STORM WARNING The new marketing tool in Hollywood is controversy. In the wake of the media frenzy caused by Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, the studios are looking for more movie hot potatoes that can be turned into box-office gold.
In the case of The Day After Tomorrow, the idea of global warming triggering a new Ice Age had the film in the media spotlight for days. Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, in which the film-maker records his own physical decline after eating only McDonald’s meals, has tapped into the media’s obsession with obesity.
Now a host of film-makers is chasing the heat generated by Moore’s anti-Bush documentary with their own politically charged documentaries. They include Control Room, a sympathetic portrayal of reporters from the Arab TV news network Al-Jazeera as they cover the war in Iraq. Other films tell the stories of Arabs and Muslims detained after the terrorist attacks of September 11 (Persons of Interest) and a scathing assessment of the presidential advisor Karl Rove (Bush’s Brain).
It looks as if members of the Bush Administration won’t be able to get away from it all at the cinema in the next few months.
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SNAP DECISION Jennifer Aniston will have left Central Perk well and truly behind when she plays Dickey Chapelle, a photographer who covered the Second World War for Reader’s Digest among other magazines. The intrepid Chapelle was eventually killed in Vietnam after tripping over a landmine during a mission with the Marines. Before that, Aniston is on more familiar comedy ground, co-starring with Shirley MacLaine in a yet-to-be titled movie about a girl who learns that her grandmother was the Mrs Robinson of The Graduate infamy.
CAMP FOLLOWER If you thought that Austin Powers was a dandy, get ready for Brendan Fraser in the title role of Gay Secret Agent. Apparently his charm, dancing skills and impeccable dress sense make him a top operative. And no doubt Barbra Streisand tunes will contain coded messages. But pity Rupert Everett. After stealing all his scenes opposite Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), he sold the idea for a film in which he would play a gay British intelligence officer. It’s enough to make you spit.
ZERO TO HERO Adding to the current glut of US reality TV shows is Next Action Star, in which bad actors with clumsy martial-arts moves are whittled down to two winners. Although the show keeps dropping names of action films and their stars, suggesting that Mel Gibson-like heights are possible after two months of training, the contestants should read the small print: the winner gets a cash prize and will be “considered” for a role in a TV movie.
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TRUE GRIT Don’t expect the Gothic fantasia of Tim Burton’s previous Batman versions. The former British indie director Christopher Nolan (Memento), helming the latest Caped Crusader movie, Christian Bale, is promising more of a gritty urban realism. Before we see that, a fellow Brit, Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, Omagh), is aiming for an unBond-like espionage yarn with The Bourne Supremacy, starring Matt Damon. No doubt Damon will be shaken and stirred until he’s black and blue.
BIGGER SPLASH Expect more Marvel Comics on the big screen. The Harry Potter director Chris Columbus is in negotiations to make a movie featuring the Sub-Mariner, a prince of Atlantis. Can we expect the first underwater game of Quidditch?