Weekly Entertainment and Music News (MATRIX sequel news/ SPY Vs. SPY the movie news)

[FH]

The Rock in Spy Hunter Adaptation
Sunday, July 21, 2002 8:08 CDT

Universal Pictures has optioned a feature film based on the Midway video game franchise Spy Hunter with wrestling superstar The Rock attached to star as Alec Sects, a former F-15 pilot employed by International Espionage Services as a member of the Spy Hunter team.

The Hollywood Reporter says that the producers are seeking a writer and director to get the spy pic in motion. Universal beat out two other studios for rights to the spy franchise. The video game franchise was introduced in 1983 at arcades and reborn on PlayStation 2 last year, with Xbox, GameCube and Game Boy Advance versions shipping earlier this year.

The movie will feature Sects doing battle with arch enemy Daemon Curry, president of Nostra International, an evil organization bent on world domination.

[ July 25, 2002, 06:50 AM: Message edited by: FH ]

[FH]

Goyer Directing DreamWorks' Descent
Sunday, July 21, 2002 5:17 CDT

Variety reports that DreamWorks has picked up rights to The Descent, which David Goyer will direct from his own adaptation of Jeffrey Long's novel.

Red Hour Films and Phantom Four Films are attached to produce the sci-fi thriller about a group of scientists led by a former cave explorer who must map and research a network of tunnels six miles beneath the surface. They must deal with a terrifying new species that dwells in the caves that may have been the basis for stories about hell.

Goyer previously wrote the two Blade films, The Crow: City of Angels and Dark City.

[FH]

Daniel Cudmore will be playing Colossus in the X-Men sequel, 20th Century Fox told The Continuum.

Colossus will be one several new mutants making appearances in the film, which is in production in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The studio has confirmed that Bruce Davison, who played Senator Kelly in X-Men, will be returning for the sequel. Davison’s character was apparently killed in the first film, dissolving into a puddle of water. And, at the end of the film, Kelly was being impersonated by Mystique.

X2 marks the third time Davison has worked with director Bryan Singer, following Apt Pupil and X-Men.

"Bryan is always a hard taskmaster, but a wonderful filmmaker," Davison told The Continuum. "I really respect how he specifies at getting what he wants, which can be arduous.

"He's a very smart guy. I like him. I have a lot of friends who are directors, but unlike them, he is unafraid of using people over and over, like Ian McKellen (who plays Magneto) and myself from Apt Pupil."

Fox also confirmed that neither Tyler Mane, who played Sabretooth, nor Ray Park, who played Toad, will be in X2. Park has been attached to an Iron Fist film that Marvel is developing with Artisan.

As widely reported but not confirmed by Fox until Friday, Katie Stuart will be playing Kitty Pryde.

[FH]

Movie News
Stallone’s D-TOX won’t open in America
Film crashed quietly overseas

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Dateline: Monday, July 22, 2002

By: CHRISTOPHER ALLAN SMITH
By: News Editor
Source: Premiere

Remember a time when Sylvester Stallone ruled the box office like Bill Gates ruling… the world? Not quite? Yes, it’s getting harder and harder.

Case in point: the thriller D-TOX, which was announced a few years back as a herald of the return of Sylvester Stallone to the top of the action box office will quietly be going directly to home video later this year.

According to a short item in this months’ PREMIERE, the action/thriller, which has Stallone playing a drunken FBI agent, was released overseas earlier this year, and crashed at the box office, making less than $6.0 million all totaled.

The mag also reports Universal Pictures, which had a three picture deal, canceled the remaining two films in Stallone’s contract, and sold D-TOX to a direct-to-video house.

What’s this mean? Those pipe-dream sequels, RAMBO 4 and ROCKY 6? Forget them, if you already haven’t.

[FH]

METALLICA Fan Bids Over $23,000 For Day In Studio With Band - July 22, 2002

A METALLICA fan reportedly made a winning bid of $23,200 for a day in the studio and dinner with the band. The charity auction, which concluded on Friday, July 19th was held on Ebay. METALLICA is donating the entire winning bid to the T.J. Martell Foundation.

The winner and a guest will spend an entire day with the members of METALLICA and producer Bob Rock in their new private studio in San Francisco, as the band continues work on its first studio album of original material in six years. Two round-trip coach class airline tickets, a two-night hotel stay, and a three-day car rental are also included in the charity package.

[FH]

NEWS - Bon Jovi Completes 'Everyday' At The Very Large Array
07/22/2002



(7/22/02, 7 a.m. ET) -- New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi recently completed the music video for "Everyday," the first single and music video from the band's upcoming Island Records album, Bounce, due October 8 in the U.S.

The music video was shot at the Very Large Array (VLA) in the plains of San Augustin, 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. VLA is a Y-shaped installation of 27 radio telescopes, and one of the world's premiere astronomical radio observatories. It is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The VLA may be best known to the general public for its prominent placement in the 1997 movie Contact starring Jodie Foster.

The concept for "Everyday" has the band performing among the 81-foot wide radio satellite dishes, which carry their music around the world. The production required three camera crews to be sent on a global mission to capture footage from various exotic locales and intersperse it throughout the video.

Completing the clip was no easy task thanks to some nasty weather conditions that came courtesy of Mother Nature. Bon Jovi narrowly escaped a severe lightning storm during the final take of the "Everyday" music video. The last take involved a helicopter taking an aerial shot of the band. As the storm approached, the band was at risk of being electrocuted, and all "non-essential" personnel were evacuated from the set, leaving the producer, the cameraman, and the band to quickly wrap things up. The band fled the set unharmed in their vehicles as a fierce torrential rain storm moved in.

Luke Ebbin, Jon Bon Jovi, and Richie Sambora co-produced Bounce, the band's eighth studio album. The album is the follow-up to Bon Jovi's multiplatinum 2000 album, Crush, which was also co-produced by the same trio. Crush has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, and it spawned the hit singles "It's My Life" and "Thank You For Loving Me".

-- Jason Gelman, New York

[FH]

TESLA have been out ripping it up all over America, headlining festival shows with Skid Row, Jackyl and Vince Neil in tow. Their closing set is a full-on high fidelity concert-level set-up, the original line-up intact and in fine form, the band pounding through a faithful version of 'War Pigs' as the second song of the happy hits package (please see www.teslatheband.com for more info.). Once this is all over, however, work commences on the first studio album since '94's Bust A Nut. Drum wizard Troy Luccketta offers the following update. "That's pretty much all we're thinking about. We'll finish up touring in September and then we'll be right back to writing. There's probably 12 songs finished musically, probably half a dozen finished with lyrics. Probably get back in, record those right away and Jeff will continue to work on lyrics. And we'll get in and start writing maybe another ten, 15 songs. And we're just going to keep hammering away at it, until we feel we have the record and the record avails itself to us (laughs)." "I mean, time is going to tell, as far as that goes," says Troy, with respect to the direction of the material. "There is definitely some stuff that is very current sounding, and when you put the vocal on it, we'll see. There's a lot of progress. It sounds like Tesla 2002. It sounds like a record that needs to come out in today's market, and some of it sounds like traditional Tesla. But yeah, there's definitely going to be some new things happening on it. We're hopefully not just going to make the same record we've always continued to make. We're kind of fortunate in that we really haven't made the same exact record over and over again."

[FH]

Strong rumors suggest that a new IRON MAIDEN box set will be released on November 18th. The metal box will contain three albums on six CD's, the titles being Best Of The B-sides, BBC Archives (previously unreleased recordings) and Beast Over Hammersmith (previously unreleased highly regarded early live recordings).

[xaminer]

Originally posted by FH:
METALLICA Fan Bids Over $23,000 For Day In Studio With Band - July 22, 2002

A METALLICA fan reportedly made a winning bid of $23,200 for a day in the studio and dinner with the band. The charity auction, which concluded on Friday, July 19th was held on Ebay. METALLICA is donating the entire winning bid to the T.J. Martell Foundation.

The winner and a guest will spend an entire day with the members of METALLICA and producer Bob Rock in their new private studio in San Francisco, as the band continues work on its first studio album of original material in six years. Two round-trip coach class airline tickets, a two-night hotel stay, and a three-day car rental are also included in the charity package.

Are you sure the winnings aren't going to the Lars Ulrich pocketbook foundation?

[FH]

Frank Marshall talks Indiana Jones 4 and Signs
Monday, July 22, 2002 8:42 CDT

USA Today interviewed producer Frank Marshall:

No one involved with the three Indiana Jones blockbusters ever really considered the idea of a fourth until the American Film Institute threw a tribute dinner for Ford in 2001, says producer Frank Marshall. The film's principals "all saw each other backstage in tuxedoes, and it was a nostalgic moment where we got to talking and we found how much fun we had on these movies. But these days it takes us all a while to clear our schedules."

"It's going to be the same team: George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and me," Marshall adds. "We are working on the film as we speak. I think production will start in 2004 for release in the summer of 2005. There are certain elements that are in all three movies that we will strive to maintain: the archaeology aspect, the fun of the movies and a little bit of the supernatural."

Speaking of the supernatural, Marshall also is the producer of Signs, starring Mel Gibson and opening Aug. 2. Audiences won't know too much of the plot before it opens, Marshall predicts. Even Touchstone Pictures' advertising campaign for the latest film from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) is a red herring, he says. "It's not a straight-ahead science-fiction movie," Marshall says. "It's about a lot more things than the advertising suggests, which is that it is about crop circles," those mysterious rural images that are supposed to be UFO tracks but usually turn out to be hoaxes.

"Crop circles are really the tip of the iceberg," says Marshall, mixing his metaphors. "I will say that it's like Night's other movies because it incorporates elements of the supernatural."

[FH]

No Son In Indiana Jones 4?
Monday, July 22, 2002 8:31 CDT

Harrison Ford is reportedly denying rumors that Indiana Jones will have a son in the sequels. Cindy Pearlman reports (sorry for the caps):

INDY'S NO DADDY: DON'T CALL IT "INDIANA JONES: THE BABYMAKER." Harrison Ford TOLD THIS COLUMN THAT THE MUCH-AWAITED NEXT INSTALLMENT OF "INDIANA JONES" WILL NOT FEATURE HIM TRAINING HIS SCREEN SON TO TAKE OVER THE FRANCHISE. THE 60-YEAR-OLD CHICAGO NATIVE GAVE US A LOOK OF MOCK HORROR AND SAID, "HEY, THERE'S ONLY ONE SON IN THESE MOVIES AND I'LL ALWAYS BE SEAN CONNERY'S LITTLE BOY!" AS FOR PLAYING A 60-YEAR-OLD INDY, HE SAYS, "INDIANA JONES IS NOT REALLY DEFINED BY HIS AGE, SO IT DOESN'T WORRY ME."

But he didn't say there was no daughter, did he? (Let the rumors begin!!)

[FH]

ROB ZOMBIE's "House Of 1000 Corpses" Gets Dropped By MGM - July 22, 2002

ROB ZOMBIE's much-talked-about movie, House Of 1000 Corpses, has been dealt another blow as MGM has decided to drop the project several months ahead of its previously-announced Halloween release, BLABBERMOUTH.NET can exclusively reveal.

Details are sketchy at the moment, but informed sources have indicated that ZOMBIE plans on releasing the film himself in September. No further information is available at this time.

As you may recall, House Of 1000 Corpses was originally due to be released through Universal, but as a result of the movie's controversial content, the company pulled the plug on it prior to its originally-projected June 2001 release.

The $7 million House of 1000 Corpses, which was reportedly edited down to an R rating for MGM, will be accompanied by a soundtrack that will feature new material co-penned by ZOMBIE and longtime producer Scott Humphrey.

Following the completion of this year's Ozzfest trek, which features ROB ZOMBIE on the main stage, the singer will start work on his second horror film, the details of which have not yet been divulged.

[DLR'sCock]

Originally posted by FH:
ROB ZOMBIE's "House Of 1000 Corpses" Gets Dropped By MGM - July 22, 2002

ROB ZOMBIE's much-talked-about movie, House Of 1000 Corpses, has been dealt another blow as MGM has decided to drop the project several months ahead of its previously-announced Halloween release, BLABBERMOUTH.NET can exclusively reveal.

Details are sketchy at the moment, but informed sources have indicated that ZOMBIE plans on releasing the film himself in September. No further information is available at this time.

As you may recall, House Of 1000 Corpses was originally due to be released through Universal, but as a result of the movie's controversial content, the company pulled the plug on it prior to its originally-projected June 2001 release.

The $7 million House of 1000 Corpses, which was reportedly edited down to an R rating for MGM, will be accompanied by a soundtrack that will feature new material co-penned by ZOMBIE and longtime producer Scott Humphrey.

Following the completion of this year's Ozzfest trek, which features ROB ZOMBIE on the main stage, the singer will start work on his second horror film, the details of which have not yet been divulged.

Fucking Pussies, Hollywood is so fucking overrated anyway.

[FH]

Warner Bros seven year SUPER plan
BATMAN, WONDER WOMAN included too

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Dateline: Tuesday, July 23, 2002

By: CHRISTOPHER ALLAN SMITH
By: News Editor
Source: Variety

It looks like after years of languishing in development heck, Warner Bros. is planning on spinning out movies based on DC comic book characters for the next seven years. At least, that’s what VARIETY is reporting, though the roster of potential films sounds an awful lot like the films we’ve been hearing about for years.

According to columnist Michael Fleming, Warner Bros., which is now prepping BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN, is also charging ahead with McG’s SUPERMAN film and Darron Aranofsky’s BATMAN: YEAR ONE, though the latter has supposedly been in limbo since it was announced over a year ago.

These are a few of the films the studio supposedly wants to spin out between 2003 and 2010.

What else is on tap? The previously announced BATMAN BEYOND, CATWOMAN (the spin-off Ashley Judd is often talking about) and George Miller’s (THE ROAD WARRIOR) big screen version of WONDER WOMAN. But haven’t we heard all this before?

Yes, so believe it when you see the studio lights go from red to green.

[FH]

Adam David Adapting Universal's Zits
Tuesday, July 23, 2002 1:01 CDT

According to Variety, scribe Adam "Tex" Davis has signed on to adapt Zits, as a Universal Pictures feature to be based on the King Features comicstrip by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman. The film will be directed by Shawn Levy (Big Fat Liar).

The popular comicstrip, which appears in more than 1,000 newspapers nationwide, won the National Cartoonists Society's comicstrip of the year kudos two years in a row since its debut in the summer of 1997 -- once in 1998 and again in 1999.

It follows the life of Jeremy Duncan, a 15-year-old aspiring rock musician, riddled with angst, boredom and resentment of his perfect brother Chad, a painfully good-looking college man. With his best friend Hector, Jeremy flounders around through his awkward high school love affair with Sara, who considers him more of a science project than a boyfriend.