Last uploaded: Saturday, February 14, 1998

Valentine's Day...a time for love

(As in, "I'd *love* to have more damn time in my life right about now...")

I'm going to dodge a weekend update to the main movie pages this time, citing a lack of free time and commitment to other matters, such as taking my own love of my life out to a romantic dinner tonight. It was a hard choice, you realize: get smuggled storyboards from the production of Mission: Impossible 2 on the 'Net, or fine dining with attractive woman. Thankfully, common sense prevailed.

But that doesn't mean a heap o' news is going up on here to tide you over until the start of next week. Consider it my Valentine's card to you, dear reader (yeah, I couldn't afford the few thousand boxes of chocolates. Sue me.)

Who's Natalie Portman playing in "Star Wars One"?

Last week, the new update to Lucasfilm's official Star Wars Episode One site contained an interview with Casting Director Robin Gurland. Taken from the site:

"Gurland worked on finding players for the two youngest roles (Anakin and Padme) first, then moved on to the Jedi Knights eventually portrayed by Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson..."

Up to this point, the name 'Padme' was not even confirmed yet, but it looks like it's legit. We had also been assuming that the character of Padme would be played by Natalie Portman; but the above statement doesn't seem to mesh when you consider Portman's teenage age and the fact there are younger stars in the prequel -- one being Madison Lloyd, Jake's sis.

But when you piece together Gurland's comments with these scoops CA received last week, before the Gurland info hit cyberspace, it makes sense. But if it's true, that means Portman's character is not called Padme at all...

These next two scoops contain information that may turn out to be SPOLIERS...so if you want to read the info, UNCOVER it using your mouse and cursor. You have been warned.

" In Episode One, little Princess Padme is played by Madison Lloyd. She is Zareil's(a.k.a. 'the young Queen') younger sister. In Episode II, Padme is a young teen who falls in love with one of Anakin's friends, Owen Lars. In Episode III Princess Padme defies her royal heritage and marries Owen. Then Anakin turns to the Darkside, and Padme, Zareil, Owen must hide. Hence, Mrs.Beru Lars was once Princess Padme of Nabu.

"Complicated? You bet." [Sent in by the 'Nabu Royal Historian'.]

A couple of days before that scoop rolled in, I received this similar one. It also contains the same mention of who Madison Lloyd would be playing, along with possible info regarding the character Sebulba...

"Princess Padme is played by Madison Lloyd. Sebulba is a Wookiee that owns a cafe in Mos Espa (named for the President, Espa Valorum)." [Anonymous.]

With the abundance of speculation running around on all things SW1, only time will tell if it's true or not...

[Thanks also to Bob Ryan and 'Deadpool' for acting as CA's very own Garindians.]

Sixteen film reviews sent in!

Eric Lurio is to be commended. He was at the Sundance Film festival in January and has written up more than a dozen reviews of the films he saw at Sundance, including The Big Lebowski, Price Above Rubies, Hurricane Streets, Gods and Monsters, The Real Blonde, Wrestling Alligators, The Spanish Prisoner and two SF films I haven't seen but have heard excellent buzz about, pi and Cube. Lurio deals out the good and bad so when these pictures get picked up for wider distribution, or hit your city's film festival circuit, you'll be aware of 'em. Click here for the Sundance movies reviews.

Making the cut in "Scream 3"

It looks like there's about five actors on the short list for the role of the next cadaver. 'Cutter' maintains that he's heard Matt Damon is the name on the top of the list, but we've also received this data packet from our longtime scooper 'Dr. Strangelove'...

"Quentin Tarantino may do a cameo playing like the director of the horror film within the horror film. Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Clare Danes are being talk for the people to be killed in the first ten minutes along with Damon."

That jives with the info we've been hearing, but another one of our agents-in-the-know told us this:

"I'm surprised to hear that Matt Damon was talking to Wes Craven, an 'assistant' at Dimension that I know, told me that they were talking to Ben Affleck for a smalll role and that he was interested but dumped the idea last month, once Good Will Hunting broke out."

Ben, dude, if you're reading this, give us a shout. Enquiring minds would like to know.

Kurt Russell's "Soldier" set to change its name, and cast list is known

Paul Anderson's follow-up to Event Horizon started filming January 20th, and it the picture will be changing its name before its release this fall. We know Kurt's in it as a genetically-engineered older model soldier who's getting replaced by Jason Scott Lee, but our man 'DeMzaLF' has also passed us on the rest of the list: Gary Busey, Michael Chiklis, James Black, Jason Isaacs, Sean Pertwee, Tom O'Brien and Brenda Wehle. People who remember EH will be able to pick out Pertwee and Isaacs' names from the list.

Your digital equivalent of chocolate...

...although I don't track TV news, one scooper was kind enough to tell me the Fox Network is gearing up to remake The Exorcist as a four-hour miniseries. The novelist of the book, William Peter Blatty has written and will produce the project with Ray Wagner; The Agency's Jerry Zeitman set up the deal.

...director Peter Jackson denied reports that Sean Connery will star in his new, unnamed Miramax project. Also refuted by Jackson was the rumor producer Saul Zaentz or Spielberg or DreamWorks are involved in any way. Jackson didn't deny that the project was an adaptation of one of J.R.R. Tolkien's books. In Jackson's own words: "I've signed a confidentiality agreement which prevents me from discussing it until Miramax decides otherwise. There is obviously spectulation about what this project is, but don't bother asking questions about it, because I can't answer them at this time. I will not confirm, or deny, what the movie is."

...Kevin Smith posted on View Askew Thursday that Brian O'Halloran, (Dante of Clerks fame) will have a part in Dogma.

...Roman Polanski's returning back to supernatural turf. The director of Rosemary's Baby will direct Johnny Depp in The Ninth Gate for LIVE Entertainment. The $30 mil production, LIVE's biggest investment yet, is based on the 1997 novel The Club Dumas, and follows an antique-book expert (Depp) who gets swallowed into a conspiracy surrounding the twin copies of a ancient demonic tome. Sounds like my high school final report for History class. [With preternatural assistance from 'Sinusitus'.]

...Remember Dee Snider? He was the lead singer for Twisted Sister, and he's written a movie called Strangeland. Word on the street is the picture will star some major talent from industrial and heavy metal music, and may open in the fall of '98. Could a Twisted Sister retrospective be far behind? Dare I hope so high? [Nate Moore, come on down! You're the next contestant on CA!]

...the stars of Matrix are all in Sydney, Australia now to begin lensing the film in March.

From the letters pile...

Here's some pieces of info that I've received over the past week. If you have any further info on any of these projects, you know what to do.

"I'm not sure about the title, but a friend of mine who works for New Line Cinema received a newsletter informing him that there will be a movie that could possibly be made by a young Princeton alum. He has written the script which is supposed to be excellenet but very short.It will be an action/ thriller/suspenseful/dramatic/comedy movie. I have no idea how he will pull this off, but my friend said it is supposed to be great.The six main characteers are lined up, but none official.He wants Kevin Pollak to play the lead role.Gina Gershon and Julianne Moore ro play the two leading female roles and Johnny Depp (YEAH,RIGHT) ,Hank Azaria, and John Lovitz to play the comedic role." [Thank you to an anonymous sender.]

"I recently had the pleasure of meeting Jason Mewes, 'Jay' in all of Kevin Smith's films, and a good friend of Mr Smith. He basically said (to a lot of people, so it's probably not a BIG secret) that Smith's script (which Mewes thought was really good, funny without the typical 'one-liners' of the Batman/Superman franchise) is practically ripped-up, and nothing he wrote will be in this film, IF it ever gets made.

"Also, Nicolas Cage is tired of waiting for this project to come together, wants to get on with other work, and has thus said that he is no longer associated with this project, and will not play Supes. Due to all of this, Mr Mewes feels the film will NEVER be made.

Shame, tho, as he thought it would be very good, even without Smith's script..." [Anonymous.]

Fans of True Lies and I Am Legend take note: these two scoops tie in together:

"I have a good friend who has crewed a few James Cameron productions. This pal has it on good authority that Cameron has 'a good story idea' for a sequel to True Lies, and that he is most interested in doing that film next more than any other.

"My friend also says that shooting will be some time off in the future, perhaps in late '98 or early '99 because 'Arnold has a film to shoot in April.' That seems to concord with the news CA just published regarding I Am Legend."

[Your cruise director has been 'Bear the Bear'.]

"Recent issue of the trendy FACE magazine featured couple of CGI artists. Well, they claimed to be working on Ridley Scott's film called I Am Legend. Quote: 'Together these men are creating for I Am Legend, Ridley Scott's forthcoming futuristic horror remake about the last man on earth. Hideous Satanic creatures and twisted worlds are promised in a bid to create a universe that outdoes Scott's previous sci-fi tours-de-force, Alien and Blade Runner. It's due in 1999...' If you are wondering the names of these blokes are Craig Penn and Tim Zaccheo (used to work in a London based SFX firm called The Mill, the article doesn't mention if that's the company that makes the effects for Scott's film)." [Thanks to 'shrine' for the vampire alert.]

Take a look at my movie predictions and have a good laugh. G'won.

About a month ago, I was asked by the crew at Running Foo Pictures to contribute my estimates for the Spring Box Office sweepstakes. Along with myself, the Running Foo guys asked for the opinions of Garth Franklin (Dark Horizons), Will Neve (Buzzstation), the guys at Random Foo and other online film-related pros. It seemed like a fun idea at the time, and so I handed in my best guesstimates. Of course, that was before we all knew Titanic would be playing in theaters for the rest of the century, which completely fouled up my predictions. Still, I'm on-track for a couple of guesses...

If you're interested, check out the Spring Movie Box Office Competition page at the Random Foo website. It's updated every weekend with the latest grosses added to the listing...but please, no wagering or laughing.

Patrick Sauriol
Creator, Chief Content Writer & Director
Coming Attractions

Got some neato items from the shoot? Parking passes, photos from the set? Poster images, or the latest hot script making the rounds?
Or maybe you walked off the set with an extra tucked under your arm, perhaps?
That's why we're here.

Send them to our mailing address:

Coming Attractions
2176 Willingdon Avenue
Burnaby, B.C., CANADA
V5C 5Z9

We'll do our best to get 'em on the page. (Just remember to poke air holes in the parcel if it's alive -- thanks.)

Enter the world of Technopolis! Aliens, gangsters and flying roadsters from the 50's Published bi-monthly by Caliber Comics Issue #2 OUT NOW! To order, call 1-888-22-COMIC, or just yell really really loud into the air. We'll get back to ya. For more info check out the Technopolis website.

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December 15, 1998
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