Less than a
month into release, Spidey had already climbed to number 6 on the
all-time U.S. box office chart with a tidy domestic haul of one-third
of a billion dollars (and counting). Add another $100 million internationally
(with its rollout still in progress) and you’re talking real
money.
Sony knew it
had a hit on its hands (though probably not this big) a month before
the film hit U.S. movie screens; that’s when it gave a green
light to “Spider-Man 2.” Director Sam Raimi and
actors Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst have already been ensnared
in “2’s” web, and James Franco has been rumored to
return as the Green Goblin’s vengeful son. May 7, 2004 has
been earmarked as the release date. All that’s missing is a
script.
Meanwhile, Tobey
Maguire is due to unwrap his next film in time for Christmas. Touchstone’s
“The 25th Hour” is a drama concerning the last
day of freedom for a young man before he begins serving a jail term
for drug dealing. Roaming the streets of the city with his girlfriend
and two close pals, he comes to reevaluate his life. Spike Lee (“Son
of Sam,” “Bamboozled”) directed from a screenplay
by David Benioff, based on Benioff’s novel. Maguire’s
costars include Edward Norton (“Death to Smoochy”), Barry
Pepper (“We Were Soldiers”), Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Almost
Famous”), Rosario Dawson (“Chelsea Walls,” “Men
in Black 2”), Anna Paquin (“Almost Famous”), Brian
Cox (“The Bourne Identity”) and Paul Diomede (“Ghost
Dog”).
Kirsten Dunst
takes time off from appearing on every magazine cover in the country
for a little “Levity.” It too revolves around a
man considering the consequences of crime. Billy Bob Thornton stars
as a man released after 19 years in prison for killing a teenager
during an armed robbery. After almost two decades of staring at
his victim’s picture in a newspaper clipping, he tries to find
redemption with the help of an unusual minister and two emotionally-grasping
women. Screenwriter Ed Solomon (“Bill and Ted’s Excellent
Adventure,” “Charlie’s Angels”) makes his directorial
debut from his own screenplay. Thornton’s costars include Morgan
Freeman (“The Sum of All Fears”) as the minister and Dunst
and Holly Hunter (“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” “Festival
in Cannes”) as the needy women. Sony has yet to spring a release
date on us.
“Kaena,”
set in the branches of a giant tree which rises 100 miles from the
surface of its world, is reportedly the first European CGI-animated
film. Previously known as “Axis,” it’s an adventure
tale about a young woman (Dunst) who journeys to discover why the
tree’s vital sap is disappearing. Pascal Pinon and Chris Delaporte
make their feature directorial debuts from a script by Tarik Hamdine
and Delaporte. Richard Harris, Anjelica Huston, Keith David, Michael
McShane and Greg Proops lend their voices. Although produced by
Vivendi Universal’s Studio Canal, neither Universal nor Vivendi’s
other domestic distribs have yet announced a U.S. release dete.
The villains
always get the good lines, and in Willem Dafoe’s case, they
also get all the good parts. Although he will not reprise his role
as Green Goblin (what with Gobby being dead and all), Dafoe has
his pick of work.
First up for the craggy character actor is “Once Upon A
Time In Mexico: Desperado 2.” (Despite the title, this
is actually the third chapter in the “El Mariachi” series
– albeit the second to star to Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek,
Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin.) The actioner is about a drug lord
planning to assassinate the Mexican president and assume power,
and the men who try to stop him. Returnees from the first two “Mariachi”
sagas include writer-director Robert Rodriguez (the “Spy Kids”
series). Newcomers to the series include Mickey Rourke (“The
Pledge”), Johnny Depp (“From Hell”), Rubén
Blades (“All the Pretty Horses”), Eva Mendes (“Training
Day”), and Marco Leonardi (“Texas Rangers”). Sony
is aiming for an autumn 2002 bow.
Dafoe will be
heard and not seen in “Finding Nemo.” The animated
adventure is about a kid fish who becomes separated from his dad
in the Great Barrier Reef. Screenwriter Andrew Stanton (the “Toy
Story” series, “Monsters, Inc.”), who co-wrote and
co-directed “A Bug’s Life,” makes his solo feature
directorial debut from his own script. Albert Brooks voices the
father fish, Alexander Gould the son. Dafoe gives voice to a sadistic
drug dealer who – sorry, wrong movie. Ellen DeGeneres, Geoffrey
Rush, and John Ratzenberger also lend their voices. Buena Vista
plans a summer 2003 catch and release.
Set in World
War II Poland, “Edges of the Lord” is a drama about
a strange priest (Dafoe) who sets out to keep the local Jewish children
out of the hands of occupying Nazis – by teaching them the
ways of Catholics. Yurek Bogayavicz (“Anna”) directed
from his own screenplay. Haley Joel Osment plays the boy. Miramax
hasn’t set a release date.
Dafoe is an
even stranger priest in “Bullfighter.” The comic
actioner, set in turn-of-the-millennium Mexico, is about a mystical
warrior-priest (“Unfaithful”’s Olivier Martinez)
who finds himself the unexpected protector of his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
Rune Bendixen, front-man for Danish techno band “The Overlords,”
made his feature directorial debut from a screenplay by Bendixen,
L.M. “Kit” Carson (“Paris, Texas,” “Texas
Chainsaw Massacre 2”) and actor Hunter Carson (“Mr. North”).
Michelle Forbes (“Escape From L.A.”), Michael Parks (“Niagara
Niagara”), Jared Harris (“How to Kill Your Neighbor’s
Dog,” “Deeds”), Assumpta Serna (“The Craft”),
Donnie Wahlberg (“Diamond Men”), L.M. “Kit”
Carson (“Hurricane Streets”), Domenica Cameron-Scorsese
(“The Age of Innocence”), Carl Bressler (“The Usual
Suspects”) and Royal Danish Ballet principal dancer Alexander
Kolpin also star. Directors Robert Rodriguez and Guillermo del Toro
make cameo appearances as “the bull boys.” It has yet
to lasso a distributor.
“Auto-Focus”
is yet another Dafoe descent into the dark side. The drama is about
“Hogan’s Heroes” star Bob Crane, his immersion into
the sexual underworld, his mysterious murder and the trial of his
suspected assailant – a cameraman who documented Crane’s
sexual adventures. Paul Schrader (“Hardcore,” “American
Gigolo,” “Affliction”) directed from a screenplay
by Schrader (“Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation
of Christ,” “Affliction”) and Michael Gerbosi, based
on the biography “The Murder of Bob Crane” by Robert Graysmith.
The film stars Greg Kinnear (“We Were Soldiers”) as Crane,
Dafoe as the accused cameraman and Maria Bello (“Duets”)
as Ingrid Valdis. Rita Wilson (“The Story of Us,” “Perfume”),
Alex Menses (“The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas”), Michael
E. Rodgers (“Thomas and the Magic Railroad”), Marieh Delfino
(TV’s “All About Us”), Nikita Ager (“Tomcats”),
Joseph D. Reitman (“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”),
Kurt Fuller (“The New Guy”) and Kevin Beard (“Collateral
Damage,” “National Security”) costar. Sony Pictures
Classics knows nothing – n-o-o-o-thing! – about
a release date.
James Franco
is a very busy future villain.
He makes his
next appearance in “City By The Sea,” the true
story of a policeman (Robert De Niro) whose father was a murderous
kidnapper and whose son (Franco) faces the death penalty as a result
of being charged with murder. It’s based on an Esquire article
by New York Daily News columnist Mike McAlary. Michael Caton-Jones
(“The Jackal”) directed from a screenplay by Caton-Jones,
Frank Pierson (“Presumed Innocent”) and Ken Hixon (“Inventing
the Abbots”). Frances McDormand (“The Man Who Wasn’t
There”) and Eliza Dushku (“The New Guy”) also star.
Warner Bros. plans a September 13 release.
Franco takes
the title role in the indie feature “Sonny,” about
a male prostitute who joins the Army in an attempt to get out of
his family’s gigolo lifestyle. When he’s discharged he
finds his mother wants him to return to the family business. Actor
Nicolas Cage makes his feature directorial debut from a screenplay
by John Carlen. Franco’s costars include Mena Suvari (“The
Musketeer”), Harry Dean Stanton (“The Pledge”), Josie
Davis (TV’s “Titans”), Brenda Blethyn (“Pumpkin”)
and Scott Caan (“Ocean’s Eleven”). 
