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Page to screen
[Photo: Warner Bros.]
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe, left), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) test their magic and their courage in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. |
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 30, 2001
Summer's just about over, and it's time for Hollywood to hit the books again, seeking a classy final chapter to a dismal 2001 movie year. Theater marquees may convert to the Dewey Decimal System to let moviegoers know what's playing.
[Photo: Warner Bros]
Anthony Hopkins plays a mysterious neighbor in Hearts in Atlantis.
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The film industry always saves its best for last, and this year much of the best is based on best sellers. The easiest way to an Oscar is still the literate route.
The fall and holiday seasons are when studios aim for prestige before profits, although the former often leads to the latter with the proper hype. These movies will be freshest in the minds of critics and award voters at year end.
Of course, it won't all be a trip to the library. Hollywood will still provide plenty of remedial entertainment.
Weekend will cover these films in two volumes: Today we preview the movies opening between now and Thanksgiving; Nov. 22 will feature the holiday season films. As usual, release dates are subject to change.
And now, dear reader, let us begin.
Chapter 1: By the book
[Photo: Universal Studio]
Justin Chambers is loyal swordsman D’Artagnan in The Musketeer.
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The Musketeer -- Aren't there supposed to be three of these guys? Only one gets billed in yet another version of Alexandre Dumas' swashbuckling novel. The difference is that this one infuses martial arts-style stunts a la The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. (Sept. 7)
Big Trouble -- Dave Barry's comical crime novel set in Miami could be another Get Shorty with director Barry Sonnenfeld leading the way. Tim Allen plays an advertising executive stuck between a stolen nuclear bomb and a hard place. Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci co-star. (Sept. 21)
Hearts in Atlantis -- Another Stephen King novella-to-screen, this time starring Anthony Hopkins as the mysterious neighbor of a widow (Hope Davis) and her son. Expect more Stand by Me melodrama than Carrie terror. (Sept. 28)
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Drew Barrymore stars as a teen mother and Cody Arens as her son in Riding in Cars With Boys.
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Riding in Cars With Boys -- Drew Barrymore plays a teen mother growing up with her child in director Penny Marshall's take on author Beverly Donofrio's memoirs. Steve Zahn, James Woods and Lorraine Bracco co-star. (Oct. 19)
The Count of Monte Cristo -- Alexandre Dumas strikes again in this tale of a political prisoner (Jim Cavielzel) escaping to exact revenge on his rival (Guy Pearce, Memento). (Oct. 19)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone -- Perhaps you've heard of this one. A boy wizard (Daniel Radcliffe) finds adventure during a year at Hogwarts witchcraft school. J.K. Rowling's enormously popular book series makes this the season's surest bet for box office success. (Nov. 16)
Chapter 2: Novel ideas
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Leelee Sobieski is an orphan in the psychological thriller The Glass House.
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The Glass House -- Orphaned children (Leelee Sobieski, Trevor Morgan) are left in the care of legal guardians (Diane Lane, Stellan Skarsgard) who may not be as kindly as they seem. (Sept. 14)
Serendipity -- John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale meet by chance, and she leaves her telephone number in a book he must find before she gets married. Those literate types are so clever when they beat around the bush. (Oct. 5)
The Last Castle -- A court-martialed general (Robert Redford) fights a different sort of war with a corrupt military prison warden (James Gandolfini). Written and directed by Rod Lurie, whose debut The Contender was a tight package. Redford's comeback continues later this year alongside Brad Pitt in Spy Game. (Oct. 12)
[Photo: 20th Century Fox]
Johnny Depp and Heather Graham find themselves in the middle of an alleged conspiracy involving the highest powers in England during an investigation of a series of Jack the Ripper murders in From Hell.
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Mulholland Drive -- Now we'll see if David Lynch has gone completely around the bend or if Lost Highway was just an overly bizarre fluke. Amnesia victim (Laura Herring) pieces together her life with the help of her actor lover (Naomi Watts). Lynch tried to convince the ABC network to make this a series like Twin Peaks. He settled for a feature film and sharing the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. (Oct. 12)
Bandits -- Odd coupling of Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton as bank robbers financing their retirement in Mexico. This is not based on Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name. Cate Blanchett (The Gift) plays the Etta Place role in another variation on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (Oct. 12)
From Hell -- This one looks intriguing, not just for its Jack the Ripper premise, but because co-directors Allen and Albert Hughes (Menace II Society) bring an inner-city vibe to a Victorian-era story and characters. Johnny Depp plays a psychic hired to identify the killer while he falls in love with a potential victim (Heather Graham). (Oct. 19)
[Fox Searchlight Pictures]
Wiley Wiggins stars in Waking Life, a film with a blend of live-action and animation.
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Waking Life -- Richard Linklater (Slacker, Before Sunrise) tinkers with dream states, devising a completely original blend of live action and animation. He filmed his cast of actors doing their scenes, then digital painter Bob Sabiston converted the action into animation. Should be interesting for the eyes, at least. (Oct. 19)
Heist -- Criminals plan one last jewel robbery. Sounds like a cliche, but that's before writer-director David Mamet takes over the idea. Gene Hackman is the ringleader, Danny DeVito is the crooked fence, and Delroy Lindo is one of several double-crossers. Mamet's knack for tough talk should come in handy. (Oct. 26)
[Photo: Warner Bros.]
Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito are crooks planning one last jewel theft in Heist.
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Life as a House -- Dying architect (Kevin Kline) builds a new home and rebuilds his relationship with his ex-wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) and troubled son, played by Hayden Christensen, who'll be the next Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Directed with Rocky-style warmth by John G. Avildsen. (Oct. 26)
Novocaine -- Steve Martin wrote the screenplay and stars as a dentist whose weird new patient (Helena Bonham Carter) is a prescription for trouble. Laura Dern co-stars as his worried girlfriend in a kinky comedy directed by newcomer David Atkins. (Oct. 26)
The Man Who Wasn't There -- Lynch shared his Cannes prize with director Joel Coen for this back-and-white thriller. Billy Bob Thornton plays a mild-mannered barber blackmailing his wife's lover. Frances McDormand and James Gandolfini co-star. (Nov. 9)
Windtalkers -- Nicolas Cage teams again with director John Woo (Face Off) for a fact-based World War II drama. Cage is the soldier assigned to protect a Navajo interpreter (Adam Beach, Smoke Signals) whose language is being used as code to confuse the enemy. (Nov. 9)
Chapter 3: No library card required
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A dream comes true for Mark Wahlberg in Rock Star.
[Photo: Warner Bros.] |
[Photo: Screen Gem]
Vivica A. Fox shows her boyfriend (Morris Chestnut) the errors of his ways in Two Can Play That Game.
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Two Can Play That Game -- Vivica A. Fox plays a woman tired of her boyfriend's cheating ways, so she turns the tables. Written and directed by Mark Brown (How to Be a Player). (Sept. 7)
Rock Star -- Small town boy (Mark Wahlberg) becomes a heavy metal rock 'n' roll icon while his adoring girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) waits in the wings. After this and Boogie Nights, Wahlberg is now the official spokesman for baby boomer male fantasies. (Sept. 14)
Hardball -- Another jock role for Keanu Reeves (The Replacements). This time, he's a ticket scalper coaching a Chicago youth league baseball team. What's next? A remake of Hoosiers? (Sept. 14)
Glitter -- This one has all the appeal of a car wreck. Pop singer Mariah Carey landed her first starring role playing -- surprise! -- a pop singer. Then she landed in the hospital being treated for a nervous breakdown just before the movie was supposed to open. Please don't let anyone show her the reviews. (Sept. 14)
Training Day -- Denzel Washington sheds his noble image to play a rogue narcotics cop giving the lowdown to a rookie (Ethan Hawke) on his first day with the precinct. (Sept. 21)
Zoolander -- The preview trailer for this is strangely hilarious. Ben Stiller plays a runway fashion model brainwashed to commit a political assassination. Stiller directed a game cast including scene stealers Owen Wilson (Shanghai Noon) and Will Ferrell (Saturday Night Live). (Sept. 28)
[Photo: 20th Century Fox]
A psychiatrist (Michael Douglas) must retrieve information from a troubled woman (Britney Murphy) to rescue his kidnapped daughter in Don’t Say A Word.
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[Photo: Warner Bros.]
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a firefighter who loses everything in Collateral Damage.
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[Photo: Universal Studios]
Prot (Kevin Spacey, right), who claims to be from a distant planet, shares his views with Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges) in K-PAX. |
Don't Say a Word -- Michael Douglas is a psychologist whose patient knows something bad people want to learn. The doctor's daughter is kidnapped, and the ransom is the information. Directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead). (Sept. 28)
Collateral Damage -- Arnold Schwarzenegger tries recovering from a string of flops. He plays a firefighter whose family is killed in a terrorist bombing. The buzz is promising, but that's what they said about End of Days and The 6th Day. (Oct. 5)
Joy Ride -- Reckless brothers (Paul Walker, Steve Zahn) pull a prank on a psycho trucker who wants to Duel. Leelee Sobieski is the distressed damsel in John Dahl's nasty little thriller. (Oct. 5)
K-Pax -- A stranger (Kevin Spacey) claims to be an alien from another planet, and nobody believes him. Not even his court-appointed mental therapist, played by Jeff Bridges, who once was a Starman himself. (Oct. 26)
Monsters, Inc. -- Disney gets back in the business of having goofy animated fun. Those creatures you always imagined under your bed and in the closet had a life when you weren't in the room, just like those Toy Story characters. Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and James Coburn lend their voices to the mix. (Nov. 2)
[Photo: 20th Century Fox]
Lovesick Hal (Jack Black) is in a whirlwind romance with Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), an obese and homely woman whom he has been hypnotized into perceiving as the beauty picture here. |
Shallow Hal -- Lunkhead playboy (Jack Black, High Fidelity) gets hypnotized and sees only the beauty within women. That means he looks at a 400-pound woman and sees Gwyneth Paltrow. Directed by the Farrelly brothers (There's Something About Mary, Kingpin) with no apologies for jokes about obese people. (Nov. 9)
Epilogue: Slipping through the cracks
| Matthew Lillard is haunted in 13 Ghosts.
[Photo: Warner Bros.] |
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[Photo: Lions Gate Films]
Kirsten Dunst plays Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst’s mistress, in The Cat’s Meow.
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Keep an eye out for William H. Macy and Laura Dern mistaken for Jews in an anti-Semitic neighborhood in Focus; an odd adolescent and Sundance favorite named Donnie Darko; Barbet Schroeder's political thriller Our Lady of the Assassins; campus occultism in Soul Survivors; Ed Burns trying to get it right again in Sidewalks of New York; Snoop Dogg doing double duty in The Wash and Bones; Disney making Max Keeble's Big Move; Saturday Night Live sprite Chris Kattan as Corky Romano; two guys from 'N Sync going On the Line; a campy remake of 13 Ghosts; Peter Bogdanovich unearthing a Hollywood scandal in The Cat's Meow; Albert Brooks as My First Mister and Jet Li kicking his own butt in an alternate universe in The One.
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Jet Li demonstrates his agility in The One.
[Photo: Revolution Studios] |
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