The blockbuster meets the Bard
It's not your usual brainless movie summer.
In addition to the usual Disney blockbusters ("Dinosaur," "The Kid"), and the expected sequels ("Mission Impossible," "Godzilla," "Nutty Professor," "Pokemon") and remakes ("Shaft," "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," "Bedazzled," "Rocky and Bullwinkle"), there will be two Shakespeare adaptations (Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet," Kenneth Branagh's "Love's Labour's Lost") and a couple of film-noir revivals ("The Honeymoon Killers," "Blood Simple").
Seattle will get an early peek at "Love's Labour's Lost" when its star, Alicia Silverstone, brings it to the opening of the Seattle International Film Festival, at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Paramount. It's scheduled to begin a regular run June 9 - during the marathon festival's final weekend.
And while "Hamlet" also won't be opening until early June, an earlier Almereyda film, "Another Girl, Another Planet," will be making its local debut in a couple of weeks at the Little Theatre on Capitol Hill. It was filmed with a Pixelvision toy camera that cost $45.
Not that any of that matters to multiplex moviegoers who are most looking forward to "X-Men," "Space Cowboys" and "The Perfect Storm" - the kinds of splashy, big-budget pictures that almost define summer at the movies. Still, there could be another phenomenon on the scale of 1999's hot-weather smash, "The Blair Witch Project," which blew Hollywood's idea of a summer smash clean out of the water. Maybe there's even hope for a Pixelvision movie.
Here's a lineup of the main events. Opening dates should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
Thursday through June 11
The Seattle International Film Festival. The lineup includes several movies that will be heard from later this summer, when they begin regular runs - and many more that won't. The festival will visit the Cinerama for its last 10 days - a mixture of Event and Event Theater that turned out to be a major draw last year.
Next Friday through May 28
"Satellites 2000: Screens From Outer Spaces." The Sundance Film Festival has its Slamdunk and Slamdance festivals; Seattle also has an alternative to the big one. It takes place at several "microcinemas" around the city, including 911 Media Arts Center and the Speakeasy Cafe, and will include screenings of Super 8 films, a Gian-Carlo Menotti opera and experimental films by Stan Brakhage.
Next Friday
"Dinosaur." State-of-the-art computer animation is the big attraction in this Disney production about a prehistoric creature who is raised from egghood by a clan of lemurs. Providing the voices are D.B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Joan Plowright, Ossie Davis and Julianna Margulies.
"Road Trip." DreamWorks enters the raunchy college comedy sweepstakes with this road movie directed by Todd Phillips, whose documentary "Frat House" won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. It's about a lege boy who's desperate to retrieve an incriminating videotape and travels from New York to Texas with his pals.
"Small Time Crooks." Woody Allen's first movie in, oh, about five months, is the story of a manicurist and her ex-con husband, who plan to rob a New York bank. In addition to Allen, who is behind and in front of the cameras, the cast includes Elaine May, Hugh Grant, Tracey Ullman and Jon Lovitz.
"American Pimp." The Hughes brothers, Allen and Albert, who made "Menace II Society," are back with this documentary made up of interviews with African-American pimps with such names as Bishop Don Magic Juan and Rosebudd. It's having its west coast premiere at the Grand Illusion.
"Bus Rider's Union." Haskell Wexler's brand-new documentary about a Los Angeles union that has been battling a rail system its members believe will be used by few commuters. It will be preceded next Thursday by Wexler's "Bus II," a 1983 film that represents the middle part of his "bus trilogy."
May 24
"Mission: Impossible 2." Tom Cruise, who needs to establish his box-office clout again, returns to the franchise that provided him with one of his biggest hits four years ago. The director this time is Hong Kong's John Woo. Thandie Newton provides the love interest; Anthony Hopkins and Ving Rhames are in the cast.
May 25
"Another Girl, Another Planet." Michael Almereyda's 1992 Pixelvision movie deals with the difficult relationship between two men living in an East Side New York apartment. It will be shown with the director's 23-minute 1997 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner."
May 26
"Shanghai Noon." Jackie Chan costars with Owen Wilson (from "The Haunting") in this American Western about a search for a trunk full of gold. Lucy Liu plays a kidnapped princess, and the script is the work of the same team that did "Lethal Weapon 4."
"The Honeymoon Killers." A revival of Leonard Kastle's fact-based 1969 film noir starring Tony LoBianco and Shirley Stoler as a pair of lowlifes who preyed on single women and became known as "the lonelyhearts killers." The recent Mexican film, "Deep Crimson," was a partial remake.
"Bossa Nova." Amy Irving plays a widow living in Rio de Janeiro in this romantic comedy directed by Irving's husband, Bruno Barreto.
West Seattle Outdoor Cinema. New to West Seattle is this outdoor series, which will be presented behind the Husky Deli at California Avenue Southwest and Southwest Alaska Street. The opener is "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."
May 27
Fremont Outdoor Cinema. The outdoors event that started it all will be back May 27 behind the Red Door Ale House, also with the "Austin Powers" sequel.
June 1
"Films by Charles and Ray Eames." A collection of films by the influential husband-and-wife team, produced from 1954-78 and including their classic mind-bender, "Powers of Ten."
June 2
Cinerama Day at the Cinerama. For the first time since 1964, the original three-projector Cinerama process will be used to show the epic Western, "How the West Was Won," which plays at 11 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for this one-day-only event. Also playing are "This Is Cinerama" (5:15 p.m.) and a work-in-progress called "The Cinerama Adventure" (3 p.m.)
"Hamlet." Ethan Hawke has the title role, Bill Murray is Polonius, Diane Venora is Gertrude and Julia Stiles is Ophelia in Michael Almereyda's updated, streamlined version of the play, which takes place in Manhattan and cost about $2 million to produce.
"Big Momma's House." Martin Lawrence goes the Eddie Murphy route by piling on the makeup to play an overweight female in this comedy about an FBI agent (Lawrence) who pretends to be a granny to protect a family from an escaped convict.
"Boys and Girls." Freddie Prinze Jr. and his "She's All That" director, Robert Iscove, are back with this romantic comedy costarring Claire Forlani. Heather Donahue, who made the strongest impression in "The Blair Witch Project," has a supporting role.
"Running Free." Sergei Bodrov, the Russian filmmaker who directed the Oscar-nominated "Prisoner of the Mountains" and now lives in Los Angeles, made this account of the life of a horse. Chase Moore is the orphaned stable boy who adopts her.
June 8
"Anatomy of Saul Bass." A 90-minute survey of the work of the master title designer who created memorable logos for Hitchcock ("Psycho," "Vertigo") and Otto Preminger ("Exodus," "Anatomy of a Murder"). It includes his Oscar-winning short, "Why Man Creates."
June 9
"Gone in 60 Seconds." One of the most atrocious cult movies of the 1970s is back in a more expensive form. The original starred Marion Busia and H.B. Halicki; the remake stars Oscar winners Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie, along with Delroy Lindo, Giovanni Ribisi and Robert Duvall. It's still a chase movie about car thieves.
"Love's Labour's Lost." Actor-director Kenneth Branagh has updated Shakespeare's story to the late 1930s, thrown in a number of songs drawn from the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers musicals of that period ("Cheek to Cheek," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "Let's Face the Music and Dance"), and cast the picture with a mixture of veterans (Nathan Lane, Timothy Spall) and teen-movie faces (Alicia Silverstone, Matthew Lillard). And unlike Branagh's full-length "Hamlet," it's just 93 minutes long.
"Sunshine." Ralph Fiennes plays three characters in this three-hour Hungarian epic from the Oscar-winning director Istvan Szabo ("Mephisto," "Colonel Redl," "Meeting Venus").
"Kikujiro." The latest Japanese drama from cult director Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, who made and starred in "Fireworks" (a k a "Hana-Bi") and "Sonatine." This time he's a tough guy in search of a little boy's mother.
June 14
"Suburban Existentialism: Mike Mills." A collection of films and videos by the Southern California designer and director, including "eating, sleeping, waiting and playing" and "The Architecture of Reassurance."
June 16
"Passion of Mind." Demi Moore, who hasn't starred in a movie since 1997's "G.I. Jane," returns with this English-language speculative drama from Belgian director Alain Berliner, who made "Ma Vie en Rose." It's about a woman with two possible identities: a single New Yorker and a French mother.
"Grass." Woody Harrelson narrates this irreverent look at the history of marijuana.
"8 1/2 Women." Peter Greenaway's latest out-there effort deals with two men who become obsessed with the sexier scenes in Fellini's "8 1/2."
"Groove." Like an American version of the Welsh film, "Human Traffic," Greg Harrison's low-budget comedy celebrates youth, soft drugs and the club scene, as a group of kids spends the night at a San Francisco rave.
"Shaft." John Singleton, still the only African-American director to earn an Oscar nomination (for 1991's "Boyz N the Hood"), is back with a spinoff of one of the key black-exploitation movies of the 1970s. Samuel L. Jackson plays the nephew of the private eye that Richard Roundtree played three decades ago. Christian Bale, Jeffrey Wright and Vanessa Williams are in the cast.
"Titan A.E." Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, the ex-Disney animators who made "Anastasia" and "An American Tail," return with a comic-book science-fiction movie featuring the voice of Matt Damon as a teenager battling aliens. More than a dozen writers worked on the script - which usually isn't a good sign.
"Fantasia 2000." You missed it during its IMAX run? Disney's follow-up to one of its most popular cartoon features is getting a multiplex release - on the same day Bluth and Goldman's latest cartoon is making its debut. Haven't we seen this marketing strategy somewhere before? Will Disney ever not try to ace out the animators who angrily left the studio two decades ago?
June 23
"Chicken Run." Aardman Animation, which created the Oscar-winning "Creature Comforts" and the Wallace and Gromit shorts, makes its feature-length debut with this story of Yorkshire farm hens who revolt against a vicious farmer's wife.
"Long Night's Journey into Day." A prize-winning documentary about the history of South Africa and apartheid.
"Me, Myself and Irene." The Farrelly brothers, who made "There's Something About Mary," reunite with their "Dumb and Dumber" star, Jim Carrey, in another comedy intended to go beyond the taste barrier. Renee Zellweger plays the girlfriend of Carrey, a divorced policeman with a split personality and three African-American kids.
"Jet City Improv Meets Fremont Friday Nite Outdoor Movies." In the tradition of "Mystery Science Theater," the local comedy group will provide live music and improvised dialogue for cheesy horror movies. First up is the 3-D version of "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" (glasses provided). The location is Adobe Parking, under the Aurora Bridge in Fremont.
June 28
"The Patriot." Mel Gibson earned a record $25 million for starring in this Revolutionary War epic about a father trying to rescue his captured son. Directed by Roland Emmerich, who made the jingoistic "Independence Day" and the overblown "Godzilla," it includes Joely Richardson and Chris Cooper in the cast.
June 30
"The Perfect Storm." This marks the first time in four years that a Will Smith vehicle will not dominate the Fourth of July box office (his new movie, "The Legend of Bagger Vance," opens Aug. 4). Likely to grab most of the attention is Wolfgang Petersen's costly special-effects extravaganza, based on Sebastian Junger's nonfiction best-seller and featuring the "Three Kings" stars, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.
Wide-screen festival at the Egyptian. A week of wide-screen epics on the Egyptian's big screen, including "Ben-Hur," "Solaris" and "The Thin Red Line."
"Kirikou and the Sorceress." French animated fairy tale based on a West African legend about a baby battling an evil sorceress.
"The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle." The last time anyone tried to make a movie out of the fondly remembered cartoon series, the result - "Boris and Natasha" (1992), starring Sally Kellerman and Dave Thomas - went straight to cable. This time Rene Russo is Natasha, Robert De Niro is Fearless Leader, and June Foray, the original "Rocky's" voice, provides the voice for the animated squirrel.
July 7
Disney's "The Kid." Jon Turteltaub, director of such soft-centered summer movies as "Phenomenon" and "Instinct," is back with this story of an "image consultant" (Bruce Willis) who somehow meets himself as an 8-year-old child (Spencer Breslin). Lily Tomlin and Jean Smart are also in the cast. Willis' previous summer Disney hits include "The Sixth Sense" and "Armageddon."
"Scary Movie." Miramax's sendup of its own "Scream" series used to be called "Scream If You Know What I Did Last Summer." Keenen Ivory Wayans, who created the 1995 Miramax spoof of "Boyz N the Hood" movies, "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood," is the director.
"The Little Thief." Erick Zonca, who made "The Dreamlife of Angels," is back with this story of a boy's descent into the criminal underworld.
July 11
"Summer Children's Film Series." The Grand Illusion is back with a collection of family-friendly films that play Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Some locally produced films will be included, along with slapstick shorts, early silent movies and a few surprises.
July 14
"X-Men." Bryan Singer, who directed the sensational "The Usual Suspects," then tripped a bit with "Apt Pupil," is back with one of the summer's potential blockbusters: an adaptation of the Marvel Comics story about people born with superpowers. The impressive cast includes Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry and Anna Paquin. Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for writing "The Usual Suspects," contributed to the script.
"Chuck & Buck." Michael White, supervising producer on television's "Freaks and Geeks," wrote this story of an infantile 27-year-old who becomes fixated on his childhood best friend. Directed by Miguel Arteta, who made "Star Maps."
"Blood Simple." National reissue of the Coen brothers' 1984 breakthrough movie: a film noir starring Frances McDormand and Dan Hedaya. The Coens' latest picture, "O Brother, Where Are Thou," opens later this year. The Egyptian will hold a weeklong festival of their films beginning July 28.
"Shower." Zhang Yang's Chinese-language comedy-drama about a bathhouse run by an old man and his son. It won last year's Toronto International Film Festival Critics' award.
Untitled John Travolta/Nora Ephron Movie. Originally called "Numbers," this comedy about an attempt to rig a state lottery was written by Adam Resnick, who wrote and directed the wretched "Cabin Boy." Not a good sign, though the cast does include Lisa Kudrow and Tim Roth. Nora Ephron directed, and presumably Paramount will come up with a title by mid-July.
"The Five Senses." Jeremy Podeswa's Genie-winning Canadian film about several characters brought together when a child disappears. Mary-Louise Parker and Molly Parker head the cast.
July 19
"The In-Crowd." Mary Lambert, who directed the movie of Stephen King's "Pet Sematary," is the filmmaker behind this thriller. Lori Heuring plays a college student who runs into trouble with a country club clique.
"But I'm a Cheerleader." RuPaul plays an intervention expert from True Directions, a homosexual rehabilitation camp, in this comedy about a cheerleader whose parents fear she's a lesbian. Cathy Moriarty plays the camp's abusive manager.
July 21
"Pokemon 2000." You thought they were kidding when they called last fall's kiddie horror "Pokemon: The First Movie"? Here comes the second, starring Pikachu, Ashy, Misty and Tracey. Warner Bros. is again the American distributor for the Japanese cartoon.
"What Lies Beneath." Harrison Ford, coming off the disastrous "Random Hearts," plays a college professor whose wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) suspects that the spirit of his dead mistress is haunting them. The director is Robert Zemeckis, whose most recent hits include "Contact" and "Forrest Gump."
"Loser." Jason Biggs, the star of "American Pie," graduates to college comedies with Amy Heckerling's story of a Midwesterner (Biggs) who develops a crush on a student (Mena Suvari) who is more interested in her professor (Greg Kinnear).
"Mad About Mambo." Much-delayed romantic comedy starring Keri Russell (television's "Felicity") as an Irish student who tries to prove her ability as a Latin dancer.
"Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her." Originally set for a spring release, Rodrigo Garcia's ensemble drama is made up of five stories and stars Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Cameron Diaz, Kathy Baker and Calista Flockhart. Garcia is the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
July 26
"Thomas and the Magic Railroad." The first big-screen edition of the "Thomas" children's franchise is partly animated, partly live-action. Mara Wilson plays a girl who takes a train that lands her in a toy world.
July 28
"I Was Made to Love Her." The latest remake of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" stars Chris Rock as a stand-up comic who dies prematurely and gets sent back to Earth to inhabit an inappropriate body. Warren Beatty played the lost soul in 1978's "Heaven Can Wait"; Robert Montgomery did it first in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941).
"The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps." Eddie Murphy returns in the comic Jekyll-and-Hyde role that revived his career four years ago. Janet Jackson is in the cast, and the script is partly the work of Paul and Chris Weitz, who wrote the inventive "Antz."
Aug. 4
"The Hollow Man." Paul Verhoeven's costly science-fiction thriller sounds like an expensive remake of "The Invisible Man," with Kevin Bacon playing a mad scientist who takes an invisibility serum. Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin costar, and the script is by Andrew Marlowe, who can be blamed for last year's "End of Days."
"An Affair of Love." Moving, awkwardly titled French film starring Nathalie Baye as a woman who recalls an affair that seemed to be a purely sexual liasion but became much more.
"Space Cowboys." Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this story of Air Force veterans on a NASA rescue mission, costarring Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, William Devane, James Cromwell, Marcia Gay Harden and Donald Sutherland.
"The Legend of Bagger Vance." Robert Redford is back in the director's chair for this adaptation of Steven Pressfield's 1995 novel. Will Smith has the title role - a wise, mysterious golf caddy - and the cast includes Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Jack Lemmon and Bruce McGill.
"Saving Grace." A prize winner and an audience favorite at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Nigel Cole's comedy stars Brenda Blethyn as a widow who cultivates marijuana plants to avoid financial ruin.
"Coyote Ugly." John Goodman is the only "name" in this romantic comedy from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It's about a 21-year-old songwriter who heads for New York and gets a day job at a bar called the Coyote Ugly.
Aug. 11
"Bait." The busy Jamie Foxx, who starred in "Any Given Sunday" and "Held Up" (opening today), plays a criminal involved in a sting operation in this comedy-thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua ("The Replacement Killers").
"Cecil B. Demented." Stephen Dorff has the title role - a terrorist filmmaker who kidnaps Melanie Griffith - in John Waters' latest comedy. It features several of the usual Waters cronies, including Patricia Hearst and Ricki Lake.
"Godzilla 2000." Not a sequel to the recent, costly American version but the 23rd installment in the original made-in-Japan series.
"Bedazzled." Peter Cook and Dudley Moore starred in Stanley Donen's witty 1968 original, about a short-order cook who tries to sell his soul to the devil and gets repeatedly humiliated. This time Brendan Fraser is the loser hero, and the devil has gone through a sex change: She's played by Elizabeth Hurley. Directed by Harold Ramis, who made "Groundhog Day."
"Impostor." Gary Fleder, who made the popular but execrable "Kiss the Girls," directed this adaptation of a Philip K. Dick science-fiction story about a late-21st-century cop (Vincent D'Onofrio) who is ordered to find an alien spy (Gary Sinise). Madeleine Stowe and Mekhi Phifer are in the cast.
Aug. 18
"The Cell." Psychological thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a scientist who performs experiments on a sadistic serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio). Directed by the single-named Tarsem, who is best known for creating the R.E.M. video, "Losing My Religion."
"Blow Dry." It sounds like an instant replay of "The Big Tease": Alan Rickman plays a hairdresser trying to win a scissors contest.
Aug. 25
"The Replacements." Football comedy-drama starring Gene Hackman as a coach who recruits Keanu Reeves, Jon Favreau and Orlando Jones to form a bad-news team.
"Texas Rangers." James Van Der Beek takes the "Young Guns" route with Steve Miner's post-Civil War Western. Dylan McDermott and Rachael Leigh Cook are his costars.
"Cheer Fever." Kirsten Dunst plays the captain of the Rancho Carne High pep squad, who discovers that the group's cheer routines were stolen from an inner-city hip-hop squad. Jesse Bradford is the new student she has a crush on.
"The Crew." Disney comedy starring Burt Reynolds, Richard Dreyfuss, Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassell as aging former wiseguys, now retired in Miami, who are facing eviction from the rundown Raj Mahal senior-citizen residence hotel.
"The Way of the Gun." Christopher McQuarrie, Oscar-winning writer of "The Usual Suspects," makes his directing debut with this crime drama starring Ryan Philippe and Benicio Del Toro as kidnappers and Juliette Lewis as the young woman they abduct.