Boxoffice-October.1993

HOLLYWOOD REPORT.
Tom Cruise In "Legend"
"Interview With the Vampire"
In his first foray Into filmic
fantasy since the flop Ridley
Scott production "Legend,"
Tom Cruise has joined the cast
of "Crying Came" director Nell
Jordan's "Interview With the
Vampire," a David Ceffen production
based on the bestselling
cult novel by Anne Rice. A
Gothic romantic thriller set In
the 1800s, "Interview With the
Vampire" Is the story of a vampire
sub-culture Inhabited by
decadent, highly cultivated
vampires who Initiate new recruit
Louis (Brad Pitt) Into their
degenerate ways. Antonio
Banderas and River Phoenix costar;
Cruise will take on the
much-sought after role of the
vampire Lestat, Louis' mentor
and a crucial secondary character
in "Interview" who is also the
main protagonist of two subsequent
Rice vampire novels. The
sequel possibilities are endless.
Script by Rice and Jordan.
(Warner)
"Nobody's Fool" The great
Paul Newman ("Cool Hand
Luke") has been in something of
a boxofflce slump since his
Oscar win for 1986's "The
Color of Money." With such
duds as "Blaze," "Fatman and
Little Boy" and "Mr. and Mrs.
Bridge" in his recent past, Newman
may be looking for another
hit; If he doesn't find it In his
upcoming Coen Brothers comedy
"The Hudsucker Proxy,"
perhaps he'll find it with
"Nobody's Fool," a "dramedy"
from "Places in the Heart" director
Robert Benton. Based on
Richard Russo's novel,
"Nobody's Fool" will feature
Newman as a 60-year-oid bluecollar
man who decides to
mend fences within his many
broken relationships over an especially
eventful holiday season.
Scripted by Benton. (Paramount)
"Time Cop" Jean-Claude Van
Damme ("Universal Soldier") Is
possibly the hippest action star
in Hollywood. First he scooped
everybody in Filmtown by
packaging himself with cult
Hong Kong director John Woo
("The Killer") for his recent action
outing, "Hard Target." Now
comes word that Van Damme's
next project will be based on
characters created by alternative
comic book powerhouse
Dark Horse Comics, the out-ofnowhere
publishing phenomenon
with a variety of projects in
studio pipelines. In "TimeCop,"
Van Damme plays Max Walker,
a cop who goes back In time In
a desperate attempt to stop a
corrupt politician from altering
the past for his own evil purposes.
As he was for "Hard Target,"
filmmaker Sam Raimi is
listed among "Time Cop's" producers;
Peter Hyams ("Outland")
will direct from a script
by Mark Verheiden. (Universal)
"The Quick and the Dead"
AndspeaklngofSamRaimi:The
Western boom meets the Year
of the Woman (which, come to
think of it. Is now in it's 17th
month or so) with this woman's
Western in which Sharon Stone
(soon to be seen in "Intersection")
saddles up for director
Raimi (the "Evil Dead" films and
"Darkman"). Described as a
"Sergio Leone-like" Western,
"Quick" casts Stone as a Clint
Eastwood-styled tough gal who
sets out to avenge the murder of
her father and winds up saving
a whole frontier town. Gene
Hackman plays arch-villain
Herod, in yet another Western
follow-up to his yet-to-be-released
appearances in both
Walter Hill's "Geronimo" and
Lawrence Kasdan's horse opera
"Wyatt Earp." "Quick" was
written by Simon Moore, and,
though not official ly a "go" project
yet. Is tentatively slated to
commence production this November
In Mexico. (TrIStar)
"Bad Girls" And just In case
you thought the Idea of a
woman's Western was an original
one, 20th Century Fox Is
already at work trying to revive
this troubled production, which
fired Its director (Tamra Davis of
"CB4" fame) after three weeks
of production. Fox hired
"women's" director Jonathan
Kaplan (he helped Jodie Foster
grab an Oscar for "The Accused")
in an effort to get back
on track, and Kaplan promptly
announced he would be junking
all of Davis' footage and
starting from scratch. "Bad
Girls" is the story of a band of
female desperadoes in the old
west, and stars Andle MacDowell
("Groundhog's Day"), Madeleine
Stowe, Mary Stuart
Masterson ("Fried Green Tomatoes")
and Drew Barrymore
(Davis' film "Gun Crazy")
among others. Word Is that if
this $16 million movie now
costs Fox a penny less than $20
million to produce, the studio
will count itself lucky. (Fox)
"The Paper" For
authenticity's sake, screenwriter
David Koepp ("Jurassic
Park") teamed with his journalist
brother Steven to write "The
Paper," a saga about 24 hours in
the life of a big city tabloid,
currently filming In New York
City. Even with that added insurance,
it
will be Interesting to
see how accurate the film is,
since Koepp's professional experiences
as a staff writer for the
prestigious Time Magazine are
almost as far removed from the
seamier world of the tabloids as
a different profession would be.
Michael Keaton ("Batman"),
Glenn Close ("Reversal of Fortune"),
Robert Duvall ("Geronimo")
and Oscar-winner Marisa
Tomei ("My Cousin VInny") costar,
with Ron Howard (who discovered
Keaton in 1982's
"Night Shift") directing. (Universal)
"The Client" With the success
of the feature version of
"The Firm," the currently lens-
Ing, Julia Roberts-starring adaptation
of his "The Pelican Brief"
and the recent, near-record $3.5
million sale of film rights to his
work-in-progress,
best-selling
novelist John Grisham Is the
hottest Hollywood writer this
side of Michael Crichton. "The
Client" IsthenextCrisham flick,
and stars Susan Sarandon as an
attorney hired by an 1
1 -year-old
boy (newcomer Brian Renfro)
after the child witnesses the suicide
of a Mafia attorney.
Tommy Lee Jones ("The Fugitive")
co-stars as the evil federal
prosecutor willing to risk the
boy's life to find out what he
knows. Directed by Joel Schumacher
(whoso next project will
be "Batman .3," possibly starring
v4^H
Susan Sarandon
Robin Williams as the Riddler)
from a screenplay by Robert
Cetchell and Akiva Goldsman.
(Warner)
"The War" Producer/director
Jon Avnet ("Fried Green Tomatoes")
directs hot adolescent star
Elijah Wood ("The Good Son"
in this drama about two groups
of neighborhood kids who are
constantly fighting against each
other, but whose lives
changed drastically when one
of their fathers returns home
from Vietnam. In a rare supporting
turn, Kevin Costner ("The
Bodyguard") stars as Wood':
war-weary dad. Based on ar
original screenplay by Kathy
McWorter. (Universal)
Etcetera: Prolific writer-pro
ducer-director John Hughes
currently at work on "The Bee,"
a Warner Bros, comedy about
an architect's attempts to develop
farmland. "The Bee"
be Hughes' 23rd produced
screenplay in just 1 1 years. ..Director
Michael Apted is currently
in post-production on his
New Line thriller "Blink." Madeleine
Stowe Is a blind musician
who may have witnessed
grisly murder after having her
sight restored. ..Also in post-production:
MGM's "Six Degree
of Separation," a comedy
drama directed by Fred Scheplsi
starring Stockard Channing and
Donald Sutherland as a couple
who are taken In by Will Smith
("Made In America") as a conartist
who claims he is
the reallife
son of actor Sidney Poltier.,
And Mickey Rourke has set
aside his quixotic quest to become
a pro-boxer to appear
the Nu Image production
"F.T.W." as an ex-con rodec
rider. Lori Singer co-stars for director
Michael Karbelnikof
("Mobsters").
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