NEW YORK -- Brothers Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson will wing it in Walden Media's Around the World in 80 Days. The duo has signed on for a Days cameo playing the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, the American inventors who pioneered airplane flight in the early 1900s. The two are the latest in a string of names to have joined the project, which stars Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent -- including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathy Bates, Johnny Knoxville and Rob Schneider. Frank Coraci is directing the film, which follows the high-flying adventures of Phileas Fogg (Coogan), Passepartout (Chan) and the characters they meet on a trip around the world. Hal Lieberman and Bill Badalato are producing. Repped by UTA, Owen Wilson previously starred with Chan in Buena Vista Pictures' Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights. Luke Wilson is repped by CAA.
- 7/11/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Funnyman Rob Schneider is the latest name to join the cast of indie banner Walden Media's Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent for director Frank Coraci. The film, currently in production, has previously lined up cameos from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathy Bates, Johnny Knoxville, Cecile de France and others. Based on the classic tale, Days follows the high-flying adventures of Phileas Fogg (Coogan), Passepartout (Chan) and the characters they meet on their trip around the world. Hal Lieberman and Bill Badalato are producing Days, with Walden senior vp production Alex Schwartz and director of development Kisha Cameron overseeing. Schneider, whose upcoming projects include Columbia Pictures' Fifty First Kisses, is repped by Endeavor.
- 6/19/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Fresh off her recent Oscar nomination, Kathy Bates is getting the royal treatment from Walden Media. The About Schmidt star is set to play Queen Victoria in Walden's upcoming big-screen adaptation of the Jules Verne classic Around the World in 80 Days. The project reteams Bates with Frank Coraci, who directed the actress as Adam Sandler's mother in The Waterboy. The Days cast includes Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Jim Broadbent, Johnny Knoxville and Cecile de France (HR 3/14). The film follows the highflying adventures of Phileas Fogg (Coogan) and Passepartout (Chan) and the characters they meet on their trip around the world. Days began shooting last month, with locations planned in Thailand and Berlin. Hal Lieberman and Bill Badalato are producing. Overseeing the project for Walden -- which is headed by Cary Granat -- are senior vp production Alex Schwartz and director of development Kisha Cameron. Bates is repped by the Susan Smith Co.
- 3/31/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Johnny Knoxville and 2003 Cesar Award winner Cecile de France have signed to star alongside Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent in Walden Media's upcoming Around the World in 80 Days. A big-screen adaptation of the classic novel by Jules Verne, 80 Days begins shooting this month in Thailand and Berlin, with Frank Coraci (The Wedding Singer) at the helm. Hal Lieberman and Bill Badalato are producing. De France will play Monique de Grave, a young French artist who decides that a trip around the world would be a perfect cure for her lost inspiration. Knoxville plays an eccentric hobo met during the highflying adventures of de Grave, Phileas Fogg (Coogan) and Passepartout (Chan). The star of Jackass: The Movie, Knoxville has been cast in a spate of starring roles lately for such projects as writer-director Tom Bezucha's Hating Her and Grand Theft Parsons, with Christina Applegate and Marley Shelton. De France recently won a French Cesar as most promising actress for her role in writer-helmer Cedric Klapisch's Euro-student comedy L'Auberge Espagnole. Knoxville is represented by CAA and the Firm. De France is repped by Artmedia. Overseeing the project for Walden, which is headed by Cary Granat, are senior vp production Alex Schwartz and director of development Kisha Cameron.
- 3/14/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
We've ogled them in "The Fifth Element", laughed at them in "Men in Black" and nuked 'em in "Starship Troopers". Now it's time to get cuddly with them.
So far, 1997 has been the Year of the Aliens in big-budget science-fiction movies, and the aptly titled "Alien Resurrection" checks in with enough slime, gore and scary monster-flick moments to satisfy undemanding audiences. But it's an ugly, animated corpse of a movie stitched together from the other three films in the 20th Century Fox series, even as it follows the direction taken in "Alien3" to its next ghastly stage.
Not the best in the series, but in some ways the most ambitious, "Alien Resurrection" is a mixed bag of stilted humor, repetitive action and successfully more repulsive encounters with alien-human mutations. Strong awareness should help pump up its Thanksgiving-weekend opening numbers, but the American debut of French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("The City of Lost Children") won't substantially outperform the previous "Alien" production, released in 1992.
From pesky leaping babies fresh from their eggs to a large artificially created queen (retrieved from a clone of the series' heroine, who sacrificed her life at the end of the last disappointing installment), "Alien Resurrection" is as cynical about human motives as its predecessors, but it's the most sympathetic toward the killer species regularly butchering franchise lead player Sigourney Weaver's male co-stars.
Maybe die-hard genre followers will embrace the grotesque agenda and the endless grisly attacks, but the whole project is a notch or two lower in the writing department.
Not to worry, fans, there is a repeat of the gut-busting that highlighted the first film and a climactic alien birth scene that tries hard to gross out viewers. Unfortunately, the last frightful surprise is borderline laughable, and one has lost interest even when the alien-infested research ship on which the film is set heads toward Earth.
Looking way out of place and not terribly convincing, but trying her best, Winona Ryder as an odd crew member with a secret is dominated by Weaver in their scenes together and mostly overwhelmed by the production. Weaver, with her sleek body and cool demeanor, is hardly the motherly female action hero she blossomed into in "Aliens", but there's no denying she's in a groove with the character. All the best aspects of the film are hers.
ALIEN RESURRECTION
20th Century Fox
A Brandywine production
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Screenwriter: Joss Whedon
Based on characters created by: Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett
Producers: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill, Bill Badalato
Director of photography: Darius Khondji
Production designer: Nigel Phelps
Editor: Herve Schneid
Alien effects: Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr.
Music: John Frizzell
Visual effects supervisors: Pitof Henry,
Erik Henry
Costume designer: Bob Ringwood
Casting: Rick Pagano
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ripley: Sigourney Weaver
Call: Winona Ryder
Johner: Ron Perlman
Elgyn: Michael Wincott
General Perez: Dan Hedaya
Gediman: Brad Dourif
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
So far, 1997 has been the Year of the Aliens in big-budget science-fiction movies, and the aptly titled "Alien Resurrection" checks in with enough slime, gore and scary monster-flick moments to satisfy undemanding audiences. But it's an ugly, animated corpse of a movie stitched together from the other three films in the 20th Century Fox series, even as it follows the direction taken in "Alien3" to its next ghastly stage.
Not the best in the series, but in some ways the most ambitious, "Alien Resurrection" is a mixed bag of stilted humor, repetitive action and successfully more repulsive encounters with alien-human mutations. Strong awareness should help pump up its Thanksgiving-weekend opening numbers, but the American debut of French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("The City of Lost Children") won't substantially outperform the previous "Alien" production, released in 1992.
From pesky leaping babies fresh from their eggs to a large artificially created queen (retrieved from a clone of the series' heroine, who sacrificed her life at the end of the last disappointing installment), "Alien Resurrection" is as cynical about human motives as its predecessors, but it's the most sympathetic toward the killer species regularly butchering franchise lead player Sigourney Weaver's male co-stars.
Maybe die-hard genre followers will embrace the grotesque agenda and the endless grisly attacks, but the whole project is a notch or two lower in the writing department.
Not to worry, fans, there is a repeat of the gut-busting that highlighted the first film and a climactic alien birth scene that tries hard to gross out viewers. Unfortunately, the last frightful surprise is borderline laughable, and one has lost interest even when the alien-infested research ship on which the film is set heads toward Earth.
Looking way out of place and not terribly convincing, but trying her best, Winona Ryder as an odd crew member with a secret is dominated by Weaver in their scenes together and mostly overwhelmed by the production. Weaver, with her sleek body and cool demeanor, is hardly the motherly female action hero she blossomed into in "Aliens", but there's no denying she's in a groove with the character. All the best aspects of the film are hers.
ALIEN RESURRECTION
20th Century Fox
A Brandywine production
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Screenwriter: Joss Whedon
Based on characters created by: Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett
Producers: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill, Bill Badalato
Director of photography: Darius Khondji
Production designer: Nigel Phelps
Editor: Herve Schneid
Alien effects: Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr.
Music: John Frizzell
Visual effects supervisors: Pitof Henry,
Erik Henry
Costume designer: Bob Ringwood
Casting: Rick Pagano
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ripley: Sigourney Weaver
Call: Winona Ryder
Johner: Ron Perlman
Elgyn: Michael Wincott
General Perez: Dan Hedaya
Gediman: Brad Dourif
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/12/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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