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CNN Sunday Morning

Some Summer Movies Have Women in Mind

Aired June 02, 2002 - 09:24   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Summer is the season for action flicks, the traditional favorite of men. So what's a girl to do?

Well, CNN's Paul Clinton takes a look at some of the alternatives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL CLINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Explosions, actions, alien beings, that's the stuff of summer movies aimed at one core group.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The male audience is the target audience for movies. It's the audience that shows up, opens the movie, the key thing.

CLINTON: But floating in this sea of testosterone are a few movies with women in mind.

CALLIE KHOURI: I think that there are plenty of people that are dying to have a movie like this to go to in the summer.

CLINTON: Mary Steenburgen who has her own movie, "Sunshine State" out soon, agrees.

MARY STEENBURGEN: I don't want to go to just watch big huge summer movies that everybody predicts is going to be the big huge summer movie and that are all the sort of blow them up movies or whatever you want to call them. I think there are a lot of other people out there too that want an alternative.

CLINTON: Among the alternative, "Blue Crush" about girls on surfboards. It's from Oscar winning producer Brian Grazer.

BRIAN GRAZER, PRODUCER: It does identify a subculture and it does put women in the foreground of that male dominated subculture in a highly credible way, and that's empowering and exciting to me.

CLINTON: Empowerment is a theme running through several of the summer's women-drive films like "Enough."

JENNIFER LOPEZ, ACTRESS: The message is very clear. No matter what type of situation you're in, you have the power within yourself to change it or to get out of it. CLINTON (on camera): Films with female appeal come out to counter programming, but it's hard to get noticed in the shadows of all the big budgeted movies aimed at men.

ANE THOMPSON: It's very difficult to get a word in edgewise against the big behemoths that are going to dominate the opening weekends. So word of mouth is your only asset finally.

CLINTON (voice over): Grazer feels word of mouth might not be enough.

GRAZER: If I were making a movie that was really just character driven and women were the leads, I would stay out of the summer.

CLINTON: The director of "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" disagrees.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that that's just underestimating the audience to think that. I certainly think that the female audience that they're under estimated, undervalued and certainly underrepresented in the marketplace for a very, very long time.

CLINTON: In the midst of all the male oriented fare, Corey (ph) still feels optimistic about her film.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have nothing but confidence that we're going to be fine out there this summer.

CLINTON: Paul Clinton, CNN Entertainment News, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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