The Producers
Some have become brand names, so identified
with a certain type of winning product that studio execs
are quick to employ their monikers in marketing campaigns.
Others may momentarily control the rights to source material,
but never make another creative decision or even visit
a movie’s set.
They’re the producers, and there’s a ton of
them – often so many per film that it’s difficult
to credit a film’s success (or failure) to any one.
Still, we thought it might be useful to
take a break from the actors, directors and screenwriters
on whom Next! usually
dwells, and look instead at some of the more prominent
folks who help hire those actors, directors and screenwriters.
Jerry Bruckheimer
Legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“Flashdance,” “Top
Gun,” “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Crimson
Tide,” “Armageddon,” “The Rock,” etc.,
etc.) has had the kind of summer most producers only dream
about, holding the top slot on the box office charts two
weekends in a row with two different films, “Pirates
of the Caribbean” and “Bad Boys II.”
Next up for the producer is a more serious
change of pace. “Veronica
Guerin,” the true story of a murdered Irish
journalist, is due Oct. 17 from Buena Vista. There’s
more about the film in this month's Preview.
He heads somewhat further back into the
history of the British Isles for “King Arthur.” The gritty
period drama is about the reign of the legendary king and
how his power grew as the Roman Empire fell. Antoine Fuqua
(“Training Day,” “Tears of the Sun”)
directed from a screenplay by John Lee Hancock (“Bad
Boys II,” “The Alamo”) and David Franzoni
(“Gladiator”). Clive Owen (“The Bourne
Identity,” “Beyond Borders”) stars as
Arthur with Stephen Dillane (“The Hours”) as
Merlin, Keira Knightley (“Pirates of the Caribbean”)
as Guinevere, Stellan Skarsgård (“City of Ghosts”)
as Cedric, Hugh Dancy (“Black Hawk Down”) as
Galahad and Ioan Gruffudd (“Black Hawk Down”)
as Lancelot. Buena Vista sends it round to your table Dec.
25, 2004.
“National Treasure” is a contemporary comedy-adventure
about a hunt for treasure – hidden more than 200
years ago by Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Benjamin
Franklin to finance the American Revolution. Jon Turteltaub
(“Instinct,” “The Kid”) was reportedly
set to direct from a screenplay by Jim Kouf (“Rush
Hour”). Nicolas Cage (“Adaptation”) was
reportedly set to star. Buena Vista has dug up a Nov. 19,
2004 release date.
Neal H. Moritz
Aside from being the son of
NATO of California/Nevada CEO Milt Moritz, Neal H. Moritz
has gotten a firm hold
of the “Hey! Teens go to the movies!” concept
proven so lucrative in recent years. Moritz (sometimes
pronounced “more hits”) not only has “S.W.A.T.” and
the “Fast and the Furious” franchise to his
credit, he’s also dished out such popcorn-sellers
as the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Urban
Legends” series, “Cruel Intentions,” “The
Skulls,” “Not Another Teen Movie,” “Sweet
Home Alabama” and “XXX.” Here’s
what’s ahead of him:
U.S. government secret weapon Xander Cage
is slated to open another can of whup-ass in Moritz’s “XXX” sequel. “XXXX” – er, “XXX2” – returns
Moritz favorite Rob Cohen (“The Skulls,” “The
Fast and the Furious,” “XXX”) to the
director’s chair with another screenplay by “XXX” scribe
Rich Wilkes in hand. Vin Diesel, Asia Argento and Samuel
L. Jackson are expected to reprise their roles from the
original. Sony is tentatively planning a June 2005 release.
Moritz repertory member Eva Mendes (“Urban
Legends: Final Cut,” “2 Fast 2 Furious”)
once again swears to serve and protect in “Out Of
Time.” The
thriller, due Oct. 3, is covered in this month's Preview.
Had Universal backed it, “Torque” might have
been titled “2 Fast 2 Furious on 2 Wheels.” In
it, a motorcyclist returns to his hometown to reunite with
his girlfriend, only to find himself framed for a murder
and targeted for revenge by the victim’s brother.
Music video director Joseph Kahn (Moby’s “We
Are All Made of Stars,” the Backstreet Boys’ “Larger
Than Life,” Eminem’s “Without Me”)
makes his feature directorial debut from a screenplay by
Matt Johnson. Martin Henderson (“The Ring”)
stars with Monet Mazur (“Just Married”), Ice
Cube (“Friday After Next”), Jaime Pressly (“Not
Another Teen Movie”), Faizon Love (“Blue Crush,” “The
Fighting Temptations”) and Will Yun Lee (“Die
Another Day”). Warner Bros. plans a Jan. 16 release.
“Let’s Get Harry,” is a planned remake of the
1986 straight-to-video actioner starring Mark Harmon, Robert
Duvall and Gary Busey. It concerns a group of men who set
out to rescue their kidnapped friend, even though he may
already be dead. Scott Rosenberg (“Con Air,” “Gone
in Sixty Seconds”) and Josh Appelbaum & Andre
Nemec (TV’s “Fastlane”) are penning the
screenplay. Sony has yet to say when it will set it free.
Kathleen
Kennedy & Frank Marshall
Producing pair Kathleen Kennedy
and Frank Marshall, who rode “Seabiscuit” to sleeper
success, next saddle up “Young Black Stallion.” The
drama, about a young girl who finds her life transformed
after she befriends a wild Arabian horse, is a prequel
to 1979’s “The Black Stallion” based
on the novel by Walter Farley (“The Black Stallion”) & Steven
Farley (“The Black Stallion’s Shadow”).
Simon Wincer (“The Phantom,” “Crocodile
Dundee in Los Angeles”) directed from a screenplay
by Jeanne Rosenberg (“T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous,” “China:
The Panda Adventure”). Biana Tamimi, Patrick Elyas,
Gerard Rudolf (“Dust”) and Richard Romanus
(“Cops and Robbersons”) star. Buena Vista lets
it out of the stable Dec. 25.
Newcomer William Monahan (whose
spec script became the upcoming “Tripoli”)
was reportedly hard at work on the screenplay for the Kennedy-produced “Jurassic
Park IV.” Anyone left alive from earlier
installments of the series (begun in 1993) may be needing
that IV. Universal
puts the bite on July 2005 for the release.
“Emma’s War” is a Kennedy/Marshall drama about
a civilian aid worker who gets tangled up in a love affair
with a warlord (and geopolitics) in war-ravaged Sudan.
Tony Scott (“Enemy of the State,” “Spy
Game”) was set to direct from a screenplay by Steve
Knight (“Dirty Pretty Things”). It’s
based on the book “Emma’s War: An Aid Worker,
a Warlord, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil – A
True Story of Love and Death in Sudan” by Deborah
Scroggins. Nicole Kidman was reportedly set to play the
title role. Fox has yet to set a release date.
Gale Anne Hurd
“Hulk” had at least eight producers,
including James Schamus, Avi Arad and Larry Franco, executive
producers Kevin Feige and Stan Lee, and associate producers
Cheryl Tkach and David Womark. “Terminator 3: Rise
of the Machines” employed a whopping 13, including
Hal Lieberman, Joel Michaels, Colin Wilson, Andrew Vajna,
Mario Kasser and Matthias Deyle, executive producers
Moritz Borman, Guy East, Aslan Nadery, Volker Schauz
and Nigel
Sinclair, and line producer Oliver Hengst.
What “Hulk” and “T3” have in common
is Gale Anne Hurd, who produced the former and executive-produced
the latter. She’ll follow up the twin blockbusters
with another Marvel Comics adaptation, “The Punisher,” about
a DEA agent who takes the law into his own hands after
a group of drug dealers murders his wife and son. His crusade
leads him into conflict with a former crime boss gone straight,
Howard Saint, who vows revenge after the Punisher kills
Saint’s son. Screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh (“The
Saint,” “Armageddon”) makes his feature
directorial debut from a script by Hensleigh and Michael
France (“Hulk”). Thomas Jane (“Dreamcatcher”)
stars as the title character, opposite Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
(“X2”), Ben Foster (“Northfork”),
Laura Elena Harring (“Willard”) as Ivia Saint,
and John Travolta (“Basic”) as Howard Saint.
Artisan plans to inflict it April 16.
Joel Silver
Joel Silver is breaking out the
second installment (third, if you count the Imax version)
of “The Matrix” in
less than a year.
“The Matrix Revolutions” finds Neo and his
comrades engaged in a war pitting humanity against machines.
Returnees
from parts one and two include writer-directors Andy and
Larry Wachowski (“Bound”), as well as actors
Keanu Reeves (“Sweet November,” “Hardball”),
Carrie-Anne Moss (“Memento”), Laurence Fishburne
(“Biker Boyz,” “Mystic River”)
and Hugo Weaving (“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring,” “Russian Doll”). Returnees
from part two include Jada Pinkett Smith (“Ali”),
Monica Bellucci (“Tears of the Sun”), Nona
Gaye (“Ali”), Harold Perrineau (“Woman
On Top”), Daniel Bernhardt (“Blood Sport II:
The Next Kumite”), Matt McColm (“Space Cowboys”),
Harry J. Lennix (“Collateral Damage,” “The
Human Stain”) and Collin Chou. The Warner Bros. release
revolves around Nov. 5.
Silver-produced “Gothika” is
a thriller about a criminal psychologist who awakens one
day to find herself
a patient at the mental institution where she worked – accused
of a murder she does not remember. Halle Berry stars in
the Warner Bros. release due Oct. 24. There’s more
in this month's Preview.
Will Silver produce “Silver Surfer”? No, but
he is producing comic-book-based “Adrenalyn” (sometimes
spelled “Adrenalynn”), a contemporary science
fiction actioner about a Russian female cyborg built to
bring the United States to its knees. The screenplay is
by Alan Sereboff based on the Image comic book created
by Tony Daniel. Christina Ricci (“Pumpkin,” “Anything
Else”) was reportedly set to star. There is no spoon,
and no distributor lined up as yet.
Brian Grazer
Honored with ShoWest’s
Lifetime Achievement award last March, Brian Grazer has
easily the
biggest individual
production slate of any of the producers we’re discussing
here.
Up first is the George Clooney/ Catherine
Zeta-Jones starrer, “Intolerable
Cruelty.” Read more about the Oct. 10 Universal release
in this month's Preview.
Grazer revisits the source of his 2000 hit “How The
Grinch Stole Christmas” with “Dr. Seuss’ The
Cat In The Hat,” a comedy about two children who
invite an oddly-dressed feline into their house while their
mother is out, only to watch him destroy the place with
his games. It’s based on the 1957 children’s
book. Veteran production designer Bo Welch (“Men
in Black II”) makes his feature directorial debut
from a screenplay by veteran TV writers Alec Berg (“Late
Night With Conan O’Brien”), David Mandel (“Saturday
Night Live”) and Jeff Schaeffer (“Seinfeld”).
Mike Myers (“Austin Powers in Goldmember,” “View
From the Top”) essays the title role opposite Spencer
Breslin (“The Santa Clause 2”), Dakota Fanning
(“Uptown Girls”), Alec Baldwin (“Pearl
Harbor”), and Kelly Preston (“What a Girl Wants”).
Universal lets the cat out of the bag Nov. 21.
Grazer reunites with longtime Imagine Entertainment
partner Ron Howard for “The Missing.” The western drama,
set in 1886 New Mexico, is about a terminally ill frontiersman
who finds himself helping his estranged daughter search
for his granddaughter, who has been kidnapped by a deformed
Apache witch. It’s based on the novel “The
Last Ride” by Thomas Eidson (“All God’s
Children”). Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”)
directs from a screenplay by Ken Kaufmann (“Space
Cowboys”). Tommy Lee Jones (“The Hunted”),
Cate Blanchett (the “Lord of the Rings” series, “Veronica
Guerin”), Evan Rachel Wood (“Simone”),
Aaron Eckhart (“The Core”), Val Kilmer (“The
Salton Sea,” “Wonderland”) and Jenna
Boyd (“The Hunted,” “Dickie Roberts:
Former Child Star”) star. Sony finds a limited Dec.
10 release to its liking.
Fifteen days later, a Grazer production
set 50 years earlier hits the multis. “The Alamo” is a historical
epic, set in 1836 San Antonio, about the Mexican army’s
famous 13-day siege on a small group of volunteers – William
Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie among them – who
fought for Texas’ independence from Mexico. John
Lee Hancock (“The Rookie”) directs from a screenplay
by Hancock (“Bad Boys II”), John Sayles (“Sunshine
State,” “Casa de Los Babys”), Leslie
Bohem (“Dante’s Peak”) and Stephen Gaghan
(“Traffic,” “Abandon”). Billy Bob
Thornton (“Levity,” “Intolerable Cruelty”)
stars as Crockett, Jason Patric (“Narc”) as
Bowie, Tony-winning Broadway vet Patrick Wilson as Travis,
Dennis Quaid (“The Rookie,” “Far From
Heaven”) as Sam Houston, Marc Blucas (“View
From The Top,” “I Capture the Castle”)
as James Bonham, Jordi Mollà (“Blow,” “Bad
Boys II”) as Juan Seguin and Emilio Echevarría
(“Die Another Day”) as General Antonio Lopez
de Santa Anna. Buena Vista remembers it Dec. 25.
Grazer rehires “The Grinch’s” Jim Carrey
for “Fun With Dick and Jane.” Cameron Diaz
was reportedly set to co-star in this remake of the 1977
George Segal-Jane Fonda heist comedy, about an upper-middle-class
couple who turn to thievery to pay their bills. Barry Sonnenfeld
(the “Men in Black” series), who quit the Carrey
vehicle “Lemony Snicket,” had signed to direct “Fun” but
quit it too. The screenplay is by Peter Tolan (“America’s
Sweethearts”) Judd Apatow (“Celtic Pride,” TV’s “Undeclared”)
and Joel & Ethan Coen (“The Man Who Wasn’t
There,” “Intolerable Cruelty”). Sony
plans a 2005 release.
“The Incredible Shrinking Man” is a Grazer-shepherded
comedy about a fellow who discovers he’s growing
smaller. It’s a loose remake of the 1957 film scripted
by Richard Matheson (“What Dreams May Come,” “Stir
of Echoes”) and based on the novel by Matheson. Keenan
Ivory Wayans (the first two “Scary Movie” installments)
may direct from a screenplay by Fred Wolf (“Joe Dirt,” “Dickie
Roberts: Former Child Star”), Billy Frolick (“Madagascar”)
and Mark Burton. Eddie Murphy (“Daddy Day Care”)
was reportedly set to star. Universal plans to expand it
next June.
Finally, “Cinderella Man” is a Grazer-produced
sports drama, set during the depression, about a man who
becomes a working-class hero when he enters the boxing
ring to feed his family. The screenplay is by newcomer
Charlie Mitchell. Previous Grazer hire Russell Crowe (“A
Beautiful Mind”) and Renee Zellweger (“Down
With Love”) were reportedly set to begin filming
in November. Universal has yet to set a release date.
