Spring 1997 Movie Preview

THE FIFTH ELEMENT

[Starring] Bruce WILLIS, Gary OLDMAN, Ian HOLM, Milla JOVOVICH
[Director] Luc BESSON

Even after French director Besson (The Professional) cut his 400-page science-fiction script in half, the on-screen result cost $90 million — part of which went for costumes by Jean-Paul Gaultier, Madonna's bra designer. Playing a New York cabbie, Willis wages a cataclysmic battle with Oldman, who describes his role as ''Hitler meets Jerry Lewis.'' And the fifth element? It's a mysterious, life-giving force beyond the four basic elements. Besson refuses to say more until after the film's May 7 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. ''I just want audiences to sit down and go for a ride,'' he says.

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] Its visuals promise to be as dazzling as Blade Runner, but Besson's obsessive secrecy could backfire; opening May 9 in the U.S., Element will have only two weeks to win over moviegoers before facing The Lost World's dino stampede.

THE FLOOD

[Starring] Morgan FREEMAN, Christian SLATER, Randy QUAID, Minnie DRIVER
[Director] Mikael SALOMON

It's small-town Indiana. There's a heist. There are good guys and bad guys (though don't be too sure about who's who). And the water — 5 million gallons of it — is rising. What separates The Flood from your basic disaster picture? ''It's not like Morgan and I are running around trying to plug up a dam,'' says Slater, an armored-car driver who's the victim of the heist. Adds rookie director Salomon (who got his feet wet as cinematographer on The Abyss): ''The flood is the backdrop for a character-driven thriller.'' The Flood's producers, who also brought scriptwriter Graham Yost's Speed and Broken Arrow to the screen, insist this Yost script has always been their favorite but, because of all that water, the most difficult. They constructed an elaborate 680-foot by 250-foot tank (think four football fields), then lowered a replica of Huntingburg, Ind., into it. The result? ''It's like old-fashioned moviemaking,'' says a happy-to-be-dry Slater. ''There aren't a lot of special effects. It's all pretty much there — we were in it.'' (May 2)

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] Premature summer movie money: Paramount hopes to soak audiences early, or as Salomon puts it, ''Before we get run over by a dinosaur.''

VOLCANO

[Starring] Tommy Lee JONES, Anne HECHE, Gaby HOFFMANN, Jacqueline kim, Don CHEADLE, Stanley TUCCI
[Director] Mick JACKSON

Lava is like love — it's more wonderful the second time around. At least that's the tune at Twentieth Century Fox. (They had hoped to open this $90 million volcano-in-L.A. epic before Universal's big eruption flick, Dante's Peak.) Still, studio suits insist, just because they've moved their film back doesn't mean they've blinked. ''Do I wish there weren't two volcano movies out there?'' asks Laura Ziskin, head of Fox 2000, the division behind the film. ''Of course I do. I'm not an idiot. But we've got a really good movie here. It's not just about a volcano, it's got a social message.'' Forget that — the film's real asset is the tons of molten rock that spew out of a volcano in downtown L.A. ''Our movie has many more special effects,'' promises producer Lauren Shuler-Donner. ''Dante's Peak's effects don't start [well] into the movie.''

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] Besides $90 million? Bragging rights, especially if Dante does not succeed in making a molehill out of this mountain.

FATHER'S DAY

[Starring] Robin WILLIAMS, Billy CRYSTAL, Nastassia KINSKI
[Director] Ivan REITMAN

You'd think it would be a piece of cake to get old friends Williams and Crystal to make their first film together, right? Not exactly. The pairing is said to have required months of hand-wringing by a chorus of high-priced agents (no less than 13 were involved in closing the deal). Not that it will affect the movie, a remake of the 1984 French comedy Les Comperes, about a woman (Nastassia Kinski) who cons two old boyfriends into searching for her runaway son by convincing each that he's the boy's father. While getting Williams and Crystal together required grown-up negotiations, having them work together was kids' stuff. "It was both funny and frustrating," says director Reitman. "They'd go by the script for the most part but would also want to improvise. So I'd give them 'one free one.' Needless to say, that turned into three and four and five free ones." They'd also laugh at the most inopportune moments. "We'd have just finished a wonderful take and something delicious would happen and Robin and Billy would look into each other's eyes and just lose it. I was ready to kill them!" (May 9)

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] For Williams, a chance at his fourth consecutive crowd-pleaser (following Jumanji, Jack and The Birdcage); for Crystal, a shot at his first box office breakout since City Slickers.

187

[Starring] Samuel L. JACKSON, John HEARD, Kelly ROWAN
[Director] Kevin REYNOLDS

What do you do after making one of the decade's most over-budgeted films? If you're Reynolds, still drying out from a $150 million Waterworld drenching, you think small. His latest is a drama about a New York high school teacher who relocates to L.A. after being stabbed (10 times) by a student and finds more terror awaiting him. 187's $20 million budget "couldn't cover the airfare on Waterworld," says producer Steve McEveety. That's okay with Reynolds: "I wanted to concentrate on acting and filmmaking rather than worrying about getting a hundred boats in the water." (May 9)

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] An opportunity for Reynolds to finally put those Fishtar jokes behind him.

***

Written by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh, Kristen Baldwin, Steve Daly, Mitch Frank, Jeff Gordinier, David Hochman, Dave Karger, Dana Kennedy, Gregg Kilday, Kate Meyers, Chris Nashawaty, Degen Pener, Erin Richter, Jessica Shaw, Benjamin Svetkey, Caren Weiner, Chris Willman.

Edited by Jess Cagle and Mark Harris.