411 Movies Zone News Report 11.25.02
Posted by Lionel Bohbot on 11.25.2002
Down Goes Potter! Down Goes Potter! It just doesn't sound like Down Goes Frazier. Then again, I'm no Howard Cosell.
Well hello again. We've got a lot of news to cover today. Some of it is weird (Steven Seagal), some of it is sad (Frances Bay (Happy Gilmore Granny)).
I've decided to stop the "In Today's Report" section. From now on, I'll just bunch in all of the news items instead.
Arturo Gatti may not be the best fighter in the world but he sure is exciting. If you're tired of wasting $60 on Mike Tyson, try an Arturo Gatti fight for about half the price. You won't be disappointed.
Looks like the boy wizard got his ass handed to him this weekend. All that 007 publicity has paid off, for now. I'm expecting a sizeable drop for Bond next week. Prediction: Potter over Bond and Solaris.
Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights just doesn't look funny to me. Sandler should stick to one character next time, even in the animation world. Eddie Murphy can easily pull off different characters. Dana Carvey can do it, if he puts in the effort. With Sandler, it's just his voice on three different drawings.
NEWS, RUMORS AND OPINIONS
The Ring 2: Producer Walter Parkes sat down with MTV and talked about the sequel: "It's gonna be tough because the original sell of the movie was the idea of this haunted video tape. Really the movie is much more involved in Rachel following the clues and discovering this girl named Samara, and what's her story? So it's really more the revelation of the mystery of how the tape came to be. Since we've now told that story, we're going to have to go back and create another mystery for the sequel. I don't think the sequel can merely be the story of the videotape going out in the world again, because that will only take you so far. Samara is the thing that lives on. It might be interesting to explore how she was created in the first place, because we don't know that. We just know that she was adopted. We don't know how she came into this world. One of the things we've talked about is doing a dual point perspective - cutting between how Samara came into this world and what's happening in the present day. The only thing we know [for sure] is that we're going to try to come up with a really good idea."
The producers of Battlefield Earth were also trying to come up with a good idea. We know how that turned out. Either George Lucas didn't have the heart to tell Travolta that Battlefield sucked or he has simply gone mad. I'm inclined to go with the latter after the Star Wars prequels.
Tintin: Tintin is coming to the big screen. It'll be produced by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy for Dreamworks and Universal. No word yet on the racist jokes. I'm assuming they'll just "forget" about *those* drawings There's a strong chance that the movie will either be based on "Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure" or "Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun." There's an even stronger chance that I won't care when the movie comes out. I've read maybe one Tintin book and it bored me to death, for about 15 minutes, until I put it down and forgot all about it.
Kill Bill: A new trailer description. This time it's the folks at MonkeyPeaches who came out with the info: "We get a crane shot. It starts at eye level on Uma and it slowly raises to the rafters so that we can see that there are something like 25 bad guys surrounding her, all with swords drawn. Uma then raises her sword, indicating she's ready for'em. Pause. She makes one tiny, defiant movement and (now back to the crane shot where we can see everyone from above) the whole circle of bad guys literally take a synchronized, fearful step back. It's sooooooo cool. Anyway, moving on…the screen goes black and once again we get big, red block letters but this time they read: "IN THE YEAR". Fade out to someone with blonde hair (pretty sure it's Hannah again) doing a flying kick. Cut to: "2003". Fade out to an axe flung end over end that whizzes by Uma's head. Cut to: "UMA THURMAN". Fade out to Uma doing some sort of flip. "WILL". Fade out to more martial art swordplay but now in silhouette. Cut to: "KILL BILL". Fade out to a profile shot of Lucy Liu; she says, "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" It then cuts to a profile shot of Uma who responds with, "You know…for a second there, I kind of did." And for the last shot we cut to Uma running up the banister of a staircase to intercept a bad guy with her sword."
Steven Seagal: I'm disappointed. I thought Steven Seagal was supposed to be some sort of badass. He can't take on the Mafia by himself? What were all those movies about? The man has lost all credibility. I won't even rent Half Past Dead when it comes out on DVD. Thought I was going to see that crap at a theatre? Ha!
LOS ANGELES (AP) A man known as the private detective to the stars was arrested for illegal firearms possession after an FBI search of his office during a probe of alleged Mafia extortion threats against actor Steven Seagal.
Anthony Pellicano, 59, was jailed without bail, pending an arraignment Wednesday in federal court, FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said Friday. She said the illegal firearms were two modified grenades that were not properly registered.
Authorities said the search Thursday was prompted after a man arrested for allegedly threatening a Los Angeles Times reporter's life told an FBI informant he'd been hired by Pellicano, who was acting on behalf of Seagal.
Alexander Proctor, 59, who has pleaded innocent, allegedly vandalized reporter Anita Busch's car and left a threat on it last June. Busch had been reporting on an alleged Mafia extortion plot against Seagal when she found a dead fish with a long-stemmed rose in its mouth on the hood of her car. The car's windshield had also been smashed, and a piece of cardboard with the word "STOP" on it had been placed on the vehicle.
According to the FBI, Proctor told an informant Pellicano hired him to carry out the threat.
"He wanted to make it look like the Italians were putting the hit on her so it wouldn't reflect on Seagal," Proctor told the informant, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by an FBI agent assigned to the case.
A lawyer for Seagal said the actor had nothing to do with the threat.
"This uncorroborated allegation by someone arrested is pure fiction and is nothing more than a transparent attempt to divert attention from himself and the real perpetrators," said attorney Martin R. Pollner. "This is part of an unrelenting campaign to disparage Mr. Seagal and reads like a bad screenplay."
Court documents show Proctor told the informant he owed Pellicano about $14,000 and agreed to intimidate Busch for $10,000. Proctor allegedly told the informant he was supposed to blow up Busch's car as a warning so she would stop reporting on the story about Seagal. Proctor talked to Pellicano on several occasions but there is no indication he ever met with Seagal, according to court documents.
Pellicano, whose high-profile clients have included Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson, had no role in the threats and had a "legitimate reason" for possessing the grenades, said his lawyer, Donald M. Re.
The Times published several stories earlier this year about the arrest of Seagal's former business partner, Julius Nasso, for his alleged role in a multimillion-dollar extortion scheme against the actor. Federal prosecutors in New York said they had a tape of Nasso and a Gambino crime family member plotting the shakedown.
I wouldn't be against Seagal appearing on The Sopranos. God knows they need a kick in this ass this season.
American Pie 3: Tim Allen appears to be a lock for the third movie. Allen will reportedly play the part of Stifler's dad. (E! Online)
Elf: James Caan is in talks to play the role of Will Ferrell's brother. (The Hollywood Reporter)
SNL is really missing Ferrell. Parnell as Bush? Not even close. The women are carrying SNL this season. Rachel Dratch is the MVP, no doubt about it. Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph have been great. Jimmy Fallon's act got stale last season. Seth Meyers has potential but I guess everyone said the same thing about Horatio Sanz. Why do they continually waste Darrell Hammond week after week?
Scary Movie 3: David Zucker (Naked Gun, Airplane!) is in talks to direct.
The movie will spoof the Star Wars prequels and LOTR. Hopefully they'll decide to drop the stupid gross-out humor. The Wayans brothers won't have any part in the movie (yay). They've defected to Revolution for a two movie deal. Dimension still owns the rights to the name "Scary Movie".
Frances Bay:
LOS ANGELES (AP) Actress Frances Bay, who has played grandmothers and other elderly women in scores of movies and TV shows, remained in critical condition Saturday after surgery to amputate part of her right leg, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The 83-year-old actress, who portrayed Adam Sandler's grandmother in "Happy Gilmore," was struck by a car Thursday in Glendale.
Bay broke both legs and suffered a head injury, multiple abrasions and a possible broken arm, said Adelaida De LA Cerda, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Surgeons amputated her right leg below the knee, De La Cerda said.
Bay has appeared in dozens of TV shows, including a memorable recurring role on "Seinfeld" as the elderly lady mugged by Jerry Seinfeld in a fight over a loaf of rye bread. She also had a recurring role on "The Hughley's" as Mrs. Fitch.
She has appeared in more than 50 movies, including last year's "The Wedding Planner" with Jennifer Lopez, "Twins" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, "Inspector Gadget" with Matthew Broderick and "Big Top Pee-wee" with Paul Reubens.
MOVIES ZONE UPDATE
Die Another Day: Ian Challis is back with another stellar review. This time, he takes a look at the 20th Bond movie.
Z At The Movies: Jacob Ziegler has a new review up. Check out his thoughts on Waiting For Guffman
You like Southpark? Thinking of picking up the Season 1 DVD? Read Scott Keith's SmarK DVD Rant before doing anything stupid. The shows are good but what about the DVD itself?
