BOP Daily News
October 18, 2003
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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As if Mel Gibson’s controversy-dogged epic about the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ was having enough problems, he’s now faced with having to change the title. The project currently known as The Passion will now be called The Passion of Christ, because Miramax already holds rights to the former title, a romantic fantasy adapted from a book by the same name. The film may, however, be allowed to keep its original title for releases outside the US. The title change is certainly the least of the film’s problems; the project has attracted criticism almost from its inception, partly due to rumored anti-Semitism, but also thanks to the star’s insistence on showing the film, with dialogue spoken entirely in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic, sans subtitles. Meanwhile, it is being rumored that Miramax has decided to film its movie titled The Passion entirely in the Queen’s English, which will ironically also not be understood by modern American audiences.
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Universal Pictures is teaming Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall in Bit Players, a film about a small town in the West that is destroyed by a Wall Street crook who swindles the townsfolk out of their pensions. Hoffman would play the owner of the local bank, who is duped when the Wall Streeter leaves town, and Hackman and Duvall would play two of the townspeople who band together with Hoffman and hatch a plan to get even, which ultimately takes them to New York. The film, which reportedly will include elements of The Sting, would mark the first time the high-powered trio have worked together. One rejected storyline would have the three posing as an autistic savant, a revivalist preacher and a bald criminal genius as part in order to cheat the swindler.
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And continuing our Dustin Hoffman watch comes a tidbit from a recent Today Show appearance that had the actor goofing in the studio kitchen with British chef Jamie Oliver. During the taping, Hoffman told that his personal chef had read the Food Network star’s book and suggested to Hoffman that Oliver would “make a great film.” Hoffman was under the impression that someone else has purchased the rights, but much to the delight of an excited Katie Couric, asked Oliver, “Who’s gonna play you?” Couric then quipped, "This is like a business deal going on here. This is exciting." If there was an Oscar for Most Exaggerated Accent Combined with Most Annoying Character Tics, Hoffman in Oliver’s life story would be a shoe-in.
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Nicholas Meyer, writer of, among other things, The Seven Percent Solution and Wrath of Khan, has been tapped by Columbia Pictures to write the screenplay for the novel The Crimson Petal and the White. The novel, set in 1860s London, centers on a 19-year-old prostitute named Sugar who dreams of a better life for herself. Her dream appears to be coming true when she finds herself the secret mistress of a member of a powerful London family. Rumors that Columbia is looking at Britney Spears for the role of Sugar and Madonna for the member of the aristocracy employing Sugar as a mistress were unconfirmed at press time.
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Apparently feeling there are some unexplored avenues for exploiting her late husband’s image, Yoko Ono has given her imprimatur to a new Broadway musical that would depict not the former Beatle’s life, but different parts of his personality. The as-yet-untitled production, which would pull music from Lennon’s solo career, would tell the story of the ‘60s and ‘70s and would have 12 actors portraying the various sides of John. This news raises many questions in our minds, but the biggest one is how many actors will they have portraying the assorted personality traits of Paul, George and Ringo?
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"At the store, can you buy a new frying pan? I'm a little squeamish about using the one we use to kill people."
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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