ET Hot List

January 7th, 2003
Annie

Tom Cruise was chosen #4 top hot celebrity of 2002 by Entertainment Tonight:

Here is the full list:
1. Jennifer Aniston
2. Jennifer Lopez
3. Ben Affleck
4. Tom Cruise
5. Matthew Perry
6. Brad Pitt
7. Halle Berry, Liza Minnelli (tied)
8. Lisa Kudrow
9. Britney Spears
10. Matt LeBlanc, Michael Jackson, Nicole Kidman (tied)
11. Gwyneth Paltrow
12. Madonna
13. Will Smith
14. Tom Hanks, Courteney Cox (tied)
15. David Schwimmer
16. Julia Roberts
17. Sarah Jessica Parker
18. Paul McCartney
19. Cameron Diaz
20. Ozzy Osbourne

Source:
ET Online


General

Tom in NZ

January 6th, 2003
Annie

Fans scarce as Tom Cruise slips into NZ

07.01.2003 By PAULA OLIVER
When a gleaming private jet carrying Tom Cruise flies into town, you would expect a big crowd.

Except in Taranaki, that is.

Yesterday morning only a lucky few caught a glimpse of the world’s highest paid actor as he stretched his legs on New Plymouth Airport’s tarmac shortly after 9am.

Cruise flew from Honolulu to begin filming the Japanese period epic The Last Samurai.

His arrival in Taranaki had long been the talk of the town, but the exact time he would touch down had been kept secret.

The American star of films such as Top Gun, Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire was greeted by a small but excited group of onlookers – mostly airport staff – as he stepped out of a Gulfstream jet.

“It’s Tom Cruiser, it’s Tom Cruiser,” one small girl shouted.

Dressed in black, Cruise hugged and shook the hands of waiting members of his entourage before spending about 10 minutes standing in the sunshine as Customs and MAF officials carried out checks.

He was accompanied on the plane by a small group, but his children and his partner, Penelope Cruz, did not fly with him.

After enjoying a few stretches, Cruise strolled about 20m across the tarmac to a waiting helicopter, pausing several times to raise his baseball cap and wave to the locals.

One family passing the airport diverted when they spotted Cruise’s twin-engined jet approaching.

They got to the carpark just in time to glimpse the star. A woman in the car said: “It’s our lucky day. I hope he enjoys New Zealand.”

Cruise, clutching his passport, was whisked away in the helicopter.

His numerous bags were plucked from the jet and ferried to his nearby accommodation in a fleet of four-wheel-drive vehicles with tinted windows.

Cruise is renting a mansion in the Kaitake Ranges, not far from Oakura, southwest of New Plymouth. The house has state-of-the-art security and a heli-pad.


General

Minority Report DVD News

January 6th, 2003
Annie

As of December 29th, 2002, Minority Report DVD leads both in DVD sales and rentals. According to Hollywood Reporter, the DVD has earned $29.4 million on the rental front and has sold more than 5 millions units across North America.

Source: http://www.spielberg-dreamworks.com/minorityreport/


Movie News

The Last Samurai News

January 6th, 2003
Annie

The Stax Report: Special Year 2002 Retrospective
Stax cites the best and worst scripts he reviewed this year.

December 19, 2002 – Stax here with a year-end retrospective on the best and worst screenplays I’ve covered at IGN FilmForce during 2002. (Be sure to check out my 2000 and 2001 retrospectives, too.) I’m including quotes from my original reviews that explain why these scripts made my list. (I’m excluding Sherlock Holmes and the Vengeance of Dracula from consideration as that review originally appeared at my now defunct site Flixburg back in 2000.)
(…)
3) The Last Samurai, by John Logan. Haunted Civil War hero Captain Woodrow Algren (Tom Cruise) is now a drunken pitchman for Winchester Repeating Arms when the Japanese government hires him to go to Japan and serve as an “advisor” to their military. Recently restored emperor Meiji wants to transform his military from a society of samurai warriors into a modern army. The samurai, however, will not go out gently. A large rebel faction, led by the charismatic poet-warrior Katsumoto, are branded traitors and ordered quashed. After Katsumoto captures him in battle, Algren spends the next few months recuperating in Katsumoto’s mountain village where he learns about Japanese culture and the ways of the samurai. Algren’s loyalties soon become torn between the noble samurai he’s grown to respect and the duplicitous fellows who hired him.

“The Last Samurai is a rousing adventure yarn, an intriguing commentary on a key turning point in the history of Japan and its relationship with the United States, as well as an enlightening lesson on Japanese culture and the titular samurai. … What I enjoyed most was the story’s (rather overt) parallels to contemporary issues as it recounts America’s first foray into Southeast Asian affairs. … The story’s ‘white man living amongst the natives’ plot made me want to rename this tale Dances with Samurai.”


Movie News

Minority Report

December 23rd, 2002
Annie

Minority Report was chosen #4 movie of the year by Mike Clark from USA Today:

4. Minority Report. It is a mystery but also a thriller but also science fiction — and it has perhaps the funniest and most creatively integrated product placement ever. This futuristic cop drama is everything a summer movie — and a first-time collaboration between Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg — should be.


Movie News

Narc Premiere

December 18th, 2002
Annie

‘Narc’ Premiere

Movie titan Tom Cruise was walking the beat Tuesday night in Los Angeles with Ray Liotta and Jason Patric for the premiere of their gritty new thriller, “Narc.”

But in this movie, Tom isn’t the star. After seeing Ray and Jason in the drama, he signed on as executive producer. Tom says, “It’s just a great movie. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out. It’s just a beautifully made picture.”

The film follows two burned out cops investigating the brutal slaying of one of their partners by going deep into the underworld of drugs. This low budget pick is already getting big Oscar buzz.

They made the film in just 26 days, and Ray Liotta had to put on 26 pounds. Losing it wasn’t easy. Ray says, “I worked out like a maniac. Working out, diet, and no carbs after noon.”

While ray lost the weight, Tom told “Extra” that the one thing he can’t seem to lose is the beard he grew while filming “The Last Samaurai” in Japan. He says, “I still got the scruffs, yeah. I haven’t been able to shave yet.”
There were a pic:

Source: Extra


Narc

Minority Report DVD Review

December 12th, 2002
Annie

Minority Report
Spielberg’s best since Saving Private Ryan comes home on an amazing two-disc set.

December 06, 2002 – Being a huge fan of Philip K. Dick’s writing, I was really looking forward to Minority Report when it was released this past summer. I’ve read the short story that the film was based on before, and I was curious to see how closely Spielberg’s version of the story would match the original. Surprisingly, the film actually stays pretty close to the Philip K. Dick original, while mixing things up just enough to keep fans of the short story guessing towards the end.

In the works for more than two years, the Minority Report DVD has arrived, and it’s one of the top releases of 2002. Featuring a great anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks, and a second disc packed with extras, this is one DVD that no Spielberg fan should be without this year.

The Movie

Minority Report takes place in the year 2054. Washington D.C. is currently testing a new brand of justice called “Precrime” where murders are able to be seen in advance by three psychic mutants known as the “Precogs”. Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is the head of the successful division, and all seems to be going well until the Precogs foresee that he is going to commit murder, so he runs and sets out to find out why the Precogs saw what they did.

The movie is based on the short story of the same name, and it stays pretty truthful to that original text, with just enough changes made to create an entertaining movie that would appeal to the mass-market audience as well as to throw readers of the book for a loop towards the end of the film.

In the original short story, Anderton was an aging pudgy guy who was balding, and he felt his job was in danger by an upstart younger guy who shows up one day. In the film, Anderton is Tom Cruise, and the upstart who comes in to Precrime is Colin Farrell. Once the Precogs predict Anderton’s crime, the basic story is pretty similar to the original short story (except his murder target is not the same) right up to the third act where things get a bit different, and in some ways better.

Screenwriters Scott Frank and Jon Cohen were able to take a very good Philip K. Dick short story, and translate it into a movie while still retaining the intelligence of the original text. The realization of what caused the Precog’s prediction in the book is a little more thought-provoking than what is revealed in the film, but the movie doesn’t really suffer too much. It’s still a smarter film than most summer blockbusters.

The acting across the board is excellent, with not a single really weak performance, and with the help of this “Think Tank” of scientists and futurists along with ILM, Spielberg was able to craft a very convincing future that isn’t that far away. ILM’s work on the movie is very solid and is easily one of their best effects jobs on a 2002 film.

Minority Report feels like a much more complete film than Spielberg’s previous (A.I.) and doesn’t really fall apart towards the end like that last Sci-Fi flick did. It’s a great adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story, and is a front-runner for one of the best movies of 2002.

The Video

Minority Report is presented in 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen. That’s right, 2.39:1. The movie marked a return to the scope aspect ration for Spielberg, and the Director once again teamed up with Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. As you probably know, his famous grain is everywhere in the image. Now, that’s how the film was intended, but I for one am beginning to become pretty annoyed at the “Kaminski Effect” that’s present in Spielberg’s films.

Sure it creates a stylish look to the movie, and it looks fantastic on the big screen, but it doesn’t translate too well to DVD. Our favorite digital medium allows every single little spec of grain to be seen, and combined with the film’s washed out and subdued color palate, it prevents the image from being as sharp and detailed as it could be.

With that little rant out of the way, the transfer on the disc is very solid with some moments where there is some pretty good detail. Just look at the Precrime officers’ helmets in the early scenes, or all of the little layers and threads of video that can be seen in the “scrubbing the image” shot. Another great moment is the awesome overhead shot during the “Spyder Sequence” where all sorts of little details can be seen in the various rooms that the camera passes over.

Any visible edge enhancement wasn’t that annoying, and I noticed no real bad compression artifacts.

The Audio

As expected, the DVD includes robust Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS mixes, and no matter what your bias is, you can’t really be totally disappointed with either mix. Both mixes feature a very active sound field, with all five channels receiving quite a bit of attention throughout the entire film. While the DTS track features slightly smoother and more natural sounding separation and a little less jarring bass than the Dolby mix, both are very solid and definitely impresses in many sequences in the film.

Remember the seismic charges on the Episode II DVD? Well, the sequence with the shockwave shotguns is almost as fun on the ears as that new demo sequence. The resulting bass and reverb from the weapon is enough to impress even the most jaded audiophile.

I also came to appreciate John William’s low-key and very un-sci-fi score thanks to the 5.1 mixes on this disc. His score is used quite well in the surround channels and there are even some very cool moments where drumbeats will jump between the two forward surrounds to create a very nice little effect.

No matter what track you choose to listen to, you’ll be hearing one very strong audio presentation.
The Extras

With the entire first disc being devoted solely to the film, all of the extras are found on disc two, so lets just dive right on into the goodies.

“From Story to Screen” includes two different featurettes. “The Story – The Debate” runs for just over nine minutes, and includes interviews with both Spielberg and Cruise where they talk about how the two came together to make the film. Spielberg speaks about how he always wanted to work with Cruise, while Tom comments on how the films of Spielberg had affected him.

Screenwriter Jon Cohen talks a bit about Philip K. Dick as well as the themes of Minority Report and how it was turned into a script. Then, the films’ other Screenwriter Scott Frank begins to talk about making the people in the film as real as they could be. The rest of the featurette gives viewers a basic overview of what the story is about and what a Minority Report is.

“The Players” is another nine-minute-plus featurette that delves into the cast and characters in the film. Once again, there are all-new interviews with Spielberg, Cruise, Colin Farrell, Max Von Sydow, and Samantha Morton where they talk about their characters.

“Deconstructing Minority Report” goes in-depth with the creation of the future world where the movie takes place. It begins with a nine-minute featurette titled “The World of Minority Report – An Introduction” where Spielberg talks about how he gathered scientists and futurists to plot out and design what the world would be like in about fifty years time. One neat comment from Spielberg is how he mentions that the “1984” prophecy doesn’t come true in the 20th century, but rather the 21st century. The featurette also touches on how the washed out look of the movie was achieved, and even includes some comments from John Williams about the noir influences in his score.

“Precrime and Pecogs” runs for just over eight minutes and looks at the design of the Precrime police station, and includes comments from Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski about what it was like to shoot in such a layered environment. The featurette then goes on and talks about the design of the Precogs, and then Spielberg talks a bit about the cool futuristic toys and gadgets that the police use in the movie such as the shockwave guns and the jetpacks.

“The Spyder Sequence” is a five-minute featurette on the Spyder scene in the middle of the movie, and it includes a detailed breakdown of the sequence as well as an in-depth look at the effects that includes multiple shots of the scene being developed with CGI. Also, John Williams goes into detail on scoring the sequence. Probably one of the coolest parts of the featurette is when Kaminski talks about how the awesome, long, overhead shot of the apartment complex was achieved.

“Precog Visions” is another short featurette that runs for almost five minutes and talks about how Imaginary Forces (who did the main title sequence on Seven) created the visions that the Precogs saw to predict crimes.

“Vehicles of the Future” once again runs for five minutes, and talks all about the different futuristic vehicles used in the film. For the maglev vehicles, we see some of the early computer animatics for the sequence as well as an interview with Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom where he describes how he created the unique sound of those vehicles. In addition to covering the cool Lexus that Tom Cruise drives, the featurette also details the police flying vehicles with behind the scenes footage, CGI tests, and early concept art.

“The Stunts of Minority Report” includes detailed behind-the-scenes stunt footage for in-depth breakdowns of three key sequences: “The Maglev Chase”, “The Hoverpack Chase”, and “The Car Factory”. Each of the featurettes run about three minutes and offers great descriptions on how each of the stunts sequences was created.

The next section on the disc is “ILM and Minority Report”. This is the area where effects hounds will gorge themselves on ILM’s contribution to the film. Minority Report was easily the best work that ILM did in a 2002 film, and the featurettes in this area take viewers deep into select sequences.

It all kicks off with a five-minute “Introduction”, where ILM’s role in the film is explained. Tom Cruise talks about how this was really one of the first times where he would have to act against something that wasn’t there, and how Spielberg’s experience with effects helped him through the scenes. ILM then starts to explain how Spielberg always would have input on the effects shots.

Following that little introduction there are sequence-specific featurettes for “Holograms”, “Hall of Containment”, “Mag-Lev”, “Hovercraft/Hoverpacks”, and the “Cyberparlor”. As with the stunt featurettes in the previous section, each of these informative featurettes run just a little over three minutes, with the exception of the “Cyberparlor” one that is just over a minute in length.

“Final Report” is a three-minute discussion with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg where the two talk about working with each other that ends with the production credits for the DVD.

When you’re done with all of those video features, there’s an extensive archive of the film included on the disc. In here, you’ll find concept art galleries for “Precrime”, “Hovership”, “Hoversuit”, “Hall of Containment”, “Spyders”, “Precog”, “Cyberparlor”, “Buildings and Architecture”, “Roadway Systems”, “Vehicles”, “City Apartment”, “Greenhouse Plants”, and “Objects”. Storyboards for the “Mag-Lev Sequence”, “Alley Chase”, and “Car Factory” are also included in their own galleries. Rounding out the archives is a trailer section with three trailers for the film and a preview of the Activision videogame, cast and filmmaker information, and finally production notes.

Special mention of the menu design needs to be made, as both discs features menus modeled after the “scrubbing the image” sequence where they are fully animated and when you select a new menu choice it slides and zooms into view just like the video clips in that scene in the film.


Movie News

The Last Samurai News

December 10th, 2002
Annie

The Last Samurai
Set in Japan during the 1870s, Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is a respected American military officer hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country’s first army in the art of modern warfare. As the Emperor attempts to eradicate the ancient Imperial Samurai warriors in preparation for more Westernized and trade-friendly government policies, Algren finds himself unexpectedly impressed and influenced by his encounters with the Samurai, which places him at the center of a struggle between two eras and two worlds, with only his own sense of honor to guide him.

This film is not yet rated.

Release Date: 2003
Running time:

Official Website

Start of Production

One sheet

Title Art

Production Notes

Credits: Main, End

Color Kit

Banners
Source: WB Movies
Thanks Denise for sending me this.


Movie News

Minority Report DVD News

December 6th, 2002
Annie

‘Minority Report’ rides 4th quarter DVD sales boom

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) — With every indication that this will be the most explosive fourth quarter in the history of DVD sales, Steven Spielberg (news)’s effects-laden “Minority Report” DVD is targeted for release Dec. 17 from DreamWorks Home Entertainment.

The DVD and rental-priced VHS release of “Report,” staring Tom Cruise (news), is timed to take advantage of a DVD holiday buying frenzy that began with last month’s release of Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment’s “Spider-Man,” which broke all Day 1 sales records with more than 7 million units sold through to consumers.

Since “Spider-Man” swung into action on the DVD scene, week after week of blockbuster titles have confirmed what industry analysts had been predicting for more than a year — fourth-quarter DVD sales will gross more than $7 billion.

According to the DVD Entertainment Group, the cumulative boxoffice gross of home video releases for the fourth quarter is more than $4.3 billion, up 34% from a year earlier. This is the largest boxoffice gross of DVD releases for any quarter since the format was introduced in 1997.

“Report,” which generated more than $130 million at the domestic boxoffice, is set to be one of the top new sci-fi releases of the quarter, touting both a widescreen and fullscreen DVD, replete with bonus features.

Producer Laurent Bouzereau’s futuristic DVD menus display the inner working of the film on a separate disc, offering a rare look at Spielberg commenting on every aspect of the filmmaking process — from the stunts to designing the near-future world to the story line that stirred debate about the future of the “probable cause” rule within the U.S. Constitution.

In the bonus chapter “Deconstructing Minority Report,” Spielberg discusses how he brought together a think tank of intellectuals who conceived the near-future world of “Report.”

“Report” will carry a suggested retail price of $19.95 for the two-disc DVD and will be available for rental on VHS and DVD starting Dec. 17.


Movie News

Minority Report DVD

December 1st, 2002
Annie

The Minority Report DVD site is open, check here.


Movie News