Genre: Romance/Comedy.
Studio:
Dreamworks SKG.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Greenlighted.
Who's In It:
Sandra Bullock; Ben Affleck; Maura Tierney; David Strickland.
Who's Making It:
Bronwen Hughes (Director); Marc Lawrence (Screenwriter); Donna Roth, Susan Arnold (Producers).
Premise: While traveling to meet with his fiancee, a by-the-book Manhattanite travels gets sidetracked by various forces of nature including a hurricane, a plane crash and a free-spirited female traveler with whom he starts falling in love with.
Release Date: February 12, 1999.
Rumors: What a year for Ben Affleck. Just a year ago he was an indie film star (Chasing Amy); now two movies later (Good Will Hunting, Armaggedon) he's going to be opposite Sandra Bullock in a DreamWorks movie. While waiting for this one to roll Affleck is currently shooting Shakespeare in Love with his significant other (Gwyneth Paltrow) in London.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page draft submitted by Hurricane 'Deadpool'.]
March, 1998... Daily Variety reports that Sandra Bullock is in negotiations to star opposite Ben Affleck. The production is set to start in June and DreamWorks is still casting for the role of male lead's fiancee.
April 17, 1998... Daily Variety reports that Maura Tierney is in final negotiations to be cast as the third side in the film's love triangle. The film will be directed by Harriet the Spy helmer Bronwen Hughes. The above-the-title casting for Tierney in Forces is one of two film projects she'll be working on after finishing this season's run of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio. Tierney will also star in and produce the New York-based indie film Oxygen. [Scoop provided by 'Deadpool'; some material originally appeared in Daily Vairety.]
June 9, 1998... On summer hiatus from his regular role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan, David Strickland now joins the ensemble. Strickland will play Bullock's romantic interest who gets tossed aside when Affleck's character enters the scene. [Scoopage provided by 'Deadpool'.]
July 14, 1998... For your reading pleasure, an exclusive on-set report from a most-excellent (and journalistic) scooper. We'd like to buy you a Coke (but we also promise to not teach you any new songs, too.)
"The weather Saturday night on Victory Drive was peculiar.
"The stifling humidity stopped at 10:30 and was punctuated by a brief but intense hailstorm. Another one followed a few moments later. Then, a bit later, another bounced nickel-sized pellets of hail around the Kmart parking lot and sent everyone scurrying.
"A machine was speeding across the parking lot of this Kmart here in Savannah, spewing from a fat tube the 'hail' into a pluming arc over Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck. They were sopping wet and breathless, with Sandy (as they called her on set) holding a trash can lid against the heavens, they raced toward the store's front door, pelted by the whirring machine as fake lightning flashed above them. Ten minutes later, they sprinted again for the door. Then again. And again.
'"They're being incredible sports," director Bronwen Hughes told the small assembly of press that had gathered that night of her leads in FORCES OF NATURE. The DreamWorks film crew started shooting the movie here in Savannah on June 23rd. The producer, Ian Bryce, told me that the company will be around town for about another month.
"So far, Bryce said that everything's been great while they've been here . The Savannah Film Commision, the police, the City Council, and he stressed how helpful they'd all been to the shoot.
"I barely talked to Hughes for a small bit but luckily, I was able to manange a few words from her before shooting began. She said that they love Savannah and that they were trying their best to explore every inch of it while they're here.
"I also discovered that in addition to Sandy and Ben, the romantic comedy also stars Maura Tierney (Jim Carrey's wife in LIAR LIAR), Blythe Danner, Joe Don Baker, David Strickland, and Steve Zahn (OUT OF SIGHT, That Thing You Do!).
"The story for this flick folows Ben's character named, ironically, Ben Holmes. This guy has two days to get from New York to Savannah for his wedding to Bridget (Tierney). When his plane skids into New York's Flushing Bay, he saves the life of his seatmate, (Sandy's character) the eccentric Sarah. She becomes his faithful, if not particularly wanted traveling companion. And you don't exactly need a slide rule and a flashlight to figure out who Ben winds up falling for (I guess all films like this tend to have cliches', huh ?)
"Together they face all sorts of travails. Like that plane crash, of course. And a hurricane. And, yes, a nasty hailstorm in a K-mart parking lot. I asked how it all turns out and I was laughed at and told I'd just have to pay my five bucks and see by Hughes.
"Once the filming is completed here in Savannah, Bryce said the FORCES OF NATURE crew will move up the coast to Richmond, Va., and Washington, then back to North Carolina, where filming should be completed around Labor Day. The movie, he said, should be out sometime in the spring.
"And then the filming began and even though I was ushered away, I managed to get this scoop. Hope you take this into consideration for Coming Attractions. Have a great summer and keep that movie info coming!!! Call me Jason if you use this!!" [Well Jason, you just made the bid leagues. Good work!]
August 30, 1998... "I'm here to tell you a little something about the script Forces of Nature," begins our anonymous email sender. "I write this more for the screenwriter, because since he got stuck with a horrible director and a female star that makes guys think every movie she's in is a vagina flick, males are going to avoid this film." We immediately sat up a little bit more straighter after reading the writer's opening salvo.
"But Forces of Nature is much better than you'd except," continued our unknown wordsmith. "Written by Marc Lawrence, who also wrote the ill-cast Mickey Blue-Eyes, this is Planes, Trains and Automobiles involving a young man and a young woman instead of a fat guy and a businessman, with the man being a Woody Allen character.
"The script is much better than its I-can-sell-it-in-one-sentence premise would suggest. All the hackneyed garbage that COULD HAVE been stepped in (it's about a guy going to his wedding and getting delayed by one foul-up after another, accompanied by a beautiful woman, for Christ's sake!) is gracefully sidestepped. The jokes here are easygoing and unforced, which is odd nowadays.
"While the script is in good shape here, everything else is wrong. I don't know how Hollywood works, but why hire the man that directed Harriet the Spy to make this? I'm sure the actors demanded rewrites... why not a director that can actually handle a feature film?
"Ben Affleck sure LOOKS the part -- dark, attractive -- but the man just cannot act. His acting is obvious and overdone. He always LOOKS like he's acting.
"Sandra Bullock is a total disaster. She was hired for her box office record, and not because she's right for the role. Knowing what the role consists of, I know this performance will be more annoying than the one given in Two If By Sea.
"What I really hope doesn't happen is that Sandra orders rewrites by the likes of Akiva 'Antichrist' Goldsman, like she did on Practical Magic, which was a good script (by Robin Swicord) and was turned into a just-okay script by Akiva's rewrites.
"Only time will tell if this strong script can overcome all that pushes it down to mediocrity.
"Do yourself a favor and give the movie a chance... or better yet, buy the script."
[Damn right this one came in anonymously.]
September 20, 1998... A set report from a very lucky scooper: "There was a movie being made in Savannah this summer, called Forces of Nature, starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock. No, it's not some bullshit 'nature' movie, its about a couple who are going home to get married and face with fires, earthquakes, and well the rest is to come. I saw and talked to Ben Affleck every day for about four weeks. I huged Sandra Bullock at a shoot one night. I also got to see them fire bomb a building." [Scoop provided by 'Tyler Littman'.] October 19, 1998... Some Great info from this scooper:"Okay, I've held me tongue long enough! After reading the last scoop on this film I feel I HAVE to respond! I worked as an extra in late July in a HILARIOUS scene for this movie filmed here in Savannah. I have a few corrections for your last scooper. First, the director is a female. Not "the guy who directed Harriet the Spy", but a first class, considerate and TALENTED director! (Handpicked by Steven Speilberg no less!) The script was excellent with enough sweetness for the female audience and enough laughs and effects for the male audience. (The scene I worked on will make the guys squirm and the gals roar with laughter) Ms. Hughes filmed the script ver batim and improvising was not encouraged, unlike the unsuccessful "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" also filmed here. Ms. Bullock was great to work with and seemed perfect for her role. And as for Mr. Affleck not being able to act, well just wait and see how he does taking almost all his clothes off stripping in a gay bar!! You can't fake his reactions! The crew was great to work with, even in a bar with NO air conditioning on one of the hottest days of July. I also have a special place in my heart for the caterers who served some of the best chow ever! So, it sounds to me like your last scooper was just a little bitter. Too many rejection letters for those submitted scripts, perhaps? This film is going to be a great romantic comedy, give it a chance!" [Scoop sent in anonymously.]
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