BOP Daily News
November 16, 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.
|
Steven Spielberg must be hankering after his youth. That’s the only explanation we can find for reports that he’s looking to team with Richard Donner to make a sequel to The Goonies. According to Donner, he and Spielberg have a script in hand for the sequel and have been “pushing” to get it made, with the only obstacle to the endeavor apparently being the reluctance of Warner Bros, who owns the original film, to give the go-ahead. The sequel would feature a new bunch of kids, as well as the original cast members, now all growed up. The new group would be called the Groonies, so named because one of the original Goonies, a Chinese boy, has moved to their town in adulthood and purchased a local store where the misfits all hang, hearing stories of the original group. The Chinese man is apparently unable to pronounce the name correctly, however, calling his old gang the “Groonies” instead. Thus the adoption of the name by the new kiddie-winkies. Now we don’t recall an Asian character with such a heavy accent in the original, but we also admit that the number of years that have passed since last we saw this slight but enjoyable film easily reaches double digits. We’re also certain the fact that there isn’t a consonant in the name Goonies that could lead to this purportedly-hilarious mispronunciation by a non-English speaker wouldn’t matter to those in charge of this little trip down memory lane, so we’ll let that one slide, too. However, we here at BOP do think someone needs to get Spielberg off this sudden yen to revisit filmmaking experiences past, lest a sequel to 1941 be just around the corner.
|
|
|
|
|
Words that strike fear into every movie lover’s heart: Madonna is making another movie. Yes, the Material Girl-turned-corrupter of young minds...um, we mean children’s book author, is planning on turning her children’s book, The English Roses, into an animated film, and intends to voice the role of the Fairy Godmother. Scary though that prospect may be, at least we can take comfort in the fact that won’t have to look at her trying to figure out how to act; we’ll only have to listen to it. The news is not all beer and skittles, however, as Madonna is also working on creating a new movie musical. No word yet on whether she will, in fact, star in said musical, but if there is a just and merciful God...well, Madonna would fall off the face of the planet, and take Michael Jackson with her. One can always hope.
|
|
|
|
And staying in somewhat the same vein, the former Mr. Madonna, AKA Sean Penn, is set to star as the man who nearly assassinated Richard Nixon in the upcoming film appropriately called The Assassination of Richard Nixon. Penn will play Samuel Byck, a furniture salesman who planned to kill then-President Nixon by crashing a commercial airliner into the Oval Office. The plane, and Byck’s plan, never got off the ground. In discussing the film, Penn commented on his tendency towards heavy fare by quipping, “Once again, I'm in the feel-good picture of the year." Cheer up, Sean; at least you’re not still making films with Madonna.
|
|
|
|
|
Just when you thought you were safe from immortal Scotsmen cutting each other’s heads off comes word that there will be yet another film in that franchise. Called Highlander: The Source, the film will not focus on Connor MacLeod - Christopher Lambert having wisely chosen not to don his kilt again - but instead tell the tale of a group of four of the immortals questing for the Holy Grail of their world. One assumes their Holy Grail differs from the one Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table sought, but we wonder what happened to that “There can only be one” business that propelled the action of the first four films. Hey, as long as this doesn’t give someone the idea of taking that lame-ass Lorenzo Lamas Highlander knock-off TV series and making it into a film, they can bugger their own universe as much as they please.
|
|
|
"Tall guy, weird cloths. First you see him, then you don't."
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.
|
|
|
|
