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The next sure things
[Photo: New Line Cinema]
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published December 6, 2001
As award nominations near, studios finally show their hands. Here are ten upcoming movies worth gambling on.
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Another movie year comes to an end, and it's about time. 2001 won't be remembered as a great time for films, so we have the twin satisfaction of knowing studios save their best for last and can soon start over again.
We've selected the 10 most appealing reasons to wait in line at megaplexes for the next couple of months. Some of the most promising films won't reach Tampa Bay until January or February due to platform release schedules used to keep films fresh in everyone's minds while the awards season progresses. Others may not make it at all, victims of bad reviews and slow ticket sales turning studios' attention elsewhere.
You can count on these movies arriving, although release dates are subject to change:
DEC. 14
Vanilla Sky -- Cameron Crowe reinvents Alejandro Amenabar's 1998 Spanish film Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), a sexy existential thriller that brought attention to Penelope Cruz. Her role in the remake brought Cruz to the attention of co-star Tom Cruise, leading to the breakup of his marriage with Nicole Kidman.
[Photo: Paramount Pictures]
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After the gossip comes the movie, and it's a much better-kept secret. Preview trailers suggest the plot's outline remains -- a womanizer dumps his lover for another and gets squeezed -- but one key element may be left out. Amenabar's hero was terribly disfigured in a car accident; Cruise may not be as willing to mess up his good looks.
Cameron Diaz co-stars as the jilted woman, and Crowe found roles for Kurt Russell, Tilda Swinton and Almost Famous holdovers Jason Lee and Noah Taylor. Curiosity about Cruise and Cruz will attract some moviegoers, but this Sky looks limited.
DEC. 19
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -- Peter Jackson tackled the impossible and made it even more difficult, turning J.R.R. Tolkien's literary trilogy into three movies produced at the same time. The director of Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners has millions of moviegoers anticipating his vision of Tolkien's Middle-earth.
Elijah Wood (The Ice Storm) plays Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit given an ancient ring that can unleash dark forces. Frodo assembles a crack crew of wizards and warriors for a journey to the Cracks of Doom where the ring must be destroyed. The cast includes Oscar nominees Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett, plus Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen and Sean Astin.
The built-in audience for Jackson's film is enormous, guaranteeing one of the top opening weekends of all time. But what will those devout Tolkien readers say when they leave the theater? Word of mouth had better be positive with two sequels already in the can. This could be a hard Hobbit to break.
[Photo: Castle Rock Entertainment]
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DEC. 21
The Majestic -- Jim Carrey finally finished peeling off that Grinch makeup and made another bittersweet movie. He plays a blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter who loses his memory and winds up in a Capra-esque town where he's mistaken for an MIA war hero. It's a wonderful lie.
Director Frank Darabont has the track record to make The Majestic an Oscar contender. His first two films, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, were best picture nominees. Whether he can work the same magic beyond prison walls remains to be seen.
DEC. 25
Ali -- Don't you get chills watching Will Smith's impersonation of Muhammad Ali in the preview trailers? He seems born and bred to play the champ, full of the boisterous, Afro-centric charm that Ali displayed before it was acceptable to many Americans. This performance looks like the only sure-fire Oscar nominee among actors this year.
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
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Building a complete package around the star is the responsibility of director Michael Mann (The Insider). The film covers Ali's rise to boxing prominence from the Olympics to the "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman. But the most savory drama occurs outside the ring: Ali's controversial conversion to Islam and his conscientious objection to fighting in Vietnam.
Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday) plays Ali's trainer Drew Bundini Brown, Mario Van Peebles portrays Malcolm X and Jon Voight (Pearl Harbor) goes under latex cover again as Ali's favorite foil, television commentator Howard Cosell. This one looks like a knockout.
[Photo: Miramax Films]
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The Shipping News -- A widower (Kevin Spacey) moves back to his Newfoundland hometown and begins writing a column for the local newspaper. Caring for his aunt (Judi Dench) and two young daughters is already a full-time job. Maybe the comely widow Wavey (Julianne Moore) can lend a hand.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by E. Annie Proulx was handed over to director Lasse Hallstrom after his warm adaptation of John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Each holiday season needs a classy tearjerker, and this one fits the bill.
[Photo: Universal Studios]
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A Beautiful Mind -- Russell Crowe takes aim at his third consecutive Oscar nomination with this biography of John Forbes Nash Jr., a schizophrenic mathematician who couldn't solve himself. Nash's knack for numbers gets him involved with U.S. intelligence and shadowy figures, so perhaps his paranoid feelings are justified.
Ed Harris (Pollock) co-stars as Nash's government contact, and Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream) plays his former student and supportive wife. Director Ron Howard (Apollo 13, Ransom) doesn't have any films like this on his varied resume, but he's a dependable storyteller.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002
The Royal Tanenbaums -- Wes Anderson's first two films, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, were brimming with eccentricity. Now he has a cast of big-name actors believing in his talent, making this a most attractive gamble for moviegoers. Gene Hackman's fifth movie role this year is the title character, a dying tycoon making up for dreadfully lost time with his children.
[Photo: Touchstone Pictures]
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The little Tanenbaums were child prodigies, spoiled and rotten, who grew up to be problem adults played by Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson. Anderson always populates his films with colorful supporting characters, this time played by Bill Murray and co-writer Owen Wilson (Behind Enemy Lines, Shanghai Noon; and he's Luke's brother). Expect something weird and, hopefully, wonderful.
Black Hawk Down -- War movies that seemed like gambles three months ago are now the hottest subject in Hollywood. One film benefitting from coincidental timing is Ridley Scott's version of a true-life military action.
In 1993, elite U.S. soldiers were dispatched to Somalia as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force. Their mission was to kidnap a warlord's chief lieutenants to end the civil war and save citizens from starvation. Their mission came under fire, beginning an 18-hour struggle to survive until rescuers arrived.
Black Hawk Down is based on Mark Bowden's journal of events, with a cast including Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Ewan McGregor and Sam Shepard.
I Am Sam -- Don't leave Sean Penn out of all this awards talk. The Academy loves actors who portray mentally deficient heroes (Rain Man, Forrest Gump, etc.). Toss in some Kramer vs. Kramer-style courtroom drama, and you have everything needed for a nomination except the performance. Penn is one of the few actors to be counted on for that.
Sam (Penn) is a parent with the mind of a 7-year-old, the same age as his precocious daughter (newcomer Dakota Fanning). They get along famously until authorities deem Sam unfit to care for his child. Enter a sympathetic social worker (Michelle Pfeiffer) ready to plead his case. The cast also includes Dianne Wiest, Laura Dern and and Loretta Devine.
In the Bedroom -- Looking for a sleeper this season? It could be this domestic drama from first-time director Todd Field, previously an actor in Eyes Wide Shut and Ruby in Paradise. Field's film wowed festival audiences, and Miramax is making it a priority during the awards publicity push.
Oscar winner Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty) play parents unconcerned about their son's romance with an older woman (Marisa Tomei). Then the woman's ex-husband returns, bringing a violent plot twist with him. Field's movie feels like an invasion of fictional privacy, starkly written and expertly performed.
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