/Dimension may offer her up to 13 million dollars (making her the highest paid female actress) to reprise her role as Sidney. Apparently she will only consider reprising the role if Wes Craven directs this third and final installment (He may have originally stepped down and let Williamson direct)!
WARNER and SUPERMAN and BATMAN
Warner Bros is preparing Superman as their 1999 major Summer release and are hoping to aquire the directing services of David Fincher (Seven, the Game) for the fifth Batman installment in the year 2000! It's the milenium and every studio wants a major film franchise or two!
BAD BOYS II and other similar bits
I feel awfully bad to contradict what an avid reader and contributer to AICN has said but I feel that I am duty bound to inform you that Bad Boys 2 is a very importatnt film to Columbia pictures (Will Smith has already signed on to do this film) and the reason development ceased was due to the increasing popularity of Will Smith and the growing demand for his services. Michael Bay (who had never previously considered directing this sequel) became very interested after he is made aware of Will Smith's new found international fame in the wake of ID4 and MIB. Bay had always maintained that Bad Boys was not a big enough film to shoot a sequel to. Columbia/Tristar feels that Will Smiths current sucess along with the participation of Bay and Bruckheimer could guarantee a massive opening for this film and the start of a film franchise! This theory is not unusual (each one of the Lethal Weapon films performed better than its precceding adventure). Bay did have some interest in doing a sequel to the Rock (which would be more of a thriller than an action film) but Bruckheimer has swayed him to work on Bad Boys 2 instead. Martin Lawrence will be a part of this production but not as big a part as he was in the first film (he received top billing if you remember and had more screen time).
ALIEN 5
Based upon the overseas sucess of Alien Ressurection (its expected to gross aproximately 150 million) Twentieth Century Fox is interested in the possibility of a fifth Alien. Joss Whedon (who penned ressurection and both the Buffy the Vampire film and the show) is interested in directing off his own screenplay for the fifth installment of the Alien series. Despite obvious domestic failure Ressurection did manage to accumulate about 90% of the third films box office (sequels are supposed to at least 70%). In fact Alien3 made 70% of Aliens. What was disappointing for the studio was the fact that Aliens had performed better than the original and they thought that this could become an ongoing trend with this series. Alien 3 was a big hit overseas and on video and it appears that Ressurection shares that same fate (both films were very profitable). The studio does, however, want to get this film off the ground quite soon. The other four films were seperated by intervals of 7 years, 6 years, and 5 years. Fox would like to get this film prepared a release in the summer of 2000. Sigourney Weaver could get up to 20 million dollars to reprise her role and Whedons story also includes Winona Ryders character. The film is to pick up exactly where ressurection left off and depicts the exposure of the Alien race to the civilians on earth. Apparently there is also some discussion about striving for a PG-13 (in order to attract a wider audience) rating by toning down the gore and profanity.
Well there's that. It's a ton of... something. Alot of it could be gleamed from previous reports, but there was alot of alleged behind-the-scenes business thingees that I hadn't heard, plus some developments. Of course it could all be a bunch of malarky, but then so could I... Have a nice day!!!
