A GRAND FANTASY AT THE RIM

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992                   TAG: 9201310396
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
A GRAND FANTASY AT THE RIM
The scene I would have liked most to see in a movie this year:
At the end of "Grand Canyon," Danny Glover, Kevin Kline and their various friends and relatives are standing at the rim of the great hole in the Earth staring rapturously into space. Suddenly, Thelma and Louise come sailing by in their T-Bird convertible.
Stranger things have happened.

Consider the continuing mystery of movie-making brothers Joel and Ethan Coen and their covert Roanoke connection. And believe me, this is not just paranoid fallout from "JFK."
Just before the Hotel Earle burned in downtown Roanoke, "Barton Fink" was released.
John Turturro played a pretentious writer who lived in a run-down establishment called The Hotel Earle. And guess what happened. IT CAUGHT ON FIRE!
You are now telling yourself that this is sheer coincidence, and I am about to announce that I saw Elvis not long ago at the Grandin Theatre where he was buying a large buttered popcorn on his way up to see "Mystery Train."
But consider this:
In the Coens' "Miller's Crossing," Albert Finney plays the power broker who runs a city from a private club where deals get made and business gets done after hours. And the name of the establishment? THE SHENANDOAH CLUB!
What Roanoke Landmark will the Coen brothers turn to next? The mystery continues.

Moviegoers just can't seem to get enough of demented individuals, and it looks like the trend of psycho thrillers will continue.
But the next year or so should also see a return to the traditional horror movie in big ways.
Francis Ford Coppola, no less, is tackling "Dracula." The title of the movie is itself an homage to the classic vampire yarn - "Bram Stoker's Dracula." The cast alone is enough to whet the curiosity of movie enthusiasts everywhere: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant and Tom Waits, among others.
Perhaps the picture with the greatest special-effects potential is Steven Spielberg's adaptation of "Jurassic Park." Michael Crichton's page-turner about dinosaurs cloned to stock an amusement park features a whopping 15 varieties. Look for all sorts of spin-offs and an even greater surge in the popularity of the already popular extinct creatures.
Then there's "Alien 3." Sigourney Weaver again returns to battle the malevolent monsters of the last two episodes.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB