BOP Daily News
August 26, 2004
The spirit of BOP News lives on in
This is So Last Week,
our pop culture week-in-review,
presented in a pleasing quiz form.
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Paramount has hired screenwriters David Levien and Brian Koppelman, who just rewrote Brett Ratner's Josiah's Cannon, to write The Untouchables: Capone Rising, a prequel to the 1987 film The Untouchables. The film will be directed by Antoine Fuqua whose latest film, King Arthur, was a box office disappointment. Fuqua made his name directing Denzel Washington in Training Day. The film will center on Capone and the early version of Irish cop Jimmy Malone, played in The Untouchables by Sean Connery, who is as crooked as every other Chicago cop until Capone becomes king of the underworld. Gotta admit, Capone Rising is better than The Untouchabler: When Al Met Jimmy.
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20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is developing The Sandlot 2 for a 2005 DVD premiere. The follow-up to the coming-of-age film is yet another example of Hollywood not knowing when to leave well enough alone. Many of the key players from the 1993 baseball-themed The Sandlot, including director David M. Evans and stars James Earl Jones and Karen Allen, are returning for the sequel. While the film only grossed $35 million at the box office, it has shipped more than 7 million units since being released on video, including a huge surge since its DVD release. If I knew that buying the DVD would result in a sequel, I wouldn’t have bought the DVD.
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OK, we're all for film marketing, but this is a bit beyond the pale. It seems that 20th Century Fox has decided that the DVD release for Mel Gibson's box-office bonanza The Passion of the Christ needs a little boost if it's going to bring in the big bucks, so the studio has embarked on a campaign to get churches across the country to urge their congregations to buy the DVD. In addition to postcards to churches offered bulk deliveries of the DVDs and e-mails to Christian households, 20th has also distributed a series of limited-edition lithographs depleting Christ and other religious images to church officials. One rumored marketing campaign that was quickly nixed would have seen Buddy Christ marketing a new Passion-Aid flavor of Kool-Aid using the slogan, "It's Christ-errific!" when everyone involved agreed the whole idea was just...weird.
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Siegfried and Roy have refused to provide footage of the show during which Roy Horn was attacked by one of the pair's tigers to the Department of Agriculture claiming they fear the film may fall into the wrong hands. The show was being filmed for a possible DVD release when the mauling occurred, and the department of Agriculture wants to use it to determine if the famous Vegas duo may have violated the Animal Welfare Act in their act. Siegfried and Roy will only allow Agriculture officials to view the footage if they can control what is actually seen, claiming that if the film should fall into the wrong hands, Roy and his family would be "forced to relive this tragic accident over and over again." While we won't comment on the probability of two men who admit to sleeping with their tigers being concerned that animal welfare violations will be uncovered should they comply with the Department of Agriculture's request, Siegfried and Roy may also have been reacting to rumors that Fox TV is interested in getting its hands on the footage for a special November sweeps edition of "When Animals Attack Really Stupid Celebrities".
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""Just stand out there and stick your glove out in the air. I'll take care of it.""
Previous edition's quote: Silver Streak
Box Office Prophets offers quality, reliable news about the entertainment industry. BOP is also entertaining. To that end, please be advised that some content in this column is intended to be humorous and should not be considered factual.
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