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American Morning

Superstar Aaliyah Dies in Plane Crash at 22

Aired August 27, 2001 - 11:40   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.
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN ANCHOR: A lot to cover today. The death of R&B singing star Aaliyah tops our entertainment news this morning. With two Grammy nominations, two MTV music video awards and a movie career that was taking off, her promise was infinite. Tomorrow night, her single "Try Again" from her debut movie "Romeo Must Die" is up for song at the year at the "Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards." The 22- year-old Aaliyah who is set to star in the two "Matrix" sequels had recently completed her second film "Queen of the Damned," an adaptation an Anne Rice novel.

In other entertainment news, Paula Poundstone is due in a California courtroom at this hour. A preliminary hearing date will be set for the comedian, who is charged with committing lewd acts against a child and child endangerment. Poundstone's lawyer says his client will not ask for a continuance. A spokesperson for the comic says she's been in rehab since July 11th and is doing just fine. We'll have the latest on the Poundstone case later this afternoon. We will be back in just a moment with more entertainment news, so please, don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYDNEY: Joining us now to give us an update on the weekend box office and some insight into Aaliyah's movie career is box office analyst Marty Grover.

Marty, it's just so difficult to talk about business in the face of tragedy. But Aaliyah had some movies in the works. "Queen of the Damned," the Warner Bros. release, is now in postproduction. What can we expect the studio to do in this kind of situation?

MARTIN GROVE, CNN LOS ANGELES: Well, Laurin, with a tragedy like this, the studio will complete the film. Now we say it's in postproduction, so people think, good, at least she has done all of her work, but not necessarily, because in postproduction, very frequently, studios need actors to come in and record lines of dialogue. They call this looping. You know, in the editing, they need to change things, fix things, and sometimes they need to shoot more material, and obviously these things are not going to be possible. Some things are possible now digitally, and that'll be a story, if indeed they wind up having to do that. And then when the film is ready for release, they will not have Aaliyah to come out and promote it. On the other hand, there will be undoubtedly lots of television coverage when the film comes out of the fact that this was the last movie she made.

But unfortunately, when you don't have the star to come on television and to talk about it, you miss a major promotional element.

SYDNEY: And Marty, Aaliyah was also onboard to two sequels to "The Matrix." Now the first one is in preproduction. What potentially could happen with those films?

GROVE: Well, the show will go on, as it always does, you know, tragically without Aaliyah. Every role in every movie can always be recast, if it has to be, you know. Your first choices isn't possible, so there has to be a second choice, and certainly these sequels to the "Matrix" will come out. Joel Silver, who is producing it, told me she is producing it at the same time. Matrix 2 and 3. There's tremendous economies in production by doing that. "The Matrix" is a major franchise and a brand-name for Warner Bros. And a tragedy that Aaliyah will not be in it, because those films will be big films and certainly would have made her a major, major movie star.

SYDNEY: Marty, as you just said, that the show must go on.

And moving onto the week's box office, audiences are still hungry for "American Pie." What were those numbers?

GROVE: Laurin, the diet at box office was pie and popcorn. Almost $13 million in the ticket sale it is for "American Pie." It's almost done $110 million, and heading for $125 to $135 million. What's astounding about is it only cost around $30 million to make, so it is a huge story for Universal Pictures, and a fitting end to a fabulous summer for that studio.

SYDNEY: I'm not good at math, but I know that those numbers are good.

GROVE: Oh, yes.

SYDNEY: Audiences are still rushing to see another sequel, "Rush Hour 2," how is that doing?

GROVE: Well, "Rush Hour 2" is hanging in there beautifully. Almost $11 1/2 million. Now it's done to date about $183 million, plus it's headed to $210 million to $215 million, and that will make it the second biggest film of the year. Only "Shrek" is bigger.

SYDNEY: And, Marty, we have to run out of here, so we are going to say thank you to you as always. We're going to See you next week.

GROVE: See you next week.

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