Boxoffice-March.2000

It ( man
Alexander's first-look deal with the specialty
distributor. Find a copy of Mitchell's article to
distribute among your patrons and decorate
your lobby with images of 1940s New York,
the city being an integral character in the film.
Keepiling the Faith
This romantic comedy marks the directorial
debut of "Fight Club's" Edward Norton. He and
Ben Stiller ("Mystery Men") star as a Catholic
priest and an Orthodox rabbi, respectively,
who both tall in love with the same woman,
whom they knew as children and who recently
re-entered their lives. )enna Elfman ("EDtv")
co-stars. Stuart Blumberg scripts; Howard Koch
Jr. ("Frequency"), Norton and Blumberg produce.
(Buena Vista, 4/1 4)
Exploitips: This $30 million project was
the first project greenlighted by Spyglass
Entertainment, the production and tinam inn
entity that co-produced Disney's "The Sixth
Sense" and "Instinct." College buddies
Norton and Blumberg originally set up the
picture with Koch at Columbia but bought it
back when it went into turnaround.
28 Days
Sandra Bullock ("Gun Shy") stars in this
dramedy as an urban journalist who's sentenced
to a 28-day rehabilitation program after
stealing and crashing
a limousine at her sister's
wedding.
Marianne Jean-
Baptiste ("Secrets &
Lies"), Viggo
Mortensen ("A Perfect
Murder"), Diane
Ladd ("Daddy and
Them") and Elizabeth
Perkins
("Moonlight
and Valentino") co-star. Betty Thomas ("Dr.
Dolittle") directs a script by Susannah Grant
("Erin Brockovich"); Jenno Topping ("Can't
Hardly Wait") produces. (Columbia, 4/14)
Exploitips: Thomas and Topping picked up
this pic for their Tall Trees Prods, banner under
their production deal with Columbia after studio
president Amy Pascal personally developed
the project with Grant.
Like the similarly set
"Girl, Interrupted, " released by Columbia late
last year, "28 Days" will appeal to a distaffpopulation
with its girl-powered cast and crew.
Bless the Child
In her first role since her Oscar-winning
turn in "LA. Confidential," Kim Basinger
stars in this thriller as a psychiatric nurse who
must save her niece from Satanists in a millennial
battle between good and evil. Jimmy
Smits ("My Family"), Rufus Sewell ("The Very
Thought of You") and Angela Bettis ("Girl,
Interrupted") co-star. Christina Ricci ("Sleepy
Hollow") also has a small role. Chuck
Russell ("The Mask") directs; "Three Wishes"
storywriters Clifford and Ellen Green, Don
Roos ("The Opposite of Sex") and Russell
script based on the book by Cathy Cash
Spellmann; Mace Neufeld ("The General's
Daughter") produces. (Paramount, 4/14)
Exploitips: In the vein of "The Sixth Sense,
"Stir of Echoes," "Stigmata" and "End of
Bless the Child" is pan of a recent
string of supernatural thrillers— some successful,
some not so much—fueled by millennial
hype. The film sets itself apart by
appealing to women, an aspect that also puts
it into direct competition with Columbia's
"28 Days" this weekend. Significant changes
were made to the book's original premise to
accommodate the casting of Basinger
(reportedly the character originallv was a inceived
as the child's grandmother), but consider
co-marketing with a local bookstore
nonetheless. See Actor's Studio, page 21.
Rules of Engagement
Tommy Lee Jones ("Double Jeopardy") and
Samuel L. Jackson ("Deep Blue Sea") star in
this military courtroom drama as Vietnam vets
reunited when the latter is accused of violating
the accepted rules of engagement by inciting
an incident that leaves many demonstrators
dead while trying to retake a United States
embassy. Lee plays a lawyer whose career as
a military officer was cut short in Vietnam and
who owes his life to Jackson's character. Kim
Delaney ("Mission to Mars"), Ben Kingsley
("What Planet Are You From?"), Blair
Underwood ("Deep Impact") and Anne
Archer ("Clear and Present Danger") co-star.
William Friedkin ("Jade") directs; Stephen
Gaghan scripts based on a story by former
Navy secretary James Webb; Richard Zanuck
("True Crime") and Scott Rudin ("Wonder
Boys") produce. (Paramount, 4/14)
Exploitips: While the filmmakers didn't
even bother to ask for advice from the U.S.
Marines on this pic due to its uncomplimentary
nature, they did secure cooperation from
the king of Morocco, where they were shooting,
and guaranteed accuracy by optioning
Webb's script and employing "Saving Private
Ryan's" Dale Dye to coordinate battle
scenes. Paramount also released the similarly
themed "The General's Daughter "
went on to gross over $100 million.
w hii h
Ready to Rumble
In this comedy set in the world of World
Championship Wrestling (WCW), David
Arquette ("Scream 3") stars as a wrestlingloving
loser who, devastated when the
champ loses his belt in a humiliating bout
and is ousted from the organization, journeys
to WCW headquarters in Atlanta to resurrect
his hero. Scott Caan ("Boiler Room"),
Oliver Piatt ("Gun Shy"), Rose McGowan
("Jawbreaker"), Martin Landau ("EDtv") and
several WCW wrestlers co-star. Brian
Robbins ("Varsity Blues") directs a script by
Steven Brill ("The Mighty Ducks" franchise);
"Three to Tango's" Robert Newmyer and
Jeffrey Silver produce. (Warner Bros., 4/14)
Exploitips: The potential audience tor this pic,
believe it or not, is
tremendous. The WCW, rest
assured, will be advertising heavily on itswt <
-kly
shows Monday Night Nitro and Thunder.
Coordinate with local merchants to give away
WCW action figures for the winners of a
wrestling trivia contest. (They might be glad to get
rid of them— the tovs tend to gather dust on the
shelves.) If the WCW is visiting your community
soon, try to secure tickets as giveaways as well. If
you're really resourceful, invite a WCW wrestler
to make an appearance opening weekend, autographing
movie posters for fans. Create a link on
your web site to www.wcw.com. Set up a sumo
wrestling ring in your lobby to let your patrons
get in on the action.
Eva
Jeanne Moreau stars in this re-release of
the 1 962 classic as a greedy seductress who
ensnares and then humiliates a writer, causing
his wife's death. Stanley Baker and Virna
Lisi co-star. Joseph Losey directs; Hugo Butler
and Evan Jones script based on the novel by
James Hadley Chase; Raymond Hakim and
Robert Hakim produce. (Kino, 4/14)
Exploitips: Locate original posters from
1962 to hang in your lobby for this release.
Losey and Moreau also collaborated on 1 976's
"Mr.
Klein" and 1982's "The Trout." Doublebill
with one of these or indicate at which local
video stores your patrons can find them.
The Specialist
Consisting of footage from the 1 961 trial of
Adolf Eichmann in Israel, this documentary
paints a portrait of the man known as "the
specialist"
during the Holocaust, responsible
for the deportation and eventual massacre of
Jews in European death camps. Eyal Sivan
writes, directs and produces; Rony Brauman
scripts; Armelle Laboire produces. (Kino, 4/1 2)
Exploitips: "The Specialist" owes its
structure somewhat to Hannah Arendt's
study of Eichmann called, "Eichmann in
Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of E\ il,
which argued that the fact that Eichmann
seemed so normal during the trial made his
crimes all the more horrifying. Invite a local
college history department to set up a panel
discussion about the paper and the film.
The Big Kahuna
"American Beauty's" Kevin Spacey produces
and stars in this dramedy about three
industrial lubricant salesmen stuck in a
Midwestern hotel room together on the eve of
making the biggest sale of their lives. Danny
DeVito ("Man on the Moon") and Peter
Facinelli ("Supernova") co-star. John Swanbeck
makes his directorial debut; Roger Rueff adapts
his own screenplay; "The Whole Nine Yards"
executive producers Elie Samaha and Andrew
Stevens produce. (Lions Gate, 4/14 NY/LA)
Exploitips: A labor of love for Spacey, "The Big
kahuna, " which was shot for under $2 million
ova 16 evenings while he rehearsed tor 'The
< i «* ih during the day, is the first picture
to come out of his Trigger Street Prods. BOX-
OFFICE gave it 2.5 stars at Toronto, where Lions
( iate rsecutives first saw and fell in love with it.
In i •!// / ifi ember 1999 issue, the review reads,
"The Big Kahuna' can't help but feel like a filmed
pla\... It's also traversing the same territory mined
by Death of a Salesman' and 'Glengarry Glen
Ross u ith a nod towards Waiting for Godot ' for
goodmeasure. In that regard. The Big Kahuna' is
too familiar by half, with the arguments among
the men rather pedestrian and uninspiring.
But
there's something fresh here, too. 'The Big
Kahuna' is about respect land! assumptions and
lis! unexpectedly touching." See this month's
cover story for more on Spacey.
18 BOXOMKI