Boxoffice-November.1999

Next Friday
Ice Cube ("Three Kings") scripts and
stars in this sequel to the 1995 comedy
"Friday." The follow-up picks up where
the original left off as Cube's character
moves to the suburbs with his lottery-winning
uncle and cousins. Steve Carr
directs; Matt Alvarez produces. (New
Line, 12/25)
ExpiOitips: Co-star Chris Tucker
("Rush Hour") and director F. Gary Cray
("The Negotiator") are noticeably missing
from this production, but New Line
has faith in Cube, offering him a twoyear,
first-look deal separate from this
pic.
The Ninth Gate
Writer-director-producer Roman Polanski
("Chinatown," "Rosemary's Baby") has
tapped Johnny Depp ("The Astronaut's
Wife") to star in this thriller as a rare book
expert assigned to track down the two
remaining copies of a demonic text. Lena
Olin ("Mystery Men") and Frank Langella
(Adrian Lyne's "Lolita") co-star. John
Brownjohn (Polanski's "Bitter Moon") and
Enrique Urbizu also script from the novel
"The Club Dumas" by Arturo Perez-
Reverte; Spain's Inaki Nufiez and France's
Alain Vannier also produce. (Artisan,
1 2/24)
Exploitips: Polanski's first film in
nearly half\a decade and his most ambitious
since\l988's "Frantic," "The Ninth
Gate" was Artisan's first production
under new management and was
announced; even before it changed its
name from Live Entertainment. At $30
million, the thriller is also the company's
largest production investment in its
10-year history. Held from August,
where it would have come up against
"The Astronaut's Wife.
The Hurricane
Denzel Washington ("The Bone
Collector") stars in this biopic as Rubin
"Hurricane" Carter, the popular middleweight
boxer who was wrongly
imprisoned for the murder of three people
in a New jersey bar. Deborah Unger
rPayback*), Liev Schreiber ("Jakob the
Liar") and newcomer Vicellous Shannon
co-star. Norman Jewison (*ln the Heat of
the Night") directs from a script by "For
Love of the Game" producer Armyan
Bernstein, Christopher Cleveland and
Dan Gordon ("Murder in the First");
Jewison, Bernstein and John Ketcham
produce. (Universal, 12/29 ltd, 1/14
exp)
Exploitips: jewison follows up
receiving the Irving G. Thaiberg
Memorial Award at this year's Oscars,
a lifetime achievement award, with
this career-rejuvenating blockbuster.
Washington lost 44 pounds for the role
and learned to throw 80 punches a
minutes to imitate Carter's rapid-fire
delivery.
Jesus' Son
Billy Crudup ("Without Limits") and
Samantha Morton ("Dreaming of Joseph
Lees") star in this road movie about a young
man who journeys from a life of drug addiction
and petty crime to one of redemption.
Holly Hunter ("Living Out Loud"), Dennis
Hopper ("EDtv") and Denis Leary ("The
Thomas Crown Affair") co-star. Alison
Maclean (TV's "Sex and the City") directs;
Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia and Oren
Moverman script based on Denis Johnson's
short-stories; Lydia Dean-Pilcher ("Cradle
Will Rock"), Cuthrell and Urrutia produce.
(Lions Gate, 12/22 NY/LA, 1/14 exp)
Any Given Sunday
Oliver Stone ("U Turn") directs Al Pacino ("The Insider") in this drama set
against the backdrop of professional football. When his aging star quarterback
takes one too many hits and his third-string replacement exhibits unpredictable
talent, Pacino's character struggles to
hold on to the ideals that got him into
the game, while the team's owner
threatens to uproot the franchise.
Dennis Quaid ("The Parent Trap"),
Cameron Diaz ("There's Something
About Mary") and Jamie Foxx ("Booty
Call") co-star. John Logan ("Gladiator")
scripts with Stone; Lauren Shuler
Donner ("You've Got Mail") and "U
Turn's" Clayton Townsend and Dan
Halsted produce. (Warner Bros.,
12/25)
Exploitips: This production has had
its share of controversy. A scripted
fight between Foxx and Li Cool J got
^ i^^«K^^^^^^^HiiMOi»^^^H
°"^ ^^ hand when they were shooting
in March, and Foxx ended up filing a
police report. The pair were back to
work the following Monday, however,
and filming continued uninterrupted.
Sean "Puffy" Combs was also attached
to the project at one point, but
dropped out, rumor has it, over issues
concerning his debatable athletic ability.
The party line, of course, is that he
left the shoot over scheduling conflicts.
Exploitips: Lions Gate picked up thii,
pic in August for $1 million. Alliance
Atlantis took international rights to the
film, which premiered at the Venice
Film Festival and appeared at the
Toronto International Film Festival in
September.
Topsy Turvy
Writer-director Mike Leigh ("Secrets &
Lies") sets this drama against the backdrop
of Gilbert and Sullivan's original
1885 production of "The Mikado," portraying
the lives of people in Victorian
England at the end of the last century. Jim
Broadbent ("The Avengers"), Ron Cook
("Secrets & Lies") and Allan Corduner
("The Impostors") star. Frequent Leigh
collaborator Simon Channing-Williams
produces. (USA, 12/24 NY/LA, January
exp)
Exploitips: Leigh won the Palme d'Or
at Cannes in 1996 for "Secrets & Lies,"
which was also nominated for five
Academy Awards. His film "Naked"
won best director and best actor awards
at Cannes in 1992. "Topsy Turvy"
diverges from these earlier, gritty urban
slice-of-lifers in its setting, subject and
tone.
IVIr.
Death
Errol Morris ("Fast, Cheap & Out of
Control") directs this documentary about
Fred A. Leuchter Jr., an engineer who
designs and repairs gas chambers, electric
chairs and lethal injection systems. (Lions
Gate, 1 2/29)
Exploitips: Lions Gate picked up this pic,
which debuted as a work-in-progress at
Sundance this year, for a mid-six-figure
sum. The distributor and director hope it
will have a broader appeal than his previous
pictures.
38 BOXOFFICE