M.I.A.
'05
What’s
Ahead For The Stars Who Sat Out The Year
by
Patrick Corcoran
As certain as the changing of the seasons,
as sure as the annual migration of birds, there comes
a time, late
in the year when the days grow short and the sunlight a
little pale, when you realize that Chris Tucker has gone
yet another year without making a movie. As near as we
can tell, he won’t be making one next year either.
There are other stars, stars who didn’t have a movie
released in 2005, but did manage to rouse themselves from
the hibernation that periodically afflicts almost all of
cinema’s multi-millionaires.
These are their stories.
Missing: Harrison Ford
Career Peak: “Star Wars” (1977)
Career Peak Domestic Theatrical Gross (DTG): $460.2 million
“Firewall” is a thriller about a high-powered security
expert forced to rescue his family by “withdrawing” a
large sum of money from the bank he was hired to protect.
Richard Loncraine (1995’s “Richard III,” “Wimbledon”)
directs from a screenplay by Joe Forte. Ford’s co-stars
include Paul Bettany (“Wimbledon”), Virginia
Madsen (“Sideways”), Jimmy Bennett (“The
Amityville Horror”), Carly Schroeder (“Mean
Creek”), Mary Lynn Rajskub (“Mysterious Skin”),
Alan Arkin (“13 Conversations About One Thing”),
Vince Vieluf (“Grind”), Vincent Gale (“The
Final Cut”), Kett Turton (“Blade: Trinity”),
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Kingdom of Heaven”)
and Zachary De Wilde. Originally titled “The Wrong
Element,” it’s being kept safe by Warner Bros.
until its 2006 release.
Missing: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Career Peak: “Scooby Doo” (2002)
Career Peak DTG: $153.2 million
The erstwhile vampire slayer finds herself playing an adult
film star developing her own reality TV show in “Southland
Tales.” The ensemble comedy-musical-thriller, set
July 2-4, 2008, is more generally about a three-day heat
wave that overtakes Los Angeles. Written and directed by
Richard Kelly (“Donnie Darko”), it also stars
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (“Doom”),
Seann William Scott (“The Dukes of Hazzard”),
Janeane Garofalo (“Wonderland”), Amy Poehler
(“Mean Girls”), Kevin Smith (“Daredevil”),
Bai Ling (“Three Extremes”), Jon Lovitz (“The
Stepford Wives,” “The Producers: The Movie
Musical”), John Larroquette (“Isn’t She
Great”) and Wallace Shawn (“Melinda and Melinda”).
Universal tells of a 2006 release.
Back on more familiarly spooky (though still
untitled) ground, Gellar plays a young woman who comes
to believe
she has been reincarnated – and is being prepared
by supernatural forces to avenge her own murder in “The
Return” (previously known as “Revolver”).
Asif Kapadia directed from a screenplay by Adam Sussman.
Sam Shepard (“Stealth”), J.C. MacKenzie (“The
Aviator”), Adam Scott (“Art School Confidential”),
Katherine Willis (“Sin City,” “The Ringer”),
Kate Beahan (“Flightplan”) and Peter O’Brien
co-star. Rogue, the genre unit of Focus Features, has yet
to settle on a release date.
“Untitled Marc Klein” is a romantic comedy, based
on Melissa Bank’s collection of stories “The
Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing,” about
a Manhattan book editor who finds her idea of romance challenged
after she attracts the interest of a powerful older man.
At press time, screenwriter Marc Klein (“Serendipity”)
was expected to make his feature directorial debut from
his own screenplay, with filming slated to begin this past
October. Warner Independent baits moviegoers with an August
2006 release.
Missing: Leonardo DiCaprio
Career Peak: “Titanic” (1997)
Career Peak DTG: $600.7 million
Missing: Jack Nicholson
Career Peak: “Batman” (1989)
Career Peak DTG: $251.1 million
Jack’s finally back and already he’s “The
Departed.” It’s a thriller about a mobster
who has infiltrated the police and a cop who has infiltrated
the mob, and their race to discover each other’s
identity. It’s adapted from the Hong Kong film “Infernal
Affairs” and reset in Boston. Martin Scorsese (“Gangs
of New York,” “The Aviator”) directs
from a screenplay by William Monahan (“Kingdom of
Heaven”). Nicholson’s co-stars include fellow
2005 M.I.A. Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Aviator”)
as well as Matt Damon (“Syriana”), Mark Wahlberg
(“Four Brothers”), Alec Baldwin (“Elizabethtown,” “Fun
With Dick and Jane”), Ray Winstone (“King Arthur,” “The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe”),
Gerard McSorley (“Veronica Guerin”) and Vera
Farmiga (“The Manchurian Candidate”). Warner
Bros. expects it to arrive around August.
Missing: Denzel Washington
Career Peak: “Remember the Titans” (2000)
Career Peak DTG: $115.6 million
“The Inside Man” is a crime drama about a bank robber
whose heist goes awry, leaving him in a hostage standoff
against the cop with whom he has been playing a cat-and-mouse
game for months. Spike Lee (“The 25th Hour,” “She
Hate Me”) directs from a screenplay by Russell Gerwitz
and Menno Meyjes (“The Siege,” “Max”).
Washington’s co-stars include Clive Owen (“Sin
City”), Jodie Foster (“Flightplan”),
Eli Wallach (“Mystic River”), Chiwetel Ejiofor
(“Serenity”) and Willem Dafoe (“XXX:
State of the Union”). Universal lets it out March
24.
Missing: Ben Affleck
Career Peak: “Armageddon” (1998)
Career Peak DTG: $201.5 million
More famous in 2004 for his personal life than his work
output, Affleck’s face migrates from the tabloids
back to the big screen with “Man About Town,” written
and directed by Mike Binder (“The Upside of Anger”).
With a storyline that’s right up Affleck’s
alley, it’s a comedy-drama about a successful showbiz
figure who finds his life crumbling down around him after
a reporter steals his journal. Affleck stars with Rebecca
Romijn (“Godsend”), Binder (“The Upside
of Anger”), Howard Hesseman (“About Schmidt”),
Gina Gershon (“Prey for Rock and Roll”), Kal
Penn (“A Lot Like Love”), Amber Valletta (“The
Transporter 2”), Adam Goldberg (“How to Lose
a Guy in 10 Days”), Bai Ling (“Southland Tales”),
John Cleese (“Around the World in 80 Days”),
Jerry O’Connell (“Kangaroo Jack”) and
Gina Holden (“Fantastic Four”). DreamWorks
hasn’t set a release date.
The “Daredevil” star takes on the story of
the actor behind another superhero in “Truth, Justice
and the American Way.” It’s a drama about a
Los Angeles detective trying to unravel the mysterious
death of actor George Reeves, who played Superman in the
1950s television series. TV director Allen Coulter (“Six
Feet Under,” “Kingpin”) makes his feature
directorial debut from a screenplay by Paul Bernbaum (TV’s “Halloweentown”)
and Howard Korder (TV’s “Kate and Allie”).
It stars Adrien Brody (“The Jacket,” “King
Kong”), Diane Lane (“Must Love Dogs”),
Bob Hoskins (“Stay”), Kathleen Robertson (“XX/XY”),
Dash Mihok (“Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”), Molly
Parker (“Pure”), Robin Tunney (“Paparazzi”),
Joe Spano (“Hart’s War”) and Affleck
as Reeves. Focus has yet to set a release date.
Missing: Tom Hanks
Career Peak: “Forrest Gump” (1994)
Career Peak DTG: $329.6 million
“The Da Vinci Code” is a thriller, based on the blockbuster
novel by Dan Brown (“Angels and Demons”), about
a Harvard symbologist who teams with a French cryptologist
to investigate a cipher found near the body of the Louvre’s
murdered curator – a cipher that leads to a 2,000-year-old
conspiracy and a secret that could rewrite religious history.
Hanks’ “Apollo 13” director Ron Howard
(“The Missing,” “Cinderella Man”)
directs from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman (“I,
Robot,” “Cinderella Man”). Hanks’ co-stars
include Jean Reno (“Rollerball”), Audrey Tautou
(“A Very Long Engagement”), Ian McKellen (“Asylum”),
Paul Bettany (“Firewall”) and Alfred Molina
(“Cronicas”). Sony gives us a clue May 19.
Missing: Eddie Murphy
Career Peak: “Shrek 2” (2004)
Career Peak DTG: $436.4 million
Besides adding his voice to the inevitable “Shrek” sequels,
Murphy – whose face hasn’t been glimpsed on
cinema screens since 2003’s “The Haunted Mansion” – is
due up next in “Dreamgirls,” based on the hit
1981 stage musical by Tom Eyen. It’s about a Supremes-like
pop group that comes to disintegrate as it achieves stardom.
It was written and directed by Bill Condon, who wrote and
directed “Gods and Monsters” and “Kinsey” and
who authored the screenplay for “Chicago.” Murphy’s
co-stars are expected to include Beyonce Knowles (“The
Fighting Temptations”), Jamie Foxx (“Jarhead”)
and Usher Raymond (“In the Mix”). Filming was
set to begin in January. DreamWorks has yet to dream up
a release date.
Missing: Winona Ryder
Career Peak: “Mr. Deeds” (2002)
Career Peak DTG: $126.2 million
Ryder appears opposite Keanu Reeves in “A Scanner
Darkly.” Richard Linklater’s science fiction
thriller, its details described in last month’s “Next!,” is
about a profoundly dope-addled narcotics agent working
undercover in suburban Orange County. Warner Independent
is looking intently at a March 31 release.
“Darwin Awards” is a romantic road comedy, written
and directed by Finn Taylor (“Dream with the Fishes,” “Cherish”).
It’s about an insurance claims investigator who teams
with a forensic detective to profile a man likely to die
due to his own incredible stupidity. Ryder’s co-stars
include Joseph Fiennes (“The Great Raid”),
David Arquette (“Never Die Alone”), Jeffrey
Tambor (“Hellboy”), Tim Blake Nelson (“Meet
the Fockers,” “Syriana”), Julianna Margulies
(“Ghost Ship”) and Emily Mortimer (“Bright
Young Things,” “Match Point”). It has
yet to stumble into a distributor.
Missing: Tobey Maguire
Career Peak: “Spider-Man” (2002)
Career Peak DTG: $405.6 million
Maguire doffs the spandex and heads for post-World War
II Berlin in “The Good German,” a dramatic
thriller about an American journalist who, while searching
for his former mistress, finds himself drawn into a murder
mystery. Steven Soderbergh (“Eros,” “Ocean’s
Twelve”) directs from a screenplay by Paul Attanasio
(“Sphere,” “The Sum of All Fears”).
George Clooney (“Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Syriana”)
and Cate Blanchett (“The Aviator”) co-star.
Warner Bros. has vays uff makink you book zis film – should
they ever decide on a release date.
The tights go back on in January for “Spider-Man
3.” Plot details remain sketchy for the third installment
of the web-slinging superhero franchise. Returnees from
parts one and two are reported to include director Sam
Raimi (“The Gift”) and actors Maguire, Kirsten
Dunst (“Elizabethtown”) and James Franco (“The
Great Raid”). Returnees from part two are expected
to include screenwriter Alvin Sargent (“Anywhere
but Here,” “Unfaithful”). Newcomers to
the franchise are expected to include Thomas Haden Church
(“Spanglish”) and Topher Grace (“In Good
Company”) – reportedly as villains Sandman
and Venom, respectively. Sony has snared a May 4, 2007
release.
