Tuesday, 10 February 1998

YOUTHANIZING MIKE: Or is that euthanizing? Michael Douglas seems to be chasing his childhood with a passion. He's hopping from an on-screen romance with 24-year-old Gwyneth Paltrow in A Perfect Murder to his first full-bore action film, U-571, a World War II thriller. Like the old saying goes, if the war fits your age, fight it.

COMIC TAKE: Six comic book movies were made last year. Only two (MIB and Spawn) were hits. The rest were flops. But studios keep buying. This week it's Dylan Dog, a detective who's not actually a dog, bought by Miramax for $750,000 against $1.5 million. So add some watercolors to those sharpened pencils when you shoot for the big screenplay sale.

DADDY DEAREST: The man who is attached to direct the eventual live-action version of Dylan Dog is Breck Eisner. Yes, he's the son of Michael "I Want To Devour The Entire Planet" Eisner. But it's hard to get worked up about the idea that nepotism is at play. Little Eisner, 27, was the director behind the Budweiser frogs, the Jason Alexander Rold Gold spots and blurbs for Coke, Sega, Kodak and Zima as well. That's now the traditional route to feature directing.

JUST WONDERING: Why would Sony hire Danny Cannon, director of Judge Dredd, to direct the sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer? Even if you write off his mega-flop, the guy is a comic book visualist. IKWYDLS is a small-town character piece with horror added. Doesn't make sense, does it?

READER OF THE DAY: From John H, responding to an old Whole Picture: "'THX' refers to the sound system in theaters so designated, whereas the digital formats you refer to (DTS, SDDS, Dolby Digital) are the sound format of the film itself. Therefore, these are separate types of 'hardware.' A poor analogy: Tires and wheels; they're not the same, but they work together."

E-ME: The question, dear readers, is whether you all care about this distinction when you have to sit through THX and digital sound bumpers before every film. E-mail me and let me know whether you like the ads or if you hate them.