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Show By John Horn AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was born a low-budget exploitation film. It grew to be the most expensive movie ever made. Now it faces some of the worst pre-re- lease media coverage in Hollywoodhistory *Waterworld” has traversed a torturous path to the screen, but its most difficult challenge — win- ning over a suspicious audience — is yet to come. Other films with a terribly negative advance buzz, from “Heaven's Gate” to “Last Action Hero,’ perished at the box office. Yet several other “certain” failures confuted their detractors. “Waterworld” could match the unexpected fortune of “Dances With Wolves,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “Cliffhanger” and “Tootsie” — four troubled productions that were popular with and ‘Waterworld’ eventually was given the green light by Universal Pictures at a budget close to $100 million. Just as Krevoy predicted, film- man helped launch the careers of and said, ‘I have a great idea “Mad Max” on the water,” Krevoyrecalls. “And I said, ‘There’s ing underwater was either difficult or impossible. “Waterworld ran behind schedule, weather was poor, Costner’s wife left him in the middle of filming, his stunt double suffered a diving accident, crew members quit mid-production and a small set sank in more than 100 feet of water after main filming was completed. The budget skyrocketed, and the news media, often citing confidential production sources, began chronicling the movie’s numerous mishaps, dubbing the project “Kevin's Gate,” after the disastrous ‘Heaven's Gate,” and ‘Fishtar,” after the 1987 Warren Beatty-Dustin Hoffman bomb “Ishtar.” (“Dances With Wolves” was called “Kevin's Gate” and wenton to gross $184.2 million.) As part of its damage control effort, Universal urged the media not to judgethe film onits budget no way we can afford that movie or troubled production but by Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme and Peter Bogdanovich. Theillustrious alumni worked in Corman’s no-budgetuniverse of “A Bucket of Blood” and “Death Race 2000 In the late 1980s, another aspiring movie director named Peter Rader arrived at Concorde’s steps. He pitched production president Brad Krevoy several derivative movie ideas, and seemedparticularlyinterested in cloning “Mad Max,” a 1979 postapocalyptic Mel Gibson drama. Krevoydidn’t like any of Rader’s variations, telling him to dream up another idea for 2 $1 million feature. ticket buyers “T expectit to be a good movie and do well,” says John Davis, one of movie's producers. * ed it got made. I wish it well and hopeit does great Rival studio executives say Waterworld” will have to gross nearly $150 million at domestic theaters to be on track to break even when worldwide, video and TV sales are totaled. Only a handful of releases pass that threshold, however, and “Waterworld” must combat a throng of highly anticipated summertitles, including ‘Batman’ and ‘Die Hard” sequels. The $175 million *‘Water- called in, world” springs from the humblest origins — producer Roger Cor man’s exploitation house, Concorde Films. In his heyday. Cor- He cameback one day later — it will cost at least $5 million. Whydon’t you set it on ice? At least that's a constant.” Rader declined to freeze his movie's setting. and “Waterworld” moved forward. Rader hooked up with Davis, who worked with the writer on a series of screenplay rewrites. Producer Larry Gordon's failing (and nowdefunct) Largo production company bought the script for $300,000, other writers were what appears on the screen. That tactic may have backfired when director Keyin Reynolds walked off the film in late April. Costner, Universal and the film's producers told Reynolds they didn’t like his cut, people familiar with the situation say, and Reynolds was forced out. His custer could be an indicatorof the film’s playability — Reynold’s version wasn’t working on the screen. Associated Press In the futuristic action-adventure “Waterworld. <evin Costner stars as the Mariner, an enigmatic hero who becomesthelast hopefora civilization thatlives on water. Heard the movieis a flop? Seeit and be the judge. Thanksto all the negative publicity, “Waterworld” now will be held to a higher standard whenit debuts, marketing experts say. The movie is scheduled to premiere July 28. “Even though the publicity on ‘Waterworld’ is negative, the publie is going to sample the movie,” one marketing specialist says. “As long as they turn out and the movie is good, all the negative publici- ty goes away. If the movieis working, the negative publicity is unimportant.” Yet too much awareness — especially negative — can be a hindrance, another marketing expert says. “It can't be an OK movie. It can’t be a good movie.It has to be a great movie,” says the expert. who has worked onseveralfilms with negative pre-release publiciy “The movie has to deliver big- time. Everyone in society is skeptical, so they say, ‘Show me. Prove it to me.”” Thanks to its budget, “Waterworld” has becomeby default Universal’s big summerrelease. Yet the studio is also releasing two other summerfilms expected to be wildly successful: “Casper” and “Apollo 13.” If those films do well, “Waterworld” andall its struggles may be quickly forgotten. ‘Die Hard With a Vengeance’: Packed Full of (Too Much?) Realism By Jay Boyar Orlando Sentinel A bomberthreatens a bunchofkids. A building explodes in the middle of a city Panic and paranoia grip the population. Unless you've been trapped in a cultrun compound, you cant watch “Die Hard With a Vengeance” without being reminded of the deaths in OklahomaCity. No, the filmmakers should not be accused of exploiting a genuine tragedy The moviewasin the pipeline long before real-life rescue workers began pulling bodiesout of the rubble Nevertheless. the ghosts of Oklahoma cast a pall over this latest “Die Hard. which suddenly doesn’t seem so much like fun and games.Theissuesraised are still too real — and our nervesstill too raw — for “Vengeance” to quite become the escapist blast-fest that iit is clearly meantto be. Whatif Oklahoma City had never happened,you ask? Ofcourse, it’s impossible to say for sure. But in any case this movie tries too hard. John McTiernan — who directed the first episode in the series — is back on board, apparently determined to top himself. He also seems to want to top Renny Harlin (who directed No. 2) and, while he’s at it, everyone else who has made an action picture in recent years. Notonly does “Vengeance” up the kaBOOM ante, it also throws in just about everything that McTiernan and screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh(a former corporate lawyer) could beg, borroworsteal. Set in New York City, the new film appropriates the wild subway ride from “Speed,” the revenge-crazed bomber from “In the Line of Fire” and “Speed,” the crazy-car sequence from every action movie ever made and the “mismatched team” gambit from the “Lethal Weapon” series. Bruce Willis reprises his role of John McClane, whothis time around functions as the Mel Gibson half of the team: The maniac cop seems reckless enough to do just about anything, which includes jumpingontop of a moving subwaytrain and driving a cab at breakneck speed through Central Park. Cast in the DannyGloverrole is Samuel L. Jackson (‘Pulp Fiction”). He plays Zeus Carver, a good Samaritan who is drawn into the case As Simon, the mad bomber who may not be quite as mad as he seems, Jeremy Irons affects a stammer and a German accent. Simonturnsout to be the brother of the Arkin’s ‘Chicago Hope’Prescription BySusan King (c) 1995, Los Angeles Times HOLLYWOOD — AdamArkin has donehis share of comedy and dramasince making his feature film debut in the 1971 comedy “Made for Each Other’ at the ripe old ageof 14 Although until now he was most familiar to TV audiences for his delightful portrayal of the feral gourmet chef Adam on CBS’ “Northern Exposure,” he has exercised his dramatic chops this season as the restrained and methodical Dr. Aaron Shutt on CBS’ “Chicago Hope.” Theson of award-winning actor Alan Arkin doesn't live by the old adagethat it’s harderto do comedythan drama. “I think good workis hard to do — period,” Arkin, 38, explains. “If you are trying to learn and trying to grow, you have got to work hard. You can’t settle for a bagof tricks. It is hard to do honest work, especially under the circumstances (of this show). We are coming to the end of nine months and even on an ensemble show, which this for the mostpart, (it) is an amazing amount of work.’ It’s past 5 p.m. and Arkin has just arrived at his trailer nestled next to the “Chicago Hope’ Like Kelley's ‘‘Picket Fences,” this series has not shied away from putting the spotlight on controversial topies, especially the March 20 episode in which Dr. Shutt performed an experimental operation involving a wife who got pregnantso herfetus’ brain cells could be “harvested” to treat her husband's Parkinson's disease. Arkin welcomes such contro- sound stage on the 20th Centu- versy. ry-Fox lot. Althoughhe’s notset to report to work for another two hours, Arkin has come in early to talk about “Chicago Hope.” Fear, he quips, has kept his adrenaline going through the filming of 22 emotionally charged episodes of creator- producer David Kelley's offbeat medical series: “Fear of things not being good,” he explains. “I joke about it, but to some extent you really don’t wanttostink up the joint. (Fear) keeps you trying to be good. You know that if you havean off day, it is going to be committed to celluloid and you'll haveto look at it the rest of your life. I think that’s an incentive Associated Press AdamArkin Goodmaterial also helps considerably. “If you are doing stuff you don’t believe in, it really makesit that muchharder to get the energyto try to serveit,” Arkin explains. “But when youare inspired by the material, which inevitably I think we are on this show, it sparks something and makes you not want to droptheball.” “It's always great to be dealing with issues,” he says. “It forces you to examine, perhaps in a deeper way, some of how you feel about those moral issues personally. Thereare a lot of gray areas.” The fetal-tissue episode, which was written by Kelley, handled a complicatedissue in a ‘wonderfully’ responsible way, Arkin says. “It did not try to presentit as an answer that was terrorist (Alan Rickman) that McClane took out in the first “Die Hard.” So that accounts for the “Vengeance” partof the title But Irons’ evil genius — a former Nazi whotaunts McClanewith riddles that anticipate the upcoming “Batman” movie — comesoff as pretty corny. Especially when youconsider the chillingly bland variety of evil that may be at the dark heart of what happened in Oklahoma. Still, if you manage to get beyond the ghosts of the heartland bombing, you'll find that the new “Die Hard” does have its moments. Whatever its problems, “Vengeance” has far morefinesse than the crude “Die Hard 2” — the weakest of the three installments. Willis and Jackson make a convincing team whose relationship (including its occasional outbursts of antag- That ride through the parkis excitingly staged and shot, as is the subway-car sequence, which ends with the train jackknifing dramatically. And if Simon seems corny, the supporting characters partly compensate with their amusing quirks — especially 4 police bomb expert whogets just a bit too much of a bang out of his dangerous work. Despite such enjoyable touches, this try-harder “Die Hard” works so diligent- ly at making the action scenesthe biggest ever thatit fails to sustain an illusion of plausibility — anillusion that was central to the appealof the original “Die Hard.” Muchofthe time,in fact. the action is just realistic enoughto blast you right out of the movie. Out of the movie andinto a sadderreality. onism) rings true. Spielberg's ‘Survivors’ Database By Niki Dapsambelis Associated Press Writer UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — As Henry Rosmarin plays the plaintive strains of “Our Father, Our King’ on the harmonica, Stephanie Barish uses a computer keyboard to call up pictures of Rosmarin and his wife in America. With another keystroke, she can summon a map illustrating the European locations he describes in his interviewabout his Holocaust experiences. Rosmarin’s biography appearswith a few more clicks. His story can be cross-referenced to thoseof other Holocaust survivors who went through the same concentration camps, or people who grew upin the samePolishvillage. Nothing is overlooked in the database of “Survivors of the Shoah,” a visual history archive set up bySteven Spielberg to preserve thestories of Holocaustsurvivors. “This is a work that will never be over,” Spielberg says. He calls the project “the most meaningful thing I've ever done.” Barish, a graphics designer for the multimedia display, demonstrated the possibilities of the database at a prototype workstation set up in a trailer on Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment lot at Universal City Studios. ‘The idea is we're creating something that’s capable of being shared worldwide,” said Sam Gustman,the project's director of information technology. “I think we could hit the moon with the numberof floppydisks we'refilling.” The two-hour interviews with eachsurvivor are being taken at a rate of 64 per day from around the world andare expectedto last through 1997. Once filmed, the tapes are shipped to Los Angeles where they are bar-coded, cataloged and logged into the database A copyof the tapeis sent to the survivor; a working copy and a digitally formatted compressed version are created Master copies are stored in an off-site vault By 1997, the archive will be available to the publicat fiveinitial repositories: the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museumin Washington, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, easy one wayor another. It did the For- tunoff Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale Univeristy, and Yad Vashemin Jerusalem not take a stand on whatit thought was right.” Arkin says “Chicago Hope” ‘huge Catalogers supervised by histo- amount” of feedback from doctors. “We will hear quite often from thetechnical advisers we have on the show," Arkin says. “We get to hear a lot of really supporting things from those rians watch every interview and index the contents, assigning sub ject headings and key words. hasn't received a That way, someone sitting at a people.” As well as fromhis mother, a nurse who operates a family clinic in San Luis Obispo, Calif, “I get to hear a lot about what the staff up there thinks about the show,” Arkin says, smiling. “Theyareinto it,’ — Asaociated Press Thedatabaseof “Survivors of the Shoah,”is a visual history archive set up by S' even Spielberg to preserve stories of Holocaust survivors. Pictured is a scene depicting Jews in “Schindler's List.” terminal could enter a keyword — such as “Dachau” — andstopthe tape at the point wherethesurvivor describeslife in the notorious concentration camp. Like any bit of oral history, the memories of a Holocaust survivor may be flawed. Catalogers flag stories that seemunlikely inahis: torical context, though interviews are notedited. This Movie Definitely Not for Claustrophic Types:‘Crimson Tide’ Gets Your Heart Racing Mathews Newsday For people who become even slightly claustrophobic while watching movies contained in tight spaces (and I get it bad), submarine adventures operate at a highlevel of tension whenthings are go- ing well! When the sub is disabled, sink ing or trying to dodge torpedoes or depth charges, it's nearly unbearable Those elements are just for openers in Tony Scott's “Crimson Tide.” Besides sweating it out in a metal tube 1,000 feet beneath thesea, the crew members of the nuc sub USS Alabama are racing the clock to either stop or start World War IL andtheir commander and first officer are fighting like Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian Hello summer! Yes, the season of high-test(osterone) actionfilms gets off to anearlystart this year, and it ought to be a jump-start Crimson Tide” is such acrafty pieceof filmmaking — a perfect blend of handheld camerawork, soundeffects andforeboding choral music — that it seems to grabyour seat and shakeit progressively harder from beginning to end Thestory, inspired by the continuing threat of right-wing hawks in post-Soviet Russia, has a break ing over a nue rebel force tak missile base and threatening to attack the United Statesif the rebels’ own government doesn't turn over powerto them, The Alabamais hurl ing toward the Russian coast, dodging torpedoes froma pesky Russian sub, with orders to launch a pre-emptivestrike against the base, Oneotherlittle prob lem. A torpedoblast knocks out the Ala bama’'s communications system, right in the midst of a presidential message that maybe ordering them to abort the mis sion. Do they launch on schedule, insuring a nuclear war, as Capt, Ramsey(Gene Hackman) insists, or wait until communi rations are restored, as Lt. Cmdr, Hunter (Denzel Washington) wants, andrisk leaying America exposed? Similarities to “Fail-Safe" and “Dr Strangelove," the two 1964 films about nuclear brinksmanship, are inescapable. as are the parallels betweenthe captains andfirst officers on the Alabamaandthe Bounty. Bligh and Ramsey areold salts rooted in the past, believing in the abso- lute powerof a ship’s captain. Christian and Hunter represent, four centuries apart, a new generation of leaders, more sensitive to the consequencesoftheirac tions, moreapt to question authority ‘ by equal measuresof patriotism, military zeal and egomania. There is a good man beneath the crust, but thecrust is thick Washington brings a cool to the Harvard-educated Hunterthat is the perfect ‘We're here to protect democracy, not to practiceit,” Ramsey barks at Hunter, as their relationship teeters on the brink of its own nuclear war. CrimsonTide" doesn't seem tobeany thing morethanastrained Hollywoodhypothesis, as we'll probably hear from Naval commanders on the talk-showcireuit in the coming weeks, I know nothing about nuclear submarines, but it is a stretch to believe nuclear war can hang on a communication system that falls counterpoint to his captain's quick-tem apart like a transistor radio. But that is a thought, and thoughts fiims operating in such tight quarters. have no place in the summer season Crimson Tide’ is pure visceral enter: tainment, and its two stars know exactly how to playit Hackman, snarling through his cigar smoke, is a great thundering bully, driven 4 pered aggressiveness, and represents at least the ideal leader in the nuclear age The personality conflict, and the test of loyaltyit places on theother officers as it moves toward inevitable mutiny heightens thetension that is inherent to “Crimson Tide" doesn’t match theclaus trophobiepanic created by Wolfgang Petersen’s “Das Boot,” the best sub movie ever made, but it's enough to get your heart racing andinto shape for summer 3M stars, |
