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Director ponders final Lethal Weapon
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Richard Donner has a few lethal ideas to help revive some of his most successful films.
Donner, who directed all four of the Lethal Weapon movies, feels there's still life in the franchise that has netted more than a billion dollars worldwide.
"I have the story in my head for a fifth and final Lethal Weapon, but it's all up to Mel Gibson," says Donner, who directed Paul Walker in the time travel adventure Timeline that opens Nov. 26.
"It would be 24 hours in the lives of Riggs (Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover). The last couple of times I talked to Mel, it really seemed he was interested in doing one more.
"I really want to put the franchise to bed properly."
In 1985, two years before he scored with Lethal Weapon, Donner directed the family adventure movie The Goonies.
Donner says Steven Spielberg, who wrote and produced Goonies, "definitely wants to do a sequel.
"Our idea is to bring back some of the original Goonies, including Sean Astin, Josh Brolin and Corey Feldman, and team them up with some new young actors."
THUNDERBIRDS OF A FEATHER
Ben Kingsley discovered that children can sometimes be a force more powerful than agents or managers.
Kingsley was convinced he should play the master villain The Hood in the live-action version of The Thunderbirds, a 1960s British children's TV show that featured marionettes.
"When I told my three sons that I had been offered the role of The Hood, my 14-year-old told me I simply had to do it," recalls Kingsley, who stars in the powerful drama House of Sand and Fog that opens Dec. 26.
"My son has a Thunderbirds alarm clock. That's how big a fan he is of the TV series."
The Thunderbirds follows the heroic exploits of the Tracy family, who lead a futuristic rescue team.
Bill Paxton plays the father of five heroic sons.
Brady Corbet, who plays Holly Hunter's son in the family drama Thirteen, is the youngest Tracy son on whose shoulder's the fate of mankind rests.
Kingsley says it shouldn't seem strange that a classically-trained, Oscar-winning actor like himself is starring in a special effect movie aimed squarely at the Spy Kids audience.
"Family films have a history of being really quality movies, and there's nothing second-rate about this Thunderbirds film."
Star Trek alumnus Jonathan Frakes is directing The Thunderbirds movie, which is scheduled for summer 2004.
DJIMON IN DEMAND
Djimon Hounsou is brewing up some nasty times for Jennifer Garner and Keanu Reeves.
Hounsou, who's best known for his peformances in Amistad, Gladiator, Biker Boyz and The Four Feathers, has nabbed a recurring role on Garner's hit TV show Alias and a supporting role in Reeves' superhero flick Constantine.
"In Alias, I play the leader of the new underworld organization called The Covenant, so I'm Jennifer's nemesis.
"I guess you could call me the new bad guy on the block. It's a recurring role but I don't know for how long," says Hounsou, who stars as the mysterious lodger in the holiday drama In America, opening Dec. 19 at the Globe Cinema.
In Constantine, Hounsou plays "a witch doctor who helps Keanu fight his personal demons.
"The great thing is that both shows are being shot in L.A., which explains why I can do them simultaneously."
Hounsou hasn't heard any updates on the status of Blueberry, a western based on a European comic book that he filmed two years ago.
"Vincent Cassel plays Blueberry, the cowboy hero. Eddie Izzard is the villain.
"The film's got quite an international cast so it should get distribution everywhere," says Hounsou whose Blueberry co-stars also include Juliette Lewis, Michael Madsen, Colm Meaney and Dennis Hopper.
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
HOLLYWOOD -- Richard Donner has a few lethal ideas to help revive some of his most successful films.
Donner, who directed all four of the Lethal Weapon movies, feels there's still life in the franchise that has netted more than a billion dollars worldwide.
"I have the story in my head for a fifth and final Lethal Weapon, but it's all up to Mel Gibson," says Donner, who directed Paul Walker in the time travel adventure Timeline that opens Nov. 26.
"It would be 24 hours in the lives of Riggs (Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover). The last couple of times I talked to Mel, it really seemed he was interested in doing one more.
"I really want to put the franchise to bed properly."
In 1985, two years before he scored with Lethal Weapon, Donner directed the family adventure movie The Goonies.
Donner says Steven Spielberg, who wrote and produced Goonies, "definitely wants to do a sequel.
"Our idea is to bring back some of the original Goonies, including Sean Astin, Josh Brolin and Corey Feldman, and team them up with some new young actors."
THUNDERBIRDS OF A FEATHER
Ben Kingsley discovered that children can sometimes be a force more powerful than agents or managers.
Kingsley was convinced he should play the master villain The Hood in the live-action version of The Thunderbirds, a 1960s British children's TV show that featured marionettes.
"When I told my three sons that I had been offered the role of The Hood, my 14-year-old told me I simply had to do it," recalls Kingsley, who stars in the powerful drama House of Sand and Fog that opens Dec. 26.
"My son has a Thunderbirds alarm clock. That's how big a fan he is of the TV series."
The Thunderbirds follows the heroic exploits of the Tracy family, who lead a futuristic rescue team.
Bill Paxton plays the father of five heroic sons.
Brady Corbet, who plays Holly Hunter's son in the family drama Thirteen, is the youngest Tracy son on whose shoulder's the fate of mankind rests.
Kingsley says it shouldn't seem strange that a classically-trained, Oscar-winning actor like himself is starring in a special effect movie aimed squarely at the Spy Kids audience.
"Family films have a history of being really quality movies, and there's nothing second-rate about this Thunderbirds film."
Star Trek alumnus Jonathan Frakes is directing The Thunderbirds movie, which is scheduled for summer 2004.
DJIMON IN DEMAND
Djimon Hounsou is brewing up some nasty times for Jennifer Garner and Keanu Reeves.
Hounsou, who's best known for his peformances in Amistad, Gladiator, Biker Boyz and The Four Feathers, has nabbed a recurring role on Garner's hit TV show Alias and a supporting role in Reeves' superhero flick Constantine.
"In Alias, I play the leader of the new underworld organization called The Covenant, so I'm Jennifer's nemesis.
"I guess you could call me the new bad guy on the block. It's a recurring role but I don't know for how long," says Hounsou, who stars as the mysterious lodger in the holiday drama In America, opening Dec. 19 at the Globe Cinema.
In Constantine, Hounsou plays "a witch doctor who helps Keanu fight his personal demons.
"The great thing is that both shows are being shot in L.A., which explains why I can do them simultaneously."
Hounsou hasn't heard any updates on the status of Blueberry, a western based on a European comic book that he filmed two years ago.
"Vincent Cassel plays Blueberry, the cowboy hero. Eddie Izzard is the villain.
"The film's got quite an international cast so it should get distribution everywhere," says Hounsou whose Blueberry co-stars also include Juliette Lewis, Michael Madsen, Colm Meaney and Dennis Hopper.
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