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Vignettes
STONE
AGREES TO BASIC SEQUEL
Sharon Stone has signed an eight-figure deal to reprise her role as 
icepick-wielding,
seductive murder suspect Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct 2. But neither
original screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, director Paul Verhoeven nor co-star
Michael Douglas will return for an encore to the sexy 1992 thriller.
The film will begin shooting this fall for domestic release in late 2001
or early 2002. MGM will distribute the film in North America, while the
film’s producers, C-2 Pictures, will handle international marketing
and distribution.
Since Basic Instinct, Stone’s price has gone as high as $6 million
per film. Her salary for the sequel is believed to be in the $15 million
range. The film’s worldwide gross was $400 million, including $117
million domestically.
“We are thrilled to have Sharon on board for the film,” C-2
partners Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna said, “The first film could
not have been made without Sharon’s mesmerising performance, and
we believe her return will be even more exciting.”
After years of saying she wouldn’t return for a sequel, Stone finally
committed to reprise the star-making role of the mystery novelist and
murder suspect. “Now that the project is in the hands of our original
producers and my old friends Mario and Andy, I felt assured that the project
will be made with respect to the spirit of the original,” Stone said.
For Kassar and Vajna, the Stone signing comes on the heels of their landing
Arnold Schwarzenegger to reprise his signature role for Terminator 3,
meaning the former Carolco partners have resuscitated the defunct studio’s
two most successful films, Basic Instinct and Terminator 2: Judgement
Day. In both cases, C-2 took the initiative and developed scripts for
sequels without firm commitments from the actors, though they’ve
been in close contact with Stone for years.
LUCAS’
EFFECTS HOUSE EYES ANIMATION
George Lucas’ special effects powerhouse Industrial Light & Magic
(ILM) said it plans to expand into the animation business, creating a
slate of computer-generated films and television shows as co-productions
with major studios.
ILM had planned to step into the animation arena about three years ago
with Frankenstein, a computer-generated co-venture with Universal. However,
that project fell through due to creative differences. “That’s
when we first articulated the idea to break into animation,” said
Patty Blau, who will head the effort in her new post as senior VP of production
of the yet-to-be-named division. She was previously president of feature
production. “Now we’re really putting our weight behind it.
We want to produce projects that will showcase the depth of creativity
in ways which have previously been unexplored. We’re disappointed
Frankenstein never went ahead,” Blau said.
ILM has a staff of 80, creating effects for features that include the
water-heavy The Perfect Storm for Warner Bros., Universal’s live-action
and animated The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle and Warners’
Space Cowboys.
The company has several projects internally in development, “but
we’re talking to other studios about taking on their projects,”
Blau said, “We’d still partner with studios even if we did produce
our own in-house projects. We feel there’s a lot of room to explore
out there.”
CARREY FILM ANGERS NAMI
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) said it will launch
a “national protest” against 20th Century Fox’s new comedy
Me, Myself & Irene, which stars Jim Carrey as a man whose two personalities
are in love with the same woman, Renee Zellweger’s Irene.
The non-profit advocacy group said the movie and its marketing campaign
show “gross ignorance and insensitivity” to people with mental
illnesses and their families. The film opened in theatres on June 23.
Those who’ve seen the work of the film’s creators, the brothers
Farrelly — Bobby and Peter, who made There’s Something About
Mary, Dumb And Dumber and Kingpin — might argue that gross ignorance
and insensitivity, in pursuit of hilarity, was the pitch. Nevertheless,
the NAMI says ...Irene “perpetuates a myth that schizophrenia —
a severe, biologically based brain disorder — is a split personality.”
Though it’s true that the general public often confuses the two disorders,
it’s unclear exactly what the group — which also protested the
short-lived ABC psychiatric hospital drama Wonderland earlier this year
— was referring to, as Fox’s ‘From Gentle to Mental’
poster campaign hasn’t focused on schizophrenia. Similarly, a Fox
listing of upcoming films describes Carrey’s character as suffering
from “split-personality disorder.”
NEILL TO REPRISE JURASSIC ROLE
Sam Neill has become the first major actor to sign on for Jurassic Park
3, reprising his role as Dr. Alan Grant from the 1993 original. Shooting
for the film is set to begin in late July or early August in California
and Hawaii, for release in July 2001. Neill did not appear in 1997’s
Jurassic Park: The Lost World. Other major credits for the New Zealander
include The Piano, The Hunt For Red October, Dead Calm and The Horse Whisperer.
Joe Johnston (Jumanji, October Sky) will direct the third version of the
prized film franchise, taking over from Steven Spielberg whose Amblin
production company is developing the project with Universal. Details of
the script have not yet emerged beyond the expected focus on rampaging
dinosaurs. The original grossed $913 million globally, and the sequel
took in over $600 million worldwide.
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