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-- Entertainment News For The Week Of August 16, 2003 (http://www.vcdhq.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=26141)

Entertainment News For The Week Of August 16, 2003

WITNESS a remake

MGM wants to remake the 1957 Billy Wilder courtroom thriller WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION. Based on the Agatha Christie play, Wilder's film starred Marlena Dietrich, Tyrone Power and Charles Laughton. The original film was nominated for six Academy Awards.

The new WITNESS is being produced by Dan Rissner and Marion Rosenberg, with former MGM studio head Daniel Melnick serving as executive producer. The new movie will be set present day.


Christie's story is filled with twists and turns. After recuperating from a near-fatal heart attack, a criminal lawyer named Wilfrid Robarts takes on a high profile case involving a man believed to be the murderer of a wealthy socialite. The defendant has an alibi: he was with his wife when the murder took place, so he couldn't have done the deed. Then why is his wife serving as a witness for the prosecution and not the defense?


No word when the remake could hit theaters, or which stars would be frontrunners for parts.

***This one wont make mystic too happy****

Wheels still spinning for THE ITALIAN JOB

Paramount will take THE ITALIAN JOB for another spin around the block. The studio is hoping to have the film playing on somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 screens beginning August 29.

When the film was release back at the end of May it had a marginal opening weekend but over the summer it proved to have considerable staying power. So far the film has earned $96 million dollars, a considerable accomplishment considering it went up against juggernauts like THE MATRIX RELOADED, FINDING NEMO and BRUCE ALMIGHTY. Theater owners were pressed to make room for these films and other big summer tentpoles; Paramount hopes that with the fall season audiences who might not have seen the JOB in its first time around will check it out now.

When to expect THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS trailer!

We've just received word from one of our sources that Warner Bros. has tentatively scheduled to begin screening the trailer for THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS on September 12. That's the same date that the studio releases Ridley Scott's latest film, MATCHSTICK MEN, starring Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell.

Our source also informs us that the REVOLUTIONS trailer is mostly a "very good re-editing" of the previously seen material from the third MATRIX film, save for a couple of new shots included.

More about DAWN OF THE DEAD

Our undead pal who has been sending us set reports from the DAWN OF THE DEAD production returns with another story to tell. This time he's here to describe the street scenes being filmed on Toronto's city blocks!

Shortly before the east-coast blackout hit Toronto this week, exterior scenes were being filmed away from the surburban mall that's been used for the majority of the shoot. Our man on the scene has been sending us updates on how the production has been coming along, what's being shot and what some of the action scenes are going to be like. It certainly sounds like this version of DAWN OF THE DEAD will be amped up.


You need to be advised that SOME SPOILER MATERIAL is contained in our source's report. While nothing major (like who lives or dies), there is some mention of a scene that does occur later in the film.


"Production is very ambitious - closing off 3 square blocks of eastern downtown Toronto to re-create a 'ghost town' somewhere in Wisconsin. It's just like the end of RESIDENT EVIL - the city

is littered with papers, burnt-out overturned cars, buses and trucks - even a crashed helicopter. It's like a real bad riot locale gone to heck.


"This week's scene? One of the armoured buses has crashed and the rest of the convoy comes back to extract the human survivors - rampaging, looting zombies smell blood and close in for the attack

on the bus but not before our heroes lock themselves in and ping off a few with shotguns. This is apparently very close to the end of the film as the convoy tries to escape to an island free of zombie inhabitants.


"The set is incredible - millions of dollars alone went into setting this up and we are at Front and Cherry St. till end of this week for those diehard fans who want to come check it out!"

Going Nutter for DARKSIDERS

Director David Nutter has come onboard to helm DARKSIDERS for New Line Cinema.

Nutter, who worked his way up the directing ladder doing episodes of THE X-FILES, hasn't shot a feature film since 1998's poorly received DISTURBING BEHAVIOR. Still, his success on the small screen has been phenominal; he directed the pilot episode for SMALLVILLE, the new series TARZAN and episodes for ER.


DARKSIDERS is about a group of vampires who reluctantly work for the FBI. At one point David Goyer (the BLADE screenwriter) has been attached to helm DARKSIDERS but that no longer appears to be the case. While having Nutter attach himself to the horror feature is a step forward, there is still no cast attached to the project nor a start shooting date in mind.

Spy kid ready for a SLEEPOVER

SPY KIDS star Alexa Vega has landed the leading role in SLEEPOVER, a teen comedy that starts shooting for MGM next month. Vega will play the best friend of another girl whose family is preparing to move away from the neighborhood, and so Vega's character decides to throw a sleepover for her and their pals. The problem is there's another sleepover happening the same night with the school's snobby and self-thought-of popular girls. Before long the two groups are competing to see which one will come out on top of a scavenger hunt and claim the top prize: the best table in the school's lunchroom (plus bragging rights.)

Joe Nussbaum (the fellow who shot the short spoof GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE) will direct the movie.

ODDPARENTS for movies

Nickelodeon continues its trend to bring its properties to the silver screen by developing a movie based on THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS as its next theatrical project with Paramount Pictures. ODDPARENTS creator Butch Hartman will direct and serve as executive producer on the movie; he'll also co-write the feature's script with the show's story editor, Steve Marmel, who will produce the movie.

The TV series is about a 10-year-old boy named Timmy who can summon a pair of strange fairy godparents to help him out of trouble. The problem is, often his fairy godparents will make the situation worse when their magic spells go awry.


There's no word about a prospective release date for the feature.

Smith still cooking FLETCH and also has RANGER DANGER

Filmmaker Kevin Smith will continue his longtime business partnership with Miramax Films for the foreseeable future. With his next film, JERSEY GIRL, waiting for its March 2004 premiere, Smith has turned his attention towards two new films he's thinking about.

FLETCH ONE (formerly known as FLETCH WON) will be an origin story about Gregory McDonald's newshound and sometimes mystery snoop. Chevy Chase played Fletch in two movies back in the 80s but Smith's version of the title character will be closer in style to McDonald's from the novels. Interestingly, Smith may have changed his mind about who he imagined playing Fletch. "Though these actors know nothing about this, I've worked down to a short list of Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon and Adam Sandler for the role of Fletch," Smith told Variety. When he first mentioned his interest in doing a Fletch movie years ago, Smith said the man he wanted for the job was MALLRATS and CHASING AMY star Jason Lee. The filmmakers wants cameras to roll on FLETCH ONE come next January.


After principal photography is complete on Smith's FLETCH picture he wants to get going on a science fiction idea he calls RANGER DANGER AND THE DANGER RANGERS. Tapping the same style as old FLASH GORDON adventures, Smith hopes to be shooting RANGER DANGER in the fall of '04.


View Askew partner Scott Mosier will produce RANGER DANGER but not FLETCH ONE.

Yakuza vs. Seagal

Action film star Steven Seagal and Joe Halpin, an officer working for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, have sold their script INTO THE SUN to Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures. Franchise, which already has a relationship with Seagal, paid the duo mid-six figures for their screenplay. Seagal will star as the film's lead as well as serve as one of the film's producers.

The movie centers on a retired special agent who has to infilirate the Japanese yakuza criminal underworld in order to safeguard his family from harm. Seagal believes that his story about the yakuza will bring something new that film fans haven't seen before. "I believe we're going to show something that has yet to be seen in American films, and I'm glad we're doing it with Elie and Franchise."


Seagal is currently shooting OUT OF REACH in Poland right now.

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"If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football, I would've said 'fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees." -Noel Gallagher 2005

sandler for fletch! :O

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Loving God.... Vengeful God...

BRADD PITT!!! <3

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One time, my cousin Walter got this cat stuck in his ass. True story. He bought it at our local mall so the whole fiasco wound up on the news, it was embarrassing for my relatives and all, but the next week he did it again, different cat, same results, complete with another trip to the emergency room! So I run into him a week later in the mall and he’s buying another cat and I says to ‘em "Jesus Walt, what are you doing? You know your just gonna get this cat stuck up your ass too, why don’t you knock it off?" And he says to me "Brodie, how the hell else am I supposed to get the gerbil out?" My cousin was a weird guy....

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Cool.

Thanks for the Biz buzz petrocs.

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What stinks?


Oh, it's just JC

Nick seems to be following Cartoon Network with PowerPuff Girls. The first Fairly OddParents movie (Abra-Catastrophe) was TV only, then took 2 years to come to DVD, and that was only a few months ago..