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CNN Saturday Morning News
Preview of Movies Opening This Weekend
Aired April 20, 2002 - 07:47 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE CAT'S MEOW")
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very convincing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, is everyone here yet?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone's here, and you know it. Are you going to come down from Mount Olympus, or what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no need for sarcasm there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) spying on everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those who have nothing to fear...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go right ahead on spying, because there's nothing to see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There have been whispers, Miriam (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then stop listening to whispers, and listen to me. There's nothing going on between me and Charlie, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A little clip from "The Cat's Meow" in our entertainment news. We're going to start off and talk about some previews of some films coming to a theater near you. CNN's Paul Clinton joins us now with more on the movies -- the latest movies. He's in Los Angeles. Hi, Paul.
PAUL CLINTON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi Kyra, how are you?
PHILLIPS: All right, I'm doing OK. Hey, some of these -- these look pretty good. I was reading all the ones you're going to talk about and sounds like they all look pretty decent. "Cat's Meow," first one out of the box -- tell us about it.
CLINTON: Well, "Cat's Meow," you saw a little clip. That takes place in 1924 on William Randolph Hearst's yacht. There was a big mystery about what happened on that weekend. It's an old Hollywood scandal from years ago, and there were a number of people on that yacht: William Randolph Hearst, his mistress, Marion Davies, Louella Parsons, Charlie Chaplin, Elinor Glyn, who was a Victorian novelist at the time.
And something happened on that yacht. Somebody died. It was all completely covered up. And it was a big scandal in Hollywood in the 1920s. But Hearst was so powerful that the real information never got out. So now all these years later, Bogdanovich had made a movie based on what they say is the tale told most often, in terms of this mystery.
And, Dunst is remarkable as Marion Davies. She's only 19; she turns 20 on April 30, and this is her first adult role. Edward Herrmann is wonderful as Hearst, he's a great character actor -- you might remember him from playing FDR and a lot of other historical figures.
Bogdanovich is a very interesting director; he's been around for a long time, he's had very high-highs and very low-lows, and I talked to him last week and I think you have a little bit of that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLINTON (voice-over): "The Cat's Meow" is based on a legendary Hollywood mystery about a fatal event aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924. It serves up a large helping of murder, sex, power, and greed -- subjects that are all familiar to director Peter Bogdanovich.
PETER BOGDANOVICH, DIRECTOR: I can identify with those men and what they were -- certain aspects of their life. I mean, I never had the kind of power Hearst had, but I -- I've been obsessed with a young woman -- or two.
CLINTON: Just like Hearst and his love for a younger woman, Bogdanovich was infamous for involvement with his leading ladies. The director was linked with Cybil Shepherd, who starred in a series of his films, including "Daisy Miller." Then came an affair with Dorothy Stratten, the star of "They All Laughed." Stratton was later murdered by her estranged husband. Once again, Bogdanovich's love life overshadowed his film career.
BOGDANOVICH: It's insidious. Success and fame and celebrity -- what everybody wants, is not what it's cracked up to be.
CLINTON: After major hits in the early 1970s -- "The Last Picture Show," "What's Up, Doc?" and "Paper Moon," Bogdanovich's career hit the skids.
(on camera): You had three huge successes in 18 months, and then you just couldn't seem to do anything right there for a while. Do you think there was a misstep on your part? Hubris?
BOGDANOVICH: No, I just made some mistakes. I was not experienced enough to know how to deal with the various pitfalls that arose, the various traps I fell into.
CLINTON (voice-over): Recently, directing TV movies and appearing on "The Sopranos" has kept Bogdanovich busy. But "The Cat's Meow" is his first feature in nine years.
(on camera): How did you come up with that cast? It's very eclectic.
BOGDANOVICH: Paul, we got lucky. You know, it could have gone the other way. We could have gotten unlucky. Most of the time, as John Ford used to say, "sometimes you get luck in pictures; most of the time, it's bad luck."
CLINTON (voice-over): Luck out he did when presented with his leading lady, Kirsten Dunst, who plays Hearst's mistress. There was a period of adjustment when the director gave Dunst line readings on her dialogue.
BOGDANOVICH: Some actors don't like to be given what's known as the result. But it's a good shorthand, and when actors get used to me doing that, because I do it all the time, they find it helpful.
KIRSTEN DUNST, ACTRESS: It drives me crazy when he does that. He did it to me -- said to me -- like, one of the first days of work -- I was, like, Peter -- he knew I was angry at him, so I'm like, Peter -- but it was good because I can, like, totally yell at him and it's like a daughter yelling at her dad, and he's totally fine with it.
CLINTON: Bogdanovich's career seems to be perfectly fine at the moment. His next feature film is a contemporary comedy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLINTON: Yeah, we seem to have a little disagreement there between Peter and Kirsten in terms of directing style there -- but it's a quite interesting movie. Dunst is really a great actress for only 19. I mean, there are moments in this film, where she's in a scene and there's like 15 emotions that flicker across her face. She's pretty remarkable.
Joanna Lumley, most people know her from "Absolutely Fabulous," she plays a sophisticated novelist that has a lot of street smarts. Eddie Izzard, who most people know as a cross-dressing comic from Britain. He plays Charlie Chaplain and is quite good.
It's a nice little movie, it's worth seeing, and Peter -- you know, just may be back. He's going to be doing -- he's got a contemporary comedy, and he's a very good director, and I'm glad he's back on the scene doing feature films.
PHILLIPS: All right, it looks good. I'm just -- comedy seems to be his strength.
CLINTON: Yes, it does.
PHILLIPS: All right, "Murder By Numbers," let's talk about this one. Sandra Bullock. She hasn't had very many good ones lately, Paul.
CLINTON: Well, we can all forgive her, maybe, for "Practical Magic" and for "Miss Congeniality." This one is quite good; it's a fast-paced thriller.
She plays a detective who has her own demons, and she is trying to solve this case of this mysterious murder and using a lot of forensic evidence. Now, the movie is very, very reminiscent of the story of Leopold and Loeb, if anybody remembers that -- the two very rich guys from Chicago that killed somebody back in 1920 just because they were so smart they thought they could. And it was made into an Alfred Hitchcock movie called "The Rope."
And this does have a lot of Hitchcock touches to it -- the cinematography is very much so, there are some scenes that are very reminiscent of "Vertigo." It's quite a good movie. The young man that -- both young men are really good.
But the one young man, Ryan Gosling, you see right there, is just remarkable. He's in a movie called "The Believer" which is coming out next month, where he plays a neo-Nazi skinhead who happens to be Jewish. It's a very, very controversial movie; it's already aired on Showtime and it's going to be coming out, in limited release, next month. It's called "The Believer."
Once again, this movie, though, is "Murder By Numbers," and it has a little -- a few plot implausibility's here and there, but overall it's a -- you know, good time...
PHILLIPS: As you say, a popcorn chomper.
CLINTON: It's a popcorn chomper.
PHILLIPS: All right, and, finally, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."
CLINTON: Now this is really a cute movie. It's not going to be a huge movie; it's a small, little movie. It's the life of Nia Vardalos, and she mounted a one-woman play. She's from Greek heritage, obviously, and she mounted this one-woman play about her family and all the funny things that happened there, and about her own falling in love and getting married to a non-Greek.
The movie follows that situation as she introduces her husband- to-be to her family, and all the cultural clashes and everything, and how love overcomes all.
Now, in the movie, her husband is played by John Corbett, and her mother is Lainie Kazan, and her father is played by Michael Constantine. It's got quite a nice little supporting cast.
It's a small little movie, I'm not sure what its appeal is going to be beyond the Greek community, although it does -- it speaks to us all universally in terms of -- we've all had family problems -- we've all been bringing people together in terms of our loved ones and in- laws. It speaks to that, and it's a very sweet movie. PHILLIPS: All right. And you -- at the last minute, real quickly, Paul, you saw "Scorpion King" last night, is that right? You were able to sneak it in?
CLINTON: I snuck it in, and it's fun. It's a big cartoon. It's PG-13. The Rock knows his limitations. It's basically just a WWC movie where he does all the -- everything's choreographed, it's like in a wrestling ring -- there's a lot of action.
It's by the same people who did "The Mummy," and this is a sequel, sort of, to his character that he played in "Mummy II," and there's a lot of action, much more so than "The Mummy."
"The Mummy" depended much more on special effects, as Brendan Frasier wasn't as physical as The Rock, and this one really lets go with the physical effects. And it's fun. It's going to be the number one movie, undoubtedly.
PHILLIPS: Really? All right. It's going to be a busy weekend for a lot folks now, thanks to you. Paul, thank you very much.
CLINTON: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll see you again.
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