Summer’s over, the holidays are still in the distance, and we have only the fall movies to give us cinematic comfort. But don’t lose hope yet. While Hollywood tends to save its big guns for year-end accolades and dollars, the upcoming season looks fairly decent, with the likes of Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Benton behind the camera and Denzel Washington, Dustin Hoffman and Halle Berry in front of it. Here, then, is a snapshot of the 40 titles scheduled to hit town over the next couple of months.
SEPTEMBER 5: Screen irritant David Spade stars as DICKIE ROBERTS: FORMER CHILD STAR, a has-been who hopes to revive his career with the starring role in a new TV sit-com. . . An illegal Nigerian immigrant (Chiwetel Ejiofor) living in London discovers a human heart in a hotel room in Stephen Frears’ DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, co-starring Amelie‘s Audrey Tautou. . . Long on the shelf and now being released without advance critics’ screenings, THE ORDER (previously known under the title The Sin Eater) reunites many of the principal players from A Knight’s Tale — writer-director Brian Helgeland and stars Heath Ledger, Mark Addy and Shannyn Sossamon — for a decidedly darker tale about a maverick priest (Ledger) who investigates a series of murders that might be linked to a secret cabal operating within the Church.
SEPTEMBER 12: In what sounds like a direct rip-off of The Evil Dead (with perhaps a measure of The Blair Witch Project thrown in for good measure), CABIN FEVER finds five college kids stranded at a cabin in the woods, whereupon a flesh-eating virus spoils their merriment. . . Held from a summer berth, MATCHSTICK MEN, from acclaimed director Ridley Scott (Gladiator), stars Nicolas Cage as a neurotic con artist whose life becomes even more complicated when he meets the daughter (White Oleander‘s Alison Lohman) he never even knew he had. . . The third and (presumably) final chapter in writer-director Robert Rodriguez’s “El Mariachi” trilogy, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO finds our hero (Antonio Banderas), who’s equally adept with a gun or a guitar, getting roped into an assassination plot by a corrupt CIA agent (Johnny Depp). Desperado co-star Salma Hayek returns, as do two actors whose characters had apparently been killed in that previous picture, Cheech Marin and Danny Trejo.
SEPTEMBER 19: In Woody Allen’s ANYTHING ELSE, the 67-year-old writer-director-star (who desperately needs a hit) plays a nebbish who ends up dating 9-year-old Dakota Fanning (Uptown Girls). Well, OK, it hasn’t gotten that bad. . . yet. Actually, he ends up getting involved with 23-year-old Christina Ricci. The cast also includes Jason Biggs (American Wedding), Stockard Channing and Danny DeVito. . . In the “haunted house” tradition of The Innocents and The Haunting, COLD CREEK MANOR stars Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone as a big-city couple who move to a country estate seemingly inhabited by malevolent spirits. Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) directs. . . In THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS, a New York advertising executive (Cuba Gooding Jr.) finds himself in the Deep South, where he ends up leading a gospel choir and falling for a local beauty (Beyonce Knowles). . . Back in 1966, Bruce Brown created the classic surfing documentary The Endless Summer; now, here’s his son Dana Brown with STEP INTO LIQUID, a modern take on the same subject. . . Catherine Hardwicke won a directing award at Sundance for THIRTEEN, a hard-hitting drama about a teenage girl (Raleigh native Evan Rachel Wood) who rebels against her mother (Holly Hunter) and, under the bad influence of her close friend (newcomer Nikki Reed, who co-wrote the script with Hardwicke), gets involved with drugs and sex. . . Visually, the preview suggests a cross between The Matrix and The Crow; narratively, UNDERWORLD concerns itself with the long-running battle between sophisticated vampires and street-smart werewolves. Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman star as, respectively, the bloodsucker and the lycanthrope who fall in love, Capulet/Montague-style.
SEPTEMBER 26: Almost certain to become one of the season’s top grossers, the dark comedy DUPLEX stars Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore as a yuppie couple whose lives are turned into living hells by the little old lady (Eileen Essel) who lives in the same building. Directed by Danny DeVito, who’s no stranger to prickly projects (Throw Momma From the Train, Death to Smoochy). . . After earning fairly positive notices for The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola is back behind the camera as writer-director for LOST IN TRANSLATION, about an unlikely friendship between two Americans (Bill Murray and Ghost World‘s Scarlett Johansson) in Tokyo. . . A thug-for-hire (The Rock) gets more than he bargained for after he’s sent to the Amazon to bring home a troublemaking slacker (Seann William Scott) in THE RUNDOWN, an action flick co-starring Christopher Walken and Rosario Dawson. . . A shy 14-year-old boy (The Sixth Sense‘s Haley Joel Osment, growing up fast) spends an educational summer with his two grumpy-old-men uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) in the comedy-drama SECONDHAND LIONS. . . With an Oscar nomination now under her belt, Unfaithful star Diane Lane tries her hand at carrying an entire picture with UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, a romantic comedy based on the popular book about an American divorcee who shucks her stateside existence and purchases a dilapidated villa in Italy.
OCTOBER 3: Having already once played a cop framed for murder (Ricochet), Denzel Washington returns to similar terrain in OUT OF TIME, in which he portrays a police chief racing to find the real killer before he winds up behind bars himself. This reunites Washington with his Devil In a Blue Dress director, Carl Franklin. . . In THE SCHOOL OF ROCK, a struggling musician (Jack Black) takes a job at an elementary school, where he teaches his young charges about rock & roll (though, presumably, not about sex and drugs).
OCTOBER 10: A little boy (Liam Aiken) adopts a stray dog (voiced by Matthew Broderick) that turns out to be an extra-terrestrial in the family film GOOD BOY!. . . In the romantic comedy INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, the Coen Brothers’ first film since the underachieving The Man Who Wasn’t There, a battle of the sexes turns into a full-scale assault when a savvy divorce lawyer (George Clooney) matches wits with a sexy woman (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in the habit of marrying and dumping rich men. The supporting cast includes Billy Bob Thornton, Geoffrey Rush and Cedric the Entertainer. . . Quentin Tarantino’s first film since 1997’s Jackie Brown is KILL BILL: VOLUME ONE, in which a femme warrior (Uma Thurman) seeks revenge against her former mentor (David Carradine) and his minions. Rather than chop Tarantino’s lengthy version, Miramax is releasing it in two parts; no firm date yet on Volume Two, though a Christmas release seems possible. . . Clint Eastwood directs a superb cast in a film of the popular Dennis Lehane novel MYSTIC RIVER, in which three former childhood pals (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon) are reunited 25 years later via a murder investigation. Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney and Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock) co-star.
OCTOBER 17: One of the hits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, PIECES OF APRIL stars Katie Holmes as a young woman who invites her estranged family to her New York apartment for Thanksgiving; needless to say, not much goes right. Far From Heaven‘s Patricia Clarkson, who won a special Sundance award for her performances in three festival films (including this one), appears as Holmes’ dying mother. . . A powerhouse cast can be found in the service of RUNAWAY JURY, the adaptation of John Grisham’s best-selling novel about a juror (John Cusack) who finds himself at the center of a volatile case involving a cold-blooded jury consultant (Gene Hackman) and an upright lawyer (Dustin Hoffman). . . Not content with churning out a number of lousy sequels to the exceptional original, Hollywood has seen fit to release THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, a sort-of-remake of the based-on-fact chiller about a cannibalistic clan. Michael Bay (Bad Boys II, Pearl Harbor) is one of the producers. . . VERONICA GUERIN relates the true story of a brave journalist (Cate Blanchett) who repeatedly placed her life in danger by writing about Dublin’s druglords. Joel Schumacher (Bad Company) directs, with blockbuster maven Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) serving as producer. . . The sordid finale of the life of porn star John Holmes, including his ties to the notorious Wonderland murders, is detailed in WONDERLAND, starring Val Kilmer (as Holmes), Lisa Kudrow, Janeane Garofalo and many other name players.
OCTOBER 24: On the heels of two Tomb Raider flicks, Angelina Jolie continues her globe-hopping ways in BEYOND BORDERS, in which she joins a doctor (Gosford Park‘s Clive Owen) as he travels to dangerous locales to aid in humanitarian efforts. . . Hoping to prove that her Monster’s Ball Oscar win wasn’t a fluke, Halle Berry stars in GOTHIKA as a criminal psychologist who finds herself locked up in a mental asylum for a murder she claims she doesn’t remember committing. Robert Downey Jr. and present Tom Cruise squeeze Penelope Cruz also star. . . The Wayans are no longer involved, but that hasn’t stopped Dimension Films from moving forward with SCARY MOVIE 3, which spoofs the latest round of blockbusters (Signs, The Ring, The Matrix Reloaded) while providing roles to the likes of Charlie Sheen, Pamela Anderson, George Carlin and Leslie Nielsen.
OCTOBER 31: Halloween will see the release of ALIEN: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT, which will include new footage inserted by director Ridley Scott (apparently, new footage beyond what’s already available on the 20th anniversary DVD released four years ago). . . Like Jim Carrey, Meg Ryan has long sought to break out of her comedy niche by demonstrating her dramatic chops; her latest attempt is IN THE CUT, a thriller about a lonely New Yorker who enters into a sexually charged relationship with a detective (Mark Ruffalo) presently investigating a homicide. Jane Campion (The Piano) directs this adaptation of Susanna Moore’s bestseller.
NOVEMBER 1: Strangely being released nationally on a Saturday (perhaps to avoid the spooky stigma of a Halloween opening), BROTHER BEAR is an animated family feature about a boy who is magically transformed into a bear. The song score is by Phil Collins, which in itself sounds more frightening than anything we might encounter on Halloween.
NO DATE SET: One of the season’s most promising “prestige” pictures is THE HUMAN STAIN, with ace director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer) and top scripter Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time) adapting Philip Roth’s novel about a college professor (Anthony Hopkins) whose life goes awry after secrets from his past are uncovered. Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise also star. . . Based on fact (and now oh-so-timely), SHATTERED GLASS stars Anakin Skywalker, er, Hayden Christensen as Stephen Glass, the New Republic writer who had fabricated the majority of his published stories before getting caught. . . Although the 1986 British mini-series is legendary, that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from offering a big-screen remake of Dennis Potter’s THE SINGING DETECTIVE. Robert Downey Jr. takes over Michael Gambon’s role of the mystery writer who, while bedridden with a debilitating illness, imagines himself as the hero of his own musically inclined tales. Mel Gibson, Robin Wright Penn and recent Oscar winner Adrien Brody also star. . . Winner of an impressive three awards at Sundance, THE STATION AGENT centers on a lonely dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who, while living at an abandoned train depot, unexpectedly develops a pair of friendships with an artist (Patricia Clarkson) and a hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale). . . Gwyneth Paltrow essays the title role in SYLVIA, a look at the relationship between poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig). Gwyneth’s mom Blythe Danner co-stars as (naturally enough) Sylvia’s mother Aurelia. . . Director Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga, whose previous collaboration Amores Perros was quite the indie-foreign hit a couple of years ago, have reunited for 21 GRAMS, with Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts as three people who are brought together through a car accident.
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2003.
