Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 1, 1995 TAG: 9509010023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
First, five semi-fearless predictions for absolutely sure-fire hits:
1. Martin Scorsese's "Casino" with Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci and James Woods could be another "Goodfellas."
2. Robert De Niro scores again, co-starring with Al Pacino as criminal and cop respectively in writer/producer/director Michael Mann's "Heat."
3. Spike Lee's adaptation of Richard Price's novel "Clockers," about street-level drug dealing, is already being mentioned for Oscar nominations.
4. Jim Carrey's comic star will continue to rise with "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls."
5. Disney animation (drawn with computers this time) has another hit on its hands in "Toy Story," featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.
An unusually large number of serious literary adaptations wait in the wings. Franco Zeffirelli's version of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" stars William Hurt as Rochester. Ang Lee ("Eat Drink Man Woman") turns from Chinese families to English in Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," with Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant. The Royal Shakespeare Company adapts Austen's posthumous novel "Persuasion."
Demi Moore will probably find dimensions in Hester Prynne that your high school English teacher never imagined in "The Scarlet Letter," and Disney has another live-action "Tom Sawyer" ready for Christmas release. Alan Paton's "Cry the Beloved Country" has been remade with James Earl Jones, Richard Harris and Charles S. Dutton.
Impressive ensemble casts - led by Maya Angelou, Anne Bancroft, Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Winona Ryder and Jean Simmons - are lined up for the screen versions of Whitney Otto's "How to Make an American Quilt" and Terry McMillan's "Waiting to Exhale."
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are teamed up again in Sterling Silliphant's adaptation of Truman Capote's "The Grass Harp," and the duo will be competing with themselves in the sequel, "Grumpier Old Men" where they co-star with Ann-Margaret and Sophia Loren.
The Bard hits the silver screen twice with Laurence Fishburne as "Othello" and Ian McKellan as "Richard III."
Crime novels move from the printed page to the screen with Elmore Leonard's "Get Shorty," starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito; James Lee Burke's long-delayed "Heaven's Prisoners"; and the not-quite-so-long-delayed "Devil in a Blue Dress" from author Walter Mosley and starring Denzel Washington.
The undead have become an unlikely source of comedy. Mel Brooks has "Dracula: Dead and Loving It," and Eddie Murphy is "Vampire in Brooklyn" as directed by veteran Wes Craven.
In the "Round Up the Usual Suspects" department, we have Oliver Stone's latest political opus, "Nixon," with Anthony Hopkins in the title role; Woody Allen's comedy-drama about married couples, "Mighty Aphrodite"; Pierce Brosnan bringing James Bond back after a six-year absence in "Goldeneye"; and this year's big re-make, Sydney Pollack's "Sabrina," with Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond trying to fill the shoes of Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn.
The offbeat, independent productions are hard to call. Larry Clark's bleak view of city youth, "Kids" is generating a lot of comment in limited release. Wayne Wang's "Blue in the Face" was improvised on sets left over from "Smoke." "Four Rooms" is a collection of short films from four different directors, including Quentin Tarentino, but the cast includes Madonna, the boxoffice kiss of death.
End-of-year suspense films range from John Schlesinger's post World War II thriller, "The Innocent," starring the ever-popular Anthony Hopkins and Isabella Rosellini; Kathryn Bigelow's futuristic thriller, "Strange Days," with Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett; and David Fincher's deadly-sins thriller, "Seven," starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt.
It's deja vu all over again in Richard Donner's "Assassins," where Sylvester Stallone plays the old pro who becomes the prey of his protege, Antonio Banderas (yeah, they did that before in "The Mechanic"), and "The Juror," in which single-mom Demi Moore is pressured by gangster Alec Baldwin, who's on trial. Sounds a lot like last year's "Trial By Jury," doesn't it?
Writer Joe Ezterhas returns to the San Francisco setting of "Basic Instinct" with "Jade," another femme fatale mystery starring Linda Fiorentino. He and director Paul Verhoeven attempt to break the NC-17 boxoffice jinx with "Showgirls," about the tawdry world of Las Vegas topless dancers.
Tentatively set for Thanksgiving release are two competing action films: "Money Train" with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as cops contemplating a heist; and "Nick of Time," in which Johnny Depp plays an ordinary dad who's duped into an assassination plot. Count on lots of stuff blowing up in John Woo's "Broken Arrow," a big-budget action movie with John Travolta (again) and Christian Slater. Director Terry Gilliam is certain to take a more baroque approach with his scifi tale, "12 Monkeys," starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt.
Travolta returns yet again in the racial role-reversal comedy-drama, "White Man's Burden," co-starring with Harry Belafonte. Nicole Kidman is a lethal weathergal who leads young men astray in the black comedy, "To Die For."
Hollywood's established leading men are back in familar roles: Michael Douglas is "The American President" for director Rob Reiner; Robin Williams brings Chris Van Allsburg's board game "Jumanji" to the big screen; Jack Nicholson is a vengeance-seeking father in Sean Penn's "The Crossing Guard."
Finally my own picks for the sleepers of the season are two period pieces: "The Journey of August King," Australian director John Duigan's historical adventure about a runaway slave (Thandie Newton) and the widower (Jason Patric) who helps her in 1810 North Carolina; and Michael Hoffman's "Restoration," starring Robert Downey Jr. as a 17th-century doctor.
All right, possibly a third to half of these won't make the cut and will show up instead as video originals. But that's the way the business works.
by CNB