BOP Daily News
November 14, 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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Disney has greenlighted King of the Gods, which will explore how a young Zeus discovers his destiny. Described as being similar in spirit to Excalibur, the film will follow how the fledgling god learns that he is to overthrow his father and become ruler of Earth and the heavens. The live-action film is the first of a proposed trilogy, which will examine how the gods rule in the second film and then their Götterdämmerung, brought about by their own greed and blunders, in the third. One rejected plotline had a teenage Zeus seizing the reins of power after being grounded by his dad and having his chariot taken away for turning himself into a bull to pick up mortal chicks.
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Possibly hoping to confuse the more inattentive moviegoers, 20th Century Fox is producing X-Girls. Contrary to what the title may suggest, this is not the distaff version of X-Men, but actually a fact-based film about three Playboy centerfolds who compete in a TV reality show called the Eco-Challenge. Contestants in the challenge are dropped off in a remote jungle somewhere, such as New Zealand, and then must use their survival skills to cover 300 miles in six to 12 days. The contest was usually the domain of ex-Navy SEALs and Army Rangers until the Playmates competed, becoming the first dominantly-female team to do so. The project is being described as a “female-empowerment” comedy, with Cameron Diaz currently attached to star as one of the Playmates. Rumors that Diaz insisted a clause be included in her contract requiring that none of her co-stars be having a high-profile romance with a much younger man could not be confirmed at press time.
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Someone had to come up with the idea eventually. MGM has acquired the rights to Henry Bates and the Sorcerer’s Balls, a spoof of both the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises. The studio hopes to create a fantasy parody along the lines of the Scary Movie franchise. The characters include a good wizard named Gandolfini, an evil wizard named Enron, and the eponymous Bates, who is the rightful king of Middlefinger (guess they ran out of clever monikers). MGM is reportedly fast-tracking the project, likely hoping to get the film into release before the two latest films in each franchise fade too far into memory. One suggested story arc would involve a nerdy director being turned into a newt when he cuts all of a venerable actor’s scenes from his film.
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No longer content to plunder existing comic books for movie ideas, Hollywood is now optioning comics that haven’t been published yet. The comic in question is Biblionauts, which follows the adventures of two kids who stumble across a device that enables them to be transported into great works of fiction. This discovery leads the pair on a series of wild adventures, during which they discover someone is changing the endings of classic literature, thus altering real-life history. Producers agree the most difficult obstacle to surmount will be convincing audiences kids are sufficiently familiar with the great works of literature to recognize the endings are being changed.
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"What is this, some kind of funhouse?"
"Why? Are you having fun?"
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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