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CNN Live Today
What's Hot in the Movies This Season?
Aired May 10, 2002 - 11:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now, two people not at home at the time of the poll, because, well, Jeff Tweiten (ph) and John Guth (ph) have spent the last four months camping been outside the Cinerama in Seattle. They are waiting for the curtain to go up.
Hey, guys. Good morning once again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
KAGAN: Getting awful close here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very close. Five more days, 15 hours.
KAGAN: But who is counting?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not me.
KAGAN: I would have thought by now, certainly by now, somebody would have some pity on you and invited to you one of the premiers and you would have gotten a sneak peek.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, we have been invited. We have been invited to a few of the screenings over the past couple of weeks, and we've turned it down.
KAGAN: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, the hole purpose is to wait for opening day and anticipate opening day, and that's what we are willing to do.
KAGAN: So you are going to be the purists, and of course the people who have been watching us watch you, all these months, know that you picked this theater before you even knew the movie was coming here. But indeed, "Star Wars" is coming to this theater in Seattle. And do you have your tickets?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we do. Also, as we speak, just so you know. Gentleman from THX, Medwin (ph), he is in the theater right now installing the movie into the new digital projector.
KAGAN: Oh, that's a big moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah.
KAGAN: But this tent behind you has been home? You going to give us a quick little tour of the tent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little tour. Well...
KAGAN: Not much to see, I imagine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is not much mere. It's kind of like a studio apartment a little bit. You know, you have the living room area, and you have one of the junior suite here, and then you have the workshop area. It's kind of messy right now, but nevertheless, we are cleaning up.
A little kitchen, and the master bedroom is behind here, but we're not -- that's off limits for now.
KAGAN: All right. We will keep it that way.
And bathing, just to get a little personal here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know about Jeff. But yes, we are well taken care of hygienically.
KAGAN: OK. We will leave it at that.
And after you see it, you are going to come by and let us know what you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check in with us.
KAGAN: That's an invitation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excellent. We'd love to do it.
KAGAN: OK, Jeff and John. Good to check in with you, good to see you're still in line, and even better to see, Leon, it's getting close.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, they are still outdoors.
KAGAN: We have it take their word on the personal hygiene.
HARRIS: Could get a little gamey in there.
Speaking of movies, the summer movie season is heating up now, and it's not even June yet.
CNN Movie Paul Clinton has the buzz on what's hot and what's not on the big screen.
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PAUL CLINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No matter how you slice it, summer at the cinema means action. This summer, a lot of the action surrounds franchise films, Hollywood's attempt to clone pass successes.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dark side clouds everything.
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CLINTON: The mothership of all franchises is "Star Wars." "Attack of the Clones" will attempt to yank "Spider-Man" out of his web on May 16th.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone said you were dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look good.
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CLINTON: Columbia's big franchise is "Men in Black." They are back July 3rd and dressed to kill. Built-in name recognition is key for any event film. "Men in Black II" has it. The hard part is taking that familiarity and building on it, not repeating it.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That feels like enough adventure for one day.
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CLINTON: Will there be enough adventure for another movie? "Stuart Little II," opening July 19th, has a core audience of parents desperate to entertain the kids. Will the mouths roar or squeak at box office?
Mike Meyers has created a franchise with "Austin Powers." "Gold Member," opening late July, will likely continue with the same outrageous comedy that only Meyers can pull off.
Michael Cane is his father, Priceless.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have reason to believe the bomb was the work of terrorists, not the Russians. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: "The Sum of All Fears" is an attempt to revive a franchise character, like Ryan. The Tom Clancy superspy role was very good to Harrison Ford, but Ford has a lot of miles on him, and they're bringing in a new Ryan, Ben Affleck. Those are big shoes to fill. So far, Affleck's acting challenge has left little...
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't remember anything that happened before two weeks ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amnesia?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
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CLINTON: Don't forget "The Bourne Identity," opening June 14th, two seeks after "The Sum of All Fears." The movie, based on Robert Ludlum's (ph) 1980 novel, underwent massive changes during production, including a new climax. It'll be interesting to see best friends Matt Damon and Affleck go head to head at the box office.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to get as far away from me as you can.
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CLINTON: As in the opening dates of their films. It's called the quick burn rate, a movie only has a weekend or two to make an impact before the next big event wipes it off the screen. With more than a hundred films set for release this summer, it is burn, baby burn.
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Hi, Leon.
We are here at the studios of Sony Pictures studios. Of course they are the ones that came out with "Spiderman" last week, made $114 million the first weekend. Now stands at 150 million, and is pretty well guaranteed to cross the $200 million mark this coming weekend.
Now Sony has a really strong slate of movies this summer. They also have "Men in Black II," and they've got "The New Guy," which just came out today, which I actually liked. They have got "Enough" with Jennifer Lopez. Very much like sleeping with the enemy, an abused wife that takes control. And of course they've got "Spider-Man," they've got "Men in Black II," as I said, "Stuart Little" and they've got "Triple X" with Vin Diesel coming up.
But of course, the big news now is, what's going to beat "Star Wars?"
HARRIS: You were right, Paul, about "Spiderman." Got give you credit on that one. You called that one correctly.
Now what about "Star Wars?" As I've seen, you have actually seen it, right?
CLINTON: Yes, I have seen it, and I actually liked it a lot, Leon. I was with the majority of not liking "Phantom I." Of course that made $900 million worldwide, $400 million domestically. So you really can't call that a failure.
So what do we know. George Lucas definitely does not call it a failure.
But hardcore fans were disappointed. It just did not capture the essence of "Star Wars" for a lot of people, and certainly not for me. It's sort of like a "National Geographic" special, max shots, very boring. But part two, I really liked. Beginning action within five minutes, a great love story. They've got two plots going on. Hayden Christenson is very good. Natalie Portman, she is looking great. She's in, like, Britney Spears outfits. She's looking good. And, Leon, you'll like it, and It's really good. It really takes the franchise. It will keep it going.
KAGAN: Very Good. Paul Clinton, from Culver City.
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