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Release Date: December 8th, 2000 (moved up a week from December 15th)
Title Note: This movie was listed for a while as Untitled Taylor Hackford Project, but it's back to Proof of Life now.
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Production Companies: Castle Rock Productions, Pinewood Studios; cofinanced by Bel Air Entertainment.
Cast: Meg Ryan (Alice Bowman), Russell Crowe (Terry Thorne), David Caruso (Dino), David Morse (Peter Bowman), Pamela Reed, Alun Armstrong, Michael Kitchen, Daniel Lugo, Mario Sanchez, Pietro Sibille
Meg Note: Meg Ryan is set to earn her biggest payday to date for this film, $15 million, which puts her in the same price range as Julia Roberts and Jodie Foster.
Director: Taylor Hackford (Dolores Claiborne, The Devil's Advocate, Against All Odds, Everybody's All American, An Officer and a Gentleman; his next will be Julia Pastrana)
Screenwriter: Tony Gilroy (Extreme Measures, Dolores Claiborne, For Better and for Worse, The Cutting Edge; cowriter of Bait)
Based upon: The May, 1998 Vanity Fair article, "Adventures in the Ransom Trade", by William Prochnau.
Premise: American engineer Peter Bowman (Morse) is kidnapped by rebel forces in a Latin American country, who ask for $6 million in ransom. Unable to pay the ransom, his wife, Alice (Ryan) enlists the help of a "freelance hostage negotiator," Terry Thorne (Crowe). Teaming up with a fellow negotiator, Dino (Caruso), and a trio of trained mercenaries, Terry leads an effort to rescue Peter...
Filming: Production on this movie started on March 1st, 2000, with locations including Ecuador, the city of Poznan in Poland (which will be standing in for Chechnya), and London.
Greg's Preview Thoughts: This project appears to team two people together in a romance that you might not have expected to do that... Meg Ryan (known for her light romantic comedies) and Russell Crowe (known for his taut dramatic performances). It's intriguing to me. We'll see what news comes forth next.
(1/18/00) Well, that news is that filming will take place in Ecuador, and David Caruso is costarring, which makes this his first major feature film since 1995's Kiss of Death and Jade.
(6/14/00) WB has moved this movie up to December 8th, 2000.
Release Date: Unknown; it will depend upon production starts (and of course, finishes).
Title Note: The title may change before release, as Second Chance is a working title.
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Production Companies: Prufrock Pictures (French Kiss, Lost Souls; Prufrock is Meg Ryan's production company), Artists Production Group
Cast: Meg Ryan, Ellen DeGeneres; other cast not announced yet.
Director: Not announced yet.
Screenwriter: Bob Dolman (Willow, Far and Away)
Premise: Fifteen years later, five women are brought back to compete in a rematch of a beauty contest after it's revealed that the original winner slept with one of the judges.
Filming: There's no production date yet (and the script is still being worked on), but filming is expected to start soon, possibly sometime this year, 2000.
Greg's Preview Thoughts: Though the beauty pageant film Drop Dead Gorgeous didn't really find an audience in 1999, and both Beautiful and Miss Congeniality are still on their way to theaters, this movie's "15 years later" premise seems unique and intriguing enough to warrant getting made regardless. Speaking of the former film, it's worth noting that it was also distributed by New Line Cinema. It looks like someone at New Line is committed to getting beauty pageant movies made
The Women
Release Date: TBA 2001
Distributor: Currently seeking distribution in the USA; Prufrock has a "first look" deal with Castle Rock Entertainment, which has a distribution deal with Warner Brothers, but Castle Rock hasn't officially signed on for this film.
Production Company: Prufrock Pictures (Lost Souls, French Kiss)
Cast: Meg Ryan; other cast not announced yet.
Cast Note: This project has been around for several years. When it was first announced, the actresses mentioned to possibly costar were Julia Roberts and Marisa Tomei. That was, however, quite a while ago, and they were not mentioned in the most recent trade article about this film (Variety, 4/17/00). Regardless, as the title indicates, this movie should have a cast full of actresses... the question just is, who?
Director: Oliver Parker (Othello, An Ideal Husband)
Screenwriter: Diane English (feature film debut; she's best known as the creator and executive producer of the TV series, Murphy Brown)
Based upon: The classic 1939 film, The Women, starring Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine, which was itself based on a play by Clare Boothe. There was also another remake in 1956, The Opposite Sex, starring June Allyson.
Premise: The original has a quite complex plot, that I'll try to keep simple without giving the whole thing away. This is the story of a woman who finds out (with a little help from friends) that her husband is having an affair with a perfume salesgirl. She takes on a train to Reno to get a divorce, where she stays at a dude ranch, along with several other women... oh, I'm going to just stop this here. Let's just say that there's subplots, and characters, and surprises... besides, a great deal may be changed to bring this story up to date with the 21st century. Simply put, this is about how a woman deals with the discovery of her husband's affair, and the (many) women who help her out.
Filming: Production is scheduled to start on this movie later this year, 2000.
Greg's Preview Thoughts: (5/19/00) Meg Ryan may be having a very, very busy year ahead of her, with her name attached to three films that are all scheduled to start filming in late 2000 (two of which she is producing with Prufrock; Second Chance and this film; the third is Beyond Borders). Should all these plans come through, she'll also be promoting the release of a fourth film in the midst of it all, Proof of Life.
When this movie was first announced a few years ago, it was suggested that it would be a modern all-star affair, bringing together some of today's most popular actresses, including the pairing of A-listers Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts. Julia's name hasn't been mentioned in a while, but it's probably still likely that there will be some familiar faces in the cast... the question is just "who?" Prufrock hopes to get this one starting in 2000, probably after Meg finishes filming Beyond Borders. Maybe more will be announced soon.
(7/27/00) Well, Meg Ryan has dropped out of talks for Beyond Borders, which increases the chances that she will work on either this film or Second Chance next