HERE THEY ARE AGAIN WATCH OUT FOR A HOT SUMMER AS SEQUELS, REMAKES COME IN FOR A LANDING.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer Call it exquisite planning or last-gasp optimism, but Hollywood expects this year's summer movie season to be the biggest in box office history. Yes, crippling strikes could start any day now. True, with most major theater chains in Chapter 11 and shuttering venues, there are fewer screens in operation now than there were a year ago. Indeed, every year about this time, movie mavens predict record summer box office _ and, as they were in 2000, are sometimes proven wrong. But the studios aren't necessarily deluding themselves about this round of warm-weather prospects, if only for one hard-to-dispute reason: Just about everything coming out between Friday and Labor Day Labor Day, holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada on the first Monday in September to honor the laborer. It was inaugurated by the Knights of Labor in 1882 and made a national holiday by the U.S. Congress in 1894. has worked before. ``In the summer, familiarity breeds big box office,'' says Paul Dergarabedian, president of the grosses tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. ``That 15 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day accounts for 40 percent of the year's box office. It's extremely important, so you want to bring out your big guns, your tried-and-true genres, big stars if you can. ... But it seems, in the summer, that concept is king.'' Accordingly, the predictions of big '01 bucks rest on the preponderance of high-profile sequels, remakes and previously successful storylines in the summer mix. The past blast begins Friday (another reason for seasonal optimism; the summer movie marathon starts earlier than ever this year) with ``The Mummy Returns,'' a perfecta per·fec·ta n. See exacta. [From American Spanish (quiniela) perfecta, perfect (quinella), feminine of perfecto, perfect, from Latin perfectus; see perfect. of the strategy; it's a sequel of a remake. It doesn't stop there. ``Dr. Dolittle 2'' and sequel-to-a-genre-spoof ``Scary Movie 2'' are also on the way, along with mere series entries ``Jurassic Park III,'' ``American Pie 2,'' ``Rush Hour 2,'' ``Jason X'' and even ``Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,'' a whole movie devoted to Kevin Smith's ``Clerks''/``Dogma'' slackers. On the overt remake front, there's Tim Burton's much-anticipated ``Planet of the Apes,'' a ``Rollerball'' redo To reverse an undo operation. See undo. and Angelina Jolie femme-fatale-ing it up in ``Original Sin original sin, in Christian theology, the sin of Adam, by which all humankind fell from divine grace. Saint Augustine was the fundamental theologian in the formulation of this doctrine, which states that the essentially graceless nature of humanity requires redemption ,'' which was originally the Francois Truffaut Noun 1. Francois Truffaut - French filmmaker (1932-1984) Truffaut thriller ``Mississippi Mermaid.'' While the outre ou·tré adj. Highly unconventional; eccentric or bizarre: "outré and affected stage antics" Michael Heaton. Nicole Kidman musical ``Moulin moulin (m  lăN`): see pothole. Rouge'' is undoubtedly a creature unto itself, it's not the first film with that title to cast a Latino actor (John Leguizamo) as Toulouse-Lautrec. The new ``Moulin'' is also part of next month's movie retro-trend. Like the medieval jousting joustingMedieval Western European mock battle between two horsemen who charged at each other with leveled lances in an attempt to unseat the other. It probably originated in France in the 11th century, superseding the mêlée, in which mock battles were held between adventure ``A Knight's Tale'' and the animated fairy tale satire ``Shrek,'' it works popular songs of the last 30 or so years into its long-ago scenario. More than anything, though, stealth remakes dominate the summer schedule. ``Pearl Harbor,'' the big Memorial Day behemoth behemoth (bē`hĭmŏth, bĭhē`–) [Heb.,=plural of beast], large, fanciful primeval monster, like Leviathan, evoking the hippopotamus mentioned in the Book of Job. , follows the winds of war from here all the way to ... well, you remember. ``Tomb Raider'' is Indiana Jones with a girl. ``Evolution'' sounds suspiciously like ``Ghostbusters'' meets ``Men in Black.'' ``Rat Race'' regurgitates ``It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an American motion picture directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 of stolen cash by a diverse and colourful group of strangers. The ensemble comedy premiered on November 7, 1963. .'' ``The Score'' and ``Sexy Beast'' recycle long-standing, retiring-criminal's-last-caper cliches. ``Cats & Dogs'' takes ``Babe'' out of the barnyard to pit talking pet species against one another. ``John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars'' mission is to disturb life on the Red Planet one more time. The James Gang rides yet again in ``American Outlaws.'' Mariah Carey is the latest star born in ``All That Glitters All That Glitters (shortened from "All that glitters is not gold", a famous misquotation from The Merchant of Venice, the original line being ) is the name of a number of different works:
And so forth. Even the first Steven Spielberg movie in three years, ``A.I.,'' is a two-letter-titled science fiction story about an emotionally needy kid. Of course, something fresh and exciting could slip into theaters over the next four months. The following list of proposed summer releases _ which, as at any time of any year, is subject to change as the hot weeks roll on _ seems to indicate more than a few possibilities that Hollywood may not be counting on but, hopefully, audiences won't count out. When it's all over, Hollywood will be counting the bucks. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) Attack of the Big Moneymakers Jon Gerung/Staff Artist (2) `JURRASIC PARK III' (July 18) (3) `DR. DOLITTLE 2' (June 22) |
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