The Fall Movie Season is Here

[Guest El Satanico]

By Bob Tourtellotte

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Once upon a time in Hollywood, the seasons were fixed: the movie studios ushered out films targeted at adults in the fall to contrast to youthful summer flicks. Dramas ruled over comedies, and Oscar buzz filled the air.

 

 

 

That rule of the Hollywood thumb has changed in recent years, however, as the studios figured out that moviegoers like all types of movies all year 'round.

 

This fall, films range from November seafaring thriller Master and Commander with Russell Crowe to September coming-of-age movie, Secondhand Lions starring a now teenage Haley Joel Osment.

 

October comedy School of Rock with Jack Black is followed by Quentin Tarantino's fight-filled Kill Bill: Volume One. And November has kid movie Dr. Suess' The Cat in the Hat, starring comedian Mike Myers.

 

September drama The Human Stain, with a cast including Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, is garnering Oscar buzz, but don't rush to cast your ballot in the office pool yet. Most Oscar competitors hit theaters over the holidays.

 

"As an industry and certainly as a company, we're always looking for opportunities in the fall to satisfy all audiences," said Jim Gianopoulos, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment with its 20th Century Fox studio.

 

 

SEPTEMBER OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

Opportunity came calling for director Robert Rodriguez when Columbia Pictures chief Amy Pascal phoned to tell him she wanted a sequel to 1995's "Desperado," his follow-up to the super low-budget ($7,000) "El Mariachi."

 

The result is September's Once Upon a Time in Mexico, with Antonio Banderas as the guitar-playing gunslinger with a conscience and Salma Hayek as his beautiful, yet lethal, wife. In "Mexico," Banderas' mariachi foils a coup attempt that is being masterminded by a CIA agent Johnny Depp.

 

Raising hairs in September is thriller Cold Creek Manor, starring Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone as urban dwellers who escape the city for a country home only to find it haunted.

 

Among romantic comedies, Woody Allen's Anything Else pairs "American Pie" star Jason Biggs with Christina Ricci, and Under the Tuscan Sun has last year's Oscar nominee Diane Lane as a divorcee who finds a new life in Italy.

 

On the indie front, there is horror spoof Cabin Fever, the flesh-eating virus movie that stirred up 2002's Toronto film festival. "Nobody is ever trying to be funny, but it's so sick and disgusting it becomes funny. Though, outside theaters I've seen people fainting and people crying," said director Eli Roth.

 

 

OCTOBER INDIES

 

 

Sundance audience award winner The Station Agent, about a trio of loners including a dwarf who moves into an abandoned train station, kicks off a strong October for low-budget fare.

 

It is followed by another Sundance favorite, Pieces of April, starring former Dawson's Creek sweetheart Katie Holmes as a disaffected young woman.

 

Other festival faves are The Singing Detective with Robert Downey, Jr., and Die, Mommie, Die with Jason Priestly.

 

Major releases in the month include legal drama Runaway Jury, based on the John Grisham novel and starring Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, as well as crime thriller Mystic River with Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden.

 

George Clooney and Joel and Ethan Coen reteam for Intolerable Cruelty, and Halle Berry plays for screams in fright flick, Gothika.

 

NOVEMBER BANGS

 

November starts with a bang when The Matrix: Revolutions, which is the second half of spring sensation "The Matrix: Reloaded," hits theaters with Keanu Reeves' Neo helping lead a final battle between Zion and the machines who rule it.

 

Comedies see former Saturday Night Live star Will Ferrell portraying an overgrown elf who travels from Santa's workshop to Manhattan in Elf, and Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller play a couple trying to get a bothersome neighbor evicted so they can take over her apartment in Duplex.

 

Other notable films are director Tim Burton's Big Fish, drama House of Sand and Fog and indie hit The Cooler.

 

Finally, if fans thought Disney had ended its drive to make movies out of theme park rides with "Pirates of the Caribbean" think again. Just before the holidays arrive comes Disney's The Haunted Mansion, starring Eddie Murphy.

 

 

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Which fall films are everyone interested in seeing?

[Black Lushus 0]

My dad is a huge Bruce Campbell mark and was mentioning to me about a movie he's in where he stars as an old version of Elvis...any idea about this one, does it come out this fall/winter?

[Guest El Satanico]

My dad is a huge Bruce Campbell mark and was mentioning to me about a movie he's in where he stars as an old version of Elvis...any idea about this one, does it come out this fall/winter?

That would be Bubba Ho-Tep and it's getting a limited release on September 26th and October 2nd. No idea on when or if it will go wider.

 

bubbahotep.com

Edited September 1, 2003 by El Satanico

[Black Lushus 0]

Excellent, thanks bro...

[razazteca 0]

That Bruce Campbell movie looks funny, I mean come on Elvis doing kung fu with a walker!

[Guest El Satanico]

indeed it does...i just hope it goes wide enough so I'll be able to see it.

 

It this time the closest the movie will come to me in Central Ohio is Detriot.

[WrestlingDeacon 0]

Hey, I live in Zanesville and know a guy in Detroit. ROAD TRIP!

[DangerousDamon 0]

Would Once apon a time in mexico and the Rundown count as summer movies or fall movies

 

 

I always thought September was still summer....

[Ravenbomb 0]

<<<Wants to see Runaway Jury, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Bubba Ho-Tep...and maybe Cabin Fever. But I still need to see FvsJ

[Boner Kawanger 0]

Would Once apon a time in mexico and the Rundown count as summer movies or fall movies

 

 

I always thought September was still summer....

Actually, I think the Summer Movie Season begins on Memorial Day and ends in July. From the end of July to Labor Day, studios usually dump movies they don't think will perform well. Labor Day begins the Fall Movie Season.

[DangerousDamon 0]

Oh, thanks. I didn't know that.

[Guest Gatornibs]

Out of Time

Matrix Revolutions

Human Strain

Cold Creek Manor

 

Cabin Fever drew laughter from audience, so i doubt that is gonna be a hit

[Guest El Satanico]

Well it doesn't sound like Cabin Fever takes it's self serious. This article called it a horror spoof and the director talked about alot of it turning out funny without them trying to be funny.

 

So it sounds like it's suppose to be over the top and "campy" so getting a response of laughter probably won't hurt it.

 

All I know is that it's suppose to be bloody, so hooray.

[Anakin Flair 0]

Underworld. I'll be there

[Ravenbomb 0]

isn't Shawn from Boy Meets World in Cabin Fever?

[HarleyQuinn 0]

<--Wants to see "Cabin Fever" and "Underground"...ya know, that vampire vs werewolves or whatever movie

[HarleyQuinn 0]

isn't Shawn from Boy Meets World in Cabin Fever?

Yup, Rider Strong...heh, near died upon recognizing him(Hasn't he been out for a while from films?)

[Tawren 0]

To be honest, Return of the King is the only move I want to see from now to the end of 2003.

[shlidgn90 0]

i want to see:

kill bill vol.1

lost in translation (bill murray in japan should be funny)

return of the king

[Guest The Grand Pubah of 1620]

The only Fall movie I want to see you left off.

 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre!

 

Cabin Fever looks too cheesy to be good. I can't get passed the guy from Boy Meets World being in it.

 

Cold Creek Manor looks like it will be a good thriller, but I won't hold my breathe.

[Guest JumpinJackFlash]

Kill Bill, big time. I'm a big fan of Tarantino's films. Its just too bad that it had to be released in two parts.

[notJames 0]

Feel the indie love (mostly, anyway):

 

Prozac Nation

Shaolin Soccer

Kill Bill

Northfork

Levity

Me Without You

Blue Car

Owning Mahoney

Winged Migration

Once Upon A Time In the Midlands

Together

The Hard Word

American Splendor

Buffalo Soldiers

School of Rock

Pieces of April

The Battle of Shaker Heights

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Top 5:

 

1. Once Upon a Time in Mexico - Number one by three country miles

2. Kill Bill - It's QT!

3. Scary Movie 3 - Trailer had me in stitches

4. Rundown - I like Rock so could be fun

5. Matrix/LOTR 3 - Both I'm hyped for but not as much as I thoguht I would be

[shlidgn90 0]

winged migration was one of the best movies released this summer. i recommend that movie to anyone.

 

underworld maybe dissapointing. it reminds me of an blade knockoff.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

I've never heard of Human Stain, but IMDB says it has Kidman, Hopkins, Ed Harris, and Gary Sinise, so I'm totally there.

 

Matrix

Kill Bill

Once Upon a Time

[Guest Razor Roman]

I still want to see Cat in the Hat, even though Grinch wasn't so hot.

 

Though Mike Meyers looks kind of creepy as the Cat.

 

He looks too much like a cat, and not enough like a cartoon character. The Cat in the Hat was just a black thing with a tail. Not a real cat!