2001: done, redone

Hollywood couldn't think of anything new to do, so the movie roster for the coming year is mostly filled with remakes, sequels and history lessons.

By STEVE PERSALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 19, 2001

[Photo: MGM] Anthony Hopkins reprises his role in The Silence of the Lambs sequel, Hannibal, which is due in theaters Feb. 9.

2001 at the movies, and the year Stanley Kubrick portrayed as a leap to the future looks a lot like Hollywood's past.

Studio executives never met a hit they didn't like. Twice, if the right deal can be worked out. With all the sequels and remakes, the year will seem like 1960, 1968 and the ever-popular 1941 all over again.

Audiences will meet a new Rat Pack and an uncharted planet of apes. Doctors Dolittle and Lecter have encores in store. Pearl Harbor will be attacked again, and The Mummy shall return.

Final score in the computer-creature competition: Jurassic Park 3, Stuart Little 2.

When nostalgic greed gets old, Hollywood will resort to video games (Tomb Raider), cult films (Rollerball) and cheesy cartoons (Josie and the Pussycats) for presold inspiration. Or else, they'll play it by the best-selling book, such as Bridget Jones' Diary, Harry Potter's adventures and The Fellowship of the Ring.

[Photo: Universal] From left, Melody (Tara Reid), Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook) and Val (Rosario Dawson) are Josie and the Pussycats in a live-action update of the cartoon, which hits theaters in April.

Of course, these are the films earning buzz just for being produced. We're still a week away from the Sundance Film Festival introducing the first ripple of this year's alternative films. Festivals in Cannes, Toronto and Telluride will unveil smaller, interesting studio projects in upcoming months.

To be fair, the 2001 lineup includes some promising projects: a biography of Muhammad Ali starring Will Smith, and the latest from directors Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Oliver Stone.

In a fitting coincidence, Kubrick's own story idea may become the movie of the year. Steven Spielberg is filming A.I., based on an 80-page script treatment Kubrick completed before his death in 1999.

With the Golden Globe awards coming up on Sunday, Hollywood is busy congratulating itself for 2000. Meanwhile, let's peek at the most enticing releases of 2001. Release dates are provided, but they're always subject to change.

Feb. 2 -- Okay, so it's the best film of 2000, but Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is finally expected to open locally on this day.

Feb. 9 -- Anthony Hopkins reprises his Oscar-winning role in The Silence of the Lambs' sequel, Hannibal. Julianne Moore steps into Clarice Starling's cheap shoes in place of Jodie Foster.

Feb. 14 -- Valentine's Day brings Sweet November, a remake of a 1968 film about a free spirit (Charlize Theron) who takes a new lover each month. Mr. November (Keanu Reeves) wants to stick around.

March 2 -- Kooky couple (Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt) chases an antique pistol dubbed The Mexican. James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) plays a mobster -- big stretch -- getting in their way.

March 9 -- Robert De Niro plays a cop chasing publicity-hungry serial killers in Fifteen Minutes.

March 16 -- Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton team up again for a romantic comedy, Town and Country. Garry Shandling and Goldie Hawn co-star.

April 6 -- The bubblegum-pop cartoon Josie and the Pussycats gets a live-action update with Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson and Tara Reid shaking their tambourines.

April 13 -- Renee Zellweger plays out a tumultuous year in the life of a single woman in Bridget Jones' Diary.

April 27 -- Sylvester Stallone follows in the skidmarks of Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the Formula One racing drama Champs.

April 27 -- Greek fisherman (Nicolas Cage) fights in World War II and loses his lover (Penelope Cruz) to an Italian commander in Captain Corelli's Mandolin, based on Louis de Berniere's novel.

May 1 -- Woody Allen's latest comedy, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, is customarily shrouded in secrecy except for the cast: Dan Aykroyd, Helen Hunt, Charlize Theron and the Woodman himself.

May 11 -- The Mummy Returns, dragging Brendan Fraser and those cannibal beetles with him.

May 18 -- Norman Jewison's 1975 sci-fi sports allegory Rollerball gets revamped by director John McTiernan (Die Hard). Chris Klein (American Pie) plays the rebel jock originated by James Caan.

May 25 -- The creators of Armageddon and The Rock reunite to fight the battle of Pearl Harbor again. Preview trailers leave a lump in your throat. Should be a Memorial Day weekend smash.

June 1 -- Nicole Kidman as a Parisian nightclub entertainer at the turn of the 20th century? Moulin Rouge proves she can-can.

June 8 -- Eddie Murphy milks another hit in Doctor Dolittle 2.

June 15 -- Angelina Jolie is already a fantasy for joystick jockeys, playing the intrepid babe Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.

June 15 -- Disney's obligatory summertime animation splash is Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Celebrity voices include Michael J. Fox, James Garner and Leonard Nimoy.

June 29 -- A.I. is an abbreviation for "artificial intelligence." The talent involved is genuine. Spielberg should have a firm grasp of Kubrick's story of an android boy (Haley Joel Osment) becoming human.

June 29 -- Windtalkers is the story of a World War II bodyguard (Nicolas Cage) protecting a Navajo soldier whose language is being used as battle code. Directed by John Woo.

July 20 -- Spielberg isn't the tour guide for Jurassic Park 3. He's a producer, but Joe Johnston (Jumanji, October Sky) takes over directing chores.

July 27 -- The long-awaited remake of Planet of the Apes emerges, directed by Tim Burton with Mark Wahlberg as an astronaut marooned among hyper-intelligent primates. Rumored to be a revision of the original themes, not a remake.

Aug. 3 -- Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker wreck Los Angeles again in Rush Hour 2: Return of the Dragon.

Aug. 10 -- Arnold Schwarzenegger tracks terrorists who killed his wife and child in Collateral Damage. Directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive).

Oct. 5 -- Anne Rice's vampire Lestat returns as a rock 'n' roll star in The Queen of the Damned.

Nov. 16 -- The film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone saves me from reading the book.

Dec. 7 -- George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts pull a Las Vegas heist in Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven. The 1960 original co-starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest of the Rat Pack.

Dec. 19 -- The film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's mythological novel The Fellowship of the Ring is all the rage on the Internet. Two sequels to complete the trilogy are due in 2002 and 2003.

Dec. 21 -- The Majestic features a blacklisted screenwriter (Jim Carrey) suffering from amnesia who is treated like a World War II hero in a small town. Written and directed by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile).

Dec. 25 -- Muhammad Ali says Will Smith is the only actor pretty enough to play him. We'll see in Michael Mann's big-budget biography, Ali.

Martin Scorsese revisits the mean streets in Gangs of New York, an Irish mob drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

2001 goes out like a mouse with Stuart Little 2.

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