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CNN Live Today
On the Big Screen
Aired August 30, 2002 - 10:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, time for our weekend movie preview. On the big screen this weekend, a new comer and a couple of holdovers. We'll look at the movie that just keeps on coming, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." It's still selling tickets at the nation's box office, and let's got to our friend Jill Bernstein, senior editor of "Premier" Magazine, and she's with us from New York.
Hey there, Jill.
JILL BERNSTEIN, "PREMIER" MAGAZINE: Hi, how are you?
WHITFIELD: OK. Before we talk about "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," let's talk about one of Hollywood's other darlings, Gwyneth Paltrow, in her movie, "Possession." It's been out in a limited basis, but now it's going to be in more theaters.
Do you like it?
BERNSTEIN: It is a good movie. She stars with Aaron Eckhart as a couple of modern day literary scholars who are tracing the potential romantic relationship of two Victorian poets. Along the way, they fall in love, of course, and the movie tells these parallel love stories. It's based on A.S. Spiatt's (ph) novel, and it is a good one. The interesting thing is that it is directed by Neil Lebutt (ph), who did much more dark work years ago with "Your Friends and Neighbors," and "In the Company of Men."
WHITFIELD: And, Jill, here we go again with Gwyneth and an English accent. She does it well though. Do Brits like it?
BERNSTEIN: She really does. Yes, she fits the part.
WHITFIELD: I wonder if the Brits actually like it?
BERNSTEIN: The Brits. I don't know, with all that controversy going on now, too, it will be interesting.
WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk about another movie that you kind of got to love, a thriller, but it doesn't live to its name, "Fear.com." What's that all about?
BERNSTEIN: This is a movie about a detective who discovers all these people have died, and within I think 48 hours of their death, they've all logged on the same Web site, "Fear.com," and have all dies mysteriously, and he investigates.
WHITFIELD: Is it a good thriller? Do you give it a thumps up? BERNSTEIN: Labor Day weekend is not traditionally a good time for movies.
WHITFIELD: I am going to take it as a no, Jill.
BERNSTEIN: It's a big dumping ground for Hollywood, late August.
WHITFIELD: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," we loved talking about it yesterday with Nia. Let's take a quick peak at it right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to my home. Over here is my brother, Ted, his wife, Melissa, and their children, Anita, Diane and Nick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: OK, Jill, the funny thing about this is the family is huge, and how often does this happen when you bring couples together and families together, oh my God, all this is family?
BERNSTEIN: Exactly and the people marketing the movie are taking advantage of the phenomenon, and trying to market it really to people of every ethnicity, and anybody who has ever married into another culture like this.
WHITFIELD: And the star of the show yesterday, Nia, she said yesterday, that you know, their greatest marketing tool so far has been word of mouth, because here it's been out for eight months, and now, all of a sudden, it's got this great surge in popularity, because people are talking about it being such a fun summer sleeper. It's really been a long run. It's outlasted all of the big blockbusters.
It's not accidental that this sort of picked up word of mouth, and word of mouth has carried it, but they marketed this movie very strategically. They opened on very few screens and gradually increased.
WHITFIELD: And it's everywhere now.
BERNSTEIN: It's everywhere now.
WHITFIELD: Jill Bernstein, thank you very much, senior editor of "Premier" magazine,
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