FILM PREVIEW January
GEM OF THE MONTH
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Pitch At the end of anCrent Chrna's ang dynasty, two warrrors (Chow Yun-Fat and Mrchelle Yeoh) become Involved rn court rntrrgue when a young arrstocrat rebels agarnst her arranged marrrage.
Success Absolutely gob-smackrng martral arts sequences that make everythrng from Enter The Dragon to The Matrrx look lrke an eprsode of Playschool. Drrector Ang Lee ensures the plot and performances are srmrlarly exqursrte.
Failure The dreaded Subtrtles of Doom.
x. .‘
Martial arts magic
Almost Famous
Pitch Cameron Crowe's long-awarted follow-up mm to Jerry Magur’re concerns a hrgh school krd who gets hrs break as a rock Journo followrnq an up- and-comrng rock band on therr Amerrcan t0ur. Success Though short, Crowe’s CV rs hrgh qualrty, plus A/most Famous rs based on hrs own experrence as a wrrter for Rol/rng Stone magazrne. Failure A tOp grade cast (Brlly Crudup, Frances McDormand, Phrlrp Seymour Hoffman), but no A- lrst stars.
Bounce
Pitch A man swrtches plane trckets wrth another man who subsequently dres rn a plane crash and
Island.
12 HIE lIST 19 0:: '2 7.1;. 2~f><:f:
Failure Often a problem, translatrng a much loved book rnto
Cast Away
Pitch Tom Hanks rs a top FedEx exec who never mrsses the post . . . untrl he's plane-wrecked on a desert
Success Hollywood’s most popular other Tom rs reunrted wrth hrs Forrest Gump drrector, Robert Zemeckrs, who’s strll the golden boy followrng an enormous hrt wrth What Lies Beneath.
Failure Realrty TV has done the whole marooned on an rsland thing tr) (J(?(rtlr.
Requiem For A
Dream Pitch Darren Aronofsky follows hrs arthouse hrt Pr' wrth an
JANUARY
then falls rn love wrth the deceased’s wrfe. And the two lucky/unlucky romancers are: Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Success Two gorgeous A-lrst Hollywood stars + tragedy + romance 2 brg bucks.
Failure Drrector Don Roos' track record arn’t great (see The Oppos/hjr'te Of Sex).
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Pitch War and romance under the sun rn World War li Greece, as Nrcolas Cage, Penelope Crer and Chrrstran Bale swap partners rn thrs adaptatron of the Lours de Bernreres' best seller.
Success Drrector John Madden (Shakespeare In Love) rs lrkely to score hrgh agarn wrth another lrterary movre.
addrctron that’s unsurprrsrngly tough stuff. Success The crrtrcs raved about Pr, and wrth Requiem, Aronofsky (who's slated to drrect the next Batman frlm) has really narled the cult author’s book on the head.
Failure The unrelentrng and graphrcally deprcted depravrtres have lead to Requiem berng released m the US wrthout a certrfrcate; rt's lrkely to garner srmrlar controversy rn the UK.
Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her
Pitch The lives of srx rntrospectrve women (Glenn Close, Cameron Draz, Calrsta Flockhart, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman and Holly Hunter) overlap rn thrs Short Cuts-style Los Angeles-set drama.
Success Fantastrc cast and flawless scrrpt and drrectron from Rodrrgo Garcra, son of novelrst Gabrrel Garcra Marquez.
Failure Mrght be prgeonholed as a ’chrck flrck’, as rt was rn the US where rt (unfarrly) went strarght-to-cable.
BLOCKBUSTER OF THE
adaptatron of Hubert Selby Jr’s novel about the destructrve nature of
Unbreakable
Pitch lvl. Nrght Shyamalan's follow-up to The Sixth Sense,
another supernatural thrrller starrrng Bruce erlrs, here playrng the sole (and rnexplrcably unharmed) survrvor of a tram wreck. Success After The S/Xth Sense Shyamalan and erlrs are hot cookres. Failure Expectatrons wrll, of course, be very hrgh.