BOP Daily News
January 13, 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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The Hollywood remake craze continues, with studios looking even further back into the vaults for their next “fresh” idea. Reports have surfaced that Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 classic The 39 Steps is set to be updated, with the modernization task being given to veteran screenwriter Robert Towne. Towne is the scribe behind such modern-day classics as Chinatown and Shampoo, as well as such lesser lights as Tequila Sunrise and the Mission: Impossible franchise. The writer says of his latest assignment, "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps. I look forward to having it in my future." As the original dealt with counterespionage and breaking up a spy ring, perhaps Towne could set the present-day protagonist on a quest to find Hollywood’s originality and break up the tendency to repeat itself.
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Some folks just don’t know when to quit. Ashton Kutcher, who has seen a number of roles slip through his hands of late thanks to his high-profile romance with Demi Moore and the antics on his hidden-camera prank show Punk’d has apparently decided he needs more opportunities to sabotage his career. After putting a judicious end to the aforementioned MTV series, word comes that Kutcher is developing a similar show for the network called My New Best Friend. Stealing a page from network sit-coms, the show is based on a British series of the same name, and plays as a game show of sorts, with the contestant vying for a cash prize by convincing friends and/or family members that a person they’ve just met is, in fact, their best friend. The friend in question is an actor in on the gag, who makes the contestant’s job even harder by acting in all sorts of inappropriate ways. We don’t know exactly what the “inappropriate ways” will be, but given past history, we’re thinking it’s a lot more than using the wrong fork or forgetting someone’s birthday. That sound you hear is Kutcher’s remaining career going down in flames.
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Speaking of things getting ugly, the cast for the upcoming comedy Cordless seems to be filling up fast with people we’d rather not see sans clothing on the silver screen. The story, described as a tale of “spiritual rebirth” set in New York, will focus on a Manhattan couple attempting to conceive while living in a building where the concept of “love thy neighbor” is being taken it an extreme. Set so far to star are Malcolm McDowell, playing a character described as holding “sexual sway” over those around him, and Steve Buscemi as a tenement landlord. Now all they need is Dame Edna as the leader of the local nudist colony and Harvey Fierstein as the orgy organizer and the decided lack of eye candy will be complete.
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"Yes, yes! Say it! He was my...boyfriend!"
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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