IN: New Line is putting all its eggs in one movie, teaming Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker and The Full Monty co-star Tom Wilkinson (who played Gerald) in Rush Hour, to be directed by Money Talks director Brett Ratner. The storyline? The Chinese ambassador’s daughter is kidnapped in Los Angeles. Wilkinson plays the ambassador’s right-hand man. But is Jackie Chan the ambassador? I don’t know, but it wreaks of Sonny Bono, doesn’t it? And I’m guessing that we’ll be seeing, as soon as a trailer hits theaters, Chris Tucker’s eyes bulging out of his head as the foxy Chinese daughter of the ambassador shows off her legs. We are the world.
OUT: Brad Pitt just dropped out of New Line’s attempt at a western, Custer Marching to Valhalla, from Dances With Wolves scribe Michael Blake. It marks the end of his longest personal relationship, having been attached to the project since 1995. “The National Perspirer” says that Brad’s split left New Line pregnant and heartbroken with a $3 million price tag for the story rights. “The Scar” tabloid says it was New Line that wanted out, returning to their original pre-Ted Turner love of lower-budget filmmaking. “The Weekly World Screws” re-printed the nude photos of Brad.
IN & OUT: Robert Downey Jr., Heather Graham and Natasha Wagner have teamed up to earn the dreaded NC-17 rating for “a scene of explicit sexuality.” The film, Two Guys and a Guy, is written and directed by infamously sexist pig James Toback, who also teamed with Downey (and producer Warren Beatty) for 1987’s The Pick Up Artist. Graham, also who stars as porn actress Rollergirl in Boogie Nights, is becoming a regular on the hotbod highway, paying off on her claim that she “wants to do out there things.” No word on whether Downey will be paroled for the premiere.
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Posts Tagged ‘New Line’
In & Out, Brad Pitt, Robert Downey, Jr.
Saturday, November 8th, 1997Tags: Brad Pitt, Heather Graham, Jackie Chan Chris Tucker, James Toback, New Line, The Full Monty, Tom Wilkinson
Posted in Hot Button, Old MCN Blogs | Comments Off on In & Out, Brad Pitt, Robert Downey, Jr.
Boogie Nights Opens at Number Four
Monday, November 3rd, 1997Ouch! I know you can’t see it in my photos, but I am bleeding profusely from the nose after getting tagged hard by Boogie Nights‘ number four opening with just $5.1 million! I guess Middle America wasn’t ready for a film about porn that didn’t include porn. And I wish I could blame it on New Line being a small studio, but their magnificent Money Talks opened with $10.65 million just weeks ago! Argh! The one salvation here is that the picture should end up doing so little business (my guess: under $30 million total domestic) that if New Line plays its cards right, it could become the Oscars’ “Little Movie That Could” for 1997.
Meanwhile, the unstoppable slasher films continue to do big box office. I Know What You Did Last Summer camped out at number one for the third week, dropping just 20 percent to $10 million. Devil’s Advocate, where Al Pacino slashes the scenery with his tongue before chewing it up real good, dropped a modest 25 percent to summon another $7.6 million for third place. And Kiss The Girls slashed-n-smooched its way to fifth place with another $3.6 million, dropping just 30 percent in week five.
Another surprise, though not as unpleasant, was the success of Red Corner. I guess the China visit worked for the film — which got roundly panned by the critics — rather than against it. Pretty Man Richard Gere got a liberal $8.3 million to take second place. Also, Switchback, Paramount’s quiet entry into the All Hallows Eve thriller market, stayed quieter than I thought it might, pulling in just $3 million for seventh place.
The rest of the Top Ten is made up of holdovers, all of which I came pretty close to predicting. Big deal! I’m already bleeding. Anyway, Brad was glad that Seven Years in Tibet took in another $3.4 million in its fourth week for sixth place. Fairy Tale: A Forgotten Release, grabbed another $2.9 million while the grabbing was good for eighth. Gattaca ran out of puns — $2.7 million for ninth. And In & Out took tenth with $1.8 million.
Check out what my predictions were on Friday. Email is your way of showing me you feel my pain. Or maybe you just want to rub it in.
Tags: Al Pacino, Boogie Nights, Devil's Advocate, Kiss the Girls, Money Talks, New Line, Richard Gere
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