Monday, September 22, 2003
KONG wants Naomi!
Director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) has extended a formal offer to actress Naomi Watts regarding a role in his remake of King Kong. Jackson would play the object of the hairy apes obsession in this Universal pic scheduled for Christmas 2005. Watts first attracted attention for her role in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and has followed that with acclaimed roles in The Ring, Le Divorce and 21 Grams.
King Kong will shoot in New Zealand on massive soundstages Jackson has contstructed there. The film will also utilize his the formbidable talents of Jackson’s special effects company the WETA workshop. The script will be written by Jackson and his LOTR writing team Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens.
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Sunday, September 21, 2003
WEEKEND REPORT :: September 20-21
1. Underworld ($22,000,000)
2. The Fighting Temptations ($13,200,000)
3. Secondhand Lions ($12,800,000)
4. Once Upon a Time in Mexico ($11,500,000)
5. Cold Creek Manor ($8,300,000)
6. Matchstick Men ($7,800,000)
7. Cabin Fever ($3,900,000)
8. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star ($3,800,000)
9. Pirates of the Caribbean ($3,400,000)
10. Lost in Translation ($2,800,000)
To nobody’s surprise, Underworld took first place this weekend proving that skintight catsuits and werewolf slaughtering can make it easy to overlook a threadbare plot and weak character development. Underworld brought in $22 million dollars which means it has already recouped it’s production costs and you can expect Underworld 2 around the same time Freddy and Jason get together for another re-match.
For family audiences looking for something a little more sanitized, The Fighting Temptations and Secondhand Lions both enjoyed larger than expected openings. Temptations brought in $13.2 million, most of this from people who thought they were paying to see Cuba Gooding Jr. wear Billy Bob teeth and act like a retard. Unfortunately, RADIO is still a few months away. Secondhand Lions brought in $12.8 million.
The weekends other major new releases didn’t fare as well. Cold Creek Manor opened in fifth place with a measly $8.3 million. Woody Allen’s latest Anything Else was literally off the charts, with a mere $1.7 million. Dreamworks had hoped to boost the success of this film by basically promoting it as a Jason Biggs/Christina Ricci romantic comedy. Unfortunately, this technique backfired, resulting in the worst opening for any of Allen’s Dreamwork’s films.
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Saturday, September 20, 2003
KILL BILL new stuff
Aint it Cool news has posted some framegrabs from trailers that are apparently on the KILL BILL soundrack. These grabs perfectly illustrate the combination of styles Tarantino is going to be utilizing for this movie.
Also, tarantino.info has posted scans of an upcoming article from FANGORIA magazine. I can tell his server is getting hammered to temporarily I’m going to host copies of these files here, so Cinema Eye readers can check them out before the server craters.This movie is going to be too cool for words.
Cover
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Friday, September 19, 2003
Peter Cushing lives
The Force has managed to get their hands on some top secret photos from STAR WARS 3. Apparently these photos were snagged by somebody working on set design. These are an example of the prosthetics being used to bring the character of Grand Moff Tarking back to life.
Despite the fact that this kind of seems ...in poor taste, I guess ... I can’t help but admire the ***censored*** good job they’ve done. More information available at The Force.
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