Production Information
IN THE PIPELINE

A successful franchise continues
Lethal Weapon 4
Principal photography on Lethal Weapon 4, the next installment of Warner Bros’ successful franchise, began on January 16 in Los Angeles.

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as the police detective partners Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh. Richard Donner will direct from a screenplay by Channing Gibson. The film is being produced by Joel Silver and Richard Donner, who have produced all the previous three Lethal Weapon films. Lethal Weapon 4 is slated to open in America on July 10.

Also returning in starring roles are Joe Pesci (featured as Leo Getz, the fast-talking mob accountant in Lethal Weapon 2 and 3) and Rene Russo (Lethal Weapon 3). Russo was last seen opposite Mel Gibson in the hit suspense thriller, Ransom, also produced by Silver and Donner. Mel Gibson’s recent Conspiracy Theory, opposite Julia Roberts, was also produced by the same team.

New entrants to the franchise are Chris Rock, who plays a junior police detective, and Chinese action star Jet Li who plays an Asian crime lord and makes his English language film debut with Lethal Weapon 4. Jet Li is a veteran of over 25 Chinese films, and Lethal Weapon 4 will be his first film as a villain.

Movie magic
Practical Magic
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman will come together for the first time in Warner Bros’ Practical Magic, also starring Dianne West and Stockard Channing. Production is scheduled to begin this month.

Set in a small town, the plot is about two sisters (Kidman and Bullock) raised by their aunts after their parents’ death. The aunts (Stockard and West) attempt to pass on to them the heritage of witchcraft that runs in the family, and teach them the uses of practical magic. The story follows the girls and their exploits as they move out into the world on reaching adulthood. Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love) directs.

Clint Eastwood to direct 21st film
True Crime
Clint Eastwood will star in and direct True Crime, his 21st film as a director. He will also co-produce the film with Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck. True Crime, based on Andrew Klavan’s best-selling novel of the same name, will begin production in May 1998. It examines the 26 hours preceding a man’s execution, and the frantic efforts of a journalist (played by Eastwood) to prove the convict’s innocence in the light of new evidence he has uncovered. Principal photography will take place in and around Oakland, California.

Clint Eastwood’s last directorial effort was the recent Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Kevin Costner in romantic drama
Message in a Bottle
Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn will star in the romantic drama, Message in a Bottle to be directed by Luis Mandoki. The film, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, is about the romance between a single mother (Penn) and a widowed shipbuilder (Costner). Production will begin in April 1998.

Last year Robin Wright Penn, who made her debut in The Princess Bride, was seen in two films, She’s So Lovely (opposite John Travolta and Sean Penn) and Loved (opposite William Hurt).