Affleck in The Sum Of All Fears. Martin Scorsese returns to the 19th century mean streets with Gangs Of New York (Feb). Steven Spielberg makes his darkest film yet (when did he previously make a dark film?) with the sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise Minority Report (Jul). Steven Soderbergh remakes the Rat Pack crime caper Oceans 1 1 (Feb) with a to-die-for cast including George Clooney. Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. and David Fincher puts Jodie Foster in The Panic Room (Apr).
HG. Wells' grandson. Simon. directs the remake of The Time Machine (autumn). action auteur John McTiernan puts the blood into sport with the Rollerball remake (spring) and Michael Mann directs Will Smith to make like a butterfly and a bee in the boxing biopic Ali (Feb). Smith also reprises his role as the extraterrestrial immigration officer in Men In Black II (Aug). one of a number of comic book adaptations now deemed box-office friendly after the successes of X -Men and Ghost World. Wesley Snipes hunts vampires again in Blade 2 (summer). Johnny Depp hunts Jack the Ripper in the adaptation of Alan Moore's monumental graphic novel From Hell (Feb). and a certain wall crawling hero battles the Green Goblin in Spider-Man (May).
Hype-wise the movies likely to out strip the web-slinger are Star Wars Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones (May). Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (autumn) and the second Lord Of The Rings film The Two Towers (Dec).
Hollywood. of c0urse. doesn't like to ignore kids. nor the money their parents spend on them. Cue sequels to tried. tested and proven children's blockbusters: Peter Pan 2: Return To Never Never Land (Mar). Spy Kids 2 (Aug) and Stuart Little 2 (Jul). Add to those the CGI animations Monsters Inc (Feb). Ice Age (Mar). and Scooby 000 (the dog. anyway — Summer). plus Nickelodeon star Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (Mar) and you'll have no trouble keeping the kids amused during holidays.
Moving away from the blockbuster towards what Hollywood thinks of as prestige cinema (that is. films which might seetire critical apprcval and/or Oscar statuettes). the domestic drama In The Bedroom (Mar) is Winning plaudits. As has the Jeff Bridges/Kevrn Spacey two-hander K-PAX. Hollywood's acting elite from Gene Hackman to Bill Murray line-up to work for Wes Rushmore Anderson in The Royal Tenenbaums (Mar).
And there is great concern over syrup-ladler Lasse Hallstrom's treatment of Annie Proulx's extraordinary novel The Shipping News (Feb) and candy confectionist Cameron Crowe's remake of the Spanish film Open Your Eyes as Vanilla Sky (late Jan). parring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz (much to the disgust of the Nicole Kid'nan-adoring Australian public). A final word about American enema: if you want to see a film that kicks ass and rocks your wcrld check out Stacy Peralta's 70s skateboarding documentary Dogtown And Z-Boys (Jun) — it's more of an adrenaline injection than a dozen Windtaking Rollerball Attack Clones.
lf 2001 was a year of all-reund failure for British film. then 2002 may see an upswmg in its international reputation, if not its box office fortunes. Hugh Grant capitalises on the kudos his star turn in Bridget Jones '8 Diary brought him wrth the Nick Hornby bestseller adaptation About A Boy (summer). while Ali G Inda House kinda says it all (Mar). Michael Winterbottom. who's currently developing a film about Afghani refugees. tells the Madchester story in 24 Hour Party
2002 may well see the revenge of the blockbuster
Ocean’s 1 1
People (spring) and the Britsh have a go at spine chills wrth Long Time Dead (late Jani.
Those might be the money—spiniters: these might be the Oscar winners: Cate Blanchett takes the lead as Charlotte Gray (Feb) in the Scottish-protluced adaptation of Sebastian Faulkes' French Resistance thriller; C/ech filmmaker Jan Sverak's Battle of Britain drama Dark Blue World iApri; Iris (Jan) is. of cOurse a biopic about writer Iris Murdoch (who's played by both Judi Dench and Kate Winsletti: and Last Orders (mid—Jan) pulls together a whole bunch of well— respected English codgers from Michael Came to Bob lloskins at a reunion in a pub in Margate.
These may not Wlli Oscars. but little gems such as Lava (late Jan) from Mike Leigh graduate Joe Tucker won't be an embarrassment to British filmmaking. Ditto for Paul Gangster No I McGurgan's Morality Play laka Hie Reckoning. autumn) and Alex Repo Man Cox's Revenger’s Tragedy latitumni. Already an award Winner (at the Venice Fllll‘ Festival). however. is the superb UK India co production about a Net-r Delhi marriage MonsoonWedding (midJani in which Mike I eigh meets Satyaiit Ray. Might jtlSi be the best wax to start the new year.
".lti" .‘ THE LIST 19