The Hot Button by David Poland

Thursday, 18 February 1999

HUSH YOUR MOUTH: I love Sam Jackson. He's one of my favorite actors. He is versatile, smart, edgy and charming. But he is not a bad mutha -- hush your mouth. He can be bad. And he can be a mutha. But he's just not a bad mutha. He is not, simply put, a stud. There have been few men ever put on film more beautiful and charismatic than Richard Roundtree. Shaft, therefore, to me, is beautiful and charismatic. Can you see women, not knowing him, dropping their drawers for Samuel L.? Fifty-year-old-plus Samuel L. Jackson? Now, if you needed a star for the role, Wesley Snipes could pull it off. But I say Shaft is bigger than any one actor. Taye Diggs, who was strong in How Stella Got Her Groove Back and seems to be a true movie star on the rise in Go would have been a great choice. Or how about Djimon Hounsou. If Paramount and John Singleton really want a new Shaft for the millennium, an immigrant Shaft would bring a lot of subtext to the story of black power. But, Sam, what would Yoda think? Who knows? Maybe Yoda will get cast in the remake of The Summer of '42.

A FILM OF COLOR: Speaking of the genre that dare not speak its name, New Line green-lit the all-black cast Ghetto Superstar, which will star Pras from The Fugees. Pras debuts in the film as does writer/director Robert Adetuyi, who got $11 million for the project off one pitch meeting with New Line movie topper Michael "No, I don't know how the president feels" DeLuca and was asked to change almost nothing. Tony Kaye could not be reached for nasty comment.
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: There are great stories told in this town when a movie that seemed to take forever to go into production gets made and wins big at the box office or awards shows. Forrest Gump was probably the last great example of this. Then you have films like Jack Frost that seemed to be fighting an uphill battle all the way and got made. 'Nuff said. So here's another case of a movie finally coming to bat (apparently) eons after production was originally slated to begin. Benjamin Button teams up Universal and Paramount as the financial might behind this story of a man who grows young instead of old. Martin Short and Robin Williams have been among the many stars rumored to star in the film that was never made. Now, they are talking to director Phil Alden Robinson, a guy who is all about personal directorial vision, about taking the reins of the film, which still has no star attached. I say, rent Jack and let a project that seems to want to be dead die. It will either be an Academy Award-nominee or it will be a piece of junk. I fear the latter more than I expect the former.
ON THE OTHER HAND: In similar news that I actually find encouraging, director Gore Verbinski, who has had a hard time settling on a second feature project, is teaming with Tom Hanks to make Where the Wild Things Are, a live and CG version of the Maurice Sendak book of the same name. It's Hanks' favorite book and Verbinski has the broad visual style, as evidenced in Mouse Hunt, to make the project work after years of all kinds of people trying to get it made. Go to it, guys.
I'M THE BLACK KNIGHT!: John Hughes is finally proceeding with the English-language version of the French mega-hit Les Visiteurs. The delay seems to be a long-standing argument (the film has been around so long that it has already had a sequel in France) that the lack of a history of knights in America will doom the domestic box office. I say, "Phooey!" The original is a very, very funny film and Hughes and French producer Gaumont have made the smart choice of keeping the original stars, Jean Reno and Christian Clavier. A good idea. Now let's see Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn in the English-language version of The Hairdresser's Husband.
UNIVERSAL WITH A WRENCH IN THE FILM LIBRARY: Another shoe fell (Universal has a lot of shoes) in the ongoing saga of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Studios. The primary film arm of PFE, PolyGram Films, is dead. Long live PolyGram Films. Thirty-three heads rolled on Tuesday. Everyone assumes that the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant vehicle Notting Hill will be a smash, but let's see if Universal messes up what looks to be a massive spring season with edTV and Life by actually releasing Arlington Road. Here's a hint: don't freakin' count on it. (Just after I wrote that, I read in Daily Variety that Sony, not Universal, has acquired distribution rights to Arlington Road. I love it when I'm right.)
ART FOR ARTS AWARDS: Do you get riled over art direction? Well, you're screwed, pal. There will be little controversy this year as the Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Directors has announced its award nominees for 1998 and they (drumroll, please!) exactly match the Academy Award nominees. Those would be Elizabeth, Pleasantville, Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love and What Dreams May Come. Try to contain your excitement.
PLANE CRAZY: So, I'm watching TV and there is this story about some jet overshooting the runway at Van Nuys airport and hitting some other planes and cars and stuff. Just another story. Well it turns out that Barry Sonnenfeld was the sole non-crew passenger of the runaway jet. The director of Men in Black, Get Shorty and this summer's The Wild, Wild West is flying phobic and has forever told the joke that each time he gets off a plane, it's a failed suicide attempt. (OK, so he's been funnier.) If asked, I'm quite sure that Fox would deny that this was the jet intended as a "make-up present" for Sean Penn.
NAME CHANGE: Pacific Theaters is negotiating to buy the 372-theater Mann Theater chain. It's long been one of Hollywood's great coincidences that Mann bought Grauman's Chinese Theater, making the name change seem almost as though there was no change at all. But Pacific's Chinese? Sounds more like a racist attack on tourism than a name for the best-loved movie-only theater in the world. One also wonders whether Disney will rear its enormous head. Disney has teamed with Pacific on two of the nicest theater reconstructions is L.A., the Crest and the El Capitan. Disney already built its own Grauman's Chinese facade in its MGM-Disney theme park in Florida. Will Disney be taking over Hollywood Boulevard like it's taken over New York's Times Square? There are two major malls planned (including the one that will house the Oscars® in the future), another that is begging for someone with vision (The Galaxy) and lots of cheap room for expansion. Does anyone else hear the theme from The Empire Strikes Back playing in the back of your head?
SECRETS & SPYS: A secret 4:00 p.m. meeting today of the top talent managers was announced in The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. The goal is to strategize against legislative effort in the California State Assembly to toughen the lines between agents and managers as the line continues to be blurred by managers. Why is the meeting secret? Because by saying it's secret, the managers can pretend that they don't want the agents to know that they are pooling their efforts when in fact, that's exactly what they want to get across. When real strategy is decided upon by Michael Ovitz, he'll tell everyone what they are going to do. It's just that simple. (It will be fascinating to see whether Ovitz shows up as the AMG representative. I bet he won't. Why mix with the multi-millionaire hugely successful rabble?)
READER OF THE DAY: From Sheila: "I just caught Rushmore recently and I have to say it was one of the more distinctive films I've seen in a while. Although, to be honest, I probably sat through most of it with a bit of a quizzical expression on my face, trying to figure out what Wes Anderson was doing. I can't say it is the kind of thing, that even with more exposure, would have thrilled many members of the somewhat-staid Academy. It doesn't surprise me that Bill Murray received no nomination (not that he didn't deserve one, mind you). This is a film that Anderson reportedly took to Pauline Kael, one of his favorite film critics. Ms. Kael watched it and told Anderson afterwards that she couldn't exactly figure out what it was all about or something to that effect. I liked it all the same and I have to say that I am still thinking about it, which is unusual for most of the films I see."

E ME: What do you think of Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft? Will you visit Pacific's Chinese?

.