BOP Daily News
November 4, 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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New Line has apparently decided the world is too complacent, and so is going to instruct people in how to become super-villains. At least, that’s what one might gather from the report that the studio has greenlighted the film How to Be a Villain, based on the book by the same name. The film version of the book, which addresses such topics as whether to invest in winged monkeys and where your evil lair should be located, would focus on a loser who seeks to avenge a life of always finishing last by becoming a megalomaniacal villain. No word on writer or star, although rumors that Michael Bay was being courted for the lead role could not be confirmed at press time.
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Talk about your high concepts. Regency is producing a script currently called Flowergirl, which is being described as Annie Hall for 11-year-olds. The film will even be set in New York City, on the Upper West Side. The writers reportedly wanted to create a comedy about “first love for a new generation”. No word yet on whether one of the pre-adolescents will wear glasses, be neurotic, and play the clarinet, but both characters are likely to be extremely annoying.
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It used to be that remakes were greenlighted by studios with the hopes that name recognition would guarantee an opening-weekend audience. But with the current trend towards remaking films nobody’s ever heard of, one wonders what the motivation is these days, other than not having to create anything from scratch. Still, the studios persevere, judging from reports that Paramount is developing a remake of Last Holiday, a 1950 British comedy that starred Alec Guinness. The contemporary version will star Queen Latifah in the Guinness role, playing an ordinary sales clerk who learns she will soon die. She decides to cash in all her assets and head for a swanky resort for one last fling. In the original, the clerk hadn’t a clue how the rich behaved, and what was viewed as eccentricity convinced residents that he was super-wealthy and thus should be paid attention to. In the remake, Latifah will simply be Latifah, becoming more outrageous and irreverent because she believes she has nothing to lose. The scripters for Last Holiday will reportedly be working closely with the Bringing Down the House 2 writers in order to avoid using the same shtick.
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Rowan Atkinson is forging ahead with sequels to both Bean and Johnny English. Whilst neither film made much of a splash in the US - although Johnny English was the better received of the two - both movies were big hits in Atkinson’s native England, and each grossed an impressive amount worldwide. We’d recommend fans of the Black Adder star not hold their breaths waiting for the films, as there was a six-year gap between the debuts of Bean and Johnny English, although it is reported that both films are currently targeted for release sometime in 2005. As long as Atkinson isn’t pushing ahead with a sequel to Rat Race, we’ll be perfectly content.
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"And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere out in space, cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth."
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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