Boxoffice-Febuary.2001

# :*•>:

H11U111U 

10010011 

100110 

For big, bright, 

10011 great looking images, it's 

ioTiio the all new Prodigi ^ Series 

'00100110 • . 

r rn 

0100110 from Christie. 

A A r\ A A A r\ 

00100110 

J0100110 

nnomo 

00100110 

|)0100110 

11101110 

300100110 

00100110 

311101110 

' 

nrcnnnn 

INSTRUMENTS TKHNOIOG 

State-of-the-art lobby displays. Exciting video walls. Revenue building on-screen 

advertising. Profitable corporate events. The Christie Prodigi Series of digital projectors 

will meet all your rigorous demands. Call today 

^ mQ^ cjnemQ comc a jjve 

for more information on how to enhance the 

visual experience in your theaters. 

INCORPORATEC 

10550 Camden Drive, Cypress, CA 90630 

Tel: 714-236-8610 • Fax:714-229-3185 

DLP is a trademark of Texas Instruments Pi is trademark of Christie, Inc WWW.christieine.COtn 

Response No. 3

Q 

SETTING 

SIRWIIK1HIK9 

Q . 

© 

ill 

%JLJ 

^TTHtirrrr' 

he Dolbv GP650 Digital Cinema Processor is built for today's cinema 

multiplexes, and designed with to ntertainment complexes in 

ind. With plug-in modules for future expansion and downh 

idates, the CP650 is a sound investment. 

Throughout the company 

has focused on a single mission: to develop 

sound technologies that provide filmmakers 

the tools and technologv tr - 

HilfffillrtflffffliiiffBf 

flH;= 

wiuy 

Laboratories 

dedicated to this g 

Dolby 

BREAKING SOUND BARRIRRi

4 BOXOFFICE 

FADE IN... 

As the year 2001 and the new century open, 

we here at BOXOFFICE have launched several 

upgrades to our website—which is at 

www.boxoffice.com, of course—that will likely 

come in handy as you do your daily business. 

Although we are continually expanding our 

online offerings, just as we do with our offline, 

two are of special note. The first is, we now 

have industry news brought to you five days a 

week at www.boxoffice.com/dailies. Whether 

it's stateside or overseas, inside exhibition or 

affecting exhibition, we will report on it there. 

The second: www.wap.boxoffice.com. That 

means that, when you are outside your office 

but are looking for industry news, film reviews 

or the weekly top 1 box office, you can access 

our databases via WAP phones, just as you've 

long been able to via your Palm device or 

Windows CE handheld. Kim Williamson 

This issue's film reviews... 

DAY AND DATE: 

"The Prime Gig" 

CURRENT/COMING: 

"About Adam" 

"Cast Away" 

"The Caveman's Valentine" 

"Chocolat" 

"The Claim" 

"The Day Silence 

"Dude, Where's 

"Dungeons and Drag 

"The Emperor's New Groove" 67 

"The Gospel According 

to Philip K. Dick" 63 

"The Invisible Circus" 64 

"Proof of Life" < * p* 

"A Question of Faith" . 

"Split Decision" 

"Traffic*\JT t 

(Two Ninas" < 

f 

the Visit! 

fhat Women Want"^ * 

fl_ASHBAJCK: * 

r r "The Silence of the Lambs" 64 

PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED 65* 

REVIEW DIGEST 68 

BOXOFFICE ONLINE 

WEBSITE ADDRESS: http://www.boxoffice.com 

E-MAIL ADDRESS: boxoffice@earthlink.net 

CIRCULATION INQUIRIES 

BOXOFFICE DATA CENTER 

725 S. Wells St., Fourth Floor 

Chicago, IL 60607 

(312) 922-9326; fax: (312) 922-7209^ 

FEBRUARY, 2001 VOL. 137, NO. 2 SIGHT AND SOUND 

COVER QUOTE: / didn't know what my own vision was, 

DEPARTMENTS 

56 

59 

but I knew it wasn't somebody else's—En Harris 

MAILROOM 

Technicol difficulties; faxback payback. Compiled by Christine James 

REEL DEALS 

Artisan refinds Atlantis; Outlaw on run from WB. By Annlee Ellingson 

HOT SET 

Lillard is Shaggy; Apted has "Enough"; Myers pink? By Christine James 

STUDIO FILM RELEASE CHART 

Major releases monthly through May. Compiled by Wade Major 

INDEPENDENT FILM RELEASE CHART 

Specialized fare monthly into fall. Compiled by Wade Major 

TRAILERS: March 

The ideas of March: Roberts, Pitt gun for "The Mexican," Beatty takes 

to "Town and Country," Judd indulges in "Animai Husbandry," Gibson 

books "Million Dollar Hotel." PLUS: l-views for "The Caveman's 

Valentine," 'The Brothers" and "Spy Kids." By Annlee Ellingson 

HILL NEWS 

FTC: movies aren't cigarettes; ADA update. By Francesca Dinglasan 

EXHIBITION BRIEFINGS 

Silver avoids Ch. 7; Regal scrapes FunScape; AGT honored; Muvico, 

Krikorian, Imax bow; Warner slates ShoWest. PLUS: Showmandiser 

(Grinch sleighs Edwards); our Ticker Time Stock Chart (Marcus is +); 

our eventful Showminder Calendar. By Francesca Dinglasan 

STUDIO NEWS 

November box-office cheer; Universal merges. By Annlee Ellingson 

TECH TALK 

Supply Side: Sony Classics gets ScreenChecked; more new products. 

Digital Cinema: Imax's DPI sells first commercial DLP projector. Wired 

World: Fandango prints at home, adds vp/finance. By Annlee Ellingson 

PLUS: 9 on the Net—www.douglastheatres.com. By Kim Williamson 

NORTHERN EXPOSURE 

Big Galaxy bangs; Famous, AMC debuts. By Shlomo Schwartzberg 

EUROVIEWS 

Gaumont, Pathe's EuroPalaces; U.K. rebound. By Francesca Dinglasan 

PACIFIC OVERTURES 

Village sets sale; Kodak orders Dehli. By Francesca Dinglasan 

FILM REVIEWS 

Fine Line's 3 1/2-star "The Prime Gig" leads our analyses of 19 current 

and coming releases (see list at left). Compiled by Christine James 

MOVIEGOER POLL AND ACTIVITY REPORT 

More stats from the multiplex. Compiled by MovieFone 

HOME RELEASE CHART: February 

"The 6th Day" already on-slate for March. Compiled by Wade Major 

AD INDEX / CLASSIFIEDS / AD FAXBACK FORM 

155 S. El Molino Ave . 

Myriad contacts for the month's advertisers. 

ITISING 

OFFICES 

CORP. HQ/CLASSI 

Suite 100 Mailing address: 

Pasadena, CA 91101 P O. Box 25485 

(626) 396-0250 Chicago, IL 60625 

Fax: (626) 396-0248 (773) 338-7007 

SUB 

725 S. Wells St., Fourth Floor 

Chicago. IL 60607 

(312) 922-9326 

Fax:(312)922-7209

February. 2

Insurance 

services 

for the 

theatre 

industry 

MAILROOM 

"TECHMCOL" DIFFICULTIES 

Dear BOXOFFICE: 

I wrote a letter to your publication that 

you printed in the [May 2000 issue under 

the title] "Bureaucratic Brouhaha." Well. I 

have another complaint I'd like to see the 

industry [address]. 

Rumor around here is that some of 

the major film companies are considering 

using Exhibitor's Film Service to distribute 

prints. PLEASE DO!!!! 

As a projectionist, I can't tell you how 

mad I am at the "orange can" company. 1 

continuously have to deal with broken, 

busted-up reels and cans that are dented 

and bent all to hell and back. We always 

have to allow extra time to deal with their 

prints because of the extra effort that is 

PERGLO 

SI 

A durable pearlescent. 

smooth surface offering 

maximum reflectivity and 

light distribution 

HURLEY SCREEN CORF 

SILVERGLO 

A smooth, aluminized 

surface offering the highest 

refle 

appli( 

GLASSMATTE 

White vinyl laminated on 

fiberglass base makes this 

a rugged, washable surface 

for special 

> such as 3D 

FAX # (410) 838-8079 

THRU- VIEW B 

High quality rear projecton 

screen. Seamless in heights 

to 10 feet by any width 

MW-16 

A heavy gauge white 

surface offering excellent 

light distribution image 

clarity, and color rendition 

410-838-0036 -410-879-3022 • 410-879-6757 '41(1-836-4333 

required to properly put one of their 

prints together. 

Occasionally, we get the 

print in a cardboard box. Nice touch. 

Then they have the nerve to send out a 

binder with all these stupid new policies 

about how we have to conform to all their 

new rules that pertain to delivery and 

pickup and print quality. Yeah, right. 

Sorry, but I didn't and won't give two 

looks at that binder. If they put half the 

effort into the films as they did into the 

binder, we wouldn't have the problems 

that we do. 

I really like the timely delivery and 

quality that I get with an EFS print. They 

rarely have a reel that isn't up to par, and 

the film is in good condition when I get it. 

Technicolor, you guys really need to 

reevaluate your position in this industry. 

Film exhibitors already suffer too many 

other problems to have to worry about 

stuff like this. 

Troy Overton 

via e-mail 

FAXBACK PAYBACK 

Congratulations to the winners of 

BOXOFFICE's random drawing from all 

respondents to our most recent Faxback 

Survey. Travis Cape of the Hi-Pointe 

Theatre in St. Louis. Mo., Molly Parker 

of Michigan's Star Lincoln Park and D.J. 

Smith of Flicks Cinema in Manitoba. 

Canada, will all be receiving a set of 

BOXOFFICE's limited-edition cover posters. 

Thanks to all participants — your comments 

are of great value and help shape 

the contents of BOXOFFICE! To contribute 

your opinion, send a letter to 

Mailroom (see address below) and look 

for our next Faxback Survey. 

We're in the Palm (or CE) of your hand 

Want to make your www.boxoffice.com portable? 

Go fowww.moviecub.com 

Send letters to: 

BOXOFFICE, Mailroom 

155 S. El Molino Ave., Suite 100 

Pasadena, CA 91101 

Fax: 626-396-0248 

E-mail: editorials boxoftice. com

JBL ScreenArray 

i-\' \\i i m 

za 

For Smaller Theaters 

and Budgets 

ASSETS 

The History of JBL Cinema Speakers 

is The History of Cinema Itself... 

When a company has a I— 

Advantages You'll Get 

Only With JBL ScreenArrays. 

Their Shallow Size, Sheer Horsepower And 

Surprising Price Have Set A New Benchmark. 

ody to use. It's already pre-assembled 

. 

rs u.iiicd to save you time < 

more information on the new JBL ScreenArra 

JBL Professional at www.iblc 

The THX® Approved JBL ScreenArrays: 

Proof That Great Speakers Are Not Created 

By Competition. They're Revealed By It.

REEL 

DEALS 

iMihhlkltllli'fOTil 

Diversifies His Portfolio 

Alliance Atlantis has reupped 

its output deal with Artisan 

Entertainment to distribute 

Artisan product in Canada for 

another three years. The deal 

also grants Alliance Atlantis 

access to Artisan's 6,700-title 

library for another five years. The 

two companies' previous 

arrangement was due to expire in 

March, but they began negotiating 

in September to renew. 

"Alliance Atlantis is an organization 

with smart, savvy leadership, 

combined with great distribution 

capabilities in both the 

theatrical and home entertainment 

areas," Artisan CEO Amir 

Malin says. "The efforts and success 

shown by Victor Loewy and 

Patrice Theroux and their entire 

team made the decision to renew 

our agreement in Canada very 

Outlaw Prods., run by partners 

easy." 

Theroux, Alliance Atlantis Bobby Newmyer and left' Silver and 

motion picture distribution presi- 

production president Scott Strauss, 

dent, adds, "It is rewarding to 

continue our association with 

Artisan, [which] has made a 

name for itself by producing and 

distributing very high-quality 

entertainment that invariably 

connects with the audience." 

Alliance Atlantis also has an 

output deal with Artisan in the 

United Kingdom and has recently 

released Artisan titles 

"Requiem for a Dream," "Dr. T 

and the Women" and "The Blair 

Witch Project" in Canada. 

Miramax specialty division 

Dimension Films and Abandon 

Entertainment have pacted with 

Already in the pipeline at 

Collision are "Alice," a video 

game-based pic that's in development 

at Dimension for Wes 

Craven to helm; "Jealous," a 

thriller by writer-director Matt 

Tabak; and "Danny Rollerskates 

Freida Throws a Frisbee," a 

romance slated to be directed by 

music video helmer Gregory Dark. 

has exited its six-year-old first-look 

distribution deal with Warner Bros, 

and inked an exclusive, three-year 

production deal with Intermedia, 

which will finance two to three pics 

annually as well as distribute overseas 

and negotiate domestic distribution 

on a film-by-film basis. The 

financier also will provide Outlaw 

with a discretionary fund to acquire 

material. 

The move solidifies the two 

companies' relationship, which 

began a year and a half ago when 

they teamed with the film division 

of the Fuji Television Network to 

form a production fund to develop 

and produce Outlaw projects. 

The action comedy "National 

Security," which will star Martin 

Collision Entertainment, a new 

shingle hung by producers Paul 

Rosenberg and Scott Faye, to cofinance 

motion pictures and split 

Dimension 

Lawrence, and the psychological 

"Mindhunters" the taking domestic and 

distribution rights, with thriller are first 

couple of titles under that pact. 

Abandon taking foreign. The Other recent Outlaw films 

nascent company also will delve include "Ready to Rumble," 

into TV and Internet projects. "Gossip" and "Three to Tango." 

Director Phillip Noyce's banner 

Rumbalara Films has signed a fouryear, 

first-look deal with Kinowelt 

USA under which the stateside film 

production unit of Munich-based 

Kinowelt Medien will fund development 

and production for films 

that Noyce and his partner 

Kathleen McLaughlin produce. 

Kinowelt will sell overseas rights 

while Rumbalara will represent the 

pics domestically. Noyce, whose 

credits include "The Bone 

Collector," "Patriot Games" and 

"Clear and Present Danger" currently 

is adapting Graham Greene's 

novel "The Quiet American." 

Diversified Managed Investments 

partners Morris Chestnut 

("The Brothers") and Dewayne 

Brady have signed two-year, firstlook 

production deal with 

Mandalay Proliance to executive 

produce two urban niche pics. The 

first project could be "Mahogany," 

a remake of the Diana Ross film. 

Response No 520

TECHNOLOGY TO BRING THE POWER AND 

DIGITAL STORAGE TO THE MOVIES. PLAYED BACK FROM 

CD-ROM, DTS 

SOUNDTRACK* 

SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE AT EVERY SHOW. 

OPERATION, WHILE AUDIENCES ARE CONSTANTLY AMAZED BY 

THE SONIC CLARITY AND REALISM. ALL AGREE 

DTS Rocks the Housi 

www.dtsonline.com

HOLLYWOOD 

HOT SET 

Much A'Doo" About Nothing 

HEBEg 

"Slap" Happy 

"SCOOBY DOO" This liveaction 

adaptation of the cartoon 

series about teen sleuths and 

their cowardly canine will star 

Matthew Lillard ("SLC Punk") as 

Shaggy, Sarah Michelle Cellar 

(TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") 

as Daphne, Freddie Prinze Jr. 

("Summer Catch") as Fred and 

Linda Cardellini (TV's "Freaks 

and Geeks") as Velma. Raja 

Cosnell ("Big Momma's House") 

directs. (Warner Bros.) 

"SERVICING SARAH" "Bedazzled's" 

Elizabeth Hurley will play a 

woman who convinces a process 

server ("The Whole Nine Yards'" 

Matthew Perry) to come along on 

a road trip from New York to this Peter Bogdanovich ("Noises 

Texas to present her husband Off")-helmed thriller of a scandalous 

murder and its cover-up 

with divorce papers. ")uwanna 

Man's" Carol Leifer and Chuck will star Jennifer Tilly ("The 

Martin script this comedy. Crew") as gossip columnist 

(Paramount) 

Louella Parsons, Edward 

Herrmann ("Nixon") as William 

"SLAP HER, SHE'S FRENCH" Randolph Hearst, Kirsten Dunst 

Piper Perabo ("Coyote Ugly") is ("Bring It On") as Hearst's lover 

in talks to play a French foreign Marion Davies, Eddie Izzard 

exchange student who comes to ("Shadow of the Vampire") as 

a small Texas town and befriends 

a classmate (Jane McGregor of 

TV's "Live Through This") only to 

usurp her life in this comedy. 

(Distribution is 

to be set) 

"DEATH TO SMOOCHY" The 

cloying, Barney-like children's 

television show character 

Smoochy the Rhinoceros 

("Keeping the Faith's" Edward 

Norton) is targeted for assassination 

by his rival, Rainbow 

Randolph ("One Hour Photo's" 

Robin Williams), in this satire, to 

be directed by Danny DeVito 

("Matilda"). (Warner Bros.) 

"UNDISPUTED" Walter Hill 

("Supernova") scripts and 

directs this prison drama, to star 

Ving Rhames ("Mission: 

Impossible 2") as a heavyweight 

boxing champ accused of rape. 

He is sent to jail, where he is 

challenged by the prison's top 

boxer ("The Art of War's" 

Wesley Snipes). (Distribution is 

to be set) 

"UNFAITHFUL" Richard Cere 

("Dr. T and the Women") will 

play a man whose humdrum 

this Ed Zwick ("The Siege")- 

directed psychological horror. 

(Paramount) 

"MARLOWE" In this period 

drama, the unpublished works of 

Elizabethan playwright Christopher 

Marlowe ("Sleepy Hollow's" 

Johnny Depp) fall into the hands 

of a then-unknown William 

Shakespeare ("The Talented Mr. 

Ripley's" Jude Law). Ewan 

McGregor ("The Phantom 

Menace"), Sadie Frost ("Bram 

Stoker's Dracula"), Sean Pertwee 

("Stiff Upper Lips") and Jonny 

Lee Miller ("Dracula 2000") costar 

for director John Maybury 

("Love is the Devil"). (Distribution 

is 

to be set) 

"THE CAT'S MEOW" Set during 

the Golden Age of Hollywood, 

Charlie Chaplin and Cary Elwes 

("Cradle Will Rock") as Thomas 

Ince, a prolific filmmaker who 

died after falling mysteriously ill 

aboard Hearst's yacht in 1924. 

(Lions Gate) 

"ENOUGH" In this Michael 

Apted ("The World Is Not 

Enough")-helmed thriller, a 

woman ("The Cell's" Jennifer 

several of his films, including 

Jason Mewes (the Jay half of 

Smith's recurring Jay and Silent 

Bob duo, of which Smith plays the 

latter), "Dogma's" Ben Affleck, 

Mart Damon and Jason Lee and 

"Clerks'" Brian O'Halloran and 

Jeff Anderson in this comedy 

about the eponymous eccentric 

Gen-X slackers. (Dimension) 

this adaptation of Dawn Powell's 

satirical novel. (Distribution to 

be set) 

"LOST AND FOUND" When a 

boy ("My Dog Skip's" Frankie 

Muniz) discovers his school 

essay has been appropriated by a 

studio executive and is being 

turned into a movie, he and his 

friend (Amanda Bynes of TV's 

"The Amanda Show") travel to 

Hollywood to claim credit. 

Shawn Levy (TV's "Secret World 

of Alex Mack") directs this 

"Home Alone"-esque comedyadventure. 

(Universal) 

"ABOUT A BOY" A commitment-phobic 

man ("Mickey Blue 

Eyes'" Hugh Grant) worries 

about the difficulty of extricating 

himself from his latest relationship 

when he bonds with his girlfriend's 

12-year-old son in this 

comedy-drama, adapted from 

the novel by Nick Hornby ("High 

Fidelity") and to be directed by 

"American Pie's" Chris and Paul 

Weitz. (New Line) 

"PUMPKIN" A sorority girl 

("Prozac Nation's" Christina 

drawn to a disabled man 

Ricci) is 

in this film, to co-star Brenda 

Blethyn ("Saving Grace") and 

Dominique Swain ("Intern"). 

(Distribution is 

to be set) 

"HUNTED" Tommy Lee Jones 

("Space Cowboys") and Connie 

Nielsen ("Gladiator") will play 

FBI agents who must track 

down a professional assassin 

who has taken to turning the 

Lopez) marries the man of her tables on deer hunters by making 

a sport of murdering them. 

dreams, discovering too late her 

beau's abusive side. She attempts (Columbia) 

to leave him but is pursued unrelentingly 

and is forced to take "THE PINK PANTHER" Mike 

matters into her own hands. Myers ("Austin Powers: The Spy 

(Columbia) 

Who Shagged Me") is in talks to 

star as Inspector Clouseau in this 

"JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE Ivan Reitman ("Evolution")- 

BACK" Writer/director/actor Kevin 

Smith reteams with the stars of 

helmed remake of the 1964 slapstick 

comedy starring Peter 

Sellers as the bumbling investigator 

who tries to catch a jewel 

thief. (MGM) 

"TRUCK 44" Samuel L. 

Jackson 

("Shaft") will play the mastermind 

among a band of firefighters 

who plan a heist but accidentally 

set the building they're robbing 

ablaze and must put out the 

flames themselves. (Universal) 

marriage is revivified by jealousy 

when he learns his wife is having 

an affair in this Adrian Lyne 

"A TIME TO BE BORN" lulia 

Roberts ("Erin Brockovich") will 

play a ruthless social-climber 

ET CETERA: |udi Dench ("Mrs. 

Brown") will portray Alzheimer'safflicted 

("Lolita")-helmed drama, which who lures a newspaper mogul 

novelist Iris Murdoch in 

examines how infidelity impacts from his wife, becomes a famed Miramax's Richard Eyre ("The 

a relationship. (Fox 2000) romance novelist and abandons Ploughman's Lunch")-helmed 

woman 

her lower-class friends except to biopic "Iris". ..A young 

"ABANDONED" A college use them to cover up her affair ("Jawbreaker's" Judy Greer) deals 

student 

("The Gift's" Katie Holmes) with an old boyfriend. Inevitably with her first heartbreak in this 

whose boyfriend has vanished is 

ways bring about her Adam Rifkin ("Detroit Rock 

her selfish 

disturbed by visions of the missing 

comeuppance as her husband City")-helmed comedy "Without 

becomes smitten with the friend Charlie". ..Willem Dafoe ("Shadow 

beau and by clues that she 

may have been involved in she utilizes as an alibi. Angelica of the Vampire") will replace 

another similar disappearance in Huston ("Agnes Browne") directs 

John Malkovich as the Green 

Goblin in Columbia's "Spider- 

Man," which stars Tobey Maguire 

in the title role.

i 

e physic T 

only makes good sense to have your eq 

ition program does uist that. Your entin 

in 

sync to keep your theatre healthy, 

it checked out. Kodak's Cinema 

—from the aperture plates in your 

be diagnosed by Kodak technicians. 

ir Kodak Cinema Evaluation is completed, you'll receive a confidential report. 

—lendations to put your theatre in top 

ondition and we are always available to answer your questions. 

ore information about the/Kodak Cinema Evaluation program, call Don Lane 

y 310-204J.>g6or email donald.f.lane@kodak.com

BOXOFFICE Studio Charts 

212-588-6000 

310-449-3000 

212-708-0300 

212-941-3800 

323-822-4100 

December 2000: 

December 2000: 

The Emperor's New Groove (formerly 

Kingdom in the Sun), 12/15, Am. G, 80 

DTS. SDDS, SRD, Flat. Voices: 

David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha 

Patrick Warburton Dir Mark Dindal 

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 12/22 ltd, 

exp. Com, PG-13. 103 min. DTS, 

SDDS, SRD, Scope, John Turturro, Tim 

Nelson. George Clooney. Charles 

Durning Dir: Joel Coen 

ary2001: 

Double Take, 1/12, Com, PG-13. 94 

DTS. SDDS. SR, SRD, Scope. 

Eddie Griffin. Orlando Jones. Dir' 

George Gallo 

Recess: School's Out, 2/16, Ani/Com, 

G, DTS. SDDS, SRD. Flat. Dir: Chuck 

Sheetz. 

12/8. PG-' 

, 

124 min. DTS. SDDS, SDDS-8, Flat 

Chris O'Donnell, Scott Glenn, Robin 

Tunney. Bill Paxton, Izabella Scorupco, 

Temuera Morrison. Dir: Martin 

Campbell. 

Finding Forrester, 12/19 NY/LA, 12/25 

exp. 1/12 exp, Dra, PG-13, -140 min, 

SDDS, Scope. Sean Connery, F. Murray 

Abraham, Anna Paquin, Rob Brown, 

Busta Rhymes. Dir: Gus Van Sant. 

January 2001: 

The Wedding Planner. 1/26, 

Rom/Com, PG-13, -100 min, SDDS, 

SR, SRD, Scope Jennifer Lopez. 

Matthew McConaughey. Kevin Pollack, 

Bndgette Wilson, Judy Greer Dir Adan 

Saving Silverman. 2/16, Rom/Com. 

An Everlasting Piece, 12/25 ltd, Com, 

R. DTS, SDDS, SRD Barry McEvoy. 

Brian F O'Byrne, Anna Friel, 

Connolly Dir: Barry I 

NO RELEASES SCHEDULED 

Billy 

The Claim (formerly Kingdom Come, 

Untitled Michael Winterbottom Project), 

12/29 LA, 1/26 wide. Dra, R, DTS. 

SDDS Wes Bentley, Sarah Polley. Milla 

Jovovich, Peter Mullan, Nastassja 

Kinski. Dir: Michael Winterbottom. 

Antitrust 112. Thr, PG-13. DTS, 

SDDS Tim Robbins. Ryan Phillippe. 

Rachael Leigh Cook, Claire Forlani 

Peter Howitt 

Dir 

A Hard Day's Night. 12/1 NY/LA, 12/ 

91 min. SR. SRD, Flat. Dir: Richard L( 

Chocolat. 12/15 NY/LA. 12/22 exp 

exp. PG-13. DTS Johnny Depp, Ji 

12/22, 

Patrick Lussier. 

All the Pretty Horses, 12/25. 

Dra/Western, PG-13, DTS, SDDS, 

SDDS-8, SR. Matt Damon, Peneloi 

Cruz. Dir: Billy Bob Thornton. 

Malena, 12/25. Monica Bellucci. Di 

Giuseppe Tornatore. 

Vatel. 12/25 NY/LA, 2/9 wide. PG- 

Gerard Depardieu. Dir: Roland Jofl 

January 2001: 

Get Over It 

(formerly Getting Over 

Allison). 1/19 Ben Foster, Kirsten 

Dunst. Mila Kunis Dir: Tommy O'H, 

With a Friend Like Harry (formed 

Harry Is Here to Help). 1/26 NY/U 

March 2001: 


April 2001: 

The Tailor of Panama. 3 2 Sus Tin 

-115 min. SDDS, SR, Scope. Pierce 

Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee 

Curtis, Brendan Gleeson. Dir: John 

Boorman. 

Joe Dirt. 3/9, Com, -86 min. SDDS. 

David Spade. Kid Rock, Roseanne, 

Gary Busey, Brittany Daniel Don 

Baker Dir: Dennie Gordon. 

April 2001: 

Hannibal, 2/9, Thr, SDDS. SDDS-8. 


SR, SRD. Anthony Hopkins, Julianne 

Moore, Ray Liotta. Dir: Ridley Scott. 

March 2001: 

Original Sin (formerly Dancing in the 

Dark), 2/23, Thr, DTS, SDDS. Angelin; 

The Mexican, 3/2, DTS. SDDS, SR, 

March 2001: 

SRD. Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt. Dir: Gore 

Verbinski. 

About / 3/2 NY/LA, Dra/Ron 

Kate Hudson, Stuart Townsend Di 

Gerard Stembridge. 

Blow Dry, 3/9 NY/LA. Com, Alan 

Rickman, Natasha Richardson, Ra 

Deuces Wild, Dra, R, SDDS. Stephen Griffiths Dir: Paddy Breathnach 

Dorff, Fairuza Balk, Frankie Muniz, Spy Kids, 3/30, SRD. Alan Cummi 

James Franco. Brad Renfro, Matt Dillon. Dir: Robert Rodriguez. 

Dir: Scott Kalvert. 

Visiting. 4/6. 

May 2001: 

DTS. SDDS, SR. 

Glass House. 4/20, Thr. -120 min, 

SDDS. SDDS-8. Leelee Sobieski. Diane 

Lane, Slellan Skarsgard, Trevor Morgan 

Rita Wilson, Michael O'Keefe, Bruce NO RELEASES SCHEDULED 

Dern Dir: Daniel Sackheim 

Heartbreakers (working title, formerly 

Breakers), 4/6. Com, SDDS Sigourney 

Weaver. Jennifer Love Hewitt. Gene 

Dir David Mirkin. 

Bridget Jones' Diary. 4/13 Renei 

Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, 

Embeth Davidtz Dir Sharon Magu 

Waking up in Reno, 4/27 

Pearl Harbor, 5/25, Dra, DTS, SDDS, 

SRD. Cuba Gooding Jr , Ben Affleck, 

Hartnett, James King, Ewan 

Bremner, Kate Beckmsale, Guy Torry, 

Tom Sizemore. Dir: Michael Bay. 

COMING: 

At 17. Spring, DTS, SDDS, SR. SRD. 

Kirsten Dunst, Jay Hernandez, Bruce 

Davison, Taryn Manning Dir: John 

Stockwell. 

High Heels, Low Lifes, Spring, DTS. 

SDDS. SR. SRD. Minnie Driver. Dir: Mel 

Smith. 

Newport South. Spring, PG-13. DTS, 

SDDS, SRD. Blake Shields. Gabriel 

Mann, Raymond J Barry Dir: Kyle 

Cooper. 

Atlantis, 6/15, Ani, DTS, SDDS, SRD, 

Michael J Fox. James 

Garner Dir: Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale 

The Princess Diaries, 7/20. DTS, 

SDDS, SR, SRD. Anne Hathaway, 

Heather Matarazzo. Robert 

Dir: Garry Marshall. 

Boy, 8/3. DTS, SDDS. SR, 

SRD Jake Gyllenhaal Swoosie Kurtz, 

John Carroll Lynch, Dave Sheridan Dir: 

Blair Hayes 

Trouble, Summer, Com, DTS. 

SDDS. SR, SRD Tim Allen. Rene 

Russo, Anna Herk, Slanley Tucci, Omar 

Epps. Andy Richter Dir: Barry 

Sonnenfeld 

Corky Romano, Summer, Com, DTS, 

SDDS, SR, SRD Chris Kattan. Vmessa 

Shaw, Peter Falk. Richard Roundtiee. 

Matthew Glave Dir Rob Pritts 

Monsters, Inc., Thanksgiving, Ani, DTS 

SDDS, SR. SRD. Flat Billy Crystal. 

John Goodman, James Coburn, 

Tilly Dir David Silverman, Pete 

Docter, 

The Santa Clause 2, Thanksgiving, 

DTS, SDDS, SR, SRD Tim Allen. 

The New Guy, 5/4/2001 , Com, SDDS 

DJ Quails, Eddie Griffin, Lyle Lovett, 

Eliza Dushku. Dir: Ed Decter. 

COMING: 

A Knight's Tale, 6/1, Adv. SDDS, 

SDDS-8. Heath Ledger, Mark Addy. Dir: 

Brian Helgeland- 

Animal, 6/22, Com, SDDS. Rob 

Schneider Dir: Luke Greenfield. 

Baby Boy, 6/29. SDDS. Tyrese, Ving 

Rhames Dir: John Singleton. 

America's Sweethearts, 7/4 SDDS. 

Julia Roberts. Billy Crystal, John Cusack, 

Catherine Zeta-Jones. Dir: Joe Roth. 

Final Fantasy, 7/13. Ani. SDDS Voices 

Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Ming-Na 

Dir: Hironobu Sakaguchi 

The One. 8/3. SDDS Jet Li. Dir Jim Wong. 

Panic Room. Summer. SDDS. Nicole 

Kidman. Forest Whitaker, Dwight 

Yoakam, Jared Leto Dir: David Fincher. 

Tomcats, Summer, SDDS. Jerry 

O'Connell, Shannon Elizabeth, Jake 

Busey Dir Gregory Poirier. 

Riding in Cars With Boys, 

September/October, SDDS. Drew 

Barrymore. Steve Zahn, Adam Garcia, 

Sara Gilbert, Brittany Murphy, Peter 

Facinelli. Marisa Ryan, Desmond 

Harrington. Dir: Penny Marshall. 

Black Hawk Down. 

November/December. 

National Security. 

November/December. Martin Lawrence. 

Whitey and Davey, 

November/December, SDDS Adam 

Sandler, Dir: Seth Kearsley. 

Ali, December. Dra. Will Smith- Dir: 

Michael Mann 

Spiderman. 5/3/2002, SDDS 

SDDS-8. Tobey Maguire. Willem Daloe, 

James Franco Dir: Sam Raimi. 

Shrek. 5/18. Ani, DTS, SDDS, SRD. 

Voices Mike Myers. Cameron Diaz. 

Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow, Linda 

Hunt Dir: Kelly Asbury, Andrew 

Woody Allen Untitled, May/June, DTS, 

SDDS, SR, SRD Helen Hunt, Charlize 

Theron. Dir: Woody Allen. 

COMING: 

Evolution. 7/13. DTS. SDDS, SR. SRD. 

David Duchovny. Julianne Moore, 

Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott. 

Dir: Ivan Reitman. 

Collateral, 8/10, DTS. SDDS. SR. SRD 

Actors, 9/28, DTS, SDDS. SR. SRD. 

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, 

Thanksgiving, DTS, SDDS, SR, SRD. 

Dir: Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook- 

Time Machine, December. DTS. SDDS 

SR, SRD. 

After Man. DTS, SDDS, SRD 

Arkansas, DTS, SDDS, SRD. 

Keeper. DTS, SDDS, SRD 

The Man Who Came to Dinner, DTS, 

SDDS, SRD Dir: Danny De Vito. 

Neanderthal. DTS. SDDS. SRD. 

The Castle. 1/11/2002. DTS. SDDS. 

SR, SRD. Dir: Rod Lurie. 

Road to Perdition. Spring, DTS, 

SDDS, SR, SRD. Tom Hanks Dir: Sam 

Mendes- 

Catch Me If You Can. DTS, SDDS, SR, 

SRD. 

Untitled Charles Lindbergh Project. 


COMING: 

Blair, Luke Wilson Dir: Robert Luketic. 13. DTS, SRD. Scope Ashton Kutc 

Rollerball, Summer. Act/Thr, DTS. Usher Raymond. James Van Der B 

SDDS-8 Chris Klein. LL Cool J, Jean Dylan McDermott Dir: Steve Miner 

Reno. Dir: John McTiernan. 

The Third Wheel, 1st Qtr 

What's the Worst That Could 

Daddy and Them, 2nd Qtr, Com, f 

Happen?, Summer, Com, SDDS Martin SR, SRD Laura Dern. Billy Bob 

Lawrence, Danny DeVito, John 

Thornton, Kelly Preston. Ben Atflec 

Leguizamo. Dir: Sam Weisman 

Diane Ladd Dir Billy Bob Thornlor 

Jeepers Creepers, Fall, Hor. SDDS Gina Scary Movie 2, 7/4. 

Philips, Justin Long Dir: Victor Salva. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, I 

Killing Me Softly, Fall, Erotic thriller, 40 Days and 40 Nights, 8/24, 

DTS, SDDS Heather Graham. Joseph Serendipity. August John Cusack 

Fiennes. Dir: Chen Kaige. 

Kate Beckinsale. Molly Shannon. 

Pumpkin. Fall, Black comedy. SDDS. Bridget Moynahan Dir: Peter Chels 

Chnslm.i Ricci Hank Hill. Biend.l A View From The Top. 2nd Qtr 2CX 

Blelhyn, Dominique Swain. Dir: Adam 

Broder & Anthony Abrams. 

W.ndtalkers Ihjnksiirvmu, A. I I n i 

DTS. SDDS Nicolas Cage. Christian 

Slater. Noah Emmerich, Mark Rultalo 

Dir: John Woo. 

Hart's War, Holiday, Dra, DTS, SDDS. 

Bruce Willis. Colin Farrell. Dir: Gregory 

Basic Instinct 2. DTS. SDDS. Sharon 

Stone. 

CQ. Dra. SDDS Jeremy Davies, Angela 

Lindvall, Elodie Bouchez. Billy Zane 

Dir: Roman Coppola 

Monster. Satiric lable Sarah Polley. 

Helen Mirren Dir: Hal Hartley. 


COMING: 

Ghost World, Spring, Com, DTS. Impostor. 1st Otr. R. DTS. Mekhi 

SDDS. SR, SRD. Thora Birch, Brad Phifer. Gary Smise. Madeleine Sto 

Renfro Dir: Terry Zwigoff. 

Tony Shalhoub, Vincent D'Onofrio. 

Bandits (formerly Outlaws), August, Gary Fleder 

Rom/Com, DTS. SDDS. Bruce Willis, O (Othello), 1st Qtr, 91 min, DTS. 

Billy Bob Thornton. Cate Blanchett Dir: Flat Mekhi Philer. Elden Henson, 

Barry Levinson. 

Hartnett, Julia Stiles. Rain Phoenix 

Legally Blonde, Summer, Com, DTS, Tim Blake Nelson. 

SDDS Reese Witherspoon, Selma Texas Rangers. 1sl Qtr, Western,

iti 

' 

. il I 

' 

.: 

! i. ' ..iti 

o: I 

! 

,..., 

i Heist 

I 

i al.- ni.in,h,.|t Billy Cm li 

i 

I 

I 

February, 2001 

20th Century Fox 

310-854-5811 

323-956-5000 

310-369-1000 

818-777-1 

18-954-6000 

212-649-4900 

212-373-1000 

212-556-2400 

212-445-3800 

212-484-8000 

SR. SRD. Flat, 

emy Irons. Thora Birch, Marlon Wayans, 

tin Whalm. Dir Courtney Sotomon. 

Days, 12;25 NY'LA. 1/12 wide, Dra, 

'" 

38 mm, DTS, SDDS, SR, SRD, 

n Costner, Bruce Greenwood, 

iven Culp Dir: Roger Donaldson, 

What Women Want 12 15, Rom/Com. 

DTS. SRD. Mel Gibson. Helen Hunt. 

Marisa Tomei, Lauren Holly. Mark 

Feuerstein. Delta Burke, Ashley 

Johnson, Valerie Perrme, Alan Alda Dir 

Nancy Meyers 

Dude. Where's My Car?, 12/15. PG-13, 

83 mm, SR, SRD, Flat Seann William 

Scott, Ashton Kutcher, Kristy Swanson, 

Charlie O'Connell Dir Danny Leiner. 

Cast Away, 12/22, Dra. PG-13. DTS. 

SR, SRD. Flat Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, 

Nick Searcy Dir: Robert Zemeckis. 

The Family Man. 12/22, Rom/Com/Dra, 

DTS, SDDS, SR. SRD Nicolas Cage, 

Tea Leoni, Don Cheadle Jeremy Piven, 

Amber Valleta, Harve Presnell. Dir: Brett 

Proot ot Life, 12/8, Rom/Dra. R, 135 

min, DTS, SDDS, SRD. Scope Meg 

Ryan, Russell Crowe, David Morse Di 

Taylor Hacktord. 

Miss Congeniality, 12/22, Act, 110 

mm, DTS. SDDS. SR. SRD. Flat. 

Sandra Bullock, Michael Came. 

Beniamin Bratt Dir: Donald Petne 

January 2001: 



The Pledge, 1/19, R, DTS. SDDS, SF 

SRD, Scope Jack Nicholson, Robin 

Wright Penn Dir: Sean Penn. 

RELEASES SCHEDULED 

Minutes (aka Celebrity). 212. 

mir'Sus, R, DTS, SDDS. SRD. 

d Burns, Robert De Niro. 

sey Grammer, Melma Kanakaredes 

" in Herzfeld 

gar and Spice. 2/9. Com, PG-13. 

S. SDDS Scope Mena Suvan. 

nes Marsden. Maria Sokoloff. Marley 

Dir Francme McDonall 

reh2001: 

»n and Country, 3/16. Rom/Com, R. 

S. SDDS, SRD, Flat Warren Beatty. 

ne Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Andie 

cDowell, Garry Shandling, Jenna 

Dir: Peter Chelsom. 

iw. 3/30, Dra, R, DTS. SRD, Scope, 

inny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ray 

la, Ethan Suplee Monet Mazur Dir: 

conditional Love 4 13. Com. DTS, 

DS Kalhy Bates, Rupert Everett, 

redith Eaton, Dan Aykroyd. Dir: PJ 

Save the Last Dance, 1/12, Rom, SRD 

Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas Dir 

Thomas Carter, 

Down to Earth (formerly I Was Made to 

Love Her). 2/16. SRD. Chris Rock. 

Regina King. Dir: Chris & Paul Weitz. 

Enemy at the Gates. 2/23, Dra, R, 

DTS, SRD. Jude Law. Ed Harris, Rachel 

Weisz, Joseph Fiennes. Dir: Jean- 



Say It Isn't So iworking title), 2/2. Com, R. 

SR. SRD. Chris Klein. Heather Graham. 

Sally Field, Richard Jenkins. Jack Plotnick. 

Orlando Jones. Dir: J B. Rogers. 

.2001 

Squelch. 3/9. Act. R. SR. SRD. Scope. 

Leelee Sobieski, Sieve Zahn, Paul 

Walker Dir: John Dahl 

Animal Husbandry, 3/30, SR. SRD. 

Ashley Judd. Hugh Jackman. Greg 

Monkeybone. 4/11. Com. DTS. SR. 

SRD Brendan Fraser. Whoopi 

Goldberg, Bridget Fonda, Chris Kattan 

Dir: Henry Selick 

Freddy Got Fingered, 4/20, SR. SRD 

Tom Green, Rip Torn. Stephen 

Tobolowsky. Harland Williams Dir Tom 

Head Over Heels (formerly Untitled 

Bob Simmonds Comedy), 2/9, 

Rom/Com, DTS, SDDS, SRD Freddie 

Prinze Jr, Monica Potter, China Chow, 

Shalom Harlow, Ivana Milicevic, Sarah 

O'Hare, Tomiko Fraser Dir: Mark 

March 2001: 

The Fast and the Furious (aka Street 

Wars, Redline), 3/23. SDDS. SR, SRD 

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana 

Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Rick 

Yune Dir Rob Cohen. 

April 2001: 

Josie and the Pussycats. 4/6, DTS, 

SDDS Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosano 

Dawson, Tara Reid, Parker Posey, Alan 

Cumming. Gabriel Mann Dir Deborah 

Kaplan and Harry Eltont. 

Valentine 2 2. DTS. SDDS, SR. SRD, 

Scope David Boreanaz Dir Jamie Blank 

Sweet November, 2 16, R. DTS. 

SDDS. SR, SRD. Flat Keanu Reeves. 

Charlize Theron Dir Pat O'Connor. 

3.000 Miles to Graceland. 2/23 DTS 

SDDS. SR. SRD. Scope. Kevin Cosine 

Kurt Russell. Dir: Damian Lichtenstem 

March 2001: 

See Spot Run. 3/2. DTS. SDDS. SR. 

SRD David Arquette Dir. John Whilse 

The Dish. 3/9, DTS, SDDS Sam Neill 

Dir Rob Sitch. 

Exit Wounds. 3/16. DTS. SDDS. SR. 

SRD. Scope. Steven Seagal. DMX Oir 

Andrzei Bartkowiak 

Summer Catch. 3/23, Rom, PG-13, 

DTS, SDDS, SRD, Flal 

Freddie Prinze 

Jr, Jessica Biel Dir: Michael Tollm 

April 2001: 

DTS 

. SR, 

Rock Star 4.13. Com R. DTS. SDDS 

SRD, Scope Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Ar 

Ion. Timothy Ofyphanl Dir Stephen Here 

Driven (aka Champs). 4/27. DTS. 

SDDS. SR. SRD Sylvester Stallone 

May 2001 

/2001: 

aters. 5 18. Com. DTS. SDDS. 

or Fehrman. Elden Henson. 

Ihew Lawrence, Martin Starr, Mary 

r Moore Dir Andrew Gurland. 



The Mummy Returns, 5/11, Act/Adv. 

DTS, SDDS, SRD Brendan Fraser, 

Rachel Weisz. John Hannah, Oded 

Fehr, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, 

Arnold Vosloo, Dir: Stephen Sommers. 

5 4, DTS, SDDS 

American Outlaws 5 18, DTS. SDDS 

Colin Farrell, Scot Caan Dir Les Mayfiel 

Cats and Dogs, 5 25, DTS. SDDS 

Susan Sarandon, Tobey Maguire 

Larry Guterman. 

Dir 

COMING: 

COMING 

COMING: 

Jh Hour 2, 8/3. Com, DTS, SDDS 

tie Chan, Chris Tucker, Chris Penn 

Brett Ratner 

onX. 8/17. Hor.R, DTS. SDDS. 

16 Hodder. Lexa Doig. Yani Gellman. 

Angus, Jonathan Potts. Melyssa 

10/26, Dra. DTS, SDDS. SRD 

»p Dogg. Pam Gner, Michael T. 

M. Clifton Powell, Ricky Harris Dir: 

Ml Dickerson 

Lord of the Rings 12/19. Fantasy, 

3. SDDS Eliiah Wood. Cate 

I. Sean Astrn. Dominic 

n. Billy Boyd Dir Peter 

>py Campers, Com, DTS. SDDS 

d Ronlro. Dominique Swain Dir. 

nol Waters 

(formerly A Leonard Cohen 

d). Com. DTS. SDDS Jarod 

a Gyllenhaal 

DTS. SDDS Denzel 

on. Robert Duvall. 

l»on Five. Com, DTS, SDDS 

ound Guys Dra. DTS. SDDS 

Along Came a Spider, SRD Morgan 

Freeman, Monica Potter. Michael 

Wincott. Mika Boorem. Dylan Baker, 

Anton Yelchm Dir: Lee Tamahori. 

Radio Loco 

The Score Robert De Niro. Edward 

Norton, Marlon Brando, Angela Bassett 

Dir: Frank Oz 

Shooter Tommy Lee Jones. Dir: William 

Fnedkin 

The Stand 

Zoolander SRD Ben Stiller. Owen 

Wilson. Milla Jovovich. Jerry Stiller. Will 

Moulin Rouge, 6/1, DTS, SR, SRD. 

Scope Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, 

John Leguizamo Dir: Baz Luhrmann, 

Doctor Dolittle 2, 6/8. SR. SRD Eddie 

Murphy. Kristen Wilson, Raven Symone 

UT Zane Dir. Steve Carr 

Kiss of the Dragon, 7/8, SR, SRD Jet 

Li Dir Chris Nahon 

Planet of the Apes (formerly The 

Visitor), 7/27, SR, SRD Mark Wahlberg. 

Paul Giamalti. Helena Bonham Carter 

Dir Tim Burton 

All That Glitters. SR. SRD 

Behind Enemy Lines, SR, SRD Gene 

Hackman, Owen Wilson, David Keith. 

Gabriel Macht Dir John Moore 

The Black Knight SR SRD Chris 

Tucker Dir F Gary Gray 

Dlsastor Area. SR. SRD Vince Vaughn 

Dir Harold Av.nl 

The Dubbed Action Movie: Enter the 

Fist, SR. SRD 

Fantastic Four SR. SRD 

From Hell Act, SR. SRD Johnny Depp, 

Ian Holm, Nigel Hawthorne. Heather 

' ' u> 

Hll-jln". [',r.,!hrl , 

High Crimes, SR, SRD Ashley Judd. 

Mi frj.ni I i. .fin. in I In I .ill I MMkllM 

Little Beauty King, :'(K11 SR, SRD 

Minority Report. DTS. SR. SRD. SRD- 

Phono Booth. SR. SRD 

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Spring 

SDDS. SR, SRD Nicolas Cage, 

Penelope Cruz, Christian Bale, John 

Hurt. Dir: John Madden 

Rob Zombie's House ot a Thousand 

Corpses, 6 8. DTS, SDDS, SR, SRD 

Karen Bin t Dli Rob ZomoU 

Jurassic Park 3. 7/18, DTS. SDDS. 

SR. SRD Sam Ntlll, Al, •,-,.ir,i lr< . Niv.iI.i 

Tea Leoni. William H Macy Dir: Joe 

A Beautiful Mind I all H I.iv Hu-.*.,

" 

BOXOFFICE Independent Charts 

JANUARY 

Arrow 

212-398-9511 

Restless, Rom/Dra, 98 mm. Catherine 

i 

1 1 Wide 

Brenda 

I 

February, 2001 

Rialto 

323-933-2733 

Cercle Rouge (1970 reissue, 

Screen Gems 

-saken Kerr Smith, Jonathan 

laech. Dir: J.S. Cardone. 4/27 

Sony Classics 

adow Magic. Dra, PG. Jared Harris. 

Ann Hu. 4/6 

> Luzhin Defense. John Turturro, 

ily Watson. 4/27 

i Princess and the Warrior 4/27 

USA 

ybe Baby Hugh Laurie. Joely 

hardson. Dir: Ben Elton. 

Arrow 

i Piano Player. 112 min. Erika 

ozsan. Joachim Krol, Ben Becker, 

lano Dionisi. Dir: Rolf Schubel. 

Fox Searchlight 

ty Beast, Dra. Ray Winstone. Ben 

gsley. Dir: Jonathan Glazer. 5/1 

Lions Gate 

ad and Roses, R. Pilar Padilla, Adrien 

Jy. 

Elpidia Carnllo. Dir: Ken Loach. 

Lot 47 

it Food. Fast Women, 95 min. 

ia Thompson, Louise Lasser. Dir: 

OS Kollek. 5/1 

Sony Classics 

! Road Home. Dra, G. Zhang Ziyi, 

Honglei, Zheng Hao, Zhao Yuelin, 

in. Dir Zhang Yimou. 5/25 

Strand 

s of the Spider Woman (reissue), 

R, 116 mm. William Hurt, Raul 

a, Sonia Braga. Dir: Hector 

>enco 

Winstar 

the Sand, Dra, NR, 95 min. 

irlotte Rampling, Bruno Cremer, 

ques Nolot, Alexandra Stewart. Dir: 

icois Ozon. 5/4 NY/LA 

JUNE 

Fine Line 

hiversary Party, Com, R. Jennifer 

on Leigh, Alan Cumming. Dir: 

nifer Jason Leigh & Alan Cumming. 

First Look 

ad & Tulips, Dra, 105 min. Licia 

jlietta, Bruno Ganz, Marina 

JSironi, Giuseppe Battiston. Dir: 

io Soldini. 6/22 

Regent 

Speedway Junky. Dra, 106 min Jonathan 

Taylor Thomas. Dir: Nickolas Perry. 

Sony Classics 

Brother 6/16 

USA 

Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?. 

R. Tom Courtenay. Dir: Peter Hewitt. 

Winstar 

Adventures of Felix, Rom/Com, NR, 

95 min. Sami Bouajila, Patachou, 

Pierre-Loup Rajot, Ariane Ascaride, 

Dir: Olivier Ducastel and Jacques 

Martineau. June/July 

Arrow 

Le Secret, 107 min. Anne Coesens, 

Michael Bompoil. Tony Todd. Dir: 

Virginie Wagon. 

IDP 

AUGUST 

Fine Line 

Sleeping Dictionary Bob Hoskins, 

Brenda Blethyn. Dir: Guy Jenkin. 

SEPTEMBER 

Lions Gate 

Frailty. Matthew McConaughey. 

COMING 

Arrow 

Jump, Dra. James LeGros, Amanda 

Peet, Mike McGlone. lone Skye, 

Jessica Hecht, Hal Linden. Dir: Justin 

McCarthy. 

Artisan 

El Norte (reissue), Dra, R, 139 min. 

Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, Ernesto Gomez 

Cruz, Dir: Gregory Nava, 

Cinema Guild 

212-685-6242 

The Charcoal People. Doc, NR. 70 

mm Dir: Nigel Noble. Spring 

A Trial in Prague. Doc, NR, 82 min 

Dir: Zuzana Justman. Spring 

Cinema Village 

2 12-431 -51 19 

Journey to the Sun (Turkey), Dra. 1 1 

mm. Newroz Baz. Nazmi Oirix, Dir: 

Yesim Ustaoglu, Spring 

So Close to Paradise (China), Dra, 95 

min Wang Tong. Shi Yu. Dir: Wang 

Xiaoshuai. Spring 

Milestone 

Cowboy 

201-767-3117 212-929-4200 

Blue Road. Dra, 98 mm In the Winter Dark Dra, NR 100 mm 

S Montand, Alida Valli Dir: Gillo Blethyn Dir: James Bogle Spnng 

, 

itecorvo 6/6 NY Cure 

Destination 

310-434-2700 

Buying the Cow, Rom/Com. R, 88 

mm, Jerry O'Connell, Bndgette Wilson. 

Dir: Walt Becker. 1st Qtr 

The Hook-Up, Com. Devon Sawa, Jason 

Schwartzman. Dir: Dewey Nicks. 1st Qtr 

Ring of Fire, Dra/Western, PG-13. 

Kiefer Sutherland, Marcus Thomas. 

Dir: Xavier Roller. 1st Qtr 

Empire 

212-431-5119 

Understanding Jane, Rom/Com, 99 

min. Kevin McKidd. John Simm. Amelia 

Curtis. Dir: Caleb Lindsay. Spring 

Fine Line 

Human Nature. Com Patricia Arquette, 

Tim Robbins, Dir: Michel Gondry. Fall 

Dolmani. NY/LA 

Female Trouble (reissue). Divine. Dir: 

John Waters. 

Was Amelia Earhart Dir: Fred Schepisi. 

Invincible. Dra. Tim Roth. Dir: Werner 

Herzog. 

Pimp. Ice Cube. Dir: Bill Duke. 

The Ring 

Ripley's Game 

First Run 

The Gospel According to Philip K. 

Dick. Doc. NR, 80 min. Dir: Mark 

Steensland, Andy Massagi, Spring 

Light Keeps Me Company, Doc. NR, 76 

mm. Sven Nykvist. Dir: Carl-Gustav Nykvist. 

Petits Freres, Dra. 92 min. Stephanie 

Touly, Hies Sefraoui. Dir: Jacques Doillon. 

Fox Searchlight 

Hard Men (U.K.), Dra, R. Vincent 

Regan, Ross Boatman, Lee Ross. Dir: 

J.K. Amalou. 

One Hour Photo. Robin Williams, Connie 

Nielsen. Dir: Mark Romanek. Spring 

Chinese Coffee, R 

Jails Hospitals and Hip-Hop. Dra, 90 

min. Danny Hoch. Dir: Danny Hoch. 

905-403-6500 

All Access (formerly American Road), 

Doc, 60 min. 

Mission to Mir, Doc, 45 min. 

China: The Panda Adventures, Dra. 

45 min. Dir: Robert M. Young. 

Indican 

Wetonkawa Flash, Com. Kevin Tighe, 

Mark Boone Jr. Dir: Boyd Hale and 

Wendy Hopkins. Spring 

Kit Parker 

800-538-5838 

The River (1951, Reissue). Dra, 99 

min. Patricia Walters, Nora Swinburne. 

Dir: Jean Renoir, 

Lions Gate 

Amores Perros Emilio Echevarna. 

Gael Garcia Bernal Spring 

Vulgar Brian O'Halloran. Bryan 

Johnson, Summer 

The Weight of Water Sean Penn. 

Catherine McCormack. Fall 

The Whole Shebang 

Palm 

312-751-0020 

The Criminal. Dra/Thr. 98 min. Eddie 

lulian Simpson 

The Last Minute. Dra. 100 mm 

Stephen Nor 

Paramount Classics 

My First Mister, Dra. Albert Brooks 

Leelee Sobieskie. Dir: Christine Lahti. 

Phaedra 

Double Deception, Action. R. 87 mm 

Louis Mandylor. Dir: Shundo Okawa 

1st Qtr 

Seducing Maarya, Dra, NR. 107 mm 

Nandana Sen, Dr. Mohan Agashe. Dir 

Hunt Hoe. 1st Qtr 

Screen Gems 

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars 

Ice Cube. Clea Duvall, Natashj 

Henstridge, Pam Grier. Dir: Johr 

Carpenter. Summer 

How to Make Your Man Behave ir 

Ten Days or Less, Rom/Com. Vivicj 

A. Fox. Dir: Mark Brown. 

The Mothman Prophecies, Thr 

Richard Gere, Dir: Mark Pellington. 

Seventh Art 

323-845-1455 

Fight to the Max, Doc, 82 mm Dir 

Simeon Softer. Winter 

Always a Bridesmaid, Doc. 90 min 

Dir: Nina Davenport. Spring 

Bounce: Behind the Velvet Rope 

Spring 

Rage: 20 Years of West Coast Punk 

Doc. Dir: Michael Bishop. Scott Jacoby 

Spring 

Songs for Cassavetes, Doc, 90 min 

Dir: Justin Mitchell. Spring 

Sugihara - Conspiracy of Kindness 

Doc. 99 mm. Dir: Robert Kirk. Spring 

Won't Anybody Listen? 

Shadow 

207-872-5111 

Under the Sun (Sweden), Dra, 1 18 mm 

Helena Bergstrom, Rolf Lassgard, Johar 

Widerberg. Dir: Colin Nutley. Winter 

Shooting Gallery 

212-905-2000 

Better Housekeeping (formerly Goo< 

Housekeeping), R, 90 min. Dir: Franl 

Novack. Spring 

Trimark 

Skipped Parts. Com. R. 100 mm 

Jennifer Jason Leigh. Dir: Tamra Davis 

USA 

Bloody Angels Reidar Sorensen. Dir 

Karm Julsrud. 

Resurrection Man Stuart Townsend 

Dir: Marc Evans. 

Snarl Up Dir Michael Winterbottom. 

Thursday Thomas Jane, Aaror 

Eckhart. Dir: Skip Woods. 

What Rats Won't Do (UK) 

Rom/Com Natascha McElhone 

Parker Posey. Dir: Alastair Reid. 

Possession Gwyneth Paltrow. Aaror 

Eckhart. Dir: Neil LaBute. Fall 

Session 9 David Caruso. Brendor 

Sexton III. Dir: Brad Anderson. Fall 

Untitled Coen Brothers Project Bilh 

Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand 

Dir: Joel Coen. Fall 

Viz/Tidepoint 

Jin-Roh. Ani. NR. 101 min. Dir 

Hinoyuki Okiuna Spring 

Zeitgeist 

Downtown 81. Dra/Mus. NR. 75 mm 

Jean-Michel Basquiat. Deb 

Dir: Edo Bertoglio Spring 

lil""-"'

J 

. H 

MARCH 2 

The Tailor of Panama 

In this spy thriller, Pierce 

rosnan ("The World Is Not 

Enough") and Geoffrey Rush 

is quite a 

storyteller 

and spins a 

hyperbolic 

yarn 

that 

("Quills") star respectively as a 

cunning British spy and the tailor 

he blackmails into eavesdropping 

on his 

rich and 

powerful 

Panamanian 

clients. 

The 

tailor, 

however, 

has intern 

at iona 

repercuss 

i o n s . 

lie 

Lee 

("Drowning Mona"), Brendan 

Gleeson ("Mission: Impossible 

2"), Catherine McCormack 

("Shadow of the Vampire") and 

Leonor Varela (TV's "Cleopatra") 

co-star. |ohn Boorman ("The 

I 

General") writes, directs and produces; 

lohn Le Carre scripts 

based on his 1996 novel. 

(Columbia, 3/2) 

Exploitips: Le Carre, a former 

agent in Britain's MI6 intelligence 

division, didn't feel comfortable 

visiting the film's on-location set 

due to his unflattering portrayal of 

the country. Still, Panamanian president 

Mireya Moscoso supported 

the filming, hoping to catalyze 

tourism. Certain elements in the 

adaptation have changed: The 

book is set in 1999, when the U.S. 

relinquished control of the Panama 

Canal, and tlie plot is centered 

around voiding that treaty. Here, 

now set in the near future, the U.S. 

will do anything to get it back. 

The Mexican 

lulia Roberts ("Erin 

Brockovich") and Brad Pitt 

Snatch") pair up for the first 

time in this action comedy 

about a criminal go-between 

whose girlfriend is pressuring 

him to retire. Before he does, 

though, he heads south of the 

border to retrieve the titular 

antique gun that's rumored to 

be cursed, lames Gandolfini 

(TV's "The Sopranos") co-stars. 

Gore Verbinski ("Mouse Hunt") 

directs; 

. 

Wy m a n 

scripts; 

Lawrence 

Bender 

("Knockaround 

Guys") 

and John 

B a - 

I 

d e c c h i 

("Deep 

produce. 

(Dream- 

Works, 

Exploitips: The cast and crew 

on "The Mexican" must have 

really liked working together: 

Roberts and Pitt will re-team in 

Steven Soderbergh's remake of 

"Ocean's Eleven"; Verbinski 

and Gandolfini will partner on 

"Catch Me If You Can" if the 

latter's schedule allows it; and 

Roberts, Verbinski and Wyman 

will collaborate on "Project 3. 

About Adam 

Stuart Townsend ("Wonderland") 

plays the titular role in 

this Irish comedy about an 

unassuming young man who 

systematically seduces every 

member of his new girlfriend's 

family. Kate Hudson ("Almost 

Famous"), Frances O'Connor 

("Bedazzled") and Charlotte 

Bradley co-star. Gerard 

Stembridge writes and directs; 

Anna Devlin and Marina 

Hughes produce. (Miramax, 

3/23 NY/LA) 

Exploitips: 

Ostensibly a modern-da) 

take on the 1 950s classic 

"All About Eve," "About Adam" 

had a working title of "All About

Superior Quartz Products, Inc. 

Established 1957 

Tferrm'i 

Long Life 

Accurate Al 

Patented 

Made in th< 

With experienced engineering, 

quality components and precise 

manufacturing, Superior Quartz 

produces the most durable and 

stable lamps available. 

light years ahea< 

404 Route 519 PO Box 618 Phillipsburg, NJ 08865 

Phone: (908) 454-1700 FAX: (908) 454-4154 

www.sqpuv.com email: superior@sqpuv.com

; trained 

i 

i 

fueled 

i hallucinations. 

I Dawes 

: 

DeVito, 

: 

Shamberg 

j 

Sher, 

Director's Chair: Kasi Lemmons, "The Caveman's Valentine' 

Kasi Lemmons says she has "very, very vivid, very trippy 

dreams." She aspires to capture that visual intensity onscreen. 

Coming off the success of her award-winning debut feature 

"Eve's Bayou," she says she was "exhausted" and not even 

quite sure about pursuing a career as a director. But the one 

thing she did know was, "I didn't want to be accused of being 

safe," she says. "I wanted to go all out and make something 

that was really 'me.'" 

She told her agent, "I need something freaky and wild. I need 

black angels." She got her wish: "The Caveman's Valentine," 

an adaptation of George Dawes Green cult novel about a 

schizophrenic musician on the track of a killer. The opportunity 

to delve inside a mind flashing between brilliance and lunacy 

was an ideal canvas for Lemmons' dreamscape vision. 

Appropriately, "The Caveman's Valentine" started filming on 

Valentine's Day. "It was a big movie. Conceptually it had inherent 

bigness. It was dense," she says, describing the task of filming 

211 scenes in 49 days on locations in New York and Canada 

on a modest budget of about $13.5 million. And the weather was 

"completely unhelpful." There was a blizzard while shooting in 

New York, which, she says, "looks quite pretty on the screen but 

was incredibly unpleasant to work in." Ironically, when snow 

was needed up in Canada, it had to be manufactured. 

What was helpful was teaming up again with Samuel L. 

Jackson, who had starred in "Eve's Bayou." Committed to portray 

Romulus, the homeless genius, Jackson felt Lemmons was 

the ideal choice to helm this project. Lemmons is flattered by 

that trust. However, she laughingly admits that she and Jackson 

didn't quite envision the moth seraphs (the highest order of 

angels) that swirl through the movie, in quite the same way. She 

says Jackson kept teasing her, "They should be women!" But he 

agreed with her vision that these male figures are the character's 

"furies and his posse." Lemmons says she sees them as "ancestors: 

the souls of black men who rise up and give courage." 

Adam." Program the two together for an 

interesting double bill. Held from August. 

See Spot Run 

David Arquette ("Ready to Rumble") 

toplines this comedy as a New Jersey mailman 

who adopts a stray dog named Spot 

that turns out to be an FBI-trained drug sniffer 

on the lam from the witness protection 

program. Together, they outsmart the assassins 

sent to snuff out the canine. Michael 

Clarke Duncan ("The Whole Nine Yards") 

and Leslie Bibb ("The Skulls") co-star. TV 

director John Whitesell makes his feature 

film debut; Craig Titley, Stuart Cibbs, Chris 

Farber and Dan Baron script; Bob Simonds 

("Head Over Heels") produces. (Warner 

Bros., 3/2) 

Exploitips: Invite the local police's 

canine unit to exhibit some of the tricks 

Spot does in the film, or sponsor a dog 

show in which contestants and their owners 

maneuver through an obstacle course 

inspired by the film. 

Me You Them 

Regina Case stars in this Brazilian comedy 

based on a true story as a hard-working, 

spirited woman who has three husbands 

and a son by each. Lima Duarte, Stenio 

Garcia and Luis Carlos Vasconcelos co-star. 

Andrucha Waddington directs a script by 

Elena Soarez; Leonardo Barrros produces. 

(Sony Classics, 3/2) 

Exploitips: Sony Classics picked up "Me 

You Them" before it premiered at Cannes, 

where it won an Un Certain Regard special 

mention. The pickup perpetuates the distributor's 

interest in Brazilian fare after 

Her interest in the concept of black 

angels was sparked when she was 

working on a documentary following 

the Los Angeles riots. One Korean 

woman told her that she had asked her 

father why Koreans felt prejudice 

towards blacks, and her father replied, 

"Have you ever seen a black angel?" 

Besides angels, New York's Chrysler 

building is an essential element of the 

story. Lemmons filmed hundreds of 

images of the famed edifice. "We 

buzzed in from a helicopter, we shot it 

from the ground, we captured it from all 

angles, from all kinds of places, all 

around the city," she says. Inevitably, 

the motif found its way into cast and 

BE MY "VALENTINE": 

Kasi Lemmons directs 

'The Caveman's 

Valentine." 

crew gifts, from salt shakers to jewelry. 

On first reading the script, she couldn't imagine shooting the 

whole movie anywhere other than New York but accepted the 

compromise of location work in Canada. "I wish America 

would work harder to get the film industry to stay here. ..but 

Toronto is so damn film-friendly, they make it so easy." 

Lemmons says her sets have been described as "very huggykissy." 

As a director she says she's "very friendly, but very intense. 

I'm usually so intense, I'm not sure whether I'm hot or cold. At times 

my assistant has to remind me to put on a jacket. It's an intense outof-body 

experience for me." Like dreaming. Bridget Byrne 

"The Caveman's Valentine." Starring Samuel L. Jackson. 

Directed by Kasi Lemmons. Written by George Dawes Green. 

Produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, 

Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens and Scott Frank. A Universal 

Focus release. Thriller. Rated R lor language, some violence 

and sexuality. Opens 3/2. 

Walter Sa lies' "Central Station" received a 

Golden Globe and was nominated for a 

foreign language Oscar. 

The Caveman's Valentine 

Samuel L. Jackson ("Shaft") stars in this 

thriller as Romulus Ledbetter, a Julliard- 

musician who is now a paranoid 

schizophrenic and lives in a cave in Central 

Park. When he discovers a frozen corpse 

outside his home, he becomes convinced 

that the transient was murdered and sets out 

to find the killer, relying 

on his intuition 

by visions and 

Kasi 

Lemmons ("Eve's Bayou") 

directs; George 

Green adapts 

his own novel; "Erin 

Brockovich's" Danny 

Michael 

and Stacey 

"3,000 Miles to 

Craceland's" Elie 

Samaha and Andrew 

Stevens and Scott 

Frank produce. (Universal 

Focus, 3/2) 

Exploitips: This is a 

project that lackson, 

who executive produces, 

has been trying 

to put together for four 

years. He drafted 

Lemmons to helm after 

working with ha on 

" "Eve's Bayou. See 

Director's Chair, above. 

Joe Dirt 

MARCH 9 

In this comedy, David Spade ("Lost & 

Found") stars as the titular character, a white 

trash radio DJ who urges his listeners to 

hunt for the parents who abandoned him at 

the Grand Canyon when he was eight years 

old. Gary Busey ("Soldier"), musician Kid 

Rock, Roseanne and Brittany Daniel co-star. 

TV director Dennie Gordon makes her feature 

film debut; Spade scripts with fellow 

"Saturday Night Live" 

alum Fred Wolf; Bob 

Simonds ("See Spot 

Run") produces. 

(Columbia, 3/9) 

Exploitips: Put into 

turnaround at Warner 

Bros., where Spade 

had a pay-or-play deal, 

"joe Dirt" was rescued 

by Columbia when 

\dam Sandler stepped 

in to executive produce 

with his partner 

lac k ( fi.irraputo. The 

pic's web site 

nt i\ it -.iie.sony.com/ 

movies/joedirtA 

the character ./ 

calls 

trailei 

trash wig-wearin' 

acid-wash jean /own', 

rock concert t-shirt 

hem," so dub 

sportin 

opening weekend 

Trailei Trash Pride" 

and encourage patrons 

to dress the part.

— 

WMlllBlllllflll,ll§l]|{|||.HI»| 1 . HII[linr» 

"I'M BllMMIIWHBMI H)llll.l.llllll II .111 

Houston, we have a goblin." 

Missing one key word or phrase 

can ruin an entire movie-going 

experience. 

It won't happen with 

the new CSC Series of screen 

channel loudspeakers from EAW. 

And whether you're sitting way up front, 

in a back corner, or anywhere in between, there's 

not a bad seat in the house. 

The application of our most advanced 

research to date has led to a breakthrough in horn 

technology, with optimum sound blanketing the entire seating 

area. Excess energy is directed away from ceilings and walls 

where it can relied into the listening area to cause 

disruptive interference that compromises vocal clarity. 

We've also addressed the problems that occur when sound 

passes through the screen, smoothing and clarifying coverage 

even more. 

Perhaps more relevant, tins exciting new technology 

performs flawlessly in rooms with eithei stadium seating 

or traditional configurations. 

The CSC Series 

also 

patented 

ILAW's 

VA' 

Technology, 

reducing 

incorporates 

distortion 

as we 

frequency problems in 

the critical midran 

section. Dialog is furth 

purified, sounding clearer and mc 

natural than ever before. 

Inst, illation of a screen syste 

has never been easier, requiring or 

simple line of sight aiming I 

optimum coverage. 

Missing key dialog is no joke. 

that it won't ever become one n 

( S( Series oi any of oui othei 

litperson@eaw.com, visit us on thew 

Both mid- and highfrequency 

horns feature a 

unique asymmetrical horn 

flare design, minimizing 

energy radiated at the 

side walls and ceiling 

while concentrating sound 

on the entire seating area. 

he factor) 

Response No 144

I 

j 

Horberg 

Town and Country 

Warren Beatty ("Bulworth") stars in this 

romantic comedy as a disillusioned husband 

who fools around outside his mar- 

before realizing that it's his wife with 

he is in love. Diane Keaton 

("Hanging Up") co-stars as the long-suffer- 

i 

riage 

\ whom 

i 

i 

Muse"), 

j 

Towners"), 

. 

Chelsom 

i 

j 

For"); 

: 

Line, 

over grain after the harvest to a way of life 

for certain segments of the urban population. 

(Zeitgeist, 3/7 NY) 

Exploitips: BOXOFFICE gave this pic four 

stars in its Toronto coverage in the 

November 2000 issue, saying, "Varda creates 

a richly textured essay that essentially 

looks at how one class of society lives off of 

the refuse of another. But besides raising 

the political and social implications of 

gleaning, Varda goes even deeper into 

something personal by examining the 

process of aging itself and raising questions 

of real value." 

MARCH 16 

Squelch 

Steve Zahn ("Saving Silverman"), Paul 

and Leelee Sobieski 

Walker ("The Skulls") 

("Here on Earth") star in this thriller as a trio 

who, while on a road trip during summer 

break, play a prank on a trucker via their CB 

radio. Their joke backfires when the lonely 

driver, who's apparently seen Steven 

Spielberg's 1971 "Duel" one too many 

times, turns out to be a psychotic killer. 

)ohn Dahl ("Rounders") directs a script by 

Clay Tarver and J.J. Abrams 

("Armageddon"); Chris Moore ("Reindeer 

Games") and Abrams produce. (Fox, 3/9) 

Exploitips: In an age when cell phones 

and the Internet are the main forms of communication, 

the CB radio is an artifact from 

another era. To get patrons in the spirit, borrow 

a couple of sets and position them at 

opposite ends of your theatre lobby with a 

glossary of "ten-four, good buddy" wordage 

to get them started. 

Blow Dry 

Alan Rickman ("Galaxy Quest"), Natasha 

Richardson ("The Parent Trap"), Rachel 

Griffiths ("Me Myself I"), Rachael Leigh 

Cook ("She's All That") and ]osh Hartnett 

("Here on Earth") star in this comedy set in 

the world of professional hairdressing. 

Paddy Breathnach ("I Went Down") directs 

a script by Simon Beaufoy ("The Full 

Monty"); Sydney Pollack ("Random 

Hearts"), Ruth Jackson (who executive produced 

"Hilary and Jackie"), William 

("The Talented Mr. Ripley") and 

Moritz Bormann (who executive produced 

"The Wedding Planner") produce. 

(Miramax, 3/9 NY/LA) 

Exploitips: Warner Bros, already tried its 

hand at this formula with January 1999's 

"The Big Tease," starring Craig Ferguson, 

but it barely made a blip on the box-office 

radar. To generate more interest this time 

around, sponsor your own cut contest, 

inviting local stylists—professional and 

amateur— to compete for an annual movie 

pass. Moviegoers, meanwhile, can get free 

'dos. Held from September. 

The Dish 

Sam Neill ("Bicentennial Man") stars in 

this comedy from Down Under based on 

the true story about the rural Australian 

town of Parkes that was home to a large 

satellite integral to transmitting the Apollo 

11 mission to Earth in July 1969. Losing 

the signal and trying to retrieve it while 

covering up the mistake are among the 

mishaps that occur. Kevin Harrington, Tom 

Long and Patrick Warburton ( TV's 

"Seinfeld") co-star. "The Castle" director 

Rob Sitch reteams with writers Santo 

Cilauro and Tom Gleisner, who also all 

produce with Jane Kennedy. (Warner 

Bros., 3/9 ltd) 

Exploitips: Reputed for its genre-driven 

star vehicles, Warner Bros, has made a 

habit lately of distributing smaller, quirkier 

fare such as "Roger & Me" and "Best in 

Show"—the types of projects that could fall 

under its nascent specialty label when it's 

officially launched. BOXOFFICE gave "The 

Dish," which was a runner up for the 

People's Choice Award at Toronto, three 

stars in the November 2000 issue, saying, 

"With a charming ensemble cast and a 

script that offers consistent humor from 

blast-off to landing, 'The Dish' delivers 

exactly what it promises: good-natured, fun 

fare. 

The Circle 

Iranian director Jafar Panahi ("The White 

Balloon") produces and helms this ensemble 

drama about the plight of women in 

Iranian society. Fereshteh Sadr Orfani 

("The White Balloon"), Maryiam Palvin 

Almani and Nargess Mamizadeh star. 

Kambuzia Partovi scripts. (Winstar, 3/9 NY) 

Exploitips: Boxoffice gave "The 

Circle," which won the Golden Lion at the 

Venice Film Festival, 

three stars at Toronto 

in the December 2000 issue, calling it 

"startlingly provocative in its harsh portrait 

of Iran, " but saying, "Panahi displays more 

subtlety with his technique than with his 

message. Eschewing complexity, he only 

allows oppressed women into his world. 

This circle is too small." 

The Gleaners and I 

Agnes Varda ("Vagabond," "Jacquot de 

Nantes") directs this documentary about 

the tradition of gleaning in Franc e and how 

it 

has evolved from peasants collecting left 

ing spouse; Andie MacDowell ("The 

Goldie Hawn ("The Out-of- 

lenna Elfman ("Keeping the 

Faith") and Garry Shandling ("What Planet 

Are You From?") also co-star. Peter 

("The Mighty") directs a script by 

Michael Laughlin and Buck Henry ("To Die 

Andrew Karsch ("The Prince of 

Tides"), Simon Fields ("The Mighty"), Fred 

Roos ("Radioland Murders") and Sidney 

Kimmell ("9 1/2 Weeks") produce. (New 

3/16) 

Exploitips: This release, which was first 

due in theatres exactly a year ago, was 

troubled from the beginning. Because oi 

the gaggle of sought-after stars who had 

subsequent commitments, shooting had to 

begin before the script was completel) 

ready. Chelsom reportedly experimented 

gratuitously on the set, using copious 

amounts of time and film, and extensive 

reshoots were needed once a satisfactory 

script was completed and everyone could 

be gathered together again. Ultimatel) 

New Line had two complete version'' < >/ the 

film on its hands, one it was completely 

happ) to release as is and another that it 

still wanted to e\periment with in the 

months leading up to the release. \/ ovei 

$80 million, "Town and Country" has the 

bragging rights as one of the most expensive 

romantit i omedies ever made.

\\£Y\ Brightness 

xenon LAMPS 

m 

ft A fop 

£\WtWlA PROJE 

[f perform brilliantly 

where We offer a wide range of xenon lamps for cinema 

formance and special venue lighting applications. Superior 

jrkinElmer image, renowned stability, long life, and 

lized leader PerkinElmer's one-of-a-kind guarantee provide true 

technology. performance for the lighting professional. 

When you need a relia 

immediate lighting 8' 

tion, look to the leac 

provider of lamps 

lamp technology. 

1300 Optical Drive Azusa, CA 91702 Tel: (626) 815-3000 Fax: (626) 815-3074 In US: (800) 755-LAMP 

www.perkinelmer.com email: opto@perkinelmer.com

Exit Wounds 

Steven Seagal ("Under Siege") revisits the 

formula that first made him popular in the 

late '80s in this actioner about a cop 

assigned to an inner-city precinct who discovers 

corruption in his department. 

"Romeo Must Die's" DMX and Isaiah 

Washington co-star. Andrzej Bartkowiak 

("Romeo Must Die") directs; Ed Horowitz 

("On Deadly Ground") and Rich d'Ovidio 

adapt the novel by John Westermann; Joel 

Silver ("The Matrix") produces. (Warner 

Bros., 3/16) 

Exploitips: Warner Bros, and Silver, who 

say research indicates there's still an audience 

for Seagal, were so determined that 

"Exit Wounds" mark a return to his earlier, 

less laughable work that they worked the 

star's weight loss into his deal. Remind the 

young male demo why he used to be the 

bomb before becoming a bomb by programming 

midnight screenings of "Above 

the Law" and "Under Siege" on the weekends 

leading up to the release. Also play up 

Silver's recent credits "Matrix" and "Romeo 

Must Die," which have reinvigorated 

action genre. 

the 

The Center of the World 

Wayne Wang ("Anywhere but Here") 

directs this erotic drama about a young 

Internet venture capitalist who spends a 

carnal weekend in Vegas with a stripper. 

Molly Parker ("Wonderland") and Peter 

Sarsgaard ("Boys Don't Cry") star. Wang, 

Miranda July, Paul Auster ("Lulu on the 

Bridge," "Smoke") and Siri Hustvedt script; 

Peter Newman ("Smoke") and Wang produce. 

(Artisan, 3/1 6 NY/LA, 3/30 exp) 

Exploitips: In a radical departure from 

"Anywhere but Here," "Chinese Box," 

"Smoke" and "The joy Luck Club," Wang 

has said that here he's attempting to make a 

"Last Tango in Paris" for a younger generation 

by exploring sex and love in a world 

where young men are making a lot of 

money and making it fast. He's also shooting 

on digital and blowing up to 35mm. 

The pic's explicit red-band trailers have 

been attached to Artisan's unrated 

"Requiem for a Dream. 

Keep the River on Your Right 

This documentary profiles Tobias 

Schneebaum, a 1950s New York intellectual 

who abandoned Manhattan to "go 

native" in the jungles of Peru, emerging a 

year later having not only observed but participated 

in the cannibalistic rituals and 

homosexual practices of his adopted tribe. 

Siblings David and Laurie Shapiro direct 

and produce. (IFC, 3/16 NY) 

Exploitips: Also screened as "Once I Was 

a Cannibal," "Keep the River on Your Right" 

won the Audience Award at the 2000 Los 

Angeles Independent Film Festival. 

Considering its tiny release, it probably 

won't be out of the question to invite the 

filmmakers and subject to introduce their 

film on opening weekend and participate in 

a post-screening Q&A. 

One Night at McCool's 

Liv Tyler ("Dr. T and the Women") stars in 

this "Rashomon"-like romantic comedy in 

which three men recall one steamy night in 

which a beautiful woman stole their hearts 

and ruined their lives. Matt Dillon ("There's 

Something About Mary"), John Goodman 

("Coyote Ugly"), Paul Reiser ("The Story of 

Us") and Michael Douglas ("Traffic") costar. 

Norwegian commercial director 

Harald Zwart makes his American feature 

directorial debut; Stan Seidel scripts; 

Douglas and and his partner Allison Lyon 

Segan, who co-produced "Saving Private 

Ryan," produce. (USA, 3/16) 

Exploitips: Mailed unsolicited to 

Douglas and Segan's Further Films office, 

Seidel's script was so universally loved that 

many of the main players signed on for less 

than their usual fees and before Douglas, 

who purposely delayed his commitment, 

was attached. The production outfit's first 

greenlit film, "One Night at McCool's" has 

been sitting on the shelf at USA since the 

distributor took over October Films, which 

financed the pic. 

MARCH 23 

The Fast and the Furious 

In this action drama, Vin Diesel 

("Knockaround Guys"), Paul Walker 

("Squelch"), Rick Yune ("Snow Falling on 

Cedars"), Jordana Brewster ("Invisible 

Circus"), Hill Harper ("The Visit") and 

Michelle Rodriguez ("Girlfight") make up 

an ensemble of illicit street-car racing gang 

members and the undercover cop who is 

infiltrating their ranks. Rob Cohen ("The 

Skulls'") directs a script by Gary Scott 

Thompson ("Hollow Man"), Erik Bergquist, 

John Pogue ("The Skulls"), David Ayer ("U- 

571") and Kario Salem (TV's "The Rat 

Pack" and "Don King: Only in America"); 

Doug Claybourne ("The Mask of Zorro") 

produces. (Universal, 3/23) 

Exploitips: "The Fast and the Furious," 

which also has been known as "Racer 

X," "Redline" and "Street Wars," will see 

its stiffest competition from this weekend's 

"Summer Catch," which also features 

a young ensemble cast, though 

"The Fast and the Furious'" plot and cast 

seem edgier. BOXOFFICE interviewed 

Matt Schulze, who also appears in the 

film, in last month's Young Hollywood 

cover story. 

Catch 

Freddie Prinze Jr. ("Head Over Heels") is 

the catch in this romance set against a 

baseball backdrop. Prinze portrays a college 

player who's simultaneously trying to 

impress major league scouts and a wealthy 

girl vacationing in Cape Cod, where he's 

participating in a summer league. Jessica 

Biel (TV's "7th Heaven"), Brian Dennehy, 

Matthew Lillard ("Love's Labour's Lost"), 

Marc Blucas (TV's "Buffy the Vampire 

Slayer") and Wilmer Vaiderrama (TV's 

"That '70s Show") co-star. Mike Tollin 

makes his feature directorial debut and produces 

with "Varsity Blues" director-producer 

Brian Robbins and Sam Weisman; Kevin 

Falls (TV's "Sports Night") scripts. (Warner 

Bros., 3/23) 

Exploitips: This could be a fun opportunity 

to invite local talent scouts to come 

before opening weekend matinees to 

observe and offer pointers to wannabe 

baseball players— well, at least pitchers 

and catchers (hitters in the parking lot 

could result in some unhappy car owners). 

Or set up a carnival game wherein kids can 

throw pitches into a catcher's mitt for concession 

stand prizes. Be sure to promote at 

local baseball games, perhaps shelling out 

for an announcement over the PA system or 

an ad with discount coupons in the program. 

BOXOFFICE profiled Prinze, Lillard, 

Blucas and Vaiderrama in last month's 

Young Hollywood cover story. 

The Brothers 

Bill Bellamy ("Any Given Sunday"), 

Morris Chestnut ("The Best Man"), Shemar 

Moore and D.L. Hughley ("The Original 

Kings of Comedy") star in this romantic 

comedy about four African-American yuppies 

whose worlds are thrown into chaos 

when one of them, a reformed playboy, 

announces he's getting married. 

Screenwriter Gary Hardwick ("Trippin"') 

directs his own script; Darin Scott and 

Paddy Cullen produce. (Screen Gems, 3/23) 

Exploitips: "The Brothers" is going for 

the same niche audience as I999's "The 

Best Man," which was somewhat of a surprise 

hit, earning $34 million vs. a $9 million 

budget. See Director's Chair, page 24.

new from Component Engineering 

Cn developed by Dolby Laboratories 

and designed for use with cyan sound tracks 

PCI! I 

ilLU LLls and designed for use with cvan soi 

DEI/rpCr OP AM lower distortion, better high frequency 

ItLVLllOL Ovflll response, and near-perfect decoding 

I HlA/rD DDIPC ,owest P rice yet for a true reverse scan reader. 

LUlfLli rnillL 30% below our standard analog readers 

nfr^ 

Analog 

Sound Reader 

for Simplex, Century, RCA, 

and Ballantyne Model 7 

sound heads 

Low Noise 

Power Supply 

high quality, fully adjustable, 

with thumpless LED 

on/off circuit 

POWER SUPPLY 

Component 

Engineering 

• Sound Readers • Automation Systems • Cue Detectors • Sound System Monitor Amplifiers 

• Non-Sync Distribution Systems • Accessories for ail of the above 

4237 24th Ave. West Seattle, WA 98199 1214 Wi Hfi C€ 

Phone:(206)284-9171 Fax: (206)286 4462 wwwcomponentengineering.com 

H.' .[inrv... r J r . 1'M

I had 

Director's Chair: Gary Hardwick, "The Brothers" 

Screenwriter/novelist Gary Hardwick didn't grow up dreaming 

of being a director, but he found out pretty quickly that 

becoming one was the only way to retain artistic control of his 

scripts. His first feature credit as a writer, the 1999 comedy 

"Trippin'," made that point clear to him. 

"When the movie came out, it was a lot different than the movie 

written," he says. "And I realized to my shock and horror 

as most writers do—that film is a director's medium, not a writer's 

medium. And so if you want your film to be what you want it to 

be, then you must take the extra step of becoming a director to 

interpret the film the way you want it to be interpreted." 

The Detroit native had learned his lesson by the time he went 

to make "The Brothers," an ensemble comedy he describes as 

"sort of a male 'Waiting To Exhale.'" Actually the first script he 

wrote, it helped launch his career as a screenwriter, but there 

didn't seem to be a market for sophisticated black comedies 

when Hardwick first circulated it around Hollywood. Initially 

"there was interest in me, but not the screenplay," he says. 

That changed with the release of a well-received group of films 

about young black artists and professionals, including "love 

beat a path to your door. Just ask Ben Stiller. He's making these 

little comedies, and they're just racking up dollars." 

'The Brothers" stars Morris Chestnut, Bill Bellamy, D.L. Hughley 

and Shemar Moore as four pals whose long friendship is thrown out 

of whack when Moore's character suddenly decides to get married. 

"It starts all of these guys to question their current station in life," Hardwick 

says. 'They're all 

single men, they're all 

professional, they're all 

in their 20s, and they 

haven't been thinking 

about forever. And now 

they're forced to think 

about it, and they're 

forced to come to grips 

with certain problems 

that they are having 

with their significant 

others at this particular point in their lives." 

BROTHERLY LOVE: 

Gary Hardwick directs 'The Brothers." 

For Hardwick, the film is about how "relationships are hard, 

love is great, and you have to go through one to get to the other," 

he says. "And I think the movie does a very good job of saying 

that, with a lot of heart and a lot of humor thrown in. It doesn't 

hurt to have Bill Bellamy and D.L. Hughley for the humor part." 

He sees the commercial success of films from "love jones" 

to this year's Denzel Washington sports drama "Remember the 

Jones" and "The Best Man." During the second week of "The Best Titans" as part of an encouraging trend that has seen black 

Man's" successful release, Hardwick sent the similarly themed cinema moving into new genres in recent years. 

"Brothers" back out, eventually selling it to Sony's independent "The great thing is that people are very open-minded now," 

banner Screen Gems. This time, he was attached to direct. 

he says. "There isn't this notion that a black movie is somehow 

"What really helped me was that black movies had a very box-office poison. And these days, when everyone is so costconscious, 

black films are very efficiently made and they have 

consistent track record of success," he says. "I always say 

comedy is the cheapest special effect in Hollywood. There's a very high return on investment. Out here the goal is to make 

no price for wit— it's free. And if a movie is funny, people will money, and when something makes money, everybody gets 

MARCH 30 

Spy Kids 

Antonio Banderas reteams with 

"Desperado" writer-director-producer 

Robert Rodriguez for this action comedy 

aimed at kids about two international spies 

who are sent to eliminate each other. They 

fall in love instead but nine years later are 

called out of retirement to battle an evil 

techno-wizard. When they disappear, it's 

up to their kids to save them. Carla Gugino 

("Snake Eyes"), Alan Cumming ("Get 

Carter"), Alexa Vega ("The Deep End of the 

Ocean") and Daryl Sahara co-star. 

Rodriguez's wife Elizabeth Avellan ("The 

Faculty") produces. (Miramax, 3/30) 

Exploitips: Miramax is reportedly so 

pleased with "Spy Kids," the second in 

Rodriguez's five-picture deal with the minimajor, 

that it is already considering greenlighting 

the sequel. An elaborate web site 

has been set up at www.spykids.com that, 

when fully operational, will allow kids to 

sign up for "official training missions" using 

"Spy Kids" gadgets that will eventually 

grant them access to the entire site as well 

as qualify them for giveaways and prizes. In 

the weeks leading up to the pic's release, 

promote the site at your theatre and let any 

kid who has unlocked the final mission and 

found the "Third Brain" in for free with a 

parent. See Director's Chair, page 28. 

Blow 

In this biopic, Johnny Depp ("Chocolat") 

portrays George Jung, a pot dealer in the 

early '70s who garnered the trust of 

Colombian drug smugglers and introduced 

cocaine into American culture. Penelope 

Cruz ("All the Pretty Horses"), Ray Liotta 

("Hannibal"), Rachel Griffiths ("Blow 

Dry"), Franka Potente ("Run Lola Run"), 

Paul Reubens ("Mystery Men"), Jordi 

Molla, Cliff Curtis ("Three Kings") and 

Ethan Suplee ("Remember the Titans") costar. 

Ted Demme ("Life") directs and produces; 

Nick Cassavetes and David 

McKenna ("Get Carter") script based on 

Bruce Porter's book; Joel Stillerman 

("Rounders") produces. (New Line, 3/30) 

Exploitips: St. Martin's Press appears to 

be publishing a new paperback edition of 

Porter's biography, called in its entirety, 

"Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 

Million With the Medellin Cocaine Cartel 

and Lost It All," in time for the film's 

release. Cooperate with a neighborhood 

bookstore to co-market both the book and 

the film by offering ticket discounts for 

opening weekend to customers who buy 

the book and perhaps selling copies in the 

theatre lobby. 

Animal Husbandry 

Ashley Judd ("Where the Heart Is") stars 

in this romantic comedy as a TV producer 

who develops a theory about men and 

women based on the animal world and 

applies it to her own failed relationship. 

Greg Kinnear ("The Gift"), Hugh Jackman 

("X-Men"), Marisa Tomei ("What Women 

Want") and Ellen Barkin ("Crime and 

Punishment in Suburbia") co-star. Tony 

Goldwyn ("A Walk on the Moon") directs; 

Elizabeth Chandler ("A Little Princess") 

scripts based on the novel by Laura 

interested in how it's done." Michael Tunison 

"The Brothers." Starring Bill Bellamy, Morris Chestnut, 

Shemar Moore and D.L. Hughley. Written and directed by 

Gary Hardwick. Produced by Darin Scott and Paddy Cullen 

produce. A Screen Cems release. Rated R for strong sexual 

content and language. Opens 3/23. 

pro- 

Zigman; Lynda Obst ("Hope Floats") 

duces. (Fox, 3/30) 

Exploitips: No doubt controversial, the 

theory proposed by Judd's character 

(named jane Coodall, pun surely intended! 

could spark a lively debate on a local radio 

talk show, wherein callers could receive 

tickets for opening weekend for throwing in 

their two cents. Also, snag a copy of the 

book and decorate your theatre lobby with 

images of animals that represent human 

male behavior and quotes describing the 

connection, such as "the myth of male shyness 

and the poor-guy persona— common 

disguises for a wolf in sheep's clothing." 

Amores Perros 

In this ensemble drama out of Mexico, 

three intertwined love stories spanning 

vastly different social classes—a dog fighter 

who's raising money to run off with his sister-in-law; 

a wealthy editor who abandons 

his wife and family to live a glamorous life 

with a vacuous model; and an ex-conturned 

hitman who reunites with his 

estranged daughter—resolve in a fatal car 

crash. Emilio Echevarria, Gael Garcia 

Bernal and Goya Toledo star. Commericals 

director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu makes 

his feature film helming and producing 

debut; Guillermo Arriaga scripts. (Lions 

Gate, 3/30 NY, 4/1 3 exp) 

Exploitips: "Amores Perros," which 

translated literally means "Love's a Bitch," 

has won numerous international awards, 

including the Canal+ Award at Cannes and 

the Audience Award at the Los Angeles 

International Film Festival. The film earned 

2.5 stars in BOXOFFICE's Toronto coverage

New at 

Speco 

LP280 

The "smartest" digital 

platter system... 

with easily replaceable 

motor control boards! 

• Interchangeable motor 

control boards slide in and out 

for easy maintenance 

• Signal lights tell you power 

supplied to boards is OK 

• Easy to run, simple to repair 

• Totally digital technology 

Call 1-800-633-5913 

for a complete catalog 

No adjustments necessary...ever! 

Easily accessible and replaceable 

sensor board 

An integral part of 

the digital platter 

system... 

New roller means less static buildup. 

Conductive plastic carries static charge 

away from film 

BBHBn 

Helping The World Go To The Movies 

send e-mail enquiries to info@speco-usa.com

in the December issue, saying, "Proving 

that he can juggle a variety of timeframes, 

perspectives and moods, lharritu hints at a 

vibrant pastiche of human relations but in 

the end succumbs to the dangers of such a 

fractured narrative practice: too much 

bravado, not enough soul. 

MARCH UNDATED 

Deuces Wild 

In this ensemble drama set in Brooklyn in 

the summer of 1958, the city is suffering 

from the sweltering heat and mourning the 

loss of its beloved Dodgers. The street gang 

the Deuces still maintain control of the city 

streets, but they learn that their traditions of 

loyalty and midnight rumbles are quickly 

becoming a thing of the past. Stephen Dorff 

("Cecil B. DeMented"), Brad Renfro ("Apt 

Pupil"), Fairuza Balk ("Almost Famous"), 

Norman Reedus ("Gossip"), Frankie Muniz 

("My Dog Skip") and Balthazar Getty 

("Center of the World") star. Scott Kalvert 

("Basketball Diaries") directs a script by 

Paul Kimatian and Christopher Gambale; 

Michael Cerenzie, Willi Baer ("The 

Contender"), Fred Caruso (who co-produced 

"The Skulls") and Kimatian produce. 

(MGM, March undated) 

Explottips: 

by 

Invoke the period of the film 

encouraging your staff— male and 

female (Balk's character is the leader of an 

all-girl gang)— to dress like 1950s street 

gang members: blue jeans, black leather 

jackets, white t-shirts with cigarette packs 

rolled into the sleeves. 

Simon Magus 

In this fantasy, a 19th-century European 

lewish village is on the verge of extinction. 

A train station could modernize the community, 

but greed and skepticism threaten 

the innovation, and a disheveled, perhaps 

mad outcast becomes the key to dismantling 

the idea. Noah Taylor ("Almost 

Famous"), Stuart Townsend ("Wonderland"), 

Sean McGinley ("The General"), 

Embeth Davidtz ("Bicentennial Man"), 

Rutger Hauer and Ian Holm (")oe Gould's 

Secret") star. Ben Hopkins writes and 

directs his feature film debut; Robert Jones 

(who executive produced "The Usual 

Suspects") produces. (IDP, March undated) 

Exploitips: "Simon Magus" played both 

at Sundance this year and at the Berlin Film 

Festival last year, where it was nominated 

for the Golden Bear award. BOXOFFICE 

gave it 3.5 stars in the December 2000 

issue, calling it "an astonishingly mature 

and accomplished debut." Held from 

November. 

Songcatcher 

Janet McTeer ("Tumbleweeds") stars in 

this early 20th-century drama as a musicologist 

repeatedly overlooked for promotion 

at her patriarchal university. Visiting her 

sister, who runs a rural school in the 

Appalachian mountains, she discovers that 

the isolated people there have preserved 

Scottish and Irish folk songs, passing them 

down from generation to generation, and 

sets out to record them before they disappear 

forever. Aidan Quinn ("Music of the 

Heart"), Pat Carroll and Jane Adams 

("Wonder Boys") co-star. Maggie 

Greenwald ("The Ballad of Little Jo") writes 

and directs; Ellen Rigas Venetis and 

Richard Miller ("Heavy") produce. (Lions 

Gate, March undated) 

Exploitips: "Songcatcher" received a 

special jury award for outstanding ensemble 

performance at Sundance, where 

Trimark aggressively pursued it, eventually 

ponying up a low seven-figure sum. BOX- 

OFFICE gave the film 3.5 stars at the festival, 

calling it "beautifully photographed, brilliantly 

performed and richly textured." 

Held from December. 

The Story of 

This American version of Pauline Reage's 

erotic novel updates the story of a woman's 

expression of love via kink. Phil Leirness 

directs. (Phaedra, March undated) 

Exploitips: Collaborate with a local 

bookstore but with discretion. The material—often 

compared to that of Marquis de 

Sade— isn't for everyone. Held from 

November. 

Famous 

Produced by thespian Mira Sorvino 

("Summer of Sam") and featuring a bevy of 

celebrity cameos including Sandra Bullock, 

Spike Lee and Charlie Sheen, "Famous" is a 

mockumentary about a couple of up-andcoming 

actors eking out a living in New 

York. Laura Kirk and Nat DeWolf script and 

star; Griffin Dunne ("Practical Magic") 

directs; Dolly Hall ("54") produces. (Strand, 

March undated) 

Exploitips: BOXOFFICE gave "Famous" 

its three stars in Cannes coverage in the 

August 2000 issue, saying, "There are some 

amusing moments, including affectionately 

irreverent riffs on the acting profession, the 

competition it elicits among friends and the 

desperate lengths some actors will go to in 

order to get work. But the third act of this 

story loses some of the lightness and breezy 

spirit that kept it 

aloft. 

Dead or Alive 

In this lapanese-language actioner, 

l.ikcui In Kiki plays a gang leader who 

attempts to take over his i ity's underworld. 

Aikawa Sho co-stars as the polic c delec live 

assigned to root him out. Takashi Miike 

directs; Ichiro Ryu scripts; Makoto Okada 

,ind Katsumi Ono produce. (Viz/Tidepoint, 

March undated)

Redefine 

Exhibition 

Marketplace 

ig actively with the 

Barco [^ital 

BflRC©-

\ 

all 

I 

! have 

used 

thought 

Director's Chair: Robert Rodriguez, "Spy Kids" 

One wouldn't expect the writer/director/producer/editor/ 

sound mixer/camera operator of uber-indie "El Mariachi," its 

sequel "Desperado," "From Dusk Till Dawn" and "The 

Faculty" to make the next film in his oeuvre a kids movie. But 

that's just what Robert Rodriguez has done, returning to the 

same formula he used in "Bedhead" and other shorts starring 

his siblings that he shot with his dad's camera as a kid. 

"The characters I in all those short films are the same 

characters that are in ['Spy Kids'], but now they're spies," he 

says. "It's always a boy and a girl and sibling rivalry in the 

midst of some other story. They're like upgrades of that same 

basic idea I've been reworking since I was a kid." 

About two a brother and sister who take over the family 

business when their spy parents are kidnapped, "Spy Kids" 

includes the big explosions and high-tech gadgetry usually 

reserved for a studio's tentpole summer blockbuster. "Growing 

up loving James Bond movies, I it would be more 

empowering to have kids get to do the action that they usually 

just see adults do," Rodriguez says. 

And in his version of the 007 franchise, it's actually advantageous 

to be pint-sized, Rodriguez says, citing kids' "open 

minds and their touch with the intuitive side" as making them 

especially good heroes. "The bad guy [techno-wizard Fegan 

Floop, played by Alan Cumming], I thought, would be great if 

he were sort of a Willy Wonka-type imaginative, creative, 

childlike force that the parents can't win against," he explains. 

"And where the kids have the edge is they're not childlike: 

They are children, so they can beat him. I thought that would 

be neat to use what their asset is, which is just their being children, 

as part of the story link." 

Since the brother and sister are the centerpiece of the film, 

the right casting was important. "When I got 'Four Rooms,' I 

got some really great kids just in a week, so I thought, 'Well, 

it can't be that hard to find two kids,'" Rodriguez says. "But 

Exploitips: Riki, Sho and Miike are 

stars of Japanese straight-to-video 

gangster movies. Here, their work will 

a chance to find an American 

audience on the big screen. Held from 

January. 

LATE MOVIE MOVES 

Million Dollar Hotel 

Mel Gibson ("What Women Want") 

stars in this detective drama as a partially 

crippled FBI agent investigating a 

death at a low-rent Los Angeles hostel. 

When the deceased, a struggling aspiring 

artist, turns out to be the estranged 

son of a media mogul billionaire, his 

neighbors become the prime suspects. 

Jeremy Davies ("Saving Private Ryan") 

and Mi I la Jovovich ("The Claim") costar. 

Wim Wenders ("Buena Vista 

Social Club") directs a script by U2 

frontman Bono and Nicholas Klein 

(Wenders' "The End of Violence"); 

Deepak Nayar ("Buena Vista Social 

Club," "The End of Violence"), Bono, 

Klein, Wenders and Gibson's producing 

partner Bruce Davey produce. 

(Lions Gate, 2/2) 

Exploitips: Boxoffice gave "The 

Million Dollar Hotel," which won the 

Silver Berlin Bear at the Berlin Film 

Festival, three stars at AFM in the July 

2000 issue, saying, "In the end, as with 

most of Wenders' films, mysteries and 

it took me six 

months this time, 

went through 

and I 

hundreds of kids. I 

wanted them to be 

young enough that 

you wouldn't expect 

them to be able to 

do anything, much 

less the action they 

were required to do. 

So it was hard to 

find kids mature A KID AT HEART: Robert Rodriguez 

enough at that age 

directs "Spy Kids." 

to be able to be on set and do all those things, yet still remain 

innocent on film." 

Once Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara were cast, however, 

working with them was a pleasure for Rodriguez. "I really 

enjoy working with kids," he says. "They don't know what 

they can't do. They're very gung-ho. They did a lot of their 

own stunts—they were on wires flying around like in 'The 

Matrix.' They had a blast. They wanted to do everything." 

And Miramax executives are reportedly so pleased with 

what they've seen so far that they've already greenlit a sequel. 

"We're already making sets and finding locations and starting 

to cast while I'm writing the script," he says. "['Spy Kids' and 

the sequel are] both going to meld together, which will be 

great. I had so much fun making this one. I really want to do 

another one." Annlee Ellingson 

"Spy Kids." Starring Antonio Banderas, Carla Cugino, 

Alan Cumming, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. Written and 

directed by Robert Rodriguez. Produced by Robert 

Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan. A Miramax release. Not 

yet rated. Opens 3/30. 

their resolutions take a back seat to 

philosophical pontification. Longtime 

Wenders fans will undoubtedly welcome 

the affront to conventional storytelling 

while others, attracted by the 

marquee value of Mel Gibson, are 

more likely to leave the theatre 

scratching their heads. 

Pollock 

Thespian Ed Harris ("Enemy at the 

Gates") makes his directorial debut, produces 

and stars in this biopic about 

Jackson Pollock, the abstract expressionist 

who reinvigorated the American art 

scene with his Action Painting while battling 

personal 

demons such as 

alcoholism. Marcia 

Gay Harden ("Space 

Cowboys"), Amy 

Madigan ("Field of 

Dreams"), Jennifer 

Connelly ("Requiem 

for a Dream"), Jeffrey 

Tambor ("Dr. 

Seuss' How the 

Grinch Stole Christmas"), 

Bud Cort 

("But I'm a Cheerleader"), 

John Heard 

("Snake Eyes") and 

Val Kilmer ("Red 

Planet") co-star. Barbara 

Turner ("Georgia") 

Emshwiller script based on Steven 

Naifeh and Gregory White Smith's biography 

"Jackson Pollock: An American 

Saga"; Fred Berner ("The Great White 

Hype"), Jon Kilik and James Francis 

Trezza produce. (Sony Classics, 2/16 ltd) 

Exploitips: BOXOFFICE gave "Pollock" 

two stars in its Toronto coverage in the 

November 2000 issue, describing it as 

"beautifully shot" but saying, "the psychological 

underpinnings of the film are skin 

deep. " BOXOFFICE interviews Harris for this 

month's cover story on page 30. 

MORE MOVIE MOVES... 

Arrow is "Restless," an English-language 

U.S. -China co-production about a young 

woman who embarks on a journey of selfdiscovery 

in Beijing, on 1/19 in New 

York.. .Phaedra hits 

"Road to Park City," a 

comedy/primer on 

filmmaking, on the 

23rd. ..Keystone 

promises to "Love, 

Honor and Obey" in 

lanuary... First Run 

reaches a "Split 

Decision," a documentary 

about pugilist 

Jesus "El Matador" 

Chavez, on 2/9 in 

Austin, Texas. ..Lot -17 

bows "Hit and 

Runway," abi ml a ga} 

Jewish playwright and 

a macho Italian 

restaurateur who team 

to write a hit lor a 

major action star, on 2/1 6 in New York and 

Los Angeles. ..and in February, "No One 

Sleeps" at Jour de Fete, Panorama will be 

"Standing on Fishes" and Regent leads 

"Sordid Lives" in New York and Los 

Angeles. 

JiH

QPfje 

heater Jfflanager'a 

draper. 

&fy lorb, let ttjts ntgJjt be beboib of error. 

let tfje popcorn pop anb tfje goba flotolet 

tfje gum not stick to tije tfjeater carpet 

let tfje feeppab remain brp. 

let tlje electricity run aplenty 

iWost of all, bear lorb, map mj> management 

system not be torougijt tuitij problems 

You don't have to depend on a higher power to keep your theater running smoothly. Introducing MARS Sequel, the industry's 

most reliable and flexible theater management system. With Windows NT software and Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, 

MARS Sequel can be customized to meet your most complex needs while being more dependable than ever. Because MARS 

is a division of AOL MovieFone, moviegomg is more convenient for millions of moviegoers with Internet ticketing, 

Teleticketing, Automated Kiosks and Reserved Seating. Now you can take control of your theater without divine intervention. 

a MARS 

Response No 78

Cover— 

A PORTRAI 

Actor Ed Harris Steps 

Bring Painter Biograp 

by Ann 

H9S 

been a decade or so since Ed Harris first 

It's conceived of making a film about Jackson 

Pollock, the American painter who galvanized 

the New York art scene in the 1940s and 

1950s with his drips and splatters, elevating 

abstract expressionism to the next level of the 

subconscious through his self-styled Action 

Painting while battling inner demons that eventually 

contributed to his demise. Harris' portrayal 

of Pollock was perhaps inevitable, as it 

was the pair's physical likeness that first turned 

the actor on to the artist 

"I was first really introduced to [Pollock] on 

my birthday in 1986 when my dad sent me a 

book about him," Harris says. "My dad had 

been working at the Chicago Art Institute in the 

bookstore, and he sent me a book by Jeffrey 

Potter, who was a friend of Pollock's, called 'To 

a Violent Grave,' which is an oral biography. I 

think there's a picture of Pollock on the cover, 

which is what drew my dad to it— [there's] some 

resemblance between Pollock and myself." 

The book planted a seed of interest within 

Harris, and he received another tome on 

Pollock the following year from his father, who 

suggested that "maybe there was a film in 

there somewhere," Harris says. The kernel burrowed 

into his psyche. "It went deeper and 

deeper," he says, "and I kind of committed 

myself in the early '90s at some point to make 

a film about him. I never intended to direct it, 

but I wanted to play Pollock." 

But Harris' motivation wasn't just that he 

looked the part. He saw the role as an opportunity 

to challenge and express himself through 

an intriguing historical character. "It was primarily 

from an actor's standpoint to play a 

human being, a character, and get the chance to 

reveal all his hope and his pain and his joy and 

his fear and, in this case, his ability, his longing, 

his artistry," Harris says. "Pollock was a pretty 

fascinating character, a complex guy. It would 

have been nice to have made a five-hour film 

about him. I really didn't have that liberty. But 

the more I read about him and the more I got 

into it, I grew to really appreciate his art and 

what he did artistically in terms of creating art 

that was truly his own, that was not derivative 

of anything else that had come before. 

"It was a bit revolutionary at the time. But it 

also was who he was as a person. On a day-to-

F AN ARTIST 

tind the Camera Lens to 

illtkk" to the Big Screen 

ingson 

day level, it was very difficult for him being on 

the planet. I have empathy for that." 

"Ed has a lot of resonances that live within 

him that are very similar to those that live 

within Pollock, and I think he recognized 

that," says Marcia Gay Harden, who was 

named the year's Best Supporting Actress by 

the New York Critics' Circle for her role as 

Pollock's wife Lee Krasner in the film. "He 

loved that man, the difficulties that Pollock 

had in living in the real world, the social world, 

the quest for truth and purity as an artist that 

Pollock had, which is something that Ed also, 

I believe, has. They risk art for art's sake. By 

that I mean, independent of commercialism 

and independent of what other people think, 

they're exploring and stretching and extending 

their craft as an exploration of the craft. And 

most of us are trying to get another job." 

Harris, though, has difficulty describing 

specifically why he related to Pollock. "Why do 

you marry somebody or why do you fall in 

love? You can't really articulate it. It just 

became something that started growing on 

me," he says. "I mean, that's why I made the 

movie. The movie speaks for itself, in a way. 

The parts of Pollock or the aspects of this guy 

that you see onscreen that I chose to reveal, 

those are the things that drew me to it. You can 

kind of draw your own conclusions. 

"It's difficult to really talk about because it's 

very, very personal, [and] the film became more 

and more personal the more I worked on it," he 

continues. "A lot of people when they make 

their first films, like Gary Oldman and Tim 

Roth, told somewhat autobiographical films, 

and I'm not a writer, really, so I don't have that 

capacity to write about my own life. But there 

was something about Pollock that I felt very 

intimate with, and so to explore that and to 

pursue that was something that became a necessity 

for me as a creative individual." 

During the process of becoming Pollock 

and Harris does, arresting the audience when 

he sobs into his brother's waist and later when 

he upends the table at Lee's elaborate 

Thanksgiving dinner—he read everything he 

could on the man, spent hours at museums 

staring at his work, visited the man's studio on 

his and Lee's place in East Hampton and even 

switched his cigarettes to Pollock's unfiltered

mately. 1 knew he used different implements. 

Camels. He also learned to paint, trying to create something that has some do this solitary thing, which is really 

approximating Pollock's singular style. meaning to you on whatever surface about time and total concentration and 

you're painting on, whether it be a little giving over to it and patience and 

"I knew he painted on the floor, ulti- 

block of wood or a larger piece of wood courage and all kinds of things. Just to 

I knew he used different kinds of or a canvas or whatever. It really was get a taste of that was very helpful to 

me in portraying him." 

And the actor's appreciation of the 

art hasn't diminished in the months 

paint," Harris says. "And I just began to 

experiment with all those different elements. 

You use house paint, you use different 

kinds of paint. You use a brush, 

use a stick, use a baster. You intentionally 

corrode a brush so it has a density, a 

thickness to it, and it's almost like a scoop 

where you can use it as a ladle. 

"You just start making it your own. 

Response No. 525 

just about trying: on the one hand, trying 

to paint something that I thought 

was good in his style, and on the other 

hand. ..trying to get as good at [the portrayal] 

as I could in terms of just the little watercolor kit with me to just keep 

since "Pollock" went to print. "I bring a 

physicality of it. 

myself busy in the trailer if I have some 

"It's a soulful thing. Painting is a very time," he says. "It's remarkable because 

personal, private thing. I really envy some of [painting] is about luck. Just 

painters because they have this need to because you're painting doesn't mean 

you can paint anything that's worth a s— 

It's incredible to me because it's about 

really getting out of your way. Especially 

in terms of abstract painting, it very 

much has to be unencumbered and 

unconscious. It's like the best acting. It 

has to be very pure. It's very difficult to 

be there, and that's where Pollock lived. 

That's one thing that I really, really 

admire about him in terms of his work." 

he alluded to earlier. Harris had 

Asnot intended to direct "Pollock," 

only to play him. "It was maybe a 

year [or] a little less before we began filming 

when I realized I really had spent so 

much time with the material and him and 

Lee and the people that they knew and 

that period of time—had even thought 

about co-directing it with someone at one 

point—but I realized I didn't want to 

share," he says. 

"I didn't want to give it 

over to someone else's vision. I didn't 

know what my own vision was. but I 

knew it wasn't somebody else's." 

Before then. Harris hadn't really considered 

stepping behind the camera. "It 

was really gut-check time in terms of 

knowing that it would be an awesome 

amount of responsibility, and not one 

that I particularly wanted to take on, but 

felt that, if I wanted to do this film the 

way I wanted to do it, I had to," he says. 

Among the challenges of his first foray 

into directing were "the incredibly day-today 

pressure of just time and money," he 

says. "That was the most difficult aspect 

of it: dealing with all of the various designers 

and creative people that you bring 

on board. I enjoyed that process, but it 

really was about money, ultimately.... 

You're given a certain amount of time to 

shoot a certain amount of script, and 

you realize you need more time. And 

being one of the producers yourself and 

being responsible for the budget over a 

certain amount and realizing that you're 

selling out your child's education or 

whatever, it put a little pressure on me, 

but I did what I had to do." 

Harris' 20-plus years of experience as 

an actor fueled his transition to the 

director's chair. "When you're working 

with him on stage or on the film set, 

it's 

as if Ed has this truth barometer that 

dings on and off when he's hearing 

something that's not real," says Harden. 

"He wants people to just be, to just be

there, to just trust themselves, to be simple 

in their character and not be affected 

and let it come from within based on 

what they've learned from without. 

"He brought those very qualities to 

the set [as a director], but in a much larger 

and grander and more volcanic way 

than he would bring them [to the set] 

simply as an actor." 

Harris' meticulous research proved as 

valuable on the set as in pre-production. 

"Ed knew the story and the details of 

the story much better than any one of 

but you turn it back down so that it's 

always there. I don't think that it's this 

thing that he picks up and puts on when 

he walks onto the stage, like a cloak or 

something.... He keeps it burning at a 

low simmer all during the day and brings 

it on for the scenes. It's always present in 

some way. Even if he's directing, even if 

he's acting, there is Pollock at the 

moment residing in that body." 

same surely is true of his other 

Theupcoming roles in "Enemy at the 

Gates" and "The Prime Gig." In 

It was a combination oi Harris' 

regard for the film's director and simple 

necessity that got him involved with the 

film. "I always had kind of admired 

Jean-Jacques Arnaud — 'Quest for Fire,' 

'The Name of the Rose' and 'The Bear,'" 

Harris says. "He makes these kind of 

strange films that have their own point 

of view, and they're challenging to a 

filmmaker on some level. 

"I met him, and 1 liked him, and he 

wanted me to do it, and it came at a time 

when it was not a bad idea for me to 

work, having put a lot of my own money 

into 'Pollock.' You have to follow your 

able in that it granted Harris a little 

needed distance from his "baby." "It 

came at a very good time, it turned out. 

because I was in L.A. cutting 'Pollock,' 

and had a cut that I felt was a final cut," 

he says. "We'd even mixed the film. The 

score I wasn't pleased with, so we didn't 

mix the music, but I thought we had 

pretty much a finished film. 

evokes .1 film the actoi was in nearlj in 

years ago. it's like a poor man's 

'Glengarrj (Hen Ross."' Hams says in 

he plays Kelly Grant, a "room-runner" 

it, 

who invites Pendleton Wise (Vince 

Vaughn), who pitches travel scams for a 

living, to join his high-stakes mining deal. 

Again, Harris joined the cast at the 

director's invite. "Gregory Mosher 

asked me to play this part in this film he 

was directing," he says. "Gregory had 

directed my wife Amy [Madigan] in A 

Streetcar Named Desire' in New York 

back in '91 or something, and he asked 

me to play a role." 

Harris denies there's a common thread 

us at any given moment," Harden says. instincts, once again." 

uniting the three characters—Pollock, 

"If you needed to understand a detail Despite the broad scope of the film Koenig and Grant. "I hope they're different," 

he says. "If I actually really spent 

about Pollock's life such as, 'Well, gee, "Enemy at the Gates" is reportedly the 

was he coming back from Connecticut? most expensive European film ever the rest of the evening thinking about it, 

Should we have Connecticut license tags made— Koenig was at times as isolated I probably could come up with something, 

but off the top of my head, no." 

on the car? Or would they be New as Pollock painting alone in his studio. 

York?'—Ed knew. He knew what [Pollock's] 

"My stuff was very solitary," Harris Perhaps that's because the qualities 

says. "I was not involved in the huge 

great aunt made for Thanks- 

that attracted Harris to these disparate 

giving dinner when he was 10." 

stuff. I'm a lone wolf who's trying to get roles is less about the characters themselves 

than what he can bring to them as 

Harden says there was never a moment this guy, so my work was quite different 

when she doubted that Harris was Pollock. 

from the majority of the time that was an actor—the purity, the truthfulness, 

"Ed allows those characters to con- 

spent to make the film. 

the "exploration of the craft" that 

stantly kind of bubble inside of him," she 

says. "It's like keeping a little pot on simmer, 

"It's a huge film. It had tons of extras, 

all working in the mud and cold. I was 

Harden describes. After all, while Harris 

has made his first foray into directformance 

and then you can turn it up to per- 

working in some mud and some cold, ing, and plans to do it again (though 

and full boil when you need to, but nothing like the majority of these probably not any time soon), Harris 

actors were doing." 

helmed "Pollock" out of necessity— the 

The change of scenery proved valu- 

driving desire to remain faithful to the 

based and to himself 

it's 

HH 

character, to the man on which 

"Pollock" Starring Ed Harris, Mania 

Gay Harden. Amy Madigan, Jennifer 

Connelly. Jeffrey tambor and Hud Curl 

Directed by Ed Harris. Written by 

Barbara Turner and Susan Emshwiller. 

Produced by Ered Bcrnci; Ed Harris and 

Jon Kilik. A Sony Classics release 

Biodrama Ratal R Opens 2116 ltd. 

"Enemy at the dates" Starring Ed 

Harris. Jude Law, Joseph Eicnnes and 

ized that it needed work. I was really 

I 

"I went off to Germany for five weeks, 

and I didn't look at 'Pollock' for about 

three weeks, didn't even think about it. 

the former, set on the European front And then I popped the cassette in the 

during World War II, he plays Major VCR one night and watched it and real- 

Rachel Weisz. Directed by Jean-Jacques 

Koenig, a character "based on a German 

Annaud Written by .lean-Jacques 

officer who was the head of the SS eager to get back and continue cutting it. Annaud and Alain Godanl. Produced by 

sniper training school," Harris says. which I did for another three months or Jean-Jacques Annaud and John /> 

Koenig is sent from Berlin to Stalingrad But it was a blessing to get awaj From Schqfield A Paramount release War 

so. 

drama Raid R Opens 2123 

to kill Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev it and to really go back to it in a non-precious 

(Jude Law), who's single-handedly taking 

way and make a movie OUl l it " 

"The Prune Gig." Starring lime 

Vaughn, Julia Ormond and Ed Harris 

Set in the dog-eat-dog world of telemarketing, 

out dozens of Nazi soldiers. "It's a 

cat-and-mouse game," Harris says "We 

Directed by Gregory Woshei Written by 

" lie Prime < rig ' Hams' 

third film being released tins month William Wheeler Produced hy Inn,: 

don't even see each other, other than 

through our scopes, until (he end." 

\4ingttCCi, illi, at Lewis Rosenblatt and 

Car\ Woods A Fine Line release. Drama 

Ratal R Opens 2/23 ltd. expands MK>

BLUE RIBBON AWARDS 2001 

1. THE ADVENTURES OF ROCKY AND 

BULLWINKLE Jason Alexander, Rene 

Russo (Universal) 

2. AN AFFAIR OF LOVE Nathalie Baye, 

Sergi Lopez (Fine Line) 

3. AGNES BROWNE Anjelica Huston (USA) 

4. AIMEE AND JAGUAR Maria Schrader 

(Zeitgeist) 

5. ALICE AND MARTIN Juliette Binoche 

(USA) 

6. ALL THE PRETTY HORSES Matt 

Damon, Penelope Cruz (Miramax) 

7. ALMOST FAMOUS Patrick Fugit, Kate 

Hudson, Billy Crudup (DreamWorks) 

8. AMERICAN PSYCHO Christian Bale 

(Lions Gate) 

9. THE ART OF WAR Wesley Snipes 

(Warner Bros.) 

10. AUTUMN IN NEW YORK Richard 

Gere, Winona Ryder (MGM) 

11. BACKSTAGE Jay-Z, DMX, Ja Rule 

(Dimension) 

12. BAIT lamie Foxx (Warner Bros.) 

13. BALLAD OF RAMBLIN' JACK 

Ramblin' lack Elliott (Lot 47) 

14. BAMBOOZLED Damon Wayans, 

Savion Glover (New Line) 

15. BATTLEFIELD EARTH John Travolta 


16. THE BEACH Leonardo Di Caprio (Fox) 

17. BEAUTIFUL Minnie Driver (Destination) 

18. BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE Charlotte 

Coleman (Trimark) 

19. BEDAZZLED Brendan Fraser, 

Elizabeth Hurley, Frances O'Connor (Fox) 

20. BEFORE NIGHT FALLS Javier Bardem, 

Johnny Depp, Sean Penn (Fine Line) 

21. BEST IN SHOW Eugene Levy, 

Catherine O'Hara (Warner Bros.) 

22. BEYOND THE MAT Jake the Snake, 

Mankind (Lions Gate) 

23. THE BIG KAHUNA Kevin Spacey, 

Danny DeVito (Lions Gate) 

24. BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE Martin 

Lawrence, Nia Long (Fox) 

25. THE BIG TEASE Craig Ferguson (WB) 

26. BILLY ELLIOT Jamie Bell, Julie Walters 

(Universal Focus) 

27. BLACK AND WHITE Robert Downey 

Jr., Jared Leto (Screen Gems) 

28. BLESS THE CHILD Kim Basinger, 

Jimmy Smits (Paramount) 

29. BOESMAN AND LENA Danny 

Glover, Angela Bassett (Kino) 

30. BOILER ROOM Giovanni Ribisi, Vin 

Diesel, Ben Affleck (New Line) 

31. BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR 

WITCH 2 Jeffrey Donovan (Artisan) 

32. BOOTMEN Adam Garcia, Sam 

Worthington (Fox Searchlight) 

Use this list of films 

released in 2000—and 

the ballot provided 

between pages 34 and 

35—to cast your vote 

for the Best, Worst and 

Most Popular films 

of the year. 

Space is also 

provided for your 

commentary on the 

releases of 2000. 

Be sure to mail your 

ballot no later than 

February 5. 

33. BOSSA NOVA Amy Irving (SPC) 

34. BOUNCE Ben Affleck, Gwyneth 

Paltrow (Miramax) 

35. BOYS AND GIRLS Freddie Prinze |r., 

Claire Forlani, Jason Biggs (Dimension) 

36. BOYS LIFE 3 Sara Gilbert (Strand) 

37. BRING IT ON Kirsten Dunst, Eliza 

Dushku, Gabrielle Union (Universal) 

38. THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB Timothy 

Olyphant, Dean Cain (Screen Gems) 

39. BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER Natasha 

Lyonne, Clea DuVall (Lions Gate) 

40. BUTTERFLY Uxia Blanco (Miramax) 

41 . THE CARRIERS ARE WAITING Benoit 

Poelvoorde (IDP) 

42. CAST AWAY Tom Hanks (Fox) 

43. CATFISH IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE 

Chi Moui Lo, Sanaa Lathan (Iron Hill) 

44. CECIL B. DEMENTED Stephen Dorff, 

Melanie Griffith (Artisan) 

45. THE CELL Jennifer Lopez, Vince 

Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio (New Line) 

46. CENTER STAGE Amanda Schull, Peter 

Gallagher (Columbia) 

47. CHARLIE'S ANGELS Drew Barrymore, 

Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu (Columbia) 

48. CHICKEN RUN Voices: Julia Sawalha, 

Mel Gibson (DreamWorks) 

49. CHOCOLAT Juliette Binoche, Johnny 

Depp (Miramax) 

50. CHUCK & BUCK Mike White, Chris 

Weitz (Artisan) 

51. THE CLAIM Wes Bcntley (MGM) 

52. THE CLOSER YOU GET Ian Hart (Fox 

Searchlight) 

53. COLOR OF PARADISE Mohsen 

Ramezani (SPC) 

54. COMMITTED Heather Graham 

(Miramax) 

55. THE CONTENDER Joan Allen, Jeff 

Bridges, Gary Oldman (DreamWorks) 

56. 'COTTON MARY Madhur Jaffrey, 

Greta Scacchi (Artistic License) 

57. COYOTE UGLY Piper Perabo, Adam 

Garcia (Buena Vista) 

58. THE CREW Richard Dreyfus, Burt 

Reynolds, Dan Hedaya (Buena Vista) 

59. CRIME & PUNISHMENT IN SUBUR- 

BIA Ellen Barkin (MGM) 

60. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN 

DRAGON Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat, 

Zhang Ziyi (SPC) 

61. CROUPIER Clive Owen (Shooting 

Gallery) 

62. THE CUP lamyang Lodro (Fine Line) 

63. DANCER IN THE DARK Bjork, 

Catherine Deneuve (Fine Line) 

64. DARK DAYS Marc Singer (Palm) 

65. DEEP IN THE WOODS Clotilde 

Courau (Phaedra) 

66. DETERRENCE Kevin Pollak, Timothy 

Hutton (Paramount Classics) 

67. DIGIMON Voice: Joshua Seth (Fox) 

68. DINOSAUR Voices: D.B. Sweeney, 

Alfre Woodard (Buena Vista) 

69. DISNEY'S THE KID Bruce Willis, 

Spencer Breslin (Buena Vista) 

70. DOWN TO YOU Freddie Prinze Jr., 

Julia Stiles (Miramax) 

71. DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH 

STOLE CHRISTMAS |im Carrey (Universal) 

72. DR. T AND THE WOMEN Richard 

Gere, Helen Hunt (Artisan) 

73. DROWNING MONA Bette Midler, 

Danny DeVito (Destination) 

74. DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? Ashton 

Kutcher, Seann William Scott (Fox) 

75. DUETS Gwyneth Paltrow, Huey Lewis 

(Buena Vista) 

76. DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS 

Jeremy Irons, Thora Birch (New Line) 

77. EAST IS EAST Om Puri (Miramax) 

78. EAST-WEST Sandrine Bonnaire (SPC) 

79. 8/12 WOMEN lohn Standing, Toni 

Collette (Lions Gate) 

80. THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE 

Voice: David Spade (Buena Vista) 

81. ERIN BROCKOVICH Julia Roberts, 

Albert Finney (Universal) 

82. AN EVERLASTING PIECE Barry 

McEvoy, Brian F. O'Byrne (DreamWorks) 

83. EYE OF THE BEHOLDER Ewan 

McGregor, Ashley Judd (Destination)

isa 

4. EYES OF TAMMY FAYE Tammy Faye 

Ressner (Lions Gate) 

5. FAMILY MAN Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni 

Jniversal) 

,6. FANTASIA 2000 Stove Martin, Itzhak 

'erlman, Quincy lones (Buena Vista) 

7. THE FILTH AND THE FURY The Sex 

istols (Fine Line) 

8. FINAL DESTINATION Devon Sawa 

Mew Line) 

9. FINDING FORRESTER Sean Connery, 

Michael Pitt (Columbia) 

0. THE FIVE SENSES Mary-Louise Parker 

: ine Line) 

1. THE FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK 

'EGAS Mark Addy (Universal) 

2. FREQUENCY Dennis Quaid, |im 

iaviezel (New Line) 

3. GEORGE WASHINGTON Candace 

vanofski (Cowboy) 

4. GET CARTER Sylvester Stallone, 

Michael Caine (Warner Bros.) 

5. GHOST DOG: WAY OF THE SAMU- 

Al Forest Whitaker (Artisan) 

6. THE GIFT Cate Blanchett, Katie 

lolmes (Paramount Classics) 

7. GIRLFIGHT Michelle Rodriguez 

Screen Gems) 

8. GIRL ON THE BRIDGE Vanessa 

aradis, Daniel Auteuil (Paramount 

llassics) 

9. GLADIATOR Russell Crowe, Joaquin 

hoenix, Connie Nielsen (DreamWorks) 

00. GODZILLA 2000 Takehiro Murata 

lolumbia) 

01. GONE IN 60 SECONDS Nicolas 

lage, Angelina lolie (Buena Vista) 

102. GOSSIP lames Marsden, Norman 

Reedus (Warner Bros.) 

101. GOYA IN BORDEAUX Francisco 

Rabat (SPC) 

104. GROOVE Lola Glaudini (SPC) 

105. GUN SHY Liam Neeson (Buena Vista) 

106. HAMLET Ethan Hawke (Miramax) 

107. HANGING UP Meg Ryan, Diane 

Keaton, Kudrow (Columbia) 

108. HELD UP lamie Foxx (Trimark) 

109. HERE ON EARTH Leelee Sobieski, 

Chris Klein, Josh Hartnett (Fox) 

110. HIGH FIDELITY |ohn Cusack, lack 

Black (Buena Vista) 

111. HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME Christopher 

Lambert, Adrian Paul (Dimension) 

112. HOLLOW MAN Kevin Baton, 

Elisabeth Shue (Columbia) 

113. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH Gillian 

Anderson, Dan Aykroyd, Laura Linney (SPC) 

114. HUMAN TRAFFIC lohn Simm 

(Miramax) 

115. THE IDIOTS Bodil Jorgensen (USA) 

116. I DREAMED OF AFRICA Kim 

Basinger, Vincent Perez (Columbia) 

117. THE IN CROWD Susan Ward, Lori 

Heuring (Warner Bros.) 

118. THE INTERVIEW Hugo Weaving 

(Cinema Guild) 

119. INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS 

Narrator: |udi Dench (Warner Bros.) 

120. ISN'T SHE GREAT Bette Midler, 

Nathan Lane (Universal) 

121. IT ALL STARTS TODAY Philippe 

Torreton (Independent Artists) 

122. |ESUS' SON Billy Crudup, Samantha 

Morton (Lions Gate) 

123. |OE GOULD'S SECRET Ian Holm, 

Stanley Tucci (USA) 

124. JUST LOOKING Ryan Merriman, 

Gret< hen Mol (SPC) 

125. KEEPING THE FAITH Edward Norton, 

Ben Stiller, lenna Eltman (Buena Vista) 

126. KIKUJIRO Beat Takeshi (SPC) 

1 27. THE LADIES MAN I im Meadows, Billy 

Dee Williams, Will Ferrell (Paramount) 

128. THE LAST SEPTEMBER Maggie 

Smith, Michael Gambon (Trimark) 

129. LEFT LUGGAGE Isabella Rossellini 

(( astle Hill) 

130. THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE 

Matt Damon, Will Smith (DreamWorks) 

131. THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN 

MASTER lackie Chan (Dimension) 

132. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK 

GREENBERG Hank Greenberg (Cowboy) 

133. LITTLE NICKY Adam Sandler, Rhys 

Ifans, Harvey Keitel (New Line) 

134. THE LITTLE VAMPIRE Jonathan 

Lipnicki, Richard E. Grant (New Line) 

135. LOSER |ason Biggs (Columbia) 

1 36. LOST SOULS Winona Ryder (New Line) 

137. LOVE AND BASKETBALL Omar 

Epps, Sanaa Lathan (New Line) 

138. LOVE & SEX |on Favreau, Famke 

lanssen Lions ( late 

139. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Kenneth 

Branagh, Alicia Silverstone (Miramax) 

140. LUCKY NUMBERS John Travolta, Lisa 

Kudrow, Tim Roth (Paramount) 

141. LUMINARIAS Evelina Fernandez, 

Scott Bakula (New Latin) 

142. MAD ABOUT MAMBO Keri Russell 

(USA) 

xZnonbulbs.c&m 

WE 

HAVE 

YOUR I 

BULBS 

e *20jljtJ,jt *Srl Cfy& t+dr 

Consoles/ Trackers 

Follow 

&More! 

^ 

Online 

Orders: Phone Orders: 

http://www.xenonbulbs.com (661) 822-1488 

Nail Orders: 

Fax Orders: 

1054 Valley Blvd.. Suite C (661) 822-1205 

Tehachapi. CA 93561 

Call for free catalog ( LTI, 01 C/Perkin Elmer, Osram & CPI

143. MALENA Monica Belluci (Miramax) 

144. ME & ISAAC NEWTON Gertrude 

Elion (First Look) 

145. ME, MYSELF & IRENE Jim Carrey, 

Renee Zellweger (Fox) 

146. ME MYSELF I Rachel Griffiths (SPC) 

147. MEET THE PARENTS Ben Stiller, 

Robert De Niro, Teri Polo (Universal) 

148. MEN OF HONOR Robert De Niro, 

Cuba Gooding Jr. (Fox) 

149. MIFUNE Anders W. Berthelsen (SPC) 

150. MISS CONGENIALITY Sandra 

Bullock, Michael Caine (Warner Bros.) 

151. MISSION TO MARS Gary Sinise, 

Connie Nielsen (Buena Vista) 

152. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 Tom 

Cruise, Dougray Scott (Paramount) 

153. MVP: MOST VALUABLE PRIMATE 

Jamie Renee Smith (Keystone) 

154. MY DOG SKIP Frankie Muniz, Kevin 

Bacon (Warner Bros.) 

155. THE NEXT BEST THING Madonna, 

Rupert Everett (Paramount) 

156. NEXT FRIDAY Ice Cube (New Line) 

157. THE NINTH GATE Johnny Depp, 

Lena Olin (Artisan) 

158. NON-STOP Tomoro Taguchi (Shooting 

Gallery) 

159. NOWHERE TO HIDE Dong Kun Jang 

(Lions Gate) 

160. NURSE BETTY Renee Zellweger, 

Greg Kinnear, Crispin Glover (USA) 

161. NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS 

Eddie Murphy, Janet Jackson (Universal) 

162. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? 

George Clooney, John Turturro (Buena 

Vista) 

INSTALLATION 

AUDIO RACKING 

THX RECERTIFICATIONS 

TECHNICAL CONSULTING 

24 HOUR ANSWERING SERVICE 

VIDEO PROJECTION 

INTERMITTENT REPAIR 

163. ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER Narrator: 

Michael Douglas (SPC) 

164. 102 DALMATIANS Glenn Close, 

Gerard Depardieu (Buena Vista) 

165. THE OPPORTUNISTS Christopher 

Walken (First Look) 

166. THE ORIGINAL KINGS OF COMEDY 

Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley (Paramount) 

167. THE OTHER CONQUEST Damian 

Delgado (Hombre d'Oro) 

168. PASSION OF MIND Demi Moore, 

Stellan Skarsgard (Paramount Classics) 

169. THE PATRIOT Mel Gibson, Heath 

Ledger, Joely Richardson (Columbia) 

170. PAY IT FORWARD Kevin Spacey, Helen 

Hunt, Haley Joel Osment (Warner Bros.) 

171. THE PERFECT STORM George 

Clooney, Mark Wahlberg (Warner Bros.) 

172. PITCH BLACK Vin Diesel (USA) 

173. PLACE VENDOME Catherine 

Deneuve (Empire) 

174. POKEMON 2000 Ash, Misty, 

Pikachu, Team Rocket (Warner Bros.) 

175. POLLOCK Ed Harris (SPC) 

176. PRICE OF GLORY Jimmy Smits, Jon 

Seda (New Line) 

177. PROOF OF LIFE Russell Crowe, Meg 

Ryan (Warner Bros.) 

1 78. QUILLS Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, 

Joaquin Phoenix (Fox Searchlight) 

1 79. READY TO RUMBLE David Arquette, 

Oliver Piatt (Warner Bros.) 

180. RED PLANET Val Kilmer (Warner Bros.) 

181. REINDEER GAMES Ben Affleck, 

Charlize Theron, Gary Sinise (Dimension) 

182. REMEMBER THE TITANS Denzel 

Washington, Will Patton (Buena Vista) 

JSf;ATZONA I, 

CORPORATION 

(800) 726-2609 

www.ncservice.com 

CI3STEMA SERVICE 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AND PRODUCTS 

INCLUDING 

EQUIPMENT 

PROJECTION SERVICE* 

SOUND SERVICE* 

PARTS 

BOOTH SUPPLIES 

"Annual Contrails m Demand Servile 

183. THE REPLACEMENTS Keanu Reeves, 

Gene Hackman, Rhys Ifans (Warner Bros.) 

184. REQUIEM FOR A DREAM Jared Leto, 

Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn (Artisan) 

185. RETURN TO ME David Duchovny, 

Minnie Driver (MGM) 

186. THE ROAD TO EL DORADO Voices: 

Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh (DreamWorks) 

187. ROAD TRIP Tom Green, Breckin 

Meyer (DreamWorks) 

188. ROMEO MUST DIE Jet Li, Aaliyah 


189. RUGRATS IN PARIS: THE MOVIE 

Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica (Paramount) 

190. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Tommy 

Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson (Paramount) 

191. RUNNING FREE Chase Moore 

(Columbia) 

192. SAVING GRACE Brenda Blethyn, 

Craig Ferguson (Fine Line) 

193. SCARY MOVIE Shawn Wayans, 

(Dimension) 

194. SCREAM 3 Neve Campbell, David 

Arquette (Miramax) 

195. SCREWED Norm Macdonald, Dave 

Chappelle, Danny DeVito (Universal) 

196. SET ME FREE (EMPORTE-MOI) 

Karine Vanasse (Artistic Licence) 

197. SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE Willem 

Dafoe, John Malkovich (Lions Gate) 

198. SHAFT Samuel L. Jackson (Paramount) 

199. SHANGHAI NOON Jackie Chan, 

Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu (Buena Vista) 

200. SHOWER Pu Cun Xin, Zhu Yu (SPC) 

201. SIMON MAGUS Noah Taylor (IDP) 

202. THE 6TH DAY Arnold Schwarzenegger 

(Columbia) 

VISA 

XENON BULBS 

SOUND SYSTEMS 

CONCESSION EQUIPMENT 

LOBBY FIXTURES 

FRONT ENDS 

LENSES 

USED EQUIPMENT 

P.O. Box 10799 

New Orleans, Louisiana 70181 

GOOD SIGHT, GOOD SOUND 

HE KEY TO GREAT CONCESSIONS 

36 BOXOIIKI

203. THE SKULLS Joshua Jackson, Paul 

Walker (Universal) 

204. SMALL TIME CROOKS Woody Allen, 

Tracey Ullman (DreamWorks) 

205. SMILING FISH AND GOAT ON FIRE 

Peru k Martini, Steven Martini (Stratosphere) 

206. SNOW DAY Mark Webber, Chris 

Elliott (Paramount) 

207. SOFT FRUIT Jeanie Drynan (Fox 

Searchlight) 

208. SOLAS Ana Fernandez (IDP) 

209. SPACE COWBOYS Clint Eastwood, 

Tommy Lee Jones (Warner Bros.) 

210. STATE AND MAIN Alec Baldwin, 

Philip Sevmour Hoffman (Fine Line) 

211. SUNSHINE Ralph Fiennes 

(Paramount Classics) 

212. SUPERNOVA James Spader (MGM) 

21.J. SUZHOU RIVER Xun Zhou 

214. THE TAO OF STEVE Donal Logue (SPC) 

215. THE TAVERN Cameron Dye, Kevin 

Geer (Castle Hill) 

216. THE TERRORIST Ayesha Dharkar 

(Phaedra) 

217. THIRTEEN DAYS Kevin Costner, 

Bruce Greenwood (New Line) 

218. THOMAS & THE MAGIC RAILROAD 

Alec Baldwin, Mara Wilson (Destination) 

219. 3 STRIKES Brian Hooks (MGM) 

220. TIC CODE Gregory Hines (Lions Gate) 

221. TIGERLAND Colin Farrell (Fox) 

222. THE TIGGER MOVIE Tigger, Piglet, 

Winnie the Pooh (Buena Vista) 

223. TIME CODE Saffron Burrows, Salma 

Hayek, Stellan Skarsgard (Screen Gems) 

224. A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES 

Ayoub Ahmadi (Shooting Gallery) 

225. TITAN A.E. Voices: Matt Damon, 

I 

irev. Barrymore (Fox) 

226. TRAFFIC Michael Douglas, < atherine 

Zeta-Jones, Benicio Del Toro (USA) 

227. TRIXIE Emily Watson (SPC) 

228. TROIS Gary Dourdan (Rainforest) 

229. TURN IT UP la Rule, Prakazrel "Pras" 

Michel (New Line) 

230. 28 DAYS Sandra Bullock (Columbia) 

231. TWO FAMILY HOUSE Michael 

Rispoli, Kelly Macdonald (Lions Gate) 

232. U-571 Matthew McConaughey, Bill 

Paxton (Universal) 

233. UNBREAKABLE Bruce Willis, Samuel 

L. Jackson (Buena Vista) 

234. UNDER SUSPICION Morgan 

Freeman, Gene Hackman (Lions Gate) 

235. UP AT THE VILLA Kristin Scott 

Thomas, Sean Penn (USA) 

236. URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT 

Jennifer Morrison (Columbia) 

237. URBANIA Dan Futterman, Alan 

Cumming (Lions Gate) 

238. VATEL Gerard Depardieu (Miramax) 

239. VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE 

Nathalie Baye (Lot 47) 

240. VERTICAL LIMIT Chris O'Donnell, 

Robin Tunney, Bill Paxton (Columbia) 

241. THE VIRGIN SUICIDES Kirsten 

Dunst, Josh Hartnett (Paramount Classics) 

242. WAKING THE DEAD Billy Crudup, 

Jennifer Connelly (USA) 

243. THE WATCHER Keanu Reeves (Universal) 

244. THE WAY OF THE GUN Ryan 

Phillippe, Benicio Del Toro (Artisan) 

245. WENT TO CONEY ISLAND ON A 

MISSION FROM GOD |on Cryer (Phaedra) 

246. WES CRAVEN PRESENTS DRACULA 

2000 Christopher Plummer (Miramax) 

247. WHAT LIES BENEATH Harrison Ford, 

Michelle Pfeiffer (DreamWorks) 

248. WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? 

Garry Shandling (Columbia) 

249. WHAT WOMEN WANT Mel Gibson, 

Helen Hunt (Paramount) 

250. WHAT'S COOKING? Alfre Woodard, 

Mercedes Ruehl (Trimark) 

251. WHATEVER IT TAKES Shane West, 

Maria Sokoloff (Columbia) 

252. WHERE THE HEART IS Natalie 

Portman, Ashley Judd (Fox) 

253. WHERE THE MONEY IS Paul 

Newman, Linda Fiorentino (USA) 

254. WHIPPED Amanda Peet (Destination) 

255. THE WHOLE NINE YARDS Matthew 

Perry, Bruce Willis, Amanda Peet (Warner) 

256. THE WISDOM OF CROCODILES 

Jude Law (Miramax) 

257. THE WOLVES OF KROMER Lee 

Williams, James Layton (First Run) 

258. WOMAN ON TOP Penelope Cruz 

(Fox Searchlight) 

259. WONDER BOYS Michael Douglas, 

Tobey Maguire (Paramount) 

260. WONDERLAND Gina McKee, Molly 

Parker, Shirley Henderson (USA) 

261. X-MEN Hugh lackman, Patrick 

Stewart, Ian McKellen (Fox) 

262. THE YARDS Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin 

Phoenix (Miramax) 

263. Yl Yl (A ONE AND A TWO) Wu 

Nienjen, Kelly Lee (Winstar) 

264. YOU CAN COUNT ON ME Laura 

Linney (Paramount Classics) 

ATLAS SPECIALTY LIGHTING® 

PRESENTS 

PROJECTION CONCEPTS INTERN/ 

1 V I V ** 

pi 7J SERVICE, REPAIR AND DESIGN FACILITY 

*3SMM & rmtM SYS1VMS* *H7(), SLStl l^Xlxm & 3D FORMATS* 

NEW & USED PROJECTION SYSTEMS - SIMPLEX CENTURY 3ALLANTYNE 

SM 

XENON ARC LAMPS UP TO 20.000 WA TTS 

SOUND SYSTEMS - DTS JBL QSC 

PROJECTION SYSTEMS - OVERHAUL UPGRADE (LOANERS AVAILABLE) 

INTERMITTENT REBUILDING - (LOANERS AVAILABLE) .?v hour turnaround m mwlsHe 

ITEA (300) 333-5354 

7304 NORTH FLORIDA AVENUE TAMPA. FL 33604 

V'SA 

(813) 23c

IX 

HftM.Mlfl 

SIGHT AND SOUND: Trailer Volume 

SAY IT PROUD, 

SAY IT (NOT TOO) LOUD 

How TASA Ensures That Every 

Trailer's Volume Level Is Sound 

by Francesca Dinglasan 

some movie theatre 

Forpatrons, trailers are 

just as much a part of 

the cinematic experience as a 

jumbo-sized popcorn or a 

Coca-Cola snuggly fit into 

their individual cupholders. 

Moviegoers, after all, are 

always eager to catch a 

glimpse of the future releases 

they've heard so much buzz 

about or which feature their 

favorite stars, and trailers 

give them the perfect opportunity 

to both see and hear 

the next Hollywood blockbuster 

in all its big-screen, 

surround-sound glory. 

However, the fact that 

trailers are such important 

marketing tools—complete with a captive, 

demographically targeted audience—also 

has developed into a frantic 

need among studios to ensure that 

their own pre-feature presentations 

stand apart from the crowd. The supposed 

answer? To incrementally raise 

the volume in trailers to such high levels 

that it draws special attention to 

those two or three minutes of onscreen 

action. And while the loud trailers certainly 

capture moviegoers' attention, it 

isn't necessarily a positive accomplishment: 

Cinemas have received hundreds 

of complaints each month from 

extremely unhappy patrons, deafened 

by the trailers' volume levels. The 

squeaky wheel getting what it does 

and there's been a lot of squeaking 

about trailer volume—several of the 

industry's most prominent organizations, 

including the Motion Picture 

Association of America, the National 

Association of Theatre Owners, and 

THX's Theatre Alignment Program 

have decided to work together on 

developing a set of guidelines to regulate 

trailer volume. As a result, an 

industry committee dubbed the Trailer 

HOT ON THE TRAILERS: THX's 

TASA Group members Kumari Bakhru, 

Ted Costas, Simon Allen and lose Alvarado. 

Audio Standards Association has been 

formed to help ensure that volume levels 

enhance, rather than hurt, the 

moviegoing experience. 

Ted Costas, manager of the THX 

Theatre Alignment Program, which 

tests and certifies the volume level of 

each and every trailer for TASA, 

shared his insight with BOXOFFICE 

into the reasons for, and the goals 

behind, the establishment of the organization. 

"TASA. [comprised of] trailer 

finishers, sound company representatives, 

the MPAA and NATO, had 

meetings where we just discussed [complaints 

about trailer volume] before we 

finally came to a unanimous agreement 

that something had to be done," he 

says. "I don't think there was a group 

more thorough in their research. ..and it 

was necessary to make sure that [implementing 

a set of standards] was done 

right, to make sure we had a plan of 

adjusting the volume level [in theatres] 

over the entire domestic United States. 

The actual inception of TASA was 

June 1999—that's when it 

became the law, that's when 

everything became ratified, 

that's when every trailer had 

to go through [TAP's] system 

to get its rating. ..with the 

MPAA." 

What became "law," exactly, 

was that all trailers, in 

order to 

receive TAP's official 

seal of approval and thus 

an MPAA greenlight for theatrical 

release, not exceed a 

certain "level of annoyance" 

in volume. "[TASA] developed 

an upper limit, which is 

a relatively high upper limit," 

says Costas. "When it started 

in June, it was 87 dB, and 

now it's 86 because we've had one 

reduction since then." 

The magic number regarding the 

appropriate dB level was not decided 

upon overnight, according to Costas. 

"The 87 was determined by the committee 

through various testing," he 

explains. "They had a lot of trailers 

and played them at different volume 

levels at different theatres, and [TAP] 

used the [Dolby LEQ(m) 737 meter] to 

measure them so we knew, 'Okay, 

here's a set of trailers that are playing 

at 89, here's a set at 88, here's a set at 

87'—so we could see how it came 

across. [TASA] came to a universal 

agreement: 'Let's start at 87 as the 

upper limit—it's loud enough so that 

[film marketers] still get their message 

across, but it's not going to hurt anybody.' 

And immediately complaints 

went down." 

Astep in the right direction, of 

course, but ultimately not 

enough, as evinced by the fact 

that the committee chose to lower the 

maximum volume level again. Mary 

Ann Grasso, vice president and executive 

director of NATO, which repre-

sents the \ast majority of domestic 

screens, notes. "It was 87 dB in June 

and then six months later we were still 

receiving complaints. We decided that 

we needed to bring it down again." 

Problematic, too. says Costas, was 

that the difference in dB levels 

between trailer and feature presentations 

was still quite discernible. "My 

biggest complaint was.. .that trailers 

were so loud [that] theatres turned 

down [the volume] because they were 

getting complaints, and then not turning 

them back up for the features 

and people can't hear the features," he 

explains. "[After the upper limit of 87 

dB was determined], we still had various 

issues with theatres saying that 

the features are at 84, and at 87 the 

trailers are significantly different." 

Now 

at 

86 dB, Costas says that 

he did a bit of investigating to 

see if the new lowered volume 

level was enabling theatres to increase 

fader settings, which they previously 

had to turn down because of trailer 

loudness. "We checked with various 

theatre managers.. .and I explained the 

purpose of my asking them this. And 

[also] there's several technical web 

sites, and there was one long discussion... 

based on my survey question. 

There seemed to be a very large 

majority, maybe 80 percent, of comments 

that were positive [about the 

trailer volume limit]. The negative 

comments were basically saying. 'Why 

did it take so long to get this thing 

taken care of?'" 

Bethlyn Hand, senior vice president 

of the MPAA. which now heads up all 

TASA efforts, knows the answer to 

this question: "There are a lot of studios 

involved, and getting them all to 

agree on anything is always difficult." 

she says. "But when the complaints 

really started coming in, that's when 

they really had to start taking a very 

serious look at the problem." 

And the complaints were, in fact, 

extremely serious. According to 

(irasso. the negative feedback about 

volume levels in cinema auditoriums 

came to NATO from all directions 

"It's really funny." she says. "I get 

complaints directly; our theatre guys 

get complaints and they tell me; and 

then they get complaints, and they 

don't tell me. Complaints [I receive] 

generally come from a higher level: 

Wluit happens is someone will complain 

to their senator or their congressman 

or their... Better Business 

[Bureau], What was our biggest impetus 

initially was I started to get phone 

Calls 

from congressmen, who wanted 

to be responsive to complaints the) 

were receiving from consumers, who 

number of complaints actually 

received must be considered exponentially. 

"When somebody asks me at a 

meeting how many complaints I get. I 

have to be sort of circumspect," she 

explains. "We look at a complaint like 

for every one [we get], that represents 

Looking 

to avoid re-experiencing 

the problems before TASA was 

established—when Grasso says 

that NATO members "were telling us 

they were getting hundreds of complaints 

a week" about overly loud theatres—members 

of the industry-wide 

organization seem keen on keeping 

lines of communication open regarding 

further limits on maximum trailer 

volume. And, depending on with 

whom you talk, there's several possible 

avenues as to which way acceptable dB 

levels might go. 

Costas says that he hopes to see the 

allowable level of trailer volume come 

down a bit closer to the level of feature 

presentations. "The recommended 

fader setting is seven in a theatre," he 

explains. "Before TASA came in. the 

average theatre was about 4.5 because 

of the loud trailer volume. Since then, 

it's gone up a full notch to 5.5 on average... 

It would be ideal if we could 

lower the volume enough on trailers so 

that you get [the fader setting] up to 6.5 

or seven. 

"The volume level of seven in an 

appropriately mixed movie is not 

loud. You're not going to have bleeding 

ears, especially at 84 dB, on the 

average," continues Costas. "At 87, 88 

it gets kind of loud, and over 90 

you're going to have people walking 

out saying this is ridiculous"—which 

they most certainly do. As THX engineer 

Simon Allen points out, prior to 

the mandated TASA compliance regulations, 

trailer mixers "didn't have 

any volume limits. The only limits was 

the technology itself." 

Cognizant of the fact that mixers do 

want their trailers as loud as possible 

for maximum effect, Costas says that 

he's hopeful TASA members will still 

be able to negotiate volume levels 

down. "I would like it to go down one 

more notch." he explains. "I would like 

it to go down to 85, and I think that 

might be as low as [studios] arc going 

to want to go if they still wanl there to 

be a punch to their trailer... So. hopefull) 

one more notch, if everybody 

agrees, it'll happen. I Ins group really 

docs wani to sec things work." 

The MPAA's Hand, however, feels 

that maintaining the present standards 

in place seems the likely way to go. "I 

used io hear lots of complaints [about 

trailei volume], and now I haven't 

heard any, she says. "We've taken the 

'If h ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude.. 

..[but]. I never say never." 

Grasso hopes that TASA might 

meet soon "just so that we can talk 

about our experience at this level 

and. ..to review how successful [the program's] 

been." As for determining or 

changing the dB upper limit. Grasso 

explains that she simply judges the matter 

by the amount of feedback or. 

more appropriately, lack of feedback 

she receives from theatre customers. 

"My measure is if we've got it calibrated 

properly, it's set up the way it's supposed 

to be in the theatre, our guys 

have the room set up the way they're 

supposed to. and it's 86 dB and we get 

no complaints, then I love 86dB. If all 

that is said and we're getting complaints, 

then we need to reduce it.... 

We're very willing to work with the creative 

community in bringing down 

[trailer volume level] incrementally so 

that it 

doesn't affect the creative impact 

of sound, but also doesn't make it 

that our patrons are uncomfortable. 

so 

Weas an industry have agreed 

to come together and review 

all 

this, in response, not necessarily 

just to complaints, but because 

we want it to be a good experience for 

the public." she concludes. m*

SPECIAL REPORT: Sound 

Morion picture theatres are struggling 

under tremendous pressures. 

Profits have vanished as competition 

from home theatre and other nontheatrical 

viewing options is increasing. 

One movie fan recently wrote, "I've 

given up on theatres. I'm sick of paying 

$7.50 a ticket and getting a lousy 

performance. I just wait for the DVD 

knowing I will get a great performance 

in my home. " In this column, 

BOXOFFICE contributing writer 

John F. Allen reviews some of the 

issues involved and suggests a strategy 

for redefining the motion picture 

experience in the new century. 

In 

his 1976 run 

Pennsylvania 

for the Presidency, 

Governor Milton 

Jerrold Shapp attracted attention as 

a practical problem-solving politician. 

As a successful businessman, he had 

essentially founded the cable television 

industry prior to his equally successful 

tenure in the state's highest office. 

During the campaign, someone asked 

him one of the most fundamental of all 

business questions: "What makes a business 

a success?" His answer highlighted 

something every executive struggles with 

every day. He said, "You've got to keep 

the 'gozinta' greater than the 'gozouta.'" 

During the past several years, for a 

wide variety of reasons, exhibitors have 

found themselves on the wrong side of 

this formula and have been reporting 

losses in the tens of millions of dollars. 

Not since the 1950s has exhibition 

faced such a fundamental crisis. 

Theatres are closing. Major circuits are 

either bankrupt, working through 

intensive debt rescheduling negotiations 

or just not paying their bills. Does 

this mean that people are no longer 

watching movies'? Not at all. In fact, 

they are watching them more than ever. 

There are just simply not enough people 

watching movies in movie theatres. 

The culprit most often mentioned 

when discussing the current crisis is 

overscreening, No doubt, this is a major 

"I'M WAITING 

FOR THE VIDEO rr 

After failing to effectively compete with home theatres, 

motion picture theatres fight not only for survival, 

but for relevance 

by John F. Allen 

part of the problem. But, from a customer's 

perspective, there is no such 

thing as over-screening. The customers 

simply see a wider choice of theatres 

and new theatres at that. What they really 

need are good enough reasons to 

attend a movie theatre in the first 

They need to believe that there is 

place. 

sufficient 

value in doing so. Without sufficient 

perceived value, none of us is likely 

to spend money for anything. But, 

rather than simply blaming the current 

financial woes on too many screens or 

too many seats, it would be useful to ask 

why so many of those seats are so empty. 

or, to put it another way, why the industry 

has failed to fill them. We may also 

ask. Why are there so many people who 

have completely given up and no longer 

go out to the movies? 

It is hard to 

imagine consumers 

shelling out the 

$1 billion they 

spent on "Titanic" 

videos had the film 

never been shown 

in a theatre. 

When a film first appears on the public's 

radar screen, decisions begin to be 

made as to whether or not to see it. Once 

that has been decided, the next choice is 

where to see it. Both choices are important. 

But the selection of a theatrical 

viewing is obviously critical for theatre 

owners. When too few decide to attend a 

movie theatre to see a film, movie theatres 

cannot stay in business. Today, far 

too many potential movie patrons are 

choosing to "wait for the video." or at 

least they are choosing something other 

than theatres. Indeed, many people no 

longer even consider a trip to the 

movies, except for rare occasions. 

According to figures published in 

Variety, sales and rentals of videos in 

1 999 were more than double the domestic 

box-office revenues. 

Not that there is a quick fix. There 

isn't. Today's problems are complex. 

They have been years in the making and 

will take years to correct, assuming they 

can be. I suggest that one of the main factors 

that has brought this industry to its 

current condition is that far too little 

attention has been paid to customers. 

While the focus has been on winning their 

dollars, efforts to win their loyalty have 

come up short. I further suggest that the 

warning signs have been around for a 

very long time. In the past two decades, 

as we have seen both distribution and 

exhibition companies change hands, we 

have also seen a decrease in the belief that 

there is a direct connection between presentation 

quality and attendance. 

In a 1984 meeting with Plitt Theatres' 

vice president. Edward M. Plitt. we agreed 

that a crisis, such as we now face, would 

occur one day unless the motion picture 

theatre experience was reinvented. To try 

to get the ball rolling, we decided to install 

a new sound system in the Century Plaza 

Theatre, Plitt's Los Angeles flagship. The 

theatre was a luxurious 1,500-seat auditorium 

with both conventional and stadium 

seating. (See "Space Odyssey" photo, next 

page.) When one first walked into this theatre, 

it was hard not to say, "Wow." The 

room was 160 feet long and 92 feet wide. 

The 35 and 70mm projection was studio 

quality. The audience was treated to a 

beautiful image, tilling a 50-foot curved 

lenticular screen. Chief projectionist Don 

Pittman. assisted by Fred Carter, ran a 

booth as well as it could be done. When 

you attended this theatre, you felt you 

reallj got your money's worth. 

The sound system we installed was a 

10-channel digital-read) installation 

with the acoustic power oi' nine symphony 

orchestras. It also introduced our 

advanced four-way fully horn-loaded 

speakers. Nothing like it had been done

efore. (See "The Ultimate System?" in 

the Jan. 

1985 issue o( BOXOI HC E.This 

article can also be downloaded at 

www.hps4000.com/pages/install/the ulti 

mate_system.pdf.) To inaugurate this 

new system, I decided to demonstrate 

digital motion picture sound in a commercial 

movie theatre for the first time. 

With Pint's complete support, we enlisted 

the help of Glen Glenn Sound as well 

as Oasis Recording Studios and did just 

that on December 6, 1984. Digital or 

analog, the sound quality was the best 

anyone had heard in a movie theatre. 

SPACE ODYSSEY: Plitt Century Plaza Theatr 

Ed Plitt's reaction to the success of 

this demonstration was immediate: 

"That was great! Now what can we 

do?" In February 19X5. with the help of 

Walt Disney Studios, we premiered 

"Fantasia." the first feature film to be 

presented to the public with a digital 

soundtrack. The digital presentation of 

"Fantasia" at the Century Plaza grossed 

five times the national average and twice 

as much as the next highest grossing theatre 

playing the film at the same time. 

The digital engagement also went on to 

last four times longer than the analog 

to this presentation of a 45-year-old film 

proved that there was still a hunger for 

improvements in theatrical motion picture 

presentations especially in sound! 

(See "Marq the Date" and "Queue the 

Movie" photos on pages 41 and 43.) 

Although the industry did respond to 

these startling presentations by giving us 

digital motion picture sound within five 

years, exhibition dropped the ball by 

failing to install sound systems powerful 

enough to fully exploit the dynamics and 

beaut) these new soundtracks made 

possible. In the meantime, the public's 

love affair with great sound and home 

Electronics grew onl) stronger. Digital 

compact discs replaced I Ps in the 

homes ol moviegoers. VCR sales exploded, 

with decks now present m more 

than ( )l> percent oi IS homes, .avoiding 

to research of the Consume! 

Electronics Manufacturers Association 

(CEMA. www.ce.org). Car stereo became 

a huge business with sound systems 

superior to those in most theatres, 

often available as standard equipment. 

As the window between theatrical and 

video releases continued to shrink, the 

market for home theatre continued to 

grow. Fed by an increasing number of 

sources from cassettes and laser discs to 

cable TV as well as satellites, home video 

was transformed into a full-fledged 

home theatre industry. 

Multiplexes continued to proliferate. 

But showmanship in cinemas began to 

decline as auditoriums 

became 

more similar. On 

19M. 

the positive side, 

tween actually watching a movie at 

home, versus a theatre, became narrow—dangerously 

narrow for the wellbeing 

of exhibitors. A trip to the 

movies began to resemble not much 

more than a trip to a fast-food restaurant—many 

people selecting a film to 

see only after they arrived. 

Now we have _ 

the Internet, Playstation 

2 as well as 

DVD. Last year, 

annual sales of 

DVD players were 

near the 800,000 

presentations in the rest of the country. 

To call it a success would be a gross mark, according 

understatement. The audience response to CEMA; by 

2003, annual sales 

are expected to approach 

10 million. 

In the year just 

ended, shipments 

Of DVD discs 

were reported to 

have exceeded 108 

million. This unprecedented 

consumer 

demand for 

DVD would not have happened were h 

not for the superior quality of the technology's 

picture and sound. 

Sales estimates bv CEMA fol the 

home theatre market in 2000 approached 

SI I billion, the group further 

reports that approximately 25 million 

households now have a home theatre 

system, I ins numbei is expected to use 

to around J5 million m |ust the next 

three years CEMA research also h.is 

found that 64 percent of home theatre 

owners said that watching a movie at 

home "is more fun" than going out to a 

theatre. More fun? Perhaps this can be 

explained bj the fact that more than half 

also said their that home system's picture 

and sound quality is "better than 

movie theatres"' 

Is this really surprising? In the period 

from 1984 until today, presentation in 

movie theatres did not markedly 

improve. Indeed, not only did digital 

movie sound usher in a large number of 

inadequate (sometimes pathetic) theatre 

sound systems, the image side of the presentation 

was downgraded when 70mm 

release prints were all but eliminated. 

Even though DTS digital time-code has 

replaced the costly application of magnetic 

tracks, exhibitors and audiences 

building exteriors, 

obbies and concession 

areas were alike have been deprived of the superior 

improved dramatically. 

picture quality 70mm provides. On the 

Stadium other hand, now that theatres feel they 

seating became can no longer afford to employ a staff of 

extremely popular qualified projectionists, it's hard to 

with patrons tired imagine running 70mm prints today. 

of seeing movies Even the simplest opportunities to 

around people's improve picture quality were wasted. As 

heads. The buildings 

we all know, the 1 .85 picture aspect ratio 

were more is the least efficient use of a 35mm 

For the release print. In a recent presentation to 

attractive. 

customers, however, 

the Society of Motion Picture and 

Television Engineers, Kodak's John 

the gap be- 

Pytlak reminded listeners that 17 years 

ago this industry had the opportunity to 

adopt a new film format. Called Iscovision, 

a 1.5 times image squeeze was 

MARQ THE DATE: Century Plaza's 

applied to the 1.85 picture frame. It was 

then printed on the entire available 

image area of a 35mm release print. As 

with the familiar Cinemascope format. 

"Fantasia" marquet 

an anamorphic projection lens stretched 

the image to fill a 1.85 screen. I his high 

l\ efficient format increased light levels 

and reduced granularity. Image quality, 

sharpness and steadiness were also 

unproved. Print costs were unaffected 

But tins opportunity was lost, No on< 

wanted to buj another lens, one of the 

least expensive parts o\ the projection 

System, We have been stuck with sub 

optimal flat image qualitj evei since 

'''""'"- 11 " 1

PROJECTION 

& SOUND 

EQUIPMENT 

NEW & USED 

M'RAE 

THEATRE EQUIPMENT 

Consulting 

Parts 

• Sales • Installation • Service 

• Rentals • Representing Major 

Manufacturers 

101 Nickerson Street #210 

Seattle, Washington, 98109 

Phone: (206) 285-8393 

Fax: (206) 885-8375 

mcrae

• 2

SIGHT AND SOUND: Projection 

CLEAN UP YOUR ACT 

Cleanliness Is Key to Pristine Projection 

by Christine James 

you want to optimize your theatre's 

Ifonscreen presentation, your projection 

booth must pass the white glove 

inspection. Figuratively, this means the 

equipment and environment must be kept 

clean, 

but according to Terri Westhafer, 

dos and don'ts in her seminar, "Sparkling 

Images: High-Tech Projection For a New 

Century," an abbreviated version of 

which was presented to ShowCanada 

conventioneers. 

The main topics at hand were cleanliness, 

scratches, brightness, cues, splices 

and static, and how to rectify visual 

problems caused by these elements. 

CLEANLINESS AND SCRATCHES 

A clean booth and clean projector 

interior are vital to quality onscreen 

images, stresses Westhafer, who encourages 

exhibitors to "get in your mind a 

clean room environment." Some tips 

include: 

• Don't use your booth as a storage 

space; not only does this promote dirt 

and debris accumulation, it increases 

employee traffic, which inevitably leads 

to uncontrolled conditions. 

• Thoroughly clean your equipment 

on a weekly basis, including platters 

(wipe down with a lint-free cloth and 

alcohol or a small amount of water), 

splicers (using a toothbrush and alcohol) 

and projector interiors. Take a dry 

cloth and wipe the interior of your projector 

between every showing, especially 

with new prints as they shed more. Get 

rid of scyvings (emulsion flaking) with 

cans of directed air. Substitute three of 

your rollers with particle transfer rollers 

president of the International Theatre 

Equipment Association 

and head of Coloradobased 

Westhafer Cinema 

Consulting, wearing a 

pair of film handling 

floor, even the leader, as it 

gloves will go a long way 

goes through the projecor, 

toward solving many 

too. 

common projection 

• Wear gloves at all 

problems. 

times, especially when 

Prior to founding 

hand-splicing; no matter 

Westhafer Cinema 

how clean your hands 

Consulting, Westhafer 

are, your fingertips contain 

was a theatre manager 

natural oils, points 

and then worked at 

out Westhafer. Throw out 

Eastman Kodak for 17 

gloves when they become 

years, where she recently 

dirty, or you'll do more 

helped launch the film 

harm than good. 

company's ScreenCheck 

• Implement a ban of 

ITEA president and head of 

program, which analyzes 

smoking in projection 

Westhafer Consulting Tern Westhafer. 

cinema conditions and 

offers solutions to improve the viewing 

booths, not only because 

clouds port glass; more detrimentally, 

it 

experience. Westhafer outlines the major the high rate of speed of a running projector 

draws ashes into the mechanism 

(available from Kodak and SPECO, says 

Westhafer), and wipe 

them clean before every 

showing. 

• Keep film off the 

and onto the film. 

• Neglecting to clean your projector 

lens is "like asking your audience to look 

[at the movie] through a dirty glass," 

Westhafer analogizes. Use lens tissue to 

clean aperture plates and lenses; don't 

use paper towels or 

sponges as they are 

fibrous. "You can 

ruin your lens for the 

pennies you try to 

save," says Westhafer. 

• The screens themselves 

are often forgotten 

in regular 

cleaning procedures. 

Use a telescoping 

screen brush; avoid 

water and detergent 

except in small quantities 

and mild levels for spot cleaning. 

Screens that are encrusted with dirt will 

probably have to be replaced; in the 

meantime, it's better not to touch them as 

cleaning attempts will generally result in 

a mottled appearance. Blowers used in 

auditorium cleanup tend to direct debris 

c;/

BRIGHTNESS 

On examining numerous theatres, 

Westhafer's company discovered that 

illumination was on average at 7ftL, less 

than half of the SMPTE light standard 

of 16ftL. Meeting the SMPTE recommendation 

will greatly improve the 

screen image. The ITEA has produced a 

two-page glossy foldout titled "Let 

There Be Light: Ten Ways to Get More 

Light Onscreen" that's intended to be 

posted in projection booths; exhibitors 

can contact the organization for information 

on obtaining copies. 

PRESENTING THE FANTASTIC 4 

XR171 

ANTISTATIC 

n. .n yellowing 

CUES 

Second-run houses need to take the 

time to look for and remove cue tape 

that may not have been removed by the 

theatre that previously made up the 

print. This tape can trigger your 

automation system to turn lights on, 

close your curtains or go into shutdown 

mode at inopportune moments. 

SPLICES 

As mentioned above, splicers must be 

cleaned regularly with a toothbrush and 

alcohol to completely remove gummy 

adhesive accumulations. Use tape on both 

sides of the film, and don't improvise: 

Westhafer illustrated this point by showing 

a slide of one splice she came across 

that used a white paper reinforcement! 

STATIC 

Static should be less of a problem now 

than six months or a year ago, says 

Westhafer, as Kodak and Fuji have 

become sensitive to the issue since the 

switch from acetate to polyester sent a 

charge through the industry. Film is now 

pre-treated to lessen the occurrence of 

static, but for those still not cling-free, 

Westhafer recommends buying a humidifier, 

making sure to position it so that 

the steam does not come in contact with 

the film. During non-operation, putting 

a bucket of water under the platter can 

also help (it can remain there during 

operation, but make sure it's positioned 

so that the take-up arm doesn't hit it), as 

can putting sponges in a shallow dish of 

water on either side of film on a platter. 

Static Guard spray should never be used 

directly on film, but can be applied to the 

equipment, says Westhafer. so long as it is 

allowed to dry before the film comes in 

contact with it. An attendee of the seminar 

suggested the use of fabric softening 

sheets, but Westhafer warned to use 

them sparingly as they are oily ""l 

Tor additional information, Terri 

II 'esthafer < an be readied at i 720 1 344-2909 

or via e-mail at terribronc@aol.com. The 

lull teminar, which involves hands-on 

Btstrut Hon and addresses sound as well as 

itgital projection, is 

offeredat a disi ount- 

/ rate to members oj the National 

association oj Theatre Owners and the 

Motion Picture Theatre tssociations oj 

Canada

Cinema Sight and Sound 

New Products Guide 

Barco's D-CineStar digital 

cinema projector 

has become commercially available. 

A licensee of Texas Instruments' DLP 

Cinema chip technology, the D-CineStar is 

equipped with three SCCA DLP Cinema 

DMDs and Kinoton's FP50 lamp console 

with high-brightness Xenon arc lamp for a 

high-contrast image with a light output of 

12 ft. Lambert on almost all film screens. 

The fully digital 24-frames-per-second signal 

input simulates film-like motion. Write 

3240 Town Point Dr., Kennesaw, CA 

301 44; call (770) 21 8-3200; fax (770) 21 8- 

3250; e-mail sales.us.bps@barco.com; or 

logon to www.barco.com. 

Klipsch has 

introduced the 

THX-approved 

KPT-535-T, a behind-the-screen, 

three-way, 

direct 

radiated bass system. 

The KPT- 

535-T utilizes the 

KPT-904/940-LF 

double, 15-inch, 

low frequency 

system. Reproducing 

the critical 

dialogue 

range is the KPT- 

402 mid-bass 

Horn 

Tractrix 

coupled to the 

Klipsch K-1133 

two-inch-exit titanium compression driver. 

The high frequencies are handled by 

the new Crand-HF-T Tractrix Horn. 

Write 8900 Keystone Crossing, Suite 

1220, Indianapolis, IN 46240; call (888) 

600-5776 or (317) 581-3100; fax (800) 

606-5776; e-mail support@klipschpro.com; 

or logon to www.klipschpro.com. 

QSC's ISA Series amplifiers are a costeffective 

power solution for any cinema 

sound system. Three low-impedance 

models offer up to 1200 watts per channel 

and are rated for two-ohm operation. 

Three 70-volt models are ideal for use 

with lobby music and paging systems. 

Accessory crossovers are available for 

easy bi-amp operation. Write 1675 

MacArthur Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626; 

call (714) 754-6175 or (800) 854-4079; 

fax (714) 754-6174; e-mail info@qscaudio.com; 

or logon to www.qscaudio.com. 

International Cinema Equipment 

Company (ICECO) has announced the 

official availability of the BL-2000 35mm 

Cinema Projector. It provides theatre owners 

the latest in united design technology 

combined with many standard off-theshelf 

components such as gears, bearings, 

sprockets, intermittent assembly and more. 

The CALS (Cinema Audio Laser 

is System) also now avail- 

from ICECO for all 

makes and models of projectors. 

SJable 

The red-light laser is 

especially suited for upgrades 

of existing systems 

and meets all the requirements 

of the new cyan sound 

tracks at an affordable price. 

Write 100 N.E. 

39th Street, 

Miami, FL 33137; call (305) 

573-7339; fax (305) 573- 

81 01; e-mail ICECO@aol.com 

or logon to www.iceco.com. 

DOLBY ANTICIPATES FUTURE WITH CP650 ETHERNET CONNECTIVITY 

Dolby Laboratories' CP650 all digital cinema 

processor supports all Dolby film formats 

and incorporates the latest in digital signal 

processing technology. Among its built-in features 

are multichannel sound decoding capability; 

Dolby Digital Surround EX, which previously 

had been available as an add-on; and 

an Ethernet operational interface for future connectivity. 

"The basic thought was we know that in a few years that [Ethernet applications] will be 

common, so let's put it in so once they're out there in a few years time, we'll be able to 

utilize [them]," says Dolby marketing VP Tim Partridge. "We're not exactly sure what [the 

Ethernet interface! will be used for, of course, but we've got some idea. 

"Basically the possible things it could be used for would obviously be uploading software," 

Partridge predicts. "Probably more important would be remote diagnostics. Some 

of the broadcast industry is already utilizing networks for monitoring equipment and trying 

to anticipate any failures by doing so, and that clearly would be something that would 

be valuable as well in the cinema industry. [Using the Ethernet connection, one would be] 

able to dial up the unit from a remote location and basically check it out, make sure everything 

is working optimally, and (anticipate problems] before something does fail. And the 

other possibility is to control the unit remotely." 

Another innovation on this particular cinema processor is multilingual menu screens. 

"So far we've done the European languages, the major ones, and we're currently implementing 

Asian languages," Partridge says. 

Dolby engineers also have automated the installation process. "Probably the biggest and 

most laborious task when installing a new cinema is to set up the loudspeakers and the amplifiers," 

Partridge says. "Our guys did a little subroutine so that once your microphones are in 

position— rather than [equalizing! the traditional way, which is to do all this manually using 

graphic equalizers and a noise signal that you pipe into the auditorium and then equalize it 

to get all the right treble and bass in each loudspeaker— [the CP650I does it automatically. A 

press of the button will get you probably about 90 percent of the way there in eight seconds." 

Other hardware features include a front panel access door that eases installation and 

operation and expansion ports that provide easy installation of future upgrades. Software 

features include all-digital 

implementation of Dolby A-type and Dolby SR decoding; builtin 

diagnostic facilities to verify performance of the complete sound system; and a tull-featured 

PC setup software package with real-time analyzer to facilitate system setup. 

Write 100 Potrero Ave., San Francisco, CA 94103; call (415) 558-0200; fax (415) 863- 

1373; e-mail website@dolby.com; or logon to www.dolby.com.

New Products 

Recently, the first production batch 

of the ES 40 amplifier left the Stage 

Accompany factory. Based on the 

"high speed/high current" class C 

design for increased efficiency, this 

flagship model for the Efficiency 

Series amplifier range features a 

power output of 1 810W./2850W. at 

two ohms per channel. Individual 

power supplies per channel ensure 

reliability, and the amplifier features a 

capacitor bank rating of 210 Joules for 

dynamic power reserve. Write 

Anodeweg 4, 1627 LJ Hoorn, the 

NETHERLANDS; call +31 229 

282930; fax +31 229 282920; e-mail 

info@StageAccompany.com; or logon 

to www.StageAccompany.com. 

SCHNEIDER LENSES SHED MORE LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT 

On the market for about a year, Schneider's VP-Cinelux 

Variable Prime lenses are the first mechanism by which projectionists 

(an adjust an auditorium's picture size without sacrificing 

light or resolution. Schneider senior VP Dwight Lindsey describes 

the product in 

layman's terms: 

"In film projection, what we do is we try to fill the screen. The 

screen is usually inconvenient. It's not usually possible to make the 

screen exactly the size that you might want it 

to be. There's usually 

an exit door there or something that makes you squeeze the screen 

up a foot or two. And so you end up with this screen where if you 

use the standard lens, the fixed focal length lens off of our shelf or off of someone else's shelf, 

you'll end up having to choose between underfilling the screen by six inches or overfilling 

it by two or three feet. Underfilling it doesn't make any sense, and so what people do is use 

a shorter lens. A shorter focal length lens gets you a bigger picture, and you overfill the 

screen, and then you just crop using the aperture plate on the projector and the masking on 

the screen. And you crop a foot or two on each side or top or bottom or wherever it is. 

"Now, that has a couple of bad effects. One of them is that you don't see everything 

that the director and the cinematographer intended to be there. You might miss action or 

information that was intended to be on the film. From a strictly projection, technical 

standpoint— forgetting that aesthetic problem—you are taking x amount of light, and 

you're spreading it over a bigger area and then cropping a certain percentage of it away. 

If you fill the screen precisely, you can take 100 percent of the light and use it 100 percent, 

so you are effectively getting more light on the screen in a way that is simpler and 

cheaper but just as effective as using a bigger xenon bulb. 

"It would be very convenient if the screen size and a fixed focal length prime lens 

matched precisely. That doesn't happen, so everybody out there is suffering from two, 

three, four, five, 10 percent lower light level, and, by the way, lower image quality resolution 

because they are overfilling the screen.... The basic premise of these lenses is that 

you should be able to tweak the image to match the screen size precisely without having 

any downward impact on image quality." 

Write 285 Oser Ave., Hauppauge, NY 1 1 788; call (63 1 ) 761 -5000; fax (631 ) 761-5090; 

e-mail info@schneideroptics.com; or logon to www.schneideroptics.com. 

AVOID 

CONSTRUCTION 

PROBLEMS! 

"CALL A PROFESSIONAL" 

* 25 + years theatre construction 

experience 

* Design/Build 

* Complete turnkey 

* Financing available 

* We will meet your deadlines 

* Circuits, Independents, newcomers 

* Licensed throughout the U.S. 

it Stadium seating retrofits 

it Pre-englneered steel buildings 

* Free estimates/site visit 

NEW CONSTRUCTION, ADDITIONS, 

RENOVATIONS, CONVERSIONS 

1-800-272-2432 

w 555 STREET ROAD, BEMSALEM, PA 19020 

LARGO CONSTRUCTION INC. 

A A0T 215-245-0300 • TAX 2 1 5-638-7933 

THE BEST! 

We are proud that the very 

highest quality Dolby and 

Digital sound systems come 

from us. So many, in fact, that 

there is probably one in 

operation near you. You 

deserve the same service! 

HADDENZ"- 

THEATRE 

10201 Bunsen Way 

Louisville, KY 40299 

(502) 499-0050 

(502) 499-0052 FAX: 

Louis Bornwasser, Owner 

SUPPLY COMPANY 

Design-Consultation-Sales

| 

"And 

New Products 

Odyssey Products has bowed its TM-2 

booth monitor. Its LCD screen is available 

with any language program, and 

digital volume and channel selections 

are easy to use. Variable power supply 

for 90 to 250 volts is included. Write 

5845 Oakbrook Parkway, Suite C, 

Norcross, GA 30093; call (770) 825- 

0243; fax (770) 825-0245; e-mail 

odysseyproducts@mindspring.com; or 

logon to www.odyssey-products.com. 

1 

&S"*, 

a %k 

Cinemeccanica has introduced a 

curved film gate for their Victoria 5 series 

projection mechanism. This product 

innovation is being incorporated into 

production but may be retrofitted in the 

field as well. It produces a steadier 

screen image with consistent focus. 

Bands fabricated from hardened steel 

extend useful life significantly. Write 

8753 Lion St., Rancho Cucamonga, CA 

91730; call (909) 481-5842; fax (909) 

481-5845; e-mail cinemec@earthlink. 

net; or logon to www.cinemeccanica. 

com. 

| 1 

CineQ has issued the second edition of 

its automation technology, the CineQ.A2 

Automation, a streamlined version of its 

CineQ. A1 system. In addition to cutting 

personnel costs, ensuring show schedule 

and controlling effects, CineQ.A2 saves 

energy and service costs by managing 

equipment between shows. Write 1070 

Morrison Dr., Ottawa, ON K2H 8K7, 

CANADA; call (61 3) 820-0654; fax (61 3) 

820-1773; e-mail info@globalmic.com; 

. or logon to www.globalmic.com. 

MAXIVISION FOCUSES ON FUTURE OF FILM 

While major Hollywood studios like Disney extol the virtues of digital cinema—namely 

distribution-related savings and consistent picture quality—and exhibitors question 

their ability to invest in the technology—especially given their march to bankruptcy 

court—MaxiVision Cinema Technology chairman and CEO Dean Coodhill claims he's 

got a reasonably priced, film-based alternative to digital cinema that will actually increase 

traffic in theatres. MaxiVision48 combines four interlocking technologies that result in an 

image so clear and so crisp that upon seeing it, film critic Robert Ebert said, "I have seen 

the future of cinema, and it is not digital." 

"It starts with a larger frame, which is to say we get 32 

percent more picture in 25 percent less space," Coodhill, 

an editor who was nominated for an Oscar for his work 

on "The Fugitive," says. "It's a larger image on film but it 

uses less film doing it. 

"Number two, each image is much sharper because it's 

photographed at twice the shutter speed. You know know 

what happens when you take a picture with an exposure 

at 1/50th of a second? It's blurry. If either you or the subject 

moves, it's a blur. So every movie you've ever seen is 

photographed at 1/50th of a second. But in Maxi- 

Vision48, not only do you have a larger image, which 

means it's a whole lot richer to begin with, but you're 

photographing at 1/1 00th of a second instead of 1/50th of 

a second. The result is that the image is three or four 

times as sharp right there. 

MMBj' 

llW i i 'tfiJjjTl 

MaxiVision 48 offers 

32 percent more picture 

in 25 percent iess space. 

"Then on top of that, MaxiVision48 presents twice as 

many images per second. You're not only seeing much 

sharper, much clearer images, but you're seeing twice as 

many of them per second. So you're seeing twice as 

much of an actor's performance. You're having twice as 

much of an experience of an action scene. It's not just 

about some ephemeral idea of a pretty picture. You're literally 

seeing twice as much. 

then fourth, we have stabilization technology 

ca " ec' Active Crystal Registration that perfectly registers, 

* ' 

BKSM which is to say stabilizes, each image in the projector 

***" 

By exposing each frame 

HH 

for 1/100th of a second rather than 

1/50th of a second, the image 

appears much clearer. 

gate." 

Unlike digital cinema, which requires the addition of a 

projector that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars 

per screen, Coodhill's company will be leasing 

MaxiVision48 equipment to exhibitors. "Our projector 

will rent to exhibitors for $300 a month," he says. "It's an 

attachment to existing projectors, and the key thing to 

understand is that it is fully backward compatible with all 

present film formats. In other words, if you're an exhibitor, we come in, take off your old 

mechanical head, we put our head on [and] make some minor modifications to the sound 

system. Now that same projector can show all existing film formats—everything that's normal, 

traditional film—but if you put a MaxiVision48 movie on your platter, it can be 

mixed in with other movies, [and] it can be mixed in with standard trailers. The projector 

will automatically switch to the new functions when it gets to the MaxiVision movie." 

MaxiVision48 is still in the prototype stage, but Coodhill hopes that once studio executives 

see the technology for themselves, they'll rethink their focus on digital cinema. "Some 

form of electronic distribution yet to be discovered will probably eventually supplant film 

at some point way down the line," he says. "I don't know how far that is, but I do know 

this: What is now being offered in digital cinema is actually below the level of high-definition 

television.... The fact that it looks so good, and the fact that it looks comparable in 

some people's eyes to today's 35mm film, is not so much an index as to how good digital 

projection is. It really shows how bad current film projection is.... Why does it look so bad? 

Because film projectors haven't changed in 1 00 years, and that's the point.... [Digital cinema] 

doesn't save the future of theatrical exhibition. It doesn't do anything to put more 

butts in seats. How could it? It's what people are going to have at home." 

Coodhill estimates that the studios' additional costs will be negligible. "We did a study 

of the last 1 movies that [production housel Carolco made, and what we discovered was 

that on the average movie, making the movie in MaxiVision48 would increase the budget 

by less than one percent of the total production budget. Now, if that one percent yielded 

something that only a few people noticed or cared about, maybe people would be concerned. 

But the fact of the matter is. ..the additional cost of MaxiVision is more than offset 

not only by the increased aesthetic value that is 

something else to market." 

has on the screen, but by the fact that it's 

In summary, Coodhill says, "We all believe that we have something that can completely 

revitalize theatrical exhibition, that can make the theatre experience as fresh in the 

new millennium as it was in the last turn of the century." 

Write 8942 Wonderland Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; call (818) 753-6030; e-mail 

deangoodhill@att.net; or logon to www.maxivisioncinema.com,

went, 

knew 

had 

louring 

om 

110 

10 

il 

DOLPHIN DIVE INSPIRES NEW SPEAKER DESIGN 

The dolphin in Sound Related Technologies' logo isn't a random 

graphic design choice. Rather, it's symbolic of SRT chairman 

and CEO |ohn Alton's first inspiration for the Sierra 

Dimensional Sound System, already installed in some Regal 

Cinemas. 

"My wife, being a marine biologist, studied dolphins," he says. 

"I had a chance to work with them, I a chance to swim with 

them— learned a lot." 

Alton also has developed a Hydrosonic Relaxation Table "that 

you ought to come try one day." What began as a subwoofer 

rigged to his waterbed to ease his back pain has led to not only a 

line of similar beds for commercial use but a series of cinema 

speakers. 

"It inspired me because I that water had the very low 

resonant frequency and you could control the weight and the 

amount of vibrations that you wanted to get from it," he says. 

"And I 'Wow, if we could just couple these two things 

together,' and that's what [SRT's patented technology] Hydro- 

Acoustic Coupling is." 

Using this information, Alton created a subwoofer— later applying 

the technology to the whole range of speakers found in a cinema—with 

a fluid-filled bladder to transmit sound vibrations rather 

than air. "Once you impact 

water, it's just like hitting a 

drum," Alton describes. "The 

water is in a space that is slightly 

under pressure in the enclosure, 

which then acts like a drum. We 

tune it for the frequency that 

we're after, and then it does the 

rest. 

"If you look at the sub, 

New Products 

there's no openings except for a 

small vent in the back of the 

speaker. You can't see it, feel it, 

touch it or get to it. It's under the 

water. What happens is that we're 

feeling a vibration that's actually 

caused by something hitting the 

drum of water, so it's real." 

The result is a sound system 

that allows the audience to "Feel 

the Sound," as the company's tagline says, by reproducing controlled 

frequencies between 10 and 80 Hz, which resonate with 

listeners because their bodies are composed mostly of water. 

"|My system] allows you to turn the sound down," Alton says. 

"There's a big problem with the amount of volume that's in theatres. 

A lot of people get upset because it blasts you in the face. 

With my system, it gives you complete detail of everything—the 

ambiance, the dynamics— in a lower volume setting, so that you 

feel and you hear every detail just like you were standing beside 

the person instead of blasting you out. 

"The subwoofer works on a low volume with vibrations. It actually 

could be considered to be a sonic generator because at low 

volume, it will shake the clothes on your body. And it's so smooth, 

and even the people above 65 to 

70 years, they don't want to go 

out to a theatre and get blasted. 

They Idon't] feel like they |are] 

getting intruded upon." 

Write 2680 Production Rd., 

Suite 101, Virginia Beach, VA 

23454; call (757) 463-4300; e-mail 

sales.sound@hydrosonic.com; or 

logon to www.hydrosonic.com. 

Panastereo's MP64 70mm and 35mm magnetic preamplifier 

system will accommodate four six-channel preamps for dual projector 

systems but occupies only one rack unit of space. A built-in 

electronic changeover system allows remote switching between 

pairs of preamp cards. The preamplifiers used in this model are 

interchangeable with the preamps in the Panastereo 70mm processor 

and feature ultra low noise semiconductors for improved performance. 

A special CCIR equalization card is available for studio 

playback. 

SMART Devices has i 

duced the EZ-Phase II, a tw( 

phase checker for quick ver 

tion of the wiring of multipli 

round speakers and indiv 

components in two-way 

three-way stage speakers, 

product has a transmitter un 

that connects to amplifiers c 

speaker lines and a receiver th, 

is used in the auditorium to ind 

( ate phase. I he units are SU| 

plied in a wooden box lor c onvc 

Write Vi 1. P(.,K htree Corners last, Nori ross. ( ,A (0071; 

call (770) 449 J833 or (877) I'ANASURK) loi Panastereo; 

< all (770) 449-6698 or I800) 45-SMART for SMART; fax (770) 

449-6728; e-mail info@panastereo.com or info@smarl 

dev.com; or logon lo www. panastereo. i om oi www. smart 

dev.com. 

L 

BCW's CX-2 Adapter 

allows for EuroStyle bare-wire 

connections to the amplifier 

input terminals on one channel 

of a BGW Millennium 

TMC Series amplifier, as 

opposed to using the stock 

amplifier XLR inputs. Other 

features of the CX-2 include a 

steel chassis; a four-position 

EuroStyle termination strip H 

that supercedes XLR male^ 

connectors; one channel plus ground; and a single-| il grounding/mounting 

screw that secures the CX-2 to the ch; ISSIS. Its 

dimensions are 2.3 inches wide by 1 .4 inches high by 1 .7 inches 

deep. 

VBGW also has released 

the AC-3 Attenuator Cover 

Plate, which .ltt.ic lies to the 

front panel of the BGW 

Performanc e Series I \udio 

Power Amplifier via a si rew 

prov idcd on the front panel 

of the rs-i. rhe \< I 

secures the level controls 

from tampering aftei cali 

bration. 

me company has also issued new service manuals lot all current 

BGW produc Is, in< Incline: lis Millennium Senes Performam e 

Series, self-powered subwooiers. Professional amplifiers, am) 

i 

a.m. 

I 

Series. 

Write l (l 10 Yukon Ave., Hawthorne I i 

^90 ! 

2677 or (310) 973 8090; lax '1 . I 

e 

sales@bgv< i 

bgw i om 

oi logi in ti i www 

mail 

J

SPECIAL REPORT: CineAsia 2000 

m 

Dir 

SIAN EXTRAVAGANZ 

irect From Hong Kong, Highlights From CineAsia 

PLEXING ISSUES 

Opening Seminar Focuses on 

Regional Multiplexing 

While exhibitors in the U.S. are 

struggling with the bankruptcy fallout 

resulting from overbuilding and theatre 

cannibalization, their counterparts 

in many of the underscreened 

territories throughout Asia are just 

beginning to embark on the less-traveled 

road of multiplexing. In an 

attempt to help them along on their 

journey, this year's CineAsia convention 

kicked off with a region-timely 

seminar entitled. "Multiplexing: 

Everything You Wanted to Know." 

GUET general manager Russell 

Scott suggests that there are seven key 

factors behind the success of a potential 

multiplex site, including location, 

choice of movies, smaller auditoriums, 

transportation access and parking, 

appeal and comfort, in-theatre promotions 

and pricing. While most every 

speaker at the morning seminar would 

address one or more of these issues, 

Scott's main point of emphasis was the 

need for exhibitors to differentiate 

themselves from other circuits in as 

many of these areas as possible. Among 

the strategies he lists as having proven 

successful are appealing to niche markets, 

decorated foyers, digital projection, 

interactive kiosks, online ticketing, 

"crying rooms" for babies and young 

children and sites where surrounding 

attractions help draw more people to 

the immediate locale. 

UCS Japan representative director 

Anthony Winston continued to stress 

the importance of the first element 

named by Scott, although the speaker 

suggests that the old adage of "location, 

location, location" should be 

replaced with "location, legal issues and 

local factors." 

All three of these elements, notes 

Winston, require heavy research on the 

part of the exhibitor. Among the many 

considerations he says need to be kept 

in mind are the socio-economic makeup 

of the community within a possible 

site's given area; zoning issues, including 

health and welfare, alcohol license 

by Francesca Dinglasan 

regulations, construction/occupational 

hazards and handicap accessibility 

(which is just now becoming a widespread 

construction issue in the region); 

public transportation, parking and 

quality of surrounding roads, including 

pedestrian and bicycle accessibility; and 

knowledge of existing sites, parallel and 

future developments and other nearby 

entertainment options (i.e., sports arenas 

or stadiums). 

Once these elements have all been 

examined, the most important thing is 

to avoid becoming overly excited or 

attached to any one location, which 

Winston believes is "the worst thing 

that can happen." He explains that if an 

exhibitor can't remain objective about a 

potential site, he or she runs the risk of 

entering a bidding war, which is detrimental 

to any company's bottom line. 

At the same time, installing digital 

surround sound should also be a high 

priority. According to Cinematic 

Design Intl. associate director Ian 

Gooding, when asked about their 

moviegoing experience, the majority of 

responses given by cinema patrons 

concerned the theatre's sound quality. 

CONCESSIONS SESSION 

CineAsia Reminds Exhibitors Why it's 

Always Coca-Cola for Moviegoers 

Movies and Coke go hand-in-hand 

was the theme at this year's CineAsia 

concessions seminar. Entitled "Merchandising 

for Profit," Coca-Cola Asia 

Pacific Group director Debra Wolfe 

and Coca-Cola South Pacific channel 

manager Rowena Ditzell offered tips 

to regional exhibitors on marketing 

and increasing food items sales, including, 

of course, the world's most identifiable 

soft drink. 

Noting that concessions sales are 

based on the simple equation of "number 

of people buying x number of items 

times average profit per item," Wolfe 

suggested that exhibitors' main goal 

should be to increase the first factor. 

According to her calculations, only one 

out of three moviegoers head to the 

concessions stand from the box-office, 

while the rest go straight to their respective 

auditoriums. One way Wolfe 

believes this situation can be turned 

around is by establishing enough selling 

points around theatres to communicate 

the ideas of speed of service at the food 

stand and value perception on any 

items purchased there. 

Based on a study of moviegoing 

habits conducted in the Australian market, 

Ditzell elaborated on some ideas 

Coca-Cola developed as to how such 

selling points might best be implemented. 

She noted that teenagers tend to be 

the most frequent moviegoers as well as 

the heaviest Coca-Cola consumers. 

Additionally, the teen demographic 

normally arrives 10 to 15 minutes 

before the start of a film, compared 

with other age groups that arrive just 

before showtime. Important to keep 

that particular age group in mind, then, 

when setting up in-theatre marketing 

campaigns encouraging patrons to visit 

the concession stand. 

By examining the results from the 

study of moviegoing habits, Ditzell said 

that Coca-Cola was able to discern a 

number of commonalties among cinema 

patrons regarding their attitudes 

toward concessions. According to 

Ditzell, of the one-third of total moviegoers 

that visit the concessions stand 

every single time they're at 

the theatre, 

one-third of them purchase either a 

food or drink item, but not both. 

Survey participants also identified popcorn 

and coke as the most thought of 

food items when at the cinema— positive 

news for exhibitors, since both concessions 

happen to be the most profitable 

products. 

With these factors in mind, Coca- 

Cola developed a merchandising program 

designed to encourage cinema 

patrons to buy both food and drinks, 

which they so heavily associate with 

going to the movies, as well as to differentiate 

the value of purchasing concessions 

at the movies from their other 

retail experiences. Ditzell shared the 

details of this in-theatre program, which 

has already been implemented in 

Australia. 

The first component of the promotional 

campaign is what Coca-Cola calls 

"interrupters." Ditzell says the idea 

behind this is to "stimulate the consumer's 

original desire for thirst." 

Examples she provided were directional 

signage, such as a Coca-Cola bottle cardboard 

cut-out that features an arrow 

pointing to the concessions stand and a 

floor mat in front of the box office

^MiMtaaa 

prominently displaying a Coca-Cola 

logo. 

Ditzell defined the second component, 

which she called "persuaders." as 

ads that "encourage buying or upsizing." 

Among her examples of persuaders 

were posters displayed around 

the concessions area featuring coke and 

movie imagery, such as film reels and 

spotlights, that conveyed the idea that 

the drink and the experience go together. 

The third and final component of 

Coca-Cola's merchandising program 

consists of what Ditzell calls "reminders." 

As their label indicates, reminders 

are meant to bring patrons' 

thoughts back to the idea of purchasing 

concessions. For moviegoers who purchased 

popcorn or candy without soda, 

that could come in the form of straw 

dispensers on the counter featuring the 

Coca-Cola logo. And for those who 

skipped the concessions stand altogether, 

banners displaying Coke imagery 

placed before auditorium doors can 

serve to remind moviegoers that it's 

always.. ..well, you know. 

DIGITAL REACTION 

Exhib Panel Shares Experiences 

With Digital Projection 

Following the now standard on- 

and 

screen comparison of 35mm film 

digital formats so familiar to attendees 

of exhibition industry conventions 

throughout the globe, this year's Cine- 

Asia event featured a panel discussion 

on how well e-cinema has actually been 

functioning in real-world applications. 

In his opening remarks, event host 

Texas Instruments market development 

manager Paul Breedlove shared results 

of his company's DLP cinema projector 

installations, which he says represents 

upwards of 1 1.800 screens worldwide. 

According to TI's data, there has 

only been one report of projection failure 

(not due to projectionist error or 

related circumstances) since November 

1999. Additionally, gross receipts for 

digital screenings have been higher than 

the equivalent 35mm presentations, 

with Breedlove noting that "exhibitors 

pa) 

moviegoers show a two-to-one preference 

for digital." 

Among the exhibition panelists providing 

a firsthand perspective of their 

experiences with DLP technology were 

Joost Bert, topper of Belgium-based 

giant Kinepolis, and AMC Japan's 

Barry Brann. Both men painted an 

overall positive picture of their theatres' 

digital installations. 

According to Ben. Kinepolis' digital 

installations m Madrid and Brussels 

have had "no [big] problems, onk 

minor ones. We didn't lose an) screenings 

" He added, much to the mild 

knowing amusement of the CineAsia 

conventioneers, that his biggest difficult> 

from the new digital equipment is 

"all [the] projectionists joined the 

PACIFIC RIMSHOOTERS 

CineAsia Honors the Region's Film Industry 

Coca-Cola Final Night Banquet and Awards Ceremony, a perennial 

Thefavorite among CineAsia conventioneers, once again proved memorable 

to the hundreds of delegates in attendance. Honoring individuals working 

in every sector of the region's movie industry, the evening event helped to 

restore some faith in the economically challenging but remarkably resilient business 

of producing and selling films. 

Making the first presentation of the evening was Golden Harvest chairman 

Raymond Chow. A heavyweight in the local film industry. Chow presented the 

Ira I). Kaye Humanitarian Award to another Hong Kong legend, actress 

Josephine Siao. With a screen career spanning 44 years and comprising 235 

films. Chow noted that Siao "has won more awards than any other actress in 

Hong Kong." 

Siao began a second career after having earned an M.A. in child psychology 

1992. In addition to working as a counselor at the Queen Mary Hospital in 

in 

Hong Kong, Siao has formed a private foundation dedicated to the care of children. 

Upon accepting the award recognizing her humanitarian efforts, she 

remarked, "I had no idea that my work |as a child psychologist! 

would be much harder than acting." Siao also saluted the 

charitable contributions to the region made by Ira Kaye, for 

whom the award was renamed last year. 

Also giving heartfelt thanks to Kaye, 

who passed away last year, was 

CineAsia's Producer of the Year Thomas 

Chung. Describing Kaye as his "guiding 

light" and "friend," the producer of Hong 

Kong blockbusters "Gen-X Cops" and 

"Tempting Heart" also expressed his 

gratitude to his colleagues for helping him take his "dreams 

and transform them into visions." 

Receiving the next award of the evening were the happily 

married heads of film distribution company the 

Intercontinental Film Group. Named CineAsia's Distributors of the Year, Rigo 

Jesu, speaking on behalf of himself and co-awardee and wife Terry Lai, praised 

the efforts of their associates. "No company operates in a vacuum," he said. 

"We cannot succeed without our partners, so we'd like to thank our suppliers 

for their great, and sometimes challenging product." Jesu also expressed the 

couple's gratitude to exhibitors, who he said must 

work together with distributors "not necessarily 

to get a bigger share of the pie, but to increase the 

pie for everyone." 

The Exhibitor of the Year Award was next presented 

to K.B. Lee. head of CJ Entertainment, 

South Korea's largest theatre operator. Event 

emcee Peter Covvie described the company, which 

is also involved in film distribution and production, 

as having "re-energized the scene." Lpon accepting 

(be award, Lee somewhat shocked event attendees 

by noting that the I long Kong film industry, 

in his opinion, wasn't as great as it used to be, hut said that he hoped all the territories 

could work together to "develop an Asian film industry." 

Presenting the final award of the evening was last 

vcar's CineAsia Award 

of Excellence in Acting recipient Michelle Ycoh. Hie action star expressed her 

delight that local filmmakers were "taking die unique essence of Hong Kong 

films (o the world," including the winner of the convention's Newcomer of the 

Year Award. Daniel \\u. The American-born actor, who. according to Ycoh, 

"came to Hong Kong in 1997 for the handover and decided to stay" told the 

group of ( incAsia conventioneers thai he was still contemplating the idea that 

"four years ago I was working on mv architecture thesis, and now I'm making 

Hong Kong movies." I he voting actor also thanked Producer of the Year 

Thomas (hung, whose production house Media Asia will he releasing Wu's 

upcoming film. "Ccn-Y (ops." 

^

union." He remarked, "After 74 years in 

business, [Kinepolis'] first strike began 

two months after the first installation." 

Bert noted, however, that there has 

been a definite upside to his circuit's 

installations, namely customer response 

to digital screenings. He said 

that when his multiplex in Brussels had 

been simultaneously playing film and 

digital versions of "Toy Story 2," the 

company charged an extra dollar in 

admissions for the latter screening and 

met with little resistance from market 

moviegoers. "Ninety percent of customers 

were willing to pay the difference." 

he said. "And we received no 

negative comments that we were 

charging extra for digital cinema." 

Bert also caught the largely exhibition-based 

audiences attention when he 

suggested that circuit operators may be 

able to put more requirements on their 

rental agreements with distributors concerning 

digital screenings. His only real 

complaints concerned the general state 

of digital projection, including the lack 

of competing manufacturers and the 

small quantity of digital prints of new 

releases available for screening. 

Expressing similar sentiments as 

Bert, AMC Japan's Brann says that the 

circuit's digital projection installment in 

its Tokyo Disney resort has "been very 

reliable," with no real technical difficulties 

having occurred. He also echoed 

Bert's feeling that one of the main 

obstacles has been the lack of available 

product suitable to the new technology, 

noting that AMC actually had to bring 

"Toy Story 2" back to the venue since it 

installed the new projector after the 

Pixar film's original theatrical run. 

BATTLING BOOTLEGGERS 

Industry Panel Discusses Regional 

Piracy at CineAsia Seminar 

"The biggest threat in the industry is 

piracy," Motion Picture Association 

senior VP. Asia/Pacific, Mike Connors 

told CineAsia delegates attending the 

"Piracy— Is There Any Hope For 

Asia?" seminar in no uncertain terms. 

And while Connors' opening remark 

drove home the immediacy of the 

region's widespread and economically 

crippling problem, it's a fact which the 

local film industry has been well aware 

of for several years. Exhibitors and distributors 

throughout the various Asian 

territories have lost untold millions in 

profit to bootlegged products, which 

are oftentimes available to the public 

before a movie's theatrical release. 

However, as a result of the MPAs 

slepped-up attempt to encourage local 

governments to crackdown on the production 

of illegal VCDs (video compact 

discs), the seminar speakers are 

now expressing cautious optimism 

regarding their combined efforts to 

eradicate piracy. 

According to Mike Ellis. MPA VP 

and director of Asia, Anti-Piracy, 14 

programs aiming to halt local piracy 

manufacturers have been implemented 

in as many countries over the past 22 

months. In that same period, government 

raids on illegal production houses—a 

vital component of the regional 

programs—totaled 64, including the 

first to take place in India in early 

November. Ellis also reported that 

there's been an increase of cases going 

to court, which jumped by 40 percent 

compared to last year, as well as a phenomenal 

98 percent rise in court decisions 

rendered against pirates during 

the same timeframe. 

Ellis warns, however, that the MPA 

cannot work alone to bring about such 

a turnaround in piracy. He emphasized 

that halting copyright infringement 

occurs "only when governments are 

prepared, not only through raids but 

legislation" as well as when "public 

perception change[s]" about purchasing 

VCDs and "getting involved in illegal 

activity." Ellis credited Hong 

Kong's local government for affecting 

such a change in the attitude of the 

territory's populace, citing the state's 

multimillion dollar investment in campaigns 

designed to make the public 

aware of the illegality and corruption 

involved in the piracy industry. 

Hong Kong, in fact, has fast become 

one of the most difficult places for 

bootleggers to operate. Seminar panelist 

and assistant commissioner of 

customs and excise for the territory 

Vincent Y.K. Poon insisted that the 

approval of much needed legislation 

was key to the change. A lawful 

requirement that VCD retailers be 

licensed with the customs department 

was probably the most essential modifications, 

stated Poon, because it allows 

government officials "to enter a factory 

for examination at any given time," 

significantly hindering pirates' ability 

to manufacture illegal reproductions. 

Moreover, Ellis admitted that the 

local government's toughened stance on 

the crime has resulted in several pirates 

relocating to neighboring territories 

where their activities are less targeted, 

especially Indonesia, the Philippines and 

Thailand. Connors added that while the 

MPA has taken a mostly "country-bycountry 

approach" to the problem, the 

organization has been active in trying to 

get the different governments to talk to 

one another about forming a united 

front against illegal manufacturers and 

retailers. 

Ellis identified the Internet as the 

"next stage" of the MPA's bootleg battle. 

Among the initiatives that the company 

has developed is a search engine 

designed to find sites offering illegal 

downloads of feature films as well as 

cease-and-desist mailings and filings 

with the authorities regarding these 

Internet locations. 

HILL 

NEWS 

by Francesca 

Dinglasan 

LEAD STORY: FTC DEEMS 

HOLLYWOOD MARKETING 

PRACTICES LEGAL 

Although the FTC report criticizing the marketing 

practices of the entertainment industry 

has meant a whole lot of headaches for Hollywood 

since its publication (see Hill News, 

November 2000), the Commission's latest findings 

should come as welcome news to the 

Tinseltown studios. In response to demands 

from several lawmakers, led by Senator John 

McCain (R-Ariz.), that studios be held responsible 

for marketing violent films to underage consumers, 

FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky has determined 

that there are no legal grounds by which 

the Hollywood production houses can be made 

to pay retribution for their product campaigns. 

While the government was successful at 

holding the tobacco industry financially 

responsible for marketing its 

products to children, 

Pitofsky says that the lack of evidence 

linking onscreen and real world violence 

would make a similar case against the entertainment 

industry impossible to prove. He further 

noted that First Amendment issues would 

be raised if the FTC were to step in and determine 

which films are inappropriate for underage 

audiences, especially since children are 

allowed to see an R-rated film when accompanied 

by an adult. In a letter directed to 

McCain, Pitofsky stated that the FTC shares the 

same view as MPAA president Jack Valenti 

that the best solution is for the entertainment 

industry to follow a self-regulatory set of standards 

when marketing adult products. 

MPAA FILES SUIT AGAINST PIRATE 

In addition to appeasing the nation's politicians 

regarding product campaigns, the MPAA 

has kept itself busy by fighting piracy both 

home and abroad. The association recently 

announced that it is filing suit against Antonio 

Daniele III, a Massachusetts resident who has 

been allegedly selling bootlegged VHS cassettes 

via the Internet. According to the MPAA, 

Daniele's activities were first discovered early 

last year, when its internal investigators, 

through their online research, detected that 

some of the movies he advertised were still in 

theatrical release. The MPAA estimates that 

over $250 million in the U.S. alone is 

to video pirates. 

lost by 

ADA COMPLIANCE CLARIFICATION 

NATO of California/Nevada president Milt 

Moritz was kind enough to call BOXOFFICE 

regarding the recent news brief, "Supreme 

Court Finds Stadium Seating ADA Acceptable" 

(Hill News, December 2000). Although BOX- 

OFFICE sources originally assumed that the 

high court actively upheld a lower court's decision, 

which found Cinemark USA's stadiumstyle 

seating ADA compliant, Moritz points out 

that the Supreme Court actually refused to hear 

the case, effectively establishing the Court of 

Appeals' verdict as final. Although welcome 

news for exhibitors, as Moritz tells BOXOF- 

FICE, "The light is not over yet."

an 

ihcmc 

it a new I 

' 

I la based Muvii us s ( reen total in its hon i 

EXHIBITION 

BRIEFINGS 

LEAD STORY: SILVER 

AVOIDS LIQUIDATION 

Addison, Tex. -based Silver Cinemas, parent 

to art-house chain Landmark Theatres, 

has talked its unsecured creditors into withdrawing 

a petition submitted to a Delaware 

bankruptcy court, requesting that the 

exhibitor's status be changed to Chapter 7 

liquidation (see Exhibition Briefings, lanuary 

2001 ). According to Silver CEO Larry Hohl, 

"The conversion motion has unfortunately 

caused a great deal of concern among the 

company's key business partners and 

employees." He adds that "the withdrawl of 

this motion removes uncertainty about the 

company's future." Industry analysts, however, 

remain skeptical, noting that the current 

state of exhibition leaves little to be desired 

for any possible investor. Silver, on the otherhand, 

says that it is currently considering 

offers from a number of different parties, 

mostly comprised of finance firms, with the 

exception of one entertainment company. 

REGAL PULLS PLUG ON 

FUNSCAPE CONCEPT 

As part of its efforts to avoid declaring 

bankruptcy, Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal 

Cinemas has shut down its seven-theatre 

FunScape sector, which features special concession 

stands and game arcades. Located in 

the cities of Knoxville and Nashville, Tenn.; 

Wilmington, Del.; Chesapeake, Va.; 

Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y.; and Fort 

Lauderdale, Fla., the three-year old 

FunScape concept has proven unprofitable 

for the financially beset circuit. In addition 

to shuttering the operation last November, 

Regal was forced to lay off an unidentified 

number of employees. 

ACT'S DESERT STAR SHINES 

Prairie du Chien, Wis. -based ACT 

Enterprises was presented with the 2000 

Projects of Distinction Award by the 

Associated Builders and Contractors of 

Wisconsin for its 10-screen Desert Star 

Cinema. Located in the lown of Wisconsin 

Dells, Wis., the 50,000-square-foot multi- 

SH0WMANDISER PROMOTION OF THE MONTH 

Although Universal Pictures 

"Dr. Seuss' How tht 

Grinch Stole Christmas' 

came to town, the holiday spiri 

certainly wasn't snatched awaj 

from anyone at the Edwards 2 

Cinema in Irvine, Calif. To promote 

the Jim Carrey starrer, the 

theatre, along with entertainment 

and retail complex the Irvine 

Spectrum Center, sponsored several 

Dr. Seuss-related events, while 

the entire center was bedecked with 

Jim Carrey stars as the title character in 

Universal s "Dr. Seuss' Grinch-themed decorations. 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 

In 

addition to fountains shooting green water and palm trees entwined with green 

lights in honor of the Grinch's color, the sleigh from the movie was on-site and 

available for picture taking. Activities included a special Dr. Seuss story reading 

by none other than Cindy Lou Who, the smallest member of the Whoville comTmunity 

featured in the film, as well as coloring contests and meals consisting of 

green eggs and ham—another Dr. Seuss favorite. However, no holiday promotion 

would be complete without encouraging the spirit of giving, and the Irvine 

Spectrum Center and Edwards Cinemas' canned food collection for local food 

banks and "Toys for Tots" donation drive helped ensure that Christmas wasn't 

stolen from many needy children. 

Send photos and descriptions of your promotion to: 

B0X0FFICE 

Attn: Showmandiser 

signage installations at the box office, corridors 

and all theatre doors, as well as stadium 

seating, wall-to-wall screens and an unique 

FM broadcast signal that provides movie and 

showtime information 24-hours a day. The 

Desert Star Cinema is one of seven theatres 

in ACT Enterprises' 56-screen Wisconsin cir- 

ANSCHUTZ NAMED 

KODAK THEATRE OPERATOR 

Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, the future 

host ot high profile movie premieres and 

home to the Academy Awards, has named 

sports team and venue owner Anschutz 

Entertainment Group as the official operator 

of the new complex. Under terms of the fiveyear 

contract between Kodak Theatre developer 

TrizecHahn and Ans( hut/, the latter 

will he responsible for daily operations 

including stalling, ticket sales and event 

booking. Slated for an autumn bow, the new 

theatre is part ot a massive redevelopment 

project underway in the heart ol linscitoun 

155 S. El Molino Ave., Suite 100 

CA 91101 

"Wildfire." Other amenities of the Monrovia 

Cinema 12 include computerized box-office 

stations; multi-terminal concession stands 

offering such goodies as Parrot-Ice fruit 

drinks and Bavarian Brothers pretzels; and 

an entrance decorated with commissioned 

murals. The new venue brings Krikorian's 

MUVI MAGIC IN BOCA RATON 

Steadily growing circuit 

Muvico Theaters 

has opened a new 20-screen megaplex in 

Boca Raton, Fla. Describing its new site as 

"America's Most Luxurious Movie Palace," 

the Muvico Palace 20's amenities include 

balcony screening salons, made-to-order 

meals, a full-service bar, meeting tai ililies 

and concierge service. The theatre also 

The Desert Star Cinema in Wisconsin Dells. 

plex features ,i Moroi i 

Pal.x 

. 

Wis. 

,ind 

a 65-foot tower topped off with .1 glass 

dome. Theatre amenities mi hide electronic 

KRIKORIAN BOWS 

IN MONROVIA 

Redondo Beach, < alii based Krikorian 

Premiere rheatres, which recently unveiled 

lis ( nnstiuc linn i 

Si reen plex 111 

thi Lo \ngeles suburb ol Monrov ia (see 

Exhibition Briefings. August 2000), has 

announi ed the theatre's sut i essful gram 

opening in addition i the all stadium scat 

auditi iriums w iili state i 

>i the art pn iji k in in 

the new complex features a si\ -,t< >r \ high 

'0mm large formal s, reen, whi< h 

with tin- I lis, over) I'm tun's feature 

I The Muvico Palace 20 in Boca Raton. Fla. 

1 fool i centei 

im orporates an 10 oncession 

that offers popi "in shrimp, pizza ami intet 

national coffees rhe Mediterranean-style 

n.n a Raton venue brings auderdali 

1 1

TICKER TIME

ml 

-tii 

i 

imparn 

STUDIO 

NEWS 

NOVEMBER BO 

BRINGS GOOD CHEER 

by Annlee Ellingson 

After a chilly fall season, the month of 

November gave exhibitors and distributors 

a reason to celebrate the approaching holiday 

season. According to data gathered by 

Brian Fuson, who covers the box-office beat 

for The Hollywood Reporter, domestic box 

office blew past the $700 million mark for 

the first time during the month of 

November, totaling $739.3 million and 

exceeding last year's record of $659.4 million 

by 12 percent. Audience attendance 

during the timeframe was also at an all-time 

high, with exhibitors selling an estimated 

135.7 million tickets, up six percent from 

last year's figure of 1 28.3 million. By the 

end of the month, the total box office for the 

year was one percent ahead of the comparable 

period in 1999. 

Universal's "Dr. Seuss' How the Crinch 

Stole Christmas" and Columbia's "Charlie's 

Angels" both grossed over $100 million during 

the month—another first for November—and 

"Crinch's" $145 million made it 

the highest-grossing release for the 30-day 

period. Additionally, November also had 

two full weeks that totaled over $200 million 

each, one ranking third in history among 

seven-day timeframes. 

BUENA VISTA 

RENEWS MEMBERSHIP 

IN BILLION-DOLLAR CLUB 

Buoyed by the successful Thanksgiving 

launches of "Unbreakable" and "102 

Dalmatians," Buena Vista has surpassed the 

$1 billion mark at the box office for the third 

year in a row and the sixth time in the last 

seven years. Over the weekend, the studio's 

cume reached $103 million, according to 

data gathered by The Hollywood Reporter's 

Brian Fuson. Only three other studios 

Columbia, Paramount and Warner Bros. 

have ever earned more than $1 billion in a 

single year, but each have only achieved the 

feat once. 

At $138 million, "Dinosaur" is Buena 

Vista's highest-grossing pic this year so far, 

followed by "Remember the Titans" ($111 .6 

million) and "Gone in 60 Seconds" ($101.6 

million). Universal isn't far behind: With 

"Dr. Seuss' How the Crinch Stole Christmas" 

at over $200 million, "Meet the Parents" at 

over $150 million, "Erin Brockovich" at 

$125.5 million and "The Nutty Professor II: 

The Klumps" at $123.2 million, the studio is 

poised to join the billion-dollar club before 

Christmas. 

UNAPIX FILES CHAPTER 11 

New York based film and television pro 

duction and distribution house Unapix 

Entertainment has filed for bankruptcy, 

indicating that it may look into selling the 

company. According to a statemenl 

released by Unapix, the indie distributor's 

apital 

primary lender, General I lei trie I 

Corp., will provide^ post filing tm.inc ing in 

LEAD STORY: VIVENDI, SEAGRAM, CANAL PLUS 

SHAREHOLDERS OK MERGER 

Following approval from both Canadian and French authorities, 

shareholders at Vivendi, Universal parent Seagram Co. and Canal 

Plus have responded to the companies' proposed three-way merger 

with a resounding "oui" in separate meetings on both sides of the 

Atlantic. Worth $34 billion, the resulting conglomerate would be the 

second-largest media company in the world. 

In an elaborate, three-hour meeting held at the Louvre in 

Paris, Vivendi chairman and CEO )ean-Marie Messier, who will 

lead Vivendi Universal after the acquisition, oozed enthusiasm, 

and about 95 percent of Vivendi voters approved the deal. 

Meanwhile, Seagram president and CEO Edgar Bronfman )r., 

who will 

Messier 

become vice chairman, presided over a straightforward, 

30-minute meeting at which just over 90 percent of shareholders agreed to the 

merger—well over the two-thirds majority needed. Canal Plus stockholders likewise 

sealed the deal a few days later when 98.6 percent of them approved the impending 

marriage. 

Vivendi Universal began trading in New York and Paris and held its first board meeting 

in December. 

the form of a $40 million revolving credit 

facility, and investment banking firm Salem 

Partners will explore strategic alternatives, 

including the possible sale of the company. 

Lions Gate, which recently acquired 

Trimark and took the film "Urbania" off 

Unapix's hands, has been mentioned as a 

possible buyer. 

DGA DECLARES 

DIVERSITY DENIED 

Despite promises from both the film and 

television industries to increase diversity 

among their ranks, women and minority 

directors have not made significant strides, 

and their numbers have even dropped off in 

some statistics, according to a report 

released by the Directors Guild of America. 

The percentage of new women members 

in the DGA declined to 26.6 percent 

in 1999, the lowest level since 1995, from 

28.3 percent the year before. New minority 

members increased slightly to 12.9 percent 

in 1999 from 11.2 percent in 1998. 

The number of days worked by female 

film directors declined to 7.4 percent last 

year from 8.5 percent the year before, but 

combined film and television work 

improved slightly from 10.1 percent to 

11.1 percent. Minority filmmakers also 

saw a slight increase in days worked from 

will 

7.7 percent 

continue to 

in 1998 

work closely with 

to 7.9 percent 

filmmakers 

and 

last 

year, but a sharp 

production 

drop-off 

companies 

in television 

based at 

contracts dragged down 

Warner Bros. Both report directly to 

the total minority 

worldwide 

production 

work hours 

president 

to 7.7 percent from 

Lorenzo di 

8.5 percent 

the year before. 

Bonaventura. 

Meanwhile, longtime 

"The employers have 

West 

repeatedly 

Coast public i- 

ty director i.vid friend 

promised to do everything 

of 

they can 

BOXOFFICEl Vivian 

to provide 

more 

Boyer has left 

opportunities for women 

Warner Bros., where she 

and 

was 

involved in the release 

minorities 

of every 

to establish 

film 

their careers as mem- 

since 

bers of the directorial team," says DGA president 

jack Shea. "This report clearly shows 

Ihcy arc not

u 

TECH 

TALK 

SUPPLY SIDE 

by Annlee Ellingson 

THOMSON TAKES TECHNICOLOR 

In an "agreement in principle," U.K.- 

based Carlton Communications has all 

but signed the dotted line to sell its DVD, 

video and film processing division 

Technicolor to Paris-based Thomson 

Multimedia, a consumer electronics company, 

for $2.1 billion. Under the terms of 

the deal, Thomson will pay $1.35 billion 

in cash, $600 million of which can be 

paid over four years, and one year after 

the deal is final, Carlton will obtain 15.5 

million shares, a 5.5 percent stake worth 

$717 million, of Thomson. 

The pact includes a strategic alliance 

between the two companies through 

which Carlton will invest $15 million in 

TAK, Thomson's interactive TV venture 

with Microsoft. Technicolor, which 

recently teamed with Qualcomm to create 

a digital cinema division that will provide 

encryption and compression technology 

while protecting the image's quality, 

is also expected to boost Thomson's 

digital endeavors. Partly owned by the 

French government, Thomson is assisting 

broadcasters in the transition from analog 

to digital and has a joint venture with 

Qualcomm to deliver films digitally to 

theatres. 

SPC ENDORSES 

SCREENCHECK 

In a special arrangement with Sony 

Pictures Classics, the Kodak ScreenCheck 

Program certified 50 screens at 45 venues 

across the country, ensuring that they satisfy 

the highest standards for projection 

and audio quality for the release of the 

indie distributor's "Crouching Tiger, 

Hidden Dragon," directed by Ang Lee. 

"This action-adventure thriller is about 

poetry in motion," says Sony Pictures 

Classics senior VP of acquisitions and production 

Dylan Leiner. "There are subtleties 

in the images and stereo digital 

sound that complement breathtaking performances 

by Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle 

Yeoh. We believe it is important for the 

public to experience this film the way it is 

meant to be seen and heard." 

"Sony Pictures Classics deserves to be 

applauded," says Don Lane, Kodak 

ScreenCheck manager of the entertainment 

imaging division. "It shows [the 

company's] commitment to supporting 

the creative community. This is the first 

time a motion picture distributor has 

taken this step to ensure that the director's 

NEW PRODUCT 

u , t 

Targetti-Tivoli has added the latest member of its comprehensive 

lighting system designed for stadium-seating 

theatres. The Usher Seat Light is a seat-mounted light system 

that can adapt to any manufacturer's seat and be 

mounted on a hard or soft surface. It is available in five 

ultrabright LEDs in amber, white, yellow or red. The Usher 

joins the seat-mounted Beacon and Usher Wall Light in a 

package that could reduce a theatre's lighting costs by 30 

to 40 percent per screen. Write 1513 St. Gertrude Place, 

Santa Ana, CA 92705; call (714) 957-6101; fax (714) 957-1501; e-mail tusaOtargettiusa.com; 

or logon to www.targetti.com. 

National Cinema Service Corp. has introduced the 

Popcorn Fork, which has a built-in refillable salt shaker. 

This unique eating utensil will increase popcorn sales by 

attracting the 1 to 1 5 percent of moivegoers who will not 

purchase popcorn because of the unpleasant "butter fingers" 

mess. It also will reduce napkin consumption and 

improve surface cleanliness. Write N60 W16171 Kohler 

Lane, Menomonee Falls, Wl 53051 ; call (262) 252-4346 or 

(800) 726-2609; or fax (262) 252-4382. 

The patented Norcon 

TTU-1 Series Talk-Thru 

Communicator provides 

natural two-way audio 

communication continuously 

between people separated 

by a security barrier. 

It now comes standard with 

an AKG Gooseneck microphone 

and headset jack for 

the optional TTU Headset. Write 510 Burnside Ave., Inwood, NY 11096; call (516) 239 

0300; fax (516) 239-8915; or logon to www.norconcomm.com. 

LoudBurst Media now offers FreshADs, cool and 

refreshing individually wrapped moist towlettes with cutting-edge 

advertising printed on the package. They will be 

distributed in the theatre lobbies for free to movie patrons. 

Write 1055 Sunnyvale Saratoga Road, Sunnyvale, CA 

94087; call (408) 736-5720; e-mail mnasif@loudburst.com; 

or logon to www.loudburst.com. 

vision is presented to audiences the way 

he intended." 

BGW 29—AGAIN 

is This year BGW celebrating its 30th 

anniversary in the professional audio 

business. Brian Gary Wachner founded 

the company in his garage, where he 

designed the company's first product, the 

Model 1000 Laboratory Power Amplifier. 

Since then, BGW has introduced such 

lines as the Grand Touring, BGW 

Millennium Series and Performance 

Series amplifiers as well as Rack Mount 

accessories and computers, the Self- 

Powered Subwoofer System and the 2001 

PowerLaunch amplifier families. The 

company has been run by Wachner's wife 

Barbara since he passed away in 1997. 

CROWN SHIPS 

OVER 2 MILLION WATTS 

Crown Audio has shipped its largest single 

shipment to date to one of its international 

distributors. At over 2.3 million 

watts, the sum is over twice the size of 

Crown's previous largest one-time shipment. 

ON THE MOVE 

Roger Maycock has 

QSC Hjoined Audio in the 

company's newly created 

position product application 

specialist. Maycock, 

who has worked as a product 

trainer, clinician, documentation 

specialist and 

journalist, will function as 

a technical trainer, spearheading QSC's 

education programs and serving as 

spokesperson on technical issues with the 

press. 

DIGITAL CINEMA 

DLP JUMPS FOR T-JOY 

Imax Corp. subsidiary Digital 

Projection Inc. (DPI) has sold the first 

commercial digital DLP Cinema projector 

for use in a multiplex to nascent Japanese 

circuit T-Joy. The agreement provides that 

DPI will be the exclusive supplier of DLP 

Cinema projectors to the chain for their 

future digital cinemas for the next three 

years. (Barco and Christie also have 

licensed the DLP technology from inventor 

Texas Instruments.) T-|oy's first digital 

cinema theatre opened in Hiroshima in 

early December. 

WIRED WORLD 

FTC OKs AOL/TW 

America Online and Time Warner are 

one step further down the aisle toward 

their $112 billion marriage, having been 

blessed by the Federal Trade Commission. 

The FTC has drafted a demanding prenuptial, 

however, addressing many of the

I 

oews 

could 

I 

e\ 

lollvuood 

MIRAMAX AND BOEING PRESENT THE THEATRE OF THE FUTORE 

The gloomy New York weather couldn't dampen the excitement 

at AMC's Empire Theatres in Times Square on November 14, 2000. 

Eight companies, including Miramax Films, Boeing, QuVIS and 

Williams Communications Vyvx Services, joined forces to transmit 

a major motion picture from Los Angeles to New York via satellite 

for the first time. (Indie Wavelength Releasing first accomplished 

the feat in October 1998, transmitting "The Last Broadcast" to a 

handful of venues across the country.) Their presentation and press 

conference included footage from the 2000 Academy Awards and 

Superbowl, feature film previews and roughly 1 5 minutes of selected 

scenes from Miramax's "Bounce," starring Ben Affleck and 

Cwyneth Paltrow. 

After a year's worth of preparation, "Bounce" was converted to a 

digital file in a QuVIS server, uplinked from Williams 

Communications Vyvx Services in Tulsa, Okla. to a Boeing satellite 

and downlinked to the theatre. "It was a 1 .5-terabyte file compressed 

to 59 gigs," says Laura Kenny, president of Williams 

Communications. "So it moved in 59 chunks." 

The entire process took approximately 1 2 hours, and as an added 

bonus, Williams Communications also sent the film to New York 

via their terrestrial network of fiber optic cable, showcasing the role 

that fiber technology can play in movie distribution. "Fiber is most 

effective on a point-to-point basis," Kenny says. "Whereas satellite 

is better at taking one file and simultaneously distributing it, reaching 

remote locations where there aren't necessarily key markets or 

dense populations." 

The advantages to adopting satellite technology are the same as 

in any of the proposed digital delivery systems. There's the superior, 

consistent quality of the digital image it produces over film 

stock. "You can't scratch or burn a zero or a one," says Phil Barlow, 

executive VP of the Disney Motion Picture Group. "The quality of 

presentation will be the same on every single performance." 

Also, by distributing via satellite, studios can save big money on 

film processing because no reels need to be shipped to equipped 

theatres. "In reducing the cost of doing these movies, it prompts us 

to be more adventurous," says Mark Gill, president of Miramax L.A. 

"We can develop or buy projects that are a little bit more risky 

fears of the merger's opponents, the most 

vocal of which has been the Walt Disney 

Co. 

Most of the concessions of the resulting 

conglomerate, which would be the 

biggest entertainment company in the 

world, have to do with Internet access and 

content distribution via the World Wide 

Web. Among the conditions are offering a 

choice of Internet service providers (ISPs), 

such as Earthlink, when consumers use 

the merged companies' high-speed pipes; 

prohibiting AOL/Time Warner from discriminating 

against other content 

providers or withholding AOL service via 

other companies' media, like phone lines 

or satellite; and appointing an FTC 

"trustee monitor" to oversee the merger. 

In a joint statement, AOL and Time 

Warner say, "The companies' agreement 

with the FTC is a win for consumers. The 

companies expect that their commitment 

to c onsumer choice embodied in the FTC 

agreement will become a model for other 

cable systems throughout the country." 

The proposed merger still has i" gain 

approval from the Federal Communications 

( ommission, but industry insiders 

agree that the FTC has done most oi the 

heavy lifting, and the K ( is e\pe< led lo 

bless the union by the end of January. 

FANDANGO BOWS 

AT-HOME TICKETING 

jointly 

owned 

me in keting sen n i 

l 

inemple> 

because we don't have as much of an investment. 

But all 

this technology comes with a formidable price tag, and it 

remains unclear as to who will download the dough to ready theatres 

for satellite-distributed media. "Costs have not been insurmountable 

so far, but they're not exactly cheap," says Frank Rash, 

VP of strategic development and marketing for AMC Entertainment. 

While Rash estimates expenses totaling roughly three times that of 

a normal projection booth, he remains optimistic about the numbers. 

"I don't see economics being a problem in the end, but I do 

see it being a collaboration between distribution and exhibition to 

pay lor those economics." 

With costs high and a business plan still unaddressed, the fullscale 

induction of satellite and digital projection in motion picture 

theatres remains a work in progress. But this group's in for the long 

haul. "This is the logical evolution of theatrical exhibition," says 

Rash, who believes it's only a matter of time before the tec hnology 

becomes the norm. "Six months ago I'd have said we're looking at 

five-plus years. After today, I'd put my estimation at three to five. 

Every month that goes by, those expectations are reduced." 

Barlow explained away a few minor glitches in the presentation— 

including a "Bounce" preview that got cut short and some 

patchy audio during the Academy Awards footage. "We chose to 

cut off the preview," he says. "And the sound issue was on the 

Academy Awards videotape itself that was transferred to digital for 

exhibition here." 

The presentation was well-received by both the sponsors and 

viewers alike. "I'm happy with both the press event and the screening," 

says George Scheckel, VP of digital cinema and content creation 

at 

QuVis, providers of the QuBit video server that stores the 

satellite-fed image and feeds it to the Texas Instruments digital projector 

for viewing. "That's the general consensus with the team that 

put it 

Regal, Carmike, Cinemark, General 

Cinema, Edwards and Century, has partnered 

with Cinemark to offer at-home 

ticketing. Currently available at two theatres 

in the Piano, Texas market, where 

Cinemark introduced the technology in 

August, Fandango plans to gradually platform 

the service to its other markets across 

the country. 

"Once we determine what the most 

effective way to scale it across the 

country is and once we're sure we can 

handle the operational aspects of it 

whether it's customer inquiries or customer 

service when they show up at the 

box office—that's when we'll put 

together a more aggressive rollout 

1 

schedule lor it," Fandango CEO Art 

BOXOFFICE. 

Levitt tells 

Even without a big marketing push, the 

service is already a hit among movie 

p.ilicjns. "People love it," Levitt says. 

"People are frustrated that they can't gel 

it in everv market I hat's the risk you 

take." 

TDS2000 ADDS ADS FOR FOX 

Hollywood Software has inked ,mi 

agreement with 20th Century Fox to 

develop a software system that will fai ili 

tatetheplai ement < 

together—everybody's satisfied." 

Less technically-oriented viewers generally concurred. "The colors 

were intense," says one. "I looked in on another film right after, 

and I see the difference. The light and colors faded in and 

out, the sound was scratchy. And that was a new movie." Jordan 

Reed 

>i i op advertising for 

theatrii .il films. I he system \\ ill be integrated 

\\ iih 1 1« 'IK wi » "I S< iftvt .He's theati 

i ,il distribution system ins. Minn whit h is 

currently used by I 

tributors. 

ox and othei film dis 

"In developing an integrated i 

" opet 

ative advertising system with Fox, we 

can continue to chip away at the administrative 

burden of theatrical distributors 

and bring the industry closer to the 

promise of the high-tech digital economy," 

says Hollywood Software CEO 

Dave Gajda. 

"This effort will greatly enhance our 

ability to seamlessly market our films and 

facilitate relationships with our exhibition 

partners," adds Fox IT executive director 

Randy Tunila. 

HOLLYWOOD SHEDS .COM 

With shareholder approval, Hollywood.com 

has ( hanged its name to 

Hollywood Media Corp. "The name 

Media ( oip 

( h.mge In 

reflects our success in expanding 

beyond the core Hollywood.com web 

site," says chairman and CEO Mitt hell 

Rubenstein. "By leveraging our pro! 

iiable and established database inn mum 

lion assets, Hollywood.! urn has evoked 

into a leading providet ol entertainment 

information and n< keting to not onl} 

Consumers, but to business both online 

ON THE MOVE 

Fandango has hired Eden Warner as \r 

ol finance. Reporting due. iK to CEO v 

in Warnet j< lining I 

andango from 

Ail. mil* Kic hfleld, will be responsible foi 

guiding the online tit keting t ompan\.

wanted 

have 

9 ON THE 'NET: Doug Kinney Discusses www.douglastheatres.com 

It was a snowy day in Lincoln, Neb. with 

a full-fledged blizzard on the way when 

BOXOFF1CE spoke with Douglas Theatres 

operations executive Doug Kinney regarding 

the circuit's interesting web efforts. Below, 

Kinney—with input from local web services 

provider Sterling Communications— provides 

an inside look at the thinking behind 

www.douglastheatres.com. 

BOXOFFICE: How did you decide to have 

a user poll right on the homepage? 

I Kinney: something 

interesting for our customers. 

We are still testing 

what page to list it on but 

wanted a central location 

where all visitors were likely 

to see it. Our web development 

company, Sterling 

Communications, decided to 

go with CCI-World's Poll-It 

primarily because it offers 

double vote protection by IP 

address. If the user has not 

voted in the poll, they see the poll questions 

and are able to vote. After they have 

voted, only the poll results are available. 

[We are receiving] very useful data, especially 

on upcoming movies. On average, 

we are getting 1 00 poll responses per week. 

BOXOFFICE: With the likes of 

DreamWeaver and GoLive, why did you 

prefer hand-coding, and do you plan to 

upgrade to BBEdit 6.0? 

Kinney: Sterling Communications uses 

BBEdit 5.0 (Mac) and Notepad (PC) for 

most site development. Most generators 

DreamWeaver and GoLive use a lot of 

like 

unnecessary HTML in their pages that 

increases file size and makes updating code 

by hand difficult. This was particularly 

important for the Douglas Theatres site 

because it was written in PHP. 

BOXOFFICE: How long have you been 

using Flash, now at 5, on your site? 

Kinney: The Twin Creek Theatres Flash presentation 

was the first of its kind on our site. 

When using both Flash and JavaScript, every 

effort was made to 

ensure that the site 

remained cross-browser 

compatible and also 

it that downgraded 

well to older browsers. 

BOXOFFICE: How 

are your weekly 

"Choose Movie" and 

"Choose Theatre" 

pulldown menus and 

the individual film/ 

site 

listings they lead 

to generated? 

Kinney: All of the 

internal content on 

the Douglas Theatres 

site is dynamically 

generated using PHP. 

We are able to update 

all movie listings, 

show times and external 

links through a 

back-end administration 

interface. The 

data that we enter 

is 

sent to a mySQL database 

that the PHP 

scripts read when a 

user requests a page. 

BOXOFFICE: How did you decide to take 

advantage of the relatively new approach 

Cascading Style Sheets 1 ? 

Kinney: Our main goal is to have a site that 

is user-friendly. As such, it was important to 

code a site that was cross-browser compatible 

and that would downgrade well. We will 

definitely look at using CSS2 and XMS/XSLT 

in the future, but the major browsers still 

have a long way to go before we can really 

consider either as a viable option. 

BOXOFFICE: What powers 

your search engine? 

Kinney: Again, this is written 

in PHP. Based on the 

user's criteria, the script 

builds a page of results. For 

example, if a user clicks on 

"Lincoln" on the "Advanced 

Search" page and then selects 

a movie rating of "PG" from 

the dropdown box, the script 

looks in the movie database 

and first selects movies where 

the city equals Lincoln. From those results it 

takes only those movies where the rating 

equals "PG" and displays them on the 

results page alphabetically by title. 

BOXOFFICE: What processes are 

employed in handling your e-mail requests? 

Kinney: The listings text files are created 

when updates are made to the administration 

area, so they are always up-to-date. 

When the "E-mail Listings" page loads, a 

PHP script floods the two text boxes with 

the current listings so that the users can 

copy and paste them if they want to. When 

a user clicks the "E-mail Lincoln Listings" 

or "E-mail Omaha Listings" buttons, a small 

JavaScript modifies the form action and 

sends the request for the selected city to the 

Perl cgi script to execute. 

BOXOFFICE: What kind of impact do 

advertisers have on the site? 

Kinney: This is just beginning to have an 

encouraged Sterling to 

aggressively seek out 

new advertisers and 

offer a low-ball cost 

arrangement on a 

short-term basis. This 

way the advertiser 

impact. We hope this will eventually offset 

all our costs incurred by Sterling Communication. 

I 

will be able to judge 

what type of response 

they are getting from 

site. We are very 

happy with our 

arrangement with 

Communication. 

Sterling 

We paid no 

development 

up-front 

costs for site and pay a 

low monthly fee. 

BOXOFFICE: What 

functionalities are 

next on the agenda? 

Kinney: We hope to 

be selling tickets 

online very soon in 

2001. We plan on 

providing more information 

on our companies' 

history and 

post job openings 

with online applications.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS BRIEFS 

NORTHERN EXPOSURE 

Canadian News Notes by Shlomo Schwartzberg 

LEAD STORY: EXPANDING GALAXY'S DIG DANG 

UPS ITS ORDIT IN CANADIAN EXHIBITION UNIVERSE 

Two years after its December 1998 incorporation, Galaxy 

Entertainment is poised to become the third-largest exhibitor in Canada 

after the big two chains, Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon. The mid- 

December opening of its seven-plex in Midland, Ontario, brings 

Galaxy's screen total to 1 00 screens. According to Ken Prue of Galaxy's 

marketing department, "Our goal is to deliver 30 locations in 30 

months." The new locations will be a combination of new builds and 

takeovers of existing theatres, adding "a couple of hundred screens, as 

provinces—Alberta, Quebec and Ontario— is set to expand to a fourth 

and fifth soon, with the acquisition of an eight-plex in Nanaimo, British 

Columbia, and the construction of a six-plex in Moose Jaw, 

Saskatchewan. Also being built is a 10-plex in Waterloo, Ontario, and 

possible future sites include Cornwall and Brockville, Ontario. 

Prue says Galaxy has benefited from the lack of competition in new 

builds, what with Famous Players winding down its new construction 

(Famous also holds 10 percent of Galaxy's stock in conjunction with 

Alliance Atlantis Communications) and Cineplex Odeon quiet on that 

AMC'S OPEN FORUM 

The AMC 22-plex on the site of the old hockey 

shrine The Montreal Forum will open on April 20, four 

months after it was supposed to be unveiled to the public. 

The delay was necessary to accommodate the complex's 

other tenants, says Jack Gardner, head of the 

company's marketing department in Canada. "The 

theatre was ready to go in December but a decision was 

made by the parties [involved] to open as a group." The 

entire complex, on three floors, will include a 

Cinegrand IMAX theatre, Jillian's sports bar and 

a conservative estimate" to the Galaxy chain, says Prue. 

numerous other entertainment and shopping options. 

The seven cinemas in the new Midland complex will comprise 1 ,360 AMC's only other opening at present is a 16-plex on 

seats and will offer such state-of-the-art amenities as full stadium seating 

with 18-inch risers; wall-to-wall curved screens; digital surround building slowdown is not indicative of financial prob- 

the Brampton/Mississauga, Ontario border, but the 

sound; a Playdium video arcade; and a New York Fries outlet. The lems, according to Gardner, who says AMC is doing 

Midland replaces "two aging two-plexes," says Prue, and is the fourth just fine. With films like the hit "The Grinch Who Stole 

new theatre to be unveiled by the company since June 2000. 

Christmas" playing in AMC theatres, Gardner notes 

Toronto-based Galaxy, which currently owns theatres in three that AMC is "making inroads in the market." 

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEWMARKET AGAIN 

Famous Players has just opened its latest 16-screen SilverCity 

plex in Newmarket. Ontario. It contains the first Tim Morton's 

Coffee outlet at a Famous Players site, as well as Ontario's first 

Mike's Pizza stand: that brand is popular in Famous' Quebec cinemas. 

Famous closed its six-screen Glenway Newmarket cinema 

in the wake of the new SilverCity opening 

FAMOUS TOPS THE TOP-GROSSERS 

Just 20 minutes by car from Newmarket, famed for being the 

birthplace of Jim Carrey, Famous' Colossus in Woodbridge has 

reaped huge benefits from Carrey's hit film "The Grinch Who 

Stole ( Christmas." Twice in the film's first lour weeks, the Colossus 

Woodbridge screenings boasted the number one gross in .ill ol 

North America, lor the year. Colossus Woodbridge was one of 

the top live highest-grossing complexes in Canada, all of which 

were Famous Players complexes; Famous' Paramount Montreal 

and Paramount [bronto were numbers one ami two. 

Dennis Kucherawy, VP of publicity lor I anions, attributes the 

high numbers to an upturn in film numbers after a "slump in the 

summer. We had 10 ol the 20 top-grossing theatres in North 

America." he told BOXOFFK I 

"It's a very strong Christmas season; good film 

product is moving it forward. That's good for the 

entire industry, not just AMC." 

One troubled AMC project is its long-delayed 

Yonge-Dundas multiplex, to be part of a revived 

Toronto downtown core. Development problems, 

including local merchant protests against the whole 

project and negotiations over subway access from the 

proposed complex, mean that construction on the 

front. "We're getting good deals [on equipment] and a lot more time multiplex won't break ground until March or April 

and attention then we normally would have received. We're building 2001, says Gardner, with the building's completion 

[for] well under C$120 (US$72) a square 

estimated 

foot." 

to be 18 to 20 months later. 

Galaxy, which is 60 percent owned by Toronto's Onex Corp., 

faces a bright future, says Prue. "We're on RAMPING UP 

track to deliver the rightsized, 

state-of-the-art [cinemas] to medium- and 

Famous is currently awaiting an Ontario 

small-sized communities 

across the country. We have great shareholders. Who knows 

Human 

Rights tribunal hearing over the inaccessibility to the 

handicapped of three of its theatres in 

how downtown and 

high is up?" 

midtown Toronto. Should Famous lose on the ruling, it 

will have to look into the financial viability of keeping 

the Uptown open vis a vis retrofitting the theatre for wheelchair 

accessibility. "We have to consider all 

the options for the theatres." 

says Joanne Fraser, Famous' vice president of corporate affairs, 

"We hope it will be affordable but the reality is we are a business." 

Fraser points out that none of the theatres in question show exclusive 

runs of movies, so options to see them elsewhere do exist 

The chain has constructed elevators for handicapped patrons 

in other cases where sites have been inaccessible, including at the 

Cumberland theatres and in the Yongc-Fglinton mall, adjoining 

its SilverCitJ multiplex. Notes VP of publicity Dennis 

Kucherawy, "We have responded m the past I vcrvthing we've 

been asked to do. we've done." 

WOTAN IN THE DLACK 

Wotan Capital Inc, has entered into a letter of intent to 

acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Blackwatch 

Releasing stock. The purchase price is approximate C$20 mil 

lion (US$12 million) and the deal is expected to be finalized bj 

late January 2001. Blackwatch is currently riding high with stellar 

grosses foi "Crouching 1 iger. Hidden Dragon," which pulled in 

an astounding C$333,847 (US$200,000) its first three days al 

II theatres across Canada,


EUROVIEWS 

European News Notes by Francesca Dinglasan 

LEAD STORY: SEYDOUX BROS UNITE AGAINST UGC 

PARIS—Two of France's largest and oldest theatrical circuits. Gaumont 

and Pathe, have revealed plans to combine forces through EuroPalaces, a 

new joint venture that aims to strengthen the exhibitors' position in their 

native and neighboring territories. Established, in part, to offset the chains' 

financial losses over the past several months, the partnership will be 66 percent 

owned by Pathe, with the remaining 34 percent belonging to Gaumont. 

Most prominent among the companies problems have been a steady decline 

in customer attendance since competing movie chain UGC Cine Cite introduced 

its all-access monthly pass into the French market last March (see 

EUROVIEWS, July 2000) as well the poor box-office showing of "Vatel," 

which cost Gaumont's production division an estimated 235 million French 

francs (US$36 million) to make. Brothers Jerome and Nicolas Seydoux, 

respective toppers at Pathe and Gaumont, say they expect the merger to be 

completed by mid-2001, pending approval by the circuits' shareholders and 

the French government. Eduardo Malone, who was recently appointed as 

CEO of the Pathe Group, will head EuroPalaces. 

STER-RY EYED AND MAXXIMIZING IN PRAGUE 

PRAGUE—Despite South African exhibitor Ster Kinekor's 

recent announcement that it would put its European circuit on the 

auction block (see EUROVIEWS, January 2001). the continental 

chain is continuing with plans to open a string of new multiplexes. 

The latest theatre to bow is a 10-screener located in the heart 

of Prague. Dubbed the Slovansky Dum, the new 1 ,860-seat theatre 

is Ster Kinekor's 14th European plex. The company plans to 

open two more cinemas by the end of next year. 

Also entering the beautiful market of Prague—despite the company's 

less-than-stable financial situation (see following story)—is 

Teutonic theatre chain CinemaxX. The circuit is working with site 

developer Portland Trust on a new 1 8-screen plex to anchor one of 

the busiest shopping centers in the heart of the city. 

In addition to 

the Prague venue, which is slated for a mid-2002 bow, CinemaxX is 

planning to build as many as 14 theatres in Poland, four in the Czech 

Republic, two in Slovakia, two in Hungary and four in Croatia. 

CINEMAXX SHARES LOSSES WITH SENATOR 

BERLIN—Fiscal woes continue to plague exhibitors on both 

sides of the Atlantic, as demonstrated by the fact that Germanybased 

cinema circuit CinemaxX expects to post a lost of DM 10 

million (US$4.3 million) for the six month-period ending 

December. As a result of this revelation, the company saw shares 

fall by 35 percent to four euros (US$3.50), hitting its lowest level 

since July 1999. Also suffering a blow from this recent news is 

Teutonic production house Senator Films, one of CinemaxX's 

most prominent partners. Senator reports that its share value 

dropped by 21 percent to 7.6 euros (US$6.70). Following on the 

heels of CinemaxX's revelation was Belgium-based Kinepolis' 

announcement that it would sell its 25 percent stake in the 

German exhibitor, effectively existing the market. 

KINOWELT MOVES INTO VILLAGE 

BERLIN—German film company Kinowelt has purchased a 25 

percent share of Australia-based Village Cinema's theatrical circuit 

in the Teutonic territory. This recent acquisition boosts Kinowelt's 

screen count in the local multiplex market to 160. giving the circuit 

a nearly 17 percent share. The purchase, comprising seven venues 

with a collective total of 59 screens, also includes a new 

Village plex slated to open in Munich sometime this year. 

Industry observers speculate that a local investment firm 

has acquired the remaining 75 percent of the Village 

chain, leaving Kinowelt will be in charge of daily operations. 

Kinowelt is also reported to be continuing ahead 

with plans to expand in the quite crowded U.S. exhibition 

market. 

NOVEMBER DOWN, BUT OCTOBER AND 

DECEMBER CHEERY AT U.K. THEATRES 

LONDON—According to the U.K. -based Cinema 

Advertising Association's latest report, exhibitors 

throughout the country saw a November 2000 admissions 

slump compared to the same four-week period a year ago. 

The approximate 25 percent downturn was attributed to 

the strong performances of blockbusters in release during 

the same month in 1999. including '"The Sixth Sense," "The World 

is Not Enough" and "The Blair Witch Project," which overshadowed 

the box-office success of pics in release in November 2000, 

such as "Charlie's Angels" and "What Lies Beneath." However, 

while November may have proven disappointing to the territory's 

cinema operators, the good news was that the month was sandwiched 

between a more successful October and December. The 

CAA reports that admissions rose in the tenth month by just over 

five percent compared to the previous year, buoyed by Disney's 

"Dinosaur" and UIP's "Road Trip." The organization also said 

that it expected 2000 to end on a merrier note for exhibitors than 

December 1999. with such family features as "Dr. Seuss' How the 

Grinch Stole Christmas" and "102 Dalmatians" in release during 

the timeframe. 

EUROPEAN UNION TARGETS COUNTERFEITERS 

BRUSSELS— Following on the heels of several highly publicized 

piracy crackdowns occurring throughout Asia, the 

European Commission unveiled its own set of proposals designed 

to boot bootleggers. In addition to passing stronger laws regarding 

civil damages in European piracy cases and increasing the 

amount of training officers receive, the EU is considering enlisting 

the services of its official law enforcement agency. Europol. in 

the battle against counterfeiters. According to a study conducted 

by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industr 

European companies lost an estimated 4.5 billion euros (USS4 bi 

lion) annually to bootlegged products. 

EUR0N0TES 

Italy's Cinecitta Studios has appointed Lamberto Mancini as it 

new director general. Vice director general of the company sine 

June 1999. Mancini replaces Antonio More, who stepped down 

from the post late last year alter having served at Cinecitta lor 10 

years... Encino, Calif-based theatre circuit UC1 and Polish media 

company ITI recently opened two multiplexes in Poland under the 

banner of their joint venture, Multikino... The EU-fundcd 

European Audiovisual Observatory lias launched a new databadubbed 

"Lumiere," which provides admissions information lor 

over 3.000 movies in 34 continental territories since 1996.


PACIFIC OVERTURES 

Notes From the Pacific Rim by Francesca Dinglasan 

LEAD STORY: VILLAGE LOOKS 

TO UNLOAD EXHIBITION HOLDINGS 

SYDNEY—Australia-based Village Roadshow, Oz's largest 

entertainment conglomerate, has confirmed that it will drastically 

par down its exhibition interests. Currently represented in 

18 different countries, the company hopes to consolidate its 

theatrical holdings to as little as eight territories— primarily in 

the Pacific Rim region. Village has already unloaded its 59- 

screen German circuit to local exhibitor Kinowelt (see 

ElROVIEWS, page 60). and last May. the company sold its 35 

percent stake in Hong Kong film giant Golden Harvest 

Entertainment (see Pacific Overtures, June 2000). Village 

Roadshow chairman John Kirby indicated to shareholders 

gathered at an annual meeting last November that the company 

is having a more difficult time than expected selling off its 

circuits in Argentina. France, Greece and Taiwan. Kirby also 

warns that Villagers exhibition sector is unlikely to show a discernable 

profit until the next fiscal year. 

KODAK ENTERS INDIA 

NEW DEHLI— Film giant Kodak has announced plans to 

enter India's rapidly expanding exhibition sector. The company, 

which revealed at the CineAsia convention in Hong Kong that it 

would build a new modern plex in the heart of Shanghai (see 

Pacific Overtures. January 2001). says that it hopes to construct 

and operate a chain of modern art-houses throughout India. 

Kodak is just one of many foreign investors hoping to taking 

advantage of India's underscreened market. Large-screen specialist 

Imax Corp. and Australian media mogul Kerry Packer's 

Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd., parent to Oz-based Hoyts 

Cinemas, also recently unveiled plans to invest in the territory. 

PIRATE THWARTED IN HONG KONG CINEMA 

HONG KONG—As part of the territory's intensified efforts to 

halt production and sales of bootlegged films. Hong Kong 

authorities recently arrested a man caught videotaping a movie 

being screened at a local cinema. The individual, who was caught 

with a camcorder and three minutes of footage from the Hong 

Kong thriller. "I Indercover Blues," is the first to be taken into custody 

for filming a theatrical release. Ills arrest comes jusl months 

alter the local government approved legislation that forbids 

moviegoers from bringing video cameras into theatre auditoriums 

Penalties for the crime range from a fine of HKS4800 

(USS650) for first-time offenders to a maximum penalty of 

IIKS4S.II0I1 (US$6,500) and three months of jail-time for repeat 

offenders. 

FILM PRODUCTION FALLING DOWN UNDER 

SYDNEY—According to the latesl reporl released bj the 

I .mil Down 

Australian Film Commission, production in the 

Under fell by 10 features in 2000, decreasing from the 41 films 

Blade during the previous year, More problematic, however, is 

that many of the big-screen projects, which receive government 

funding, are taking tOO long to develop Aussie pies take an average 

of just under fwu years to complete twice .is long as is 

films and over a third longer than European features. Some of the 

solutions the AFC is proposing include investing in a fewer number 

of films and encouraging projects to separate the duties of the 

writer, director and producer, so as to avoid overtaxing any one 

individual's talents. 

HARVESTING ONLINE POSSIBILITIES 

HONG KONG—Golden Harvest recently produced its first 

ever online movie. Entitled "Accidental Spy 2003." funding for the 

Internet production was raised through a joint venture between 

GH and Taiwanese Internet provider Spring House Entertainment. 

Filmed in Hong Kong and Turkey, the 20-minute feature 

was somewhat planned as a sequel to the soon-to-be theatrically 

released Jackie Chan starrer, "The Accidental Spy." 

"Accidental Spy 2003" debuted mid-December on web sites 

www.wait4me.com.hk and www.wait4me.com.tw . 

ON THE MOVE 

Twentieth-Century Fox has upped its executive VP of interna- 

- "^ 

1 

P& 

file post of president of international theatrical 

y. p distribution. Neeson. an eleven-year veteran at 

9 " Fox, is replacing Jim Gianopulos, who was elect- 

^^&J^^^ c'd as co-chairman of Fox filmed Entertainment 

^By'M H last lul; ... Mike Selwyn 

Bm I I 

tional marketing. Scott Neeson. to the high pro- 

nited Pictures Australia 

"^^^^^^* appointed as the distributor's new regional 

Scott Neeson 

supcrvisor of Australasia. Selwyn will now oversee 

the Oz and New Zealand territories. 

PACIFIC RIMSHOTS 

Australian production and distribution house the Becker Group 

is reporting healthier financial returns as a result of Asia's recovering 

economic status. The company reports that sales revenue 

jumped to AUSS51.7 million (US$27 million) for the fiscal yeai 

ending last June, despite an after-tax net loss of AUSS9.S million 

(US$5 million)... Also benefiting from the Optimistic mood in the 

region is Japan-based superstudio Shochiku. In addition to the 

recent box-office success of "Jugosai," which grossed just 

under 

¥290 million (US$2.8 million) in its native territory during the 

pic's first two weeks in release, the companj has high hopes for Us 

just-completed feature. "Rendan," and its first Korean co-production, 

"Asako m Rub) Shoes"... Indian officials reeentlv 

filed crim 

mal charges against UolKwood producer Na/ini Ri/vi. who is 

accused of coercing actors to appear in his movie bj threatening 

them with Ins connections to the local mob scene 

DO YOU HAVE EXHIBITION-RELATED NEWS 

ABOUT THE PACIFIC RIM? 

SEND CLIPS TO: 

BOXOFFICE 

155 S. El Molina Ave., Suite 100 

Pasadena, CA 91101 

Attn: Pacific Overtures

••••• OUTSTANDING 

•••• VERY GOOD 

••• GOOD 

•* FAIR 

• POOR 

(no stars) BOMB 

REVIEWS 

February 2001 

REVIEWS 

About Adam R-10 

Cast Away R-13 

Caveman's Valentine R-10 

Chocolat R-13 

The Claim R-12 

The Day Silence Died R-15 

Dude. Where's My Car? R-14 

Dungeons & Dragons R-15 

The Emperor's New Groove R-14 

The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick 

. . R-10 

Invisible Circus R-11 

Proof of Life R-13 

A Question of Faith R-11 

Split Decision R-10 

THE PRIME GIG 

DAY AND DATE: FEDRUARY 23 

***l/2 

Starring Vince Vaughn, Julia Ormond, 

Rory Cochrane and Ed Harris. Directed 

by Gregory Mosher. Written by William 

Wheeler. Produced by Cary Woods and 

Gina Mingacci. A Fine Line release. 

Drama. Rated R for language and sexuality. 

Running time: 97 min. 

The pairing of Vince Vaughn and 

Ormond in the same movie is a 

strangely unsettling prospect, as 

the output of each has been 

extremely variable in recent 

years. Thankfully, this wellscripted 

drama offers both 

strong roles to sink their teeth 

into and a chance to prove their 

considerable acting abilities. 

Vaughn stars as Pendleton 

Wise (where do they get these 

names?), a talented salesman 

who works for a two-bit telemarketing 

outfit in downtown 

Los Angeles. Penny (as he is 

known to his friends) is searching 

for "the prime gig"—a way 

I ince Vaughn stars as an ambitious telemarketer 

to make some serious money " Fine Line 's drama " The Prime Gig. 

doing what he does best. 

Opportunity presents itself in the form of actors such as George Wendt (TV's 

Kelly Grant (Ed Harris), a powerful businessman 

who has recently been released 

from jail. Grant is putting together a big 

mining deal with his partner Caitlin 

(Ormond in full-on seductress mode) and 

offers Penny a position as a closer in 

his 

salesroom. As the phones start ringing, 

Penny impresses his boss and starts to 

rake in the profits, but things become 

more complicated as he gets romantically 

involved with Caitlin. 

"The Prime Gig" explores similar territory 

to recent sales-themed movies such 

as "Boiler Room" and "The Big Kahuna" 

in particular in its depiction of smalltime 

players desperately searching for a 

big business break. Theatre director 

Gregory Mosher has made an incredibly 

stylish cinematic debut and he deftly 

handles both the initial comic scenes as 

well as the more dramatic plot turns. 

The film stars some talented character 

"Cheers") and Wallace Shawn ("The 

Princess Bride") and the chemistry 

between the leads is entirely realistic. 

The movie also features some frequently 

breathtaking cinematography from |ohn 

Alonzo, who memorably shot the city of 

angels almost three decades ago in 

"Chinatown." This is a slick and perfectly 

controlled piece of filmmaking that 

promises great things for its director's 

future cinematic projects and shows 

that, it given the opportunity, Vaughn 

can be a thoroughly convincing leading 

man.—Chris Wiegand 

Traffic R-13 

Two Ninas R-12 

The Visit R-11 

What Women Want R-14 

DAY AND DATE: 1/19 

The Prime Gig R-9 

PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED 

Coming films already reviewed R-12 

REVIEW DIGEST 

Our monthly release overview R-15 

Logon to 

www.boxoffice.com 

every Tuesday for 

the boxoffice Top 10 

and every Friday for 

the latest movie 

reviews and 

advance festival 

reviews-

ABOUT ADAM 

••• 

Starring Stuart Townsend, Frances 

O'Connor, Charlotte Bradley and Kate 

Hudson. Directed and written hy Gerard 

Stemhridge. Produced hy Anna Devlin and 

Marina Hughes. A Miramax release. 

Comedy. Rated R for language and sexuality. 


This unusual romantic comedy follows 

ihc fortunes of a large Irish family whose 

lives are turned upside-down by the arrival of 

a handsome stranger. It is a well-constructed 

film that has a plot reminiscent of Pasolini's 

"Theorem" and is set in modern-day Dublin. 

Attractive waitress and occasional 

torch singer Lucy Owens ("Almost 

Famous'" Kate Hudson) can't believe her 

luck when she meets the mysterious Adam 

(Stuart Townsend). Adam is unlike any of 

Lucy's previous boyfriends and sweeps her 

off her feet with some admirably romantic 

moves. However, unbeknown to Lucy, various 

members of her family are also drawn 

to Adam, as he seems to offer each of 

them the particular kind of companionship 

that they need. He brings passion and 

poetry to the life of Lucy's repressed sister 

Laura (Frances O'Connor) and offers her 

other sister Alice (Charlotte Bradley) a 

new sense of danger and unpredictability 

that she no longer finds in her marriage. 

For David (Alan Maher), who lives in a 

house full of women. Adam is the brother 

that he never had. However, as the affections 

of each family member grow 

stronger, everyone is forced to accept some 

unpleasant truths about Adam. 

Using a narrative structure similar to 

Doug Liman's "Go," "About Adam" is 

told from the point of view of each of the 

principal characters in turn so that it plays 

and replays a number of key scenes from 

different perspectives. This means that 

what at first seems to be a rather insubstantial 

romantic comedy gains an impressive 

amount of verve and variety as it 

unfolds. The film is only really let down by 

an unsatisfactory ending that may leave a 

bad taste in one's mouth. Chris Hiegand 

THE CAVEMAN'S VALENTINE 

*•* 

Starring Samuel I.. Jackson, Colm I'eore, 

Ann Magnuson, Aunjanue Fllis, Tamara 

Tunic and Anthony Michael Hall. Directed 

hy Kasi l.emmons. H ritten hy George Dawes 

Green. Produced hy Danny DeMto, Michael 

Shumherg, Stuccy Slur, Scott Frank, Flic 

Sumaha and Andrew Stevens. A I niversal 

locus release. Mystery I Drama. Rated R for 

language, some violence and sexuality. 

Running lime: 103 min 

There is something very appealing 

about Samuel I. Jackson as Romulus 

Ledbetter, the hero of tins painterly adaptation 

of ( ieorge Dawes ( irccn's cult detective 

novel. A shade loo appealing, perhaps 

Jackson, his lace wreathed in yards of 

dreadlocks, conveys the man's genius, the 

man's madness, the man's normalcy, sometimes 

even Ihc man's smell, with case and 

REVIEWS 

without vanity. But for some intangible 

reason, he can't quite overcome an overall 

hip, cool, trendy tone, which takes a bit of 

the edge off the story's impact. 

Despite all its good intentions and the 

talent involved, "The Caveman's Valentine" 

seems to dance too close to the style of the 

very world that has marginalized Ledbetter 

because his rhythms don't correlate. 

Watching it, one can't quite dismiss the 

notion that crazyman-as-crimesolver is 

going to be next season's high concept pitch 

to the television networks. 

That said, Kasi Lemmons' direction 

moves effectively and often affectively 

between the milieus of the haves and the 

have-nots, the homeless and the overindulged, 

and just as skillfully in and out 

of the mind of Ledbetter as he struggles 

with his own personal brand of schizophrenia 

while in pursuit of a killer. There 

are maybe a few too many seraphs swirled 

in music, but it's a vivid rendering of a 

mind leaping voids and plunging into 

imagination. However, the evil presence 

Ledbetter believes emanates from the 

Chrysler building never reads as more than 

a minor gimmick in the whole wondrous 

miasma of the man's emotions. 

The mystery plot line, though not difficult 

to fathom, is worked through as well as 

possible and with an occasional unusual 

twist—hard to accomplish these days when 

all the tricks are played out. Bridget Byrne 

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

PHILIP K.DICK *i/2 

Directed hy Mark Steensland. Produced 

hy Mark Steensland and Andy Massagli. A 

First Run Features release. Documentary. 

Unrated. Running time: 79 min. 

Mark Steensland's "The Gospel 

According To Philip K. Dick." a documentary 

on the final years of the revered eponymous 

science-fiction author, might be 

praiseworthy for the fact that it was made 

on the cheap for around $ 1 0,000. But that 

minuscule budget is all too evident. Shot on 

digital video, consisting of an hour-plus of 

talking heads ami occasionally padded by 

chint/y and repetitive animation, "Gospel" 

is a static doc, devoid of some vital information 

about the writer whose books and 

short stones were Ihc basis lor such movies 

as "Blade Runner," "Total Recall" and 

Steven Spielberg's upcoming "Minority 

Report." Ihc film ignores the early, more 

productive period of the writer's file and 

instead focuses on Ins lasi decade, when the 

combination ol drug use. heavy vitamin 

ingestion and depression (he attempted suicide 

in I972) led to a delusional slate in 

which Dick saw profound visions including 

a pink beam ol 

[ighl emitted from a religious 

necklace which he claimed warned 

him oi his son's then-undiagnosed deadly 

illness Diek went on lo pen an S. Odd-page 

tome about Ins experiences while largely 

ignoring fii tional work before dying ol 

While Dick fans may enjoy the movie, 

few outside the world of contemporary scifi 

writing will glean much from it. as 

"Gospel" lacks the immediacy, resources 

and power of a niche documentary like 

"Crumb" that offers enough perceptive 

insight on —and interviews with—its subject 

to enthrall a more general audience. 

And surely "Blade Runner" director Ridley 

Scott has something to say about the man, 

seeing as that's his best film, and it came out 

the same year Dick passed away. Did the 

filmmakers not have the time, resources or 

desire to get his take? Jordan Reed 

SPLIT DECISION •••1/2 

Starring Jesus Chavez. Directed and produced 

hy Marty Garriott. A First Run 

Features release. Documentary. Unrated. 


In 1976. "Rocky" struck a cord with 

audiences, presenting the thrilling, 

violent 

sport of boxing as the road to the 

American dream. In 1996, "When We 

Were Kings" pieced together the "Rumble 

in the Jungle" (Muhammad Ali and 

George Foreman's 1974 bout that took 

place in Zaire) to form a meditation on 

race, politics, ego and heroism expressed 

through a highly anticipated fight. Marcy 

Garriott skillfully merges the two in her 

documentary. "Split Decision." about the 

life of Mexican boxer Jesus Chavez. 

Born in Mexico but raised in Chicago, a 

teenaged Chavez, already a promising amateur 

fighter, abets in a local grocery store 

robbery, gets nabbed and spends over three 

years in prison. In 1994. he moves to Austin, 

rediscovers the ring and turns pro after just 

two amateur bouts. By 1997, he's poised to 

win the world championship. But a tough 

1996 immigration law requiring the deportation 

of undocumented aliens convicted of 

crimes stymies Chavez's chances, forcing 

him to live with his grandparents near 

Chihuahua. As his U.S. promoters take 

steps to get him back into the Stales. Chavez 

faces unusual challenges in his birth land. 

Not taken seriously as a contender, looked 

upon as an outsider and unable to find worthy 

opponents, he gets Ins last chance for 

respect and a future in professional boxing 

when he takes on the Mexican national 

champion in Mexico City in 1999. 

Through interviews with (have/ and his 

family, as well .is crunching light footage. 

Garriott wonderfully juxtaposes the serenity, 

love and subdued struggle o\' a workingclass 

family hoping to see one of their own 

rise above poverty with the brutal sport he 

adopls as his ladder. In a mere 75 minutes, 

she provides a riveting and touching look ,il 

Chavez's plight, using ii to make a larger 

point about the sevenlv of, and lack of discretion 

in. the ( congressional policy that put 

him there. What's lacking is am substantial 

tune spent wtlh the Other side Ihose who 

made and support the Strict laws to gel 

their take on the subject. Hut 'Spin 

Decision" still packsa wallop Jotdm Red

jj 

' 

j 

REVIEWS 

FLASHBACK: January, 1991 

What BOXOFFICE Said About... 

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 

[MGM's "Silence of the Lambs" sequel "Hannibal" opens February 9, with 

Anthony Hopkins reprising the role of the titular homicidal psychotic, for which 

he won an Oscar, and Julianne Moore taking over for Jodie Foster as FBI agent 

Clarice Starling. The adversaries meet again when a surviving victim of 

Hannibal Lecter's plots to murder his former tormentor.] 

Starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Scott Glenn. Directed by Jonathan 

Demme. Written by Ted Tally. Produced by 

Kenneth Utt, Ed Saxon and Ron Bozman. An 

Orion release. Thriller. Rated R for extreme 

gore and language. Running time: 118 min. 

For those of us who are ashamed to 

admit that our ears involuntarily perk up 

whenever word of a particularly grisly serial 

killing makes the evening news, the only 

regrettable source of vicarious entertainment 

has heretofore been the cheap, exploitative 

slasher pic. But "Silence of the Lambs" rectifies 

this. A serious and seriously terrifying 

examination of the mind of the mass murderer, 

this smart and creepy thriller is about 

Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), an FBI trainee 

who is charged with picking the brain of imprisoned madman Hannibal Lecter 

(Anthony Hopkins) in the hopes of assembling a profile on Buffalo Bill, a killer at 

large who's capturing plump young women and relieving them of portions of their 

skin. Lecter (known as Hannibal the Cannibal, for reasons you don't want us to go 

into) is a brilliant, thoroughly deranged psychiatrist who assaults the minds of those 

with whom he comes in contact, since prison bars prevent him from harming them 

physically. When the inexperienced and vulnerable Starling presents herself to him, 

Lecter practically licks his lips at the thought of driving this woman mad. 

He agrees to take her on as a student, teaching her in the ritualistic ways of the 

serial killer, in exchange for a transfer to a prison cell with a view. But in a horrifying 

sequence, Lecter uses the deal to make his escape, and Starling is left alone to 

track down Buffalo Bill—and to panic at the thought of Lecter tracking her down. 

This is ghoulish, deeply unpleasant stuff, handled with edgy style by an uncommonly 

grim Jonathan Demme. Foster is typically soft and stoic as the FBI agent in 

way over her head; Scott Glenn is his usual leathery self as her superior officer; and 

Hopkins is simply petrifying. One of the great actors of our time, it's no surprise that 

when this guy slips into the role of a devious, demented and unrepentant savage, 

it's almost too authentic to watch. 

Demme's lingering looks at rotting, skinned bodies and other equally revolting 

images make this movie off-limits for the squeamish (and will no doubt add additional 

fuel to the censorship fires). But for those who will concede a fascination with crime 

at its most morbid, "Silence of the Lambs" will make an indelible impression. 

THE VISIT **l/2 

Starring Hill Harper, Obha Babatunde, 

Rae Dawn Chong, Billy Dee Williams, 

Maria Gibbs ami Phylicia Rashad. 

Direeted, written and produced by Jordan 

Walker-Pearlman. An Urbanworld release. 

Unrated. Running time: 123 min. 

Based on the play by Kosmond Russell, 

which is itself based on true events, "The 

Visit" is the story of one man's search for 

understanding. Alex Waters (Hill Harper) 

is a young man from a middle-class black 

family. His mother (a remarkably good 

Maria Gibbs, who's best known from TV's 

"The Jeffersons") is loving while his father 

(Billy Dee Williams; also quite good) is 

demanding and stoic. His older brother 

(Obha Babatunde) is a successful family 

man who has always loved his little brother. 

Yet Alex sits in prison, a drug addict 

convicted of a rape he may or may not 

have committed, his body ravaged by HIV 

What happened? That's the question, and 

the filmmakers try to answer through visits 

made to Alex by his estranged family, as 

well as a number of insightful sessions 

with his psychiatrist (Phylicia Rashad). 

Most poignant are the visits paid by a girl 

he knew in his youth (Rae Dawn Chong) 

who took a similar path but somehow 

found her way home. 

There's enough material here for a very 

good short film; at feature length, however, 

it's a bit taxed. Still, there are some good 

performances and the material speaks to 

some powerful issues.— Tim Cogshell 

A QUESTION OF FAITH *i/2 

Starring Martha Haekett, Bernard Hill 

and Paul Guilfoyle. Direeted and written by 

Tim Disney. Produced by William Haney. A 

First Look release. Drama. Not yet rated. 


Martha Haekett is Anselm, a shy, solitary 

monk who, while wandering in an 

olive grove, sees a vision of Gabriel. The 

angel reaches out to touch the stunned 

Anselm, and the experience changes the 

priest in more ways that one, alienating 

him from some of the other members of 

the order. Most notably. Head Abbot 

forcing the devotee into bread-and-water -\ 

captivity. Brother Francis (Paul I 

Guilfoyle) finds himself caught in the I 

middle and, in a moment of weakness, 

can't act to save Anselm. It is Francis" 

confession that bookmarks a story told I 

entirely in flashback. 

Glib religiosity sinks "A Question of I 

Faith" as writer/director Tim Disney pays 

lip service to his idea that those dedicated 

to pious, austere livelihoods are capable of 

selfishness and brutality. But he doesn't 

ignite his material—as Martin Scorsese did 

with "The Last Temptation of Christ" — 

with the fire of conviction. Paul Clinton 

*• 

THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS 

Starring Jordana Brewster, Christopher 

Eccleston, Cameron Diaz, Blythe Danner 

and Patrick Bergin. Directed and written by 

Adam Brooks. Produced by Julia Chasman I 

and Nick Wechsler. A Fine Line release, 

j 

Drama. Rated Rfor sexuality, language and 

drug content. Running time: 92 min. 

Adapted from Jennifer Egan's novel, I 

"The Invisible Circus" follows a young j 

woman's quest to find out about the death 

j 

of her sister in the revolutionary counterculture 

of the early '70s. This promising 

I 

setup opens the door to some intriguing 

ideas about the perils of challenging the 

establishment in any era. but Canadian I 

writer-director Adam Brooks' slow-paced 

screen adaptation fails to draw much dramatic 

tension out of what follows. 

In the main plotline, set in 1977, all- 

American 18-year-old Phoebe (Jordana 

Brewster) is so haunted by the incomplete 

reports of her sister Faith (Cameron 

Diaz)'s suicide in Portugal six years earlier 

that she defies her concerned mother 

("Meet the Parents'" Blythe Danner) and 

heads off to Europe to investigate. 

From the start, the way the film doles 

out conveniently small chunks of Faith's 

story (Phoebe following a stack of her sislet's' 

postcards to different European cities. 

Faith's boyfriend Wolf (Christopher 

Eccleston)'s bit-by-bit account of what 

happened six years earlier) feels pretty 

artificial. And after all the build-up. the 

truth about Faith's fate is quite a letdown. 

Michael Tunison 

Frederick (Bernard Hill, sharp as a 

Catholic fascist with an Iron Cross pen- 

dant) punishes Anselm for his "lies." 

j| 

I 

I

TWO NINAS *V2 

Stan-inn Amanda Peet, 

Ron Livingston, 

Cava Buono anil Bray Poor. Directed and 

written by Neil Turitz. Produced by Denise 

Doyle and Greg Sclteinman. A Castle Hill 

release. Romantic comedy. Rated R for language. 

Running time: HH min. 

'Two Ninas" revolves around the love 

triangle between Marty (Ron Livingston 

of "Office Spaee"), Nina Cohen (Cara 

Buono of "Next Stop. Wonderland") and 

Nina Harris ("The Whole Nine Yards'" 

Amanda Peet). as reeounted by Marty's 

good buddy Dave (Bray Poor), a chainsmoking 

lawyer and devout womanizer. 

Mart>. a struggling novelist and sub-par 

Casanova near the end of his rope on the 

isolating island of Manhattan, meets and 

begins seeing the two lovely ladies within 

days of each other. At first content to juggle 

his dual relationships. Marty eventually 

realizes that while he cares strongly for 

each woman, he must decide between them 

before his duplicity gets him into trouble 

and hurts one or both. 

As its title suggests, Neil Turitz's debut 

project relies entirely too heavily on contrived 

coincidence to drive its plot forward—including 

an out-of-left-field and 

preposterous meeting between Marty and 

a literary agent —and neglects the more 

vital aspect of character development. 

Turitz sets up the traits of the unknowingly 

dueling women with building-block simplicity: 

one likes sports, quotes endless 

movie lines and makes Marty wait before 

sleeping with him; the other has an impressively 

cultural job as a museum curator, a 

ski chalet in Aspen and a ravenous libido. 

How is a stereotypical creative male supposed 

to choose? Turitz. perhaps unintentionally, 

makes Marty's monumental decision 

to give one of his Ninas the axe a nobrainer 

when, near the end of the film, one 

of them tells him to "turn that frown 

upside-down." It's simply impossible to 

have a meaningful relationship with anyone 

who uses that expression. And it's 

awfully hard to endure a script that contains 

it. Jordan Reed 

THE CLAIM 

*l/2 

Starring Peter Miillan. Sarah Policy, 

lies 

Bentley, Milla Jovovich and Xastassja 

Kinski. Directed by Michael \\ interhottom. 

Written by Irani, ( ottrcll Boyce. Produced 

by indrew Eaton. An MGM release. Drama. 

Ruled R for sexual content, some language 

and violence. Running time: 122 min. 

( inematographei Alum II. Kuchler's 

masterful framing of Canada's Fortress 

Mountain, which serves as the Sierra 

Nevada setting in Michael Wintcrhottom's 

"Ihe Chum." is largel) wasted on [Ins 

oserlong (ale of regret and greed in the 

( (old Rush-era American West 

I oosel) based mi Thomas Hardy's 

hovel "The Mayor ol Casterbridge," the 

film follows Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan), 

an extremely wealths 49er who runs the 

REVIEWS 

mining community of Kingdom Come. It's 

1869 and the only concern marring 

Dillon's comfortable life with lover Lucia 

\ nice Dalglish (Wes Bentley), head of the 

Pacific Coast Railroad's surveying party, 

to have the cross-continental train run 

through town. This all changes when 

Dillon's now dying wife Elena (Nastassja 

Kinski) and adult daughter Hope (Sarah 

Polley). whom he traded 20 years earlier 

for the claim of gold nugget-filled land 

that brought him his fortune, come to 

town in search of him, awakening deeply 

buried feelings of shame and longing. 

Besides being tediously slow in 

unveiling 

Dillon's dark secret, told in the all 

(Milla Jovovich). the proprietor of the 

local saloon and whorehouse, is to con- 

too 

conventional method of guilt-ridden flashbacks, 

the film clearly doesn't have faith in 

its ensemble cast's ability to convey the 

complexities of each onscreen persona. 

Instead. Frank Cottrell Boyce's script 

relies on painfully trite dialogue and predictable 

plot points to assure audiences of 

the characters' pure hearts. There's not a 

shadow of a doubt, for example, that the 

womenfolk aren't just after Dillon's 

wealth. Lucia's exclamation. "I don't want 

your money! I'm not a whore!" alter he 

offers her land as a way to end their relationship 

and Elena's weak entreaty, "I just 

want to do right by Hope" in her request 

for financial assistance from her former 

husband are just two of the pic's obvious 

cries for character sympathy. 

The most attractive quality about the 

movie is undoubtedly the breathtaking 

landscape that forms its backdrop. 

However, like fool's gold. "The Claim" is 

something pretty to look at but ultimately 

worthless. Francesca Dinglasan 

PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED: JANUARY THROUGH AUGUST FILMS 

The alphabetical list below notes the issue of BOXOFFICE in which our review of an 

upcoming film appeared, the star rating and the distributor/release date information. 

"A motes Perros" **l/2: Lions Gate, 3130; see December 2000. 

"Better Housekeeping" *l/2: Universal Focus, April undated; see April 2000. 

"Better Than Sex" **l/2: IDP, April undated; see November 2000. 

"Bread and Roses" •••1/2: Lions Gate, 51 i8; see August 2000. 

"Brother" ••: SPC, 6115; see November 2000. 

"Chopper" •••: First Look, 4111; see November 2000. 

"The Circle" •••: Winstar, 319; see December 2000. 

"Deep in the Woods" *l/2: Phaedra, 1st Quarter undated; see November 2000. 

"The Dish" •••: Warner Bros., 319; see November 2000. 

"Faithless" ••••: IDP, 1126; see November 2000. 

"Fast Food, Fast Women" •••: Lot 47, 5111; see September 2000. 

"The Gleaners and I" ••••: Zeitgeist, 317; see November 2000. 

"The Golden Bowl" ••: Lions Gate, 4127; see August 2000. 

"Happy Accidents" •••: 1FC, August undated; see April 2000. 

"In the Mood For Love" ••••: USA, 212; see November 2000. 

"The King is Alive" •••1/2: 1FC, April undated; see November 2000. 

"The Legends of Rita" ••••: Kino, 1124; see November 2000. 

"Love, Honour and Obey" ••••: Keystone, January undated; see July 200(1. 

"The Luzhin Defence" •••: SPC, 4127; see November 2000. 

"Me, You, Them" ••: SPC, 312; see November 2000. 

"Million Dollar Hotel" •••: Lions Gate, 212; see July 2000. 

"The Princess and the Warrior" ••: SPC, 4127; see November 2000. 

"Road to Park City" •••1/2: Phaedra, 1123; see April 2000. 

"Sexy Beast" •••: Fox Searchlight. Spring undated; see November 2000. 

"Shadow Magic" ••1/2: .SVC. 4127; see November 2(1(10. 

"Simon Magus" •••1/2: IDP, February undated; sec December 2000. 

"Smell of Camphor..." k-kUl; New Yorker, February undated; sec November 20011. 

"Snatch" • •••:/ Si, III'); see January 2001. 

"Songcutcher" #**l/2: Trimark, June undated; sec 1/7/7/ 2000. 

"The Taste ofOthers" •••: Artistic License, 219; sec November 2000. 

"The Vertical Ray of the Sun" ••••: SPC. 7 I6; sec December 2000. 

"The Taste of Others" *•*: Artistic License, 219; see Sovcmhcr 2000. 

"Vulgar" +: Lions Gate, Summer undated; see November 200(1. 

"The Widow of St. Pierre" • ••••: I. ions Gate, 2123: see July 2000.

, 

*•* 

TRAFFIC 

Starring Benicio Del Tore, Michael 

Douglas, Don Cheadle and Catherine Zeta- 

Jones. Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by Stephen Gaghan. Produced h 

Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and 

Laura Biekford. A USA release. Drama. 

Rated R for pervasive drug content, strong 

language, violence and some sexuality. 


In 'Traffic " director Steven Soderbergh 

deftly weaves together four stones depicting 

the causes and effects ot the illegal drug 

trade: Tijuana cops Javier (Bemc.o Del 

Toro) and Manolo (Jacob Vargas) wade 

their way through corrupt Mexican law 

enforcement to stop heroin from crossing 

the border; Robert Wakefield (Michael 

Douglas), a Supreme Court Justice 

appointed to the office of anti-drug czar, 

juggles his intense, increasingly futile work 

hfoand his crumbling relationships with his 

wife (Amy Irving) and drug-addicted 

teenage daughter (Enka Chr.stensen); San 

the rampant, destructive flow of dangerous 

drugs and their shattering repercussions. 

Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen 

Gaghan (basing his script on the U.K. 

miniseries "Traffik") pile on a preponderance 

of good vibrations, tamtmg the gritty 

realism that precedes them.—Jordan Reed 

REVIEWS 

***V2 

PROOF OF LIFE 

Starring Meg Ryan, Russell Crone and 

David Morse. Directed by Taylor Hackford. 

Written by Tony Gilroy. Produced by Taylor 

Hackford and Charles Mulvehill. A Warner 

Bros, release. ActionlDrama. Rated R for 

violence, language and some drug material. 


Based on a 1998 Variety Fair article 

entitled "Adventures in the Ransom 

Trade." "Proof of Life" details 

the fasci- 

business dealings behind the 

nating big 

world of K&R (kidnapping and ransom) 

victimize as many as 

that reportedly 

S0.000 people annually. A well-paced 

drama buoyed by exceptional performances, 

the film offers an intelligent alternative 

blow-'em-all-to-hell trope 

to the that seems to have become the standard in 

bigscreen action flicks. 

Peter Bowman (David Morse) is an 

American engineer constructing a dam in 

the fictional South American country o 

Tecala He and his wife Alice (Meg Ryan) 

are going through a particularly tough 

time in their marriage when he is taken 

hostage by an anti-government guerrilla 

dependent spouse-turned-cavaherlawbreaker 

Jones' prisoner, desperate to 

portion of the him. 

ically deteriorating 

return to his Wl {e -Francesca Dinglasan 

While "Traffic" proves difficult to categorize, 

it's more akin to Soderbergh s somewhat 

stylized, commercial work ot the past CASTAWAY *•• 

Starring Tom Hanks. Helen Hunt 

few years (excluding "The Limey ) 

than to 

the esoteric films from his early career, such Sick Seam: Directed by Robert Zemeckis. 

as his debut, "sex. lies, and videotape, and Written by' William Broyles Jr. Produced by 

"King of the Hill." Better than Erin Steve Starkey, Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis 

Brockovich" (a classy but ultimately unambiguous 

feel-good film) and interior to the PG-13 for some intense images and action 

and Jack Rapke. A Fox release. Drama Rated 

sequences. Running time: 143 min. 

playful but sharp "Out of Sight. Traffic 

ultimately comes off as a message movie Two hundred eighty-one years alter the 

of "Robinson Crusoe, the 

publication 

by a dollar-conscious Hollywood 

tainted 

optimism that forces its way into the I male 

storyline. While there s nothing 

d.rector and star of "Forrest Gump 

reteam to update the venerable shipwreck 

crafted 

with the solidly of each 

wrong with injecting hope into the seemingly 

efforts of this country to stem 

survivor 

"Cast 

genre 

Away." Interwoven with 

chaos 

timely 

of 

fruitless observations about the centerless 

the modern world, helmer Robert 

life in 

Zemeckis' classy adventure drama has no 

shortage of compelling moments, though 

the straightforward concept starts to wear 

out its welcome a bit toward the end ot the 

film's epic 143-minute running time. 

Tom Hanks stars as Chuck Noland 

(no-land, get it?), a time-obsessed FedEx 

executive dedicated to rush, rush, rushing 

packages around the world. Initially hes 

loo busy even to spend Christmas with his 

girlfriend ("What Women Wants Helen 

Hunt) but his carefully calibrated life is 

destroyed when a plane crash dumps him 

on an uninhabited island in the South 

Pacific Without ready sources ot essentials 

such as water, food and fire, the hero 

has to bone up on his Boy Scout skills fast 

if he wants to survive. 

Survive he does, of course, eventually 

transforming into a wild-bearded, wiry 

island rat reduced to carrying on extended 

conversations with a volleyball. The filmmakers 

pulled off the resulting radical 

change in Hanks' appearance by shutting 

down the production for a year so the 

actor could do a reverse "Raging Bull and 

drop a startling amount of weight in the 

middle of the movie. This stunt lends an 

authenticity to Hanks' largely unspoken 

performance that, combined with 

Zemeckis' Spielberg-ian mastery ot acces- 

Die»o DEA agents Montel (Don Cheadle) 

and Ray (Luis Guzman) babysit a dealer 

sible cinematic storytelling, gives the island 

(Miguel Ferrer) set to testify against his 

ncaroerated supplier Carlos (Steven group. Professional hostage negotiator sequences a simple power future man-vs.- 

nature films will have a hard time topping. 

Bauer); and Carlos' frantic wife (Catherine Terry Thome (Russell Crowe) is called in 

That said. Zemeckis and screenwriter 

Zeta-Jones) immerses herself in her husband's 

once-secret business to keep the fam- 

victim's safe return. After months of 

bv Peter's company to assist in securing the 

William Broyles Jr. lose some momentum 

in the long-winded final act which would 

ily safe from his threatening associates. lengthy negotiations requiring daily contact 

on an intimate basis, Terry begins to 

have worked better if it had followed 

_ 

As opposed to Paul Thomas Anderson s 

Hanks' example and gotten rid of some 

mult-stoned "Magnolia." "Traffic doesrit have feelings for Alice, and she, having 

unneeded flab.—Michael Tumson 

force connections between players for the taken comfort in his presence, also begins 

sake of pseudo-philosophical statement. to develop a romantic attachment. 

CHOCOLAT **l/2 

But like "Magnolia." the movie's storylines Although Ryan quite capably fulfills 

Starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Bench, 

range widely in quality. The Mexico segment—which 

Soderbergh coats in a jaun- 

emotional roller coaster, the film unques- 

the role of a worried wife caught in an 

Alfred Molina, Lena Olin. Carrie-Anne 

Moss, Leslie Caron, Peter Stormare and 

diced yellow tint (he serves as cinematographer, 

as well)-is far and away the both masterfully capture the psychological 

tionably belongs to Crowe and Morse, who 

Johnny Depp. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom 

Written by Robert Selson Jacobs. Produced 

strongest, in no small part due to Del Toro s tension that progressively begins to overwhelm 

each of their characters. The stoic 

by David Brown, Kit Golden and Leslie 

understated performance as what amounts 

Holleran. A Miramax release. Drama. 

to the only upright policeman in all ot yet lonely quality Crowe lends his onscreen 

Rated PG-13 for a scene of sensuality and 

Tijuana. It magnifies the flaws of Zeta- persona strikes a perfect balance to 

some violence. Running time: 121 mm. 

Morse's portrayal of a mentally and phys- 

This tediously innocuous adaptation of 

Joanne Hams' novel is about an attractive 

single mother (Juliette Binoche) whose 

enticing chocolate sweets, based on an 

ancient Mavan recipe, shake rattle and ro 11 

the moral foundation of a sleepy rural village 

in post-war France. Directed by Lasse 

Hlllstrom ("The Cider House Rules ) 

with his customary pastoral reverence. 

is. in concept, an appealing 

"Choeolat" 

liberally pillages Us themes and 

,dea. but it 

older, better 

constructs from a variety ol 

m°The adversarial relationship between 

Binoche's Vianne Rocher and Alfred 

Molina's iron-listed, moralistic tow n mayoi 

Comte de Reynaud. is contrived and car 

toonish, while the various subplots (.Hid 

Dench and Carrie- Anne Moss as a. 

estranged mother and daughter and Leni 

Olin as the abused wife of drunken ogr 

Peter Stormare) rely purelj on the strengt 

of performance to outweigh the pat prt 

disability of their outcomes.—Wade Map

THE EMPERORS NEW GROOVE 

• ••1/2 

Voiced by David Spade, John Goodman, 

Eurtha Kitt and Patrick Hdrhurton. Directed 

by Mark Dindal. Written by David Reynolds. 

Produced by Randy Fullmer. A Buena I ista 

release. Family. Rated G 7 f min. 

On the eve of his 1 8th birthday. Emperor 

Kiizco (voiced by Da\id Spade), a heartless. 

self-centered brat who feels that the general 

populace's sole purpose is to serve him. 

commands citizens to build him a personal 

water park and then terminates the services 

of his aging advisor, Yzma (Eartha Kitt), 

without a hint of remorse. In retaliation. 

Yzma turns Kuzco into a llama, forcing the 

petulant animorph to befriend a peasant. 

Pacha (John Goodman), to survive. The 

unlikely duo's friendship solidifies after a 

comical fight between the two as they dangle 

high above a ravine with only a few vines 

holding them up. The transformation 

Kuzco goes through under Pacha's tutelage 

is predictable but Spade's sarcastic humor 

throws some curves in the road down which 

this buddy-buddy adventure travels. 

Going against the Disney norm, this 

film is not deluged with musical numbers 

every few minutes—though at a humorous 

high point, Yzma's henchman Kronk 

(Patrick Warburton) is sent on a secret mission 

whereupon, creeping from the palace. 

he provides his own theme music. When he 

has to freeze to remain undetected, he is still 

audibly holding a note as people walk by. 

Even in animation, the formula that has 

worked over and over for David Spade 

the incongruous pairing of "fatty and 

skinny," as he has been known to term it 

is employed to great success in Disney's 

seriously revamped film, formerly known 

by the more portentous title "Kingdom of 

the Sun." After cutting out a few characters, 

drastically changing the plotline and 

dropping several songs, the result is genuinely 

a new groove with a humorous, feelgood 

twist. Dwayne F. Leslie 

DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? 

•• 

Starring Ashton Kutcher, Seann H illiam 

Kristy SwttttSOIl and Maria Sokoloff. 

Scott, 

Directed by Danny Leiner. Written by 

Philip Stark. Produced by Broderick 

Johnson, Andrew Kusovc, Gil \etter and 

Wayne Allen Rice. A Fox release. Comedy. 

Rated PC- If for language and some sex and 

drug-related humor. Running time:

REVIEWS 

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 

•1/2 

Starring Justin Whalin, 

Marlon Wayans, Zoe McLellan, 

Thora Birch and Jeremy Irons. 

Directed by Courtney Solomon. 

Written hy Topper Lilien & 

Carroll Cartwright. Produced 

hy Courtney Solomon, Kia Jam 

and Tom Hammel. A New Line 

sub-par sword-and-sorcery Hick. 

Empress Savina (Thora Birch) 

wants equality for all her people, 

commoners and elite 

magic-using Mages alike, but 

this incurs the wrath of Profion 

(Jeremy Irons), who, happy 

with the status quo. schemes to 

oust the Empress. To prevent 

the megalomaniacal Mage 

from scoring his coup, a motley 

gang of adventurers that 

includes thieves Ridley (Justin 

Whalin) and Snails (Marlon 

Wayans) and an apprentice 

Mage (Zoe McLellan) mount a 

quest for the red scepter that 

will help Savina defeat Profion. 

Producer-director Courtney 

Solomon reportedly spent 10 

years pushing to get this movie 

made; his drive unfortunately 

doesn't compensate for his 

inexperience. Muddy visuals 

and awkward pacing conspire 

with bombastic music to make 

the movie seem less than the 

sum of its parts. Worse, the 

script is half-baked, derivative 

and cliched. It may be nearly 

impossible to do fantasy nowadays 

without cribbing from 

"Star Wars" and the Tolkien 

oeuvre, but "D&D" doesn't 

even put its own spin on its 

stock situations the way, say, 

"The Princess Bride" did with 

its wry, subversive wit. 

While "D&D" obviously 

hasn't set out to redefine a 

genre, it doesn't succeed on its 

own modest terms, either, offering 

neither enthralling adventure 

nor memorable characters. 

A tense sequence in a deathtrap 

maze and a campy cameo 

by Richard O'Brien of "Rocky 

Horror" fame redeem "D&D" 

from total doghood but these 

elements don't lend enough of 

the magic this film so desperately 

needs. L. J. Strom 

THE DAY SILENCE DIED 

•* 

Starring Dario Grandinetti, 

Gustavo Angarita and Elias 

Serrano. Directed hy Paolo 

Agazzi. Written by Paolo Agazzi 

and Guillermo Aguiree. Produced 

by Martin Proctor. A First Run 

release. ComedyIDrama. Spanishlanguage; 

subtitled. Not yet 

release. FantasyIAction. Rated rated. Running time: 112 min. 

PG-13 for fantasy action violence. 

Running time: IOS min. 

A 

disc 

brilliantly-mustachioed 

jockey named Abelardo 

Though inspired by a fantasy 

role-playing game that's been 

(Dario 

like Dylan 

Grandinetti, 

McDermott 

looking 

in a 

popular for more than 25 years, Rollie Fingers biopic) comes to 

"Dungeons & Dragons" is a the small Bolivian town of 

Villaserena, a peaceful place 

hence the name—unaccustomed 

to modern conveniences 

such as electricity. After setting 

up speakers throughout and 

drawing people in with music 

and news, Abelardo starts selling 

air time to the local rubes, 

who take the opportunity to 

broadcast their private squabbles 

to the entire village. 

Originally out to bilk pesos 

from the hapless inhabitants, 

Abelardo falls for the voluptuous 

Celeste (Maria Laura 

Garcia), a young woman literally 

chained to her father 

Ruperto (Elias Serrano) since 

her mother ran off with a traveling 

actor years before. As the 

on-air rants get more and more 

heated, the once-tranquil town 

becomes unhinged, as does the 

smitten DJ after realizing a 

local young farmer (Guillermo 

Granda) is also after the 

imprisoned Celeste's heart. 

Abelardo's broadcasts have 

a South American "Northern 

Exposure" feel to them initially, 

and Agazzi starts off providing 

touches similar to the cozy, 

insulated lives on that unique 

TV series. But his characters 

wind up one-dimensional and 

inconsistent, and his conceit of 

having the story told through 

the omniscient eyes of local 

writer Oscar (Gustavo Angarita), 

toying with the possibility 

that 

he's created the events, serves 

more to disrupt the How of the 

picture than infuse it with the 

romantic influence of magical 

realism. Instead of subtly alluding 

to the dangers inherent in 

introducing modernity to a 

blissfully unwitting audience, 

Agazzi would rather broadcast 

that idea as loudly as the townsfolk 

do their partners' infidelities.— 

Jordan Reed 

Review Digest 

Genre key: (Ac) Action; (Ad) Adventure; (Am) Animated; 

(C) Comedy; (D) Drama; (Doc) Documentary; (F) Fantasy; (Hot) 

Horror, (M) Musical; (My) Mystery; (R) Romance; (Sat) Satire; 

(SF) Science Fiction; (Sus) Suspense; (Th) Thriller; (W) Western. 

'I I 

Almost Famous R (DW) 

Si

' irelbra o "" : ing are the results of tl 

movietone 

Moviegoer Poll & Activity Report for November 2000 

QUESTION OF 

THE MONTH: 

When going to see a movie in 

a movie theater, is it more important to you 

that the theater has a high quality sound system or a high quality picture?

w&WSlSSSS 

HUlVIt KtLtAbt UMAKI 

February 2001 

HOME VIDEO 

RELEASE 

DATE

' 

QSC AUDIO PRODUCTS I 

Cypress. CA i 

ADVERTISERS INDEX 

ADVERTISER PHONE/FAX E-MAIL/WEBSITE CONTACT PAGE 

ATLAS SPECIALTY LIGHTING 

BARCO DIGITAL CINEMA 770-218-3200 sales, us. bps@barco. com 

770-218-3250 www.asccompanies.com 

CINEMA SUPPLY COMPANY INC. 

502 South Market Street. 

Millersburg. PA 17061 

Marvin R. Troutman 

4237 24th Avenue V. 

Seattle, WA 98199 

206-284-9171 

DEEP VISION 3-D 

post«j 3Dglasses.com 

www.30glasses.com 

OOLBY LABORATORIES 

Patrick Artiaga 

DTS (DIGITAL THEATER SYSTEMS 

EASTMAN KODAK CO. 

EAW (EASTERN ACOUSTICS 

WORKS) 

mmayfieldeeaw.com 

Karen Anderson 

Carey Crupi 

Louis Bornwasser 

SCREEN CORPORATION 

JBL PROFESSIONAL 

JMC (JOHN MEYER CONSULTING) 

dperryaharman.com 

www.jblpro.com 

mail@johnmeyerconsulting.com 

Chuck Goodsell 

LARGO THEATRE CONSTRUCTION 

O'SHEA & COGHLAN 

Dorit Rabbani 

MCRAE THEATRE I 

NATIONAL CINEMA SERVICE 

PERKINELMER OPTOELECTRONICS 

i3.reinagperkinelmer.ee 

iperkinelmer.com/opto 

READY THEATRE SYSTEMS L.L.C. 

gborr arts-solutions. 

SENSIBLE CINEMA SOFTWARE 

73 

SMART THEATRE SYSTEMS 

inlogsmartdev.com 

C-4 

SPECO (SYSTEMS 8, PRODUCTS 

ENGINEERING COMPANY) 

709 North Sixth Street 

Kansas City,_KS 66101 

inlogspeco-usa.com 

Jaren Higginbotham 

SUPERIOR QUARTZ PRODUCTS I 

I Route 519, P.O. Bo 

TECHNIKOTE CORP 

www.technikote.com 

UNIVERSAL CINEMA SERVICES INC. 1205 Corporate Drive East 

Arlington, TX 76006 

XEN0NBULBS.COM 

www.boxoffice.com

J 

. t) 1 

i 

RATES: $1.00 per word, minimum $25, 

$15 extra for box number assignment. 

Send copy with check to Boxoffice, P.O. 

Box 25485, Chicago, IL 60625, at least 60 

davs prior to publication. 

BOX NUMBER ADS: Reply to ads with box 

numbers by writing to Boxoffice, P.O. Box 

25485, Chicago, IL 60625; put ad box 

number on letter and in lower-left corner of 

your envelope. 

HELP WANTED 

GENERAL MANAGER NEEDED. Immediate opening 

for large multiplex in St. Louis, MO. Multiplex theatre 

experience required. Competitive salary, concession 

bonus, benefits. Fax resume to Ben Moore 

(785)832-0661. 

GROWING MIDWEST-BASED company has positions 

open for District Manager, General Managers. 

Project Manager and Sound Servii e personnel. We 

are seeking individuals who are able to rise to the 

challenges of a growing company. Applicants must 

be willing to relocate. Send resume and salary 

requirements to ShoPro, Inc., Attn: Director of 

Operations, P.O. Box 190, Yorkville, I L 60560. Or 

email to ioe@shoproinc.com, 

MIDWEST BASED company seeks experienced 

managers, assistants and sound and projection service 

person. We are growing throughout the 

Midwest and are seeking individuals who are able to 

rise to the challenges and are leaders. Relocation 

may be necessary. Send resume and salary requirements 

to: ShoPro Inc., Attn: Director of Operations, 

POBox 190, Yorkville, IL 60560. 

WANTED: EXPERIENCED HEAD FILM BUYER for 

expanding theatre circuit. Relocation necessary. 

Theatre operational experience helpful. Come and 

help us grow! Send letter & resume to BOX 4759, 

BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE 

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE 

2 COMPLETE BOOTHS, 2 Norelco MDL.DP-75 

35/70, 2 Norelco FP-20 6,000 FT.MAG, 4 Kinitron 

lamphouses MDL-2000, 4 Kinitron rectifiers model 

M85R, 465 Irwin seats, ET. Call Jerry (216) 447- 

1188, Cleveland, OH. 

BOX OFFICE TICKETING AND CONCESSION 

EQUIPMENT. Stand alone ticketing or fully integrated 

theatre ticketing and/or concession systems are 

available. These fully tested, re-manufactured Pacer 

Theatre Systems come with a one-year warranty. 

Call Gene at (800)434-3098. 

BURLAP WALL COVERING DRAPES: $2.05 per 

yard, flame retardant. Quantity discounts. Nurse & 

Co., Old Millbury Rd., Oxford, MA 01540 (508) 

832-4295. 

CENTURY MODEL || 35MM/70MM projector and 

soundhead. Good condition. Some lenses available. 

P& G Theaters i '149-4761 

CENTURY, SIMPLEX, AND CINEMECCANICA projectors 

and soundheads, Kneisley lamphouses, 

Century consoles, Speco platters and makeup 

tables, lenses and Dolby and DTS sound systems. 

Boxoffice and concession equipment. 5000 seats. 

(801 ) 265-01 88; fax (801 ) 265-0558. 

COMPLETE THEATRE EQUIPMENT: (New, Used or 

Rebuilt) Century SA, R#, RCA 9030, 1040, 1050 

Platters: 2 and 5 Tier, Xenon Systems 1000-4000 

Watt, Sound Systems mono and stereo, automations, 

ticket machines, curtain motors, electric rewinds, 

lenses, large screen video projectors. Plenty of used 

chairs. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND INSTALLA- 

TION AVAILABLE DOLBY CERTIFIED. Call Bill 

Younger, Cinema Equipment, Inc., 12441 S.W. 130 

St., Miami, FL 33186. Phone (305) 232-8182. Fax 

105] 232 8172. 1-800-848-8886. 

CUPHOLDER ARMREST. "State of the art." Call Cy 

Young Industries Inc. 800-729-2610. 

PATRON TRAY. Fits into cupholder armrest. Call Cy 

Young Industries Inc. at 800^729-2610. 

PROJECTION BOOTHS: single and multiples available. 

Century and Simplex projectors. Christie 

autowind 3 platters, Christie consoles. Reasonably 

priced. P&G Theaters (established 1970). (301) 949- 

4761. Fax: (301)949-4763. 

REBUILT CENTURY SA & R3 projector/soundhead 

$4450. Simplex XL $4750. Xenon lamps, platters, 

many lenses, excellent line of other used projection 

and sound equipment. TANKERSLEY ENTERPRISES, 

PO Box 36009, Denver, CO 80236. Phone (303) 

716-0884; fax (303) 716-0889. 

SPEAKERS: PAIR ALTEC MINI "Voice of the 

Theatre" bass reflex enclosures with 15" Altec 

Duplex 60.4 speakers, cab. 29" h x 25" wide x 18" 

deep. $950.00. Call [on at (530) 666-4354. 

TABLET TRAYS. Fits into all cupholder armrests. 

Used in multi-purpose theatres, bingo, etc. Call Cy 

Viung Iniluslni'' . Im ,ii mi d ~_"'-Jhll). 

WWW.CINEMAEOUIPMENT.COM New and used 

projection and sound equipment, theatre seating, 

drapes, wall panels, FM transmitters, popcorn poppers, 

concession counters, Xenon lamps, booth supplies, 

cleaning supplies, more. Call Cinema 

Consultants and Services International, Inc. (412) 

343-3900, Fax (412) 343-2992, e-mail info@cinemaequipment.com 

. 

EQUIPMENT WANTED 

WANTED: BOOTH EQUIPMENT and Stage 

Speakers for export. Century, Simplex, Altec, )BL, 

E.V., Western Electric. [800) 251-5454. 

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: We will purchase 

Century projectors or soundheads, new or old, complete 

or incomplete, for cash. Also interested in XL 

and SH-1000. Call (502) 499-0050. Fax (502) 499- 

0052, Hadden Theatre Supply Co., Attn. Louis. 

THEATRES FOR SALE/LEASE 

MOVIE REVIEWS, RIGHT IN 

THE PALM IN YOUR HAND. 

MovieCub, The Portable Movie Resource, is the perfect 

wireless film-review browser for a quick movie lookup 

before a weekend excursion to the local moviehouse 

(or pay-per-view purchase or trip to the video store). 

Winner ofpdamart.com's "Coolest KillerApp Contest, February 2000' 

E*3g 

^REVIEWS 

j 

[y* 

goto www.moviecub.com 

A "^* 

EXHIBITORS: Improve your site traffic and visitor experience 

with a version branded to your circuit or theatre!

usiness SJni! i 

I 

[ 

] 

SENSIBLE 

| 

SI 

.ill '.0, i'U 6606. 

HIGH CROSSING DRIVE-IN THEATRE in Southern 

Indiana. Near university and state's largest lake. 400 

speakers plus radio sound. Fully equipped concession 

building. Financing to qualified buyer. Call 

(812) 824-7911 or (86ii 676-9600. 

MISSULA, MT. The rebuilt new Roxy Theatre is 

sale for the first time due to a death in the family. 

Three movie screens with total seating of 418. Good 

condition equipment, concession stand; and located 

in the heart of the university district. Please contact 

TexCates Realty (406) 728-6100. 

THEATRE SITE: OPPORTUNITY, SMALL TOWN of 

21,000 people in Phoenis metro area is without a 

theatre. Master Developers has a 3-4 acre parcel in 

heart of downtown distm t Available lor an experienced 

owner/operator. Call Carl Bommarito with 

MCO Properties for details. (480) 837-9660. 

DRIVE-IN CONSTRUCTION 

THEATRE SEATING 

"ALL AMERICAN SEATING" In the I \PERTS. Used 

seats, many makes—American Stellar $25. Irwin 

Citation, real nice, many colors from $20. Many 

blue & grev American Desk and Irwin. Blue and 

blue $25. Irwin Atlas high back black $37.50. 

Seating Concepts mauve and black $40. Like new!! 

All with i upholders—some rockers, new Seating 

Concepts chairs from $97. Also gravity lift seat bottoms! 

We ship and install all makes and models. Try 

us—we sell no junk! TANKERSLEY ENTERPRISES, 

4877 National Western Drive »149, Denver, CO 

80216. Phone

74 Boxohki: 

Close Focus 

SUBJECT: 

TITLE: 

COMPANY: 

Victor Carrady 

President and CEO 

Caribbean Cinemas/ 

Regency Caribbean Enterprises 

Santurce, Puerto Rico 

Which do you use most: PC, pen, pencil, email or phone? 

Phone. 

What is your favorite least essential item in your office? 

Everything is equally essential. 

What are your favorite and least favorite films made since 1968 (when your circuit was born)? 

My favorite film is "Titanic." My least favorite is "The Blair Witch Project." 

What is your favorite concession when you're at a movie? 

Popcorn. 

Do you believe online ticketing will be a boon, a bust, or a breakeven proposition for exhibitors? 

We do not consider it has a practical usage at our theatre locations. 

// elves were at work in the industry, what might their best bit of midnight magic be? 

Eliminate videocassettes. 

When you visit a Caribbean Cinemas site, what's the first thing you check? What's the last? 

I look at every phase of the operation to see if anything is not up to standard. I do not follow a sequence.

Software configuration of crossover frequencies, parametric equalization, delay, 

^iW 

Digital Crossover 6 monitor 

Digital Cinema Software Features 

PC-based setup with password security for tamper-proof installations 

polarity, and gain 

Speaker database with default parameters for fast and accurate configurations 

Digital delay adjustable in 2 1 us increments 

Speaker Diagnostics function displays output voltage and current for each amp 

The Power Behind the Pictures

And . . 

One MovieTimeS Digital 

Answering Machine to cure 

my show times answering 

headache! 

,r,[, 

i 

1& 

I 

^•al

Boxoffice-Febuary.2001

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?