Movies

EW Presents...

Spring Movie Preview

March

More

THE DEVIL'S OWN

[Starring] Harrison FORD, Brad PITT, Treat WILLIAMS, Natascha McELHONE, Margaret COLIN, Ruben BLADES [Director] Alan J. PAKULA

Somebody got to Pitt, and quick, after the star of The Devil's Own brutally dissed his own movie in the Feb. 3 issue of Newsweek, calling it an ''irresponsible bit of filmmaking.'' Within days, Pitt was trying to clarify himself in a statement, saying that he was referring only to the problems during development and elaborately praising the action movie, in which he stars as an Irish Republican Army soldier given refuge by Ford's unsuspecting New York City cop. Says a source close to the movie with ties to Pitt, ''They really put pressure on him to back off and say something positive, and he did.''

You want positive, talk to the director. ''I have respect for both of them,'' Pakula says of his male leads. ''I couldn't have asked for anything more out of them on this movie.'' But Pakula won't comment on the film's budget (which is said to have ballooned from $60 million to $90 million) or the script problems and denies reports that the two male stars clashed on the set. Nor will he address Pitt's rather harsh complaints.

Of course, Pitt wasn't the only naysayer. The buzz on The Devil's Own has been bad from the start, with the New York tabloids chronicling its every false move. Ford reportedly wanted his role beefed up and sexed up, apparently to compete with his Sexiest Man Alive costar. And Pitt said he was unhappy when the original screenplay was ''tossed'' and a squad of script doctors (Pakula, Terry George, and Robert Mark Kamen among them) kept churning out revisions long after filming had begun. Pitt, unlike Ford, was required to be on location in both Manhattan and Ireland and had good reason to grouse when the movie went months over schedule, postponing the start of his upcoming Seven Years in Tibet. (Pitt and Ford were even called back for two days of reshoots in early February, but studio execs were tight-lipped as to why.) ''There was tension on that set, no doubt about it,'' says the source.

But it sounds as though that tension was broken, especially whenever Pitt's fiancee, actress Gwyneth Paltrow (Seven, Emma), happened to visit the set. ''He'd just stop everything and light up,'' recalls Pakula. (March 26)

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] The bedeviled Sony Pictures, now on an upswing thanks to its blockbuster hit Jerry Maguire, needs another ace. Bradmania won't hurt.

THE SAINT

[Starring] Val KILMER, Elisabeth SHUE, Rade SERBEDZIJA [Director] Phillip NOYCE

Who knows what evil lurks...no, wait, that's the Phantom, or is it the Shadow? Anyway, the latest antediluvian action hero to be resurrected for the big screen is Simon Templar, a.k.a. the Saint. For those of you who don't remember the Leslie Charteris novels, or the flicks of the '30s and '40s starring George Sanders (among others), or even the 1960s TV series starring Roger Moore, don't worry about it -- this $68 million potential franchise starter has little to do with any of them. ''We started from scratch,'' explains director Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger). ''We started with the assumption that nobody cares about the series or even knows about it.'' The plot, set vaguely in the near future, and stretching from Russia to London, tells the tale of the playboy hero's conversion from scoundrelly thief to debonair do-gooder -- and it sounds like there were parallels behind the scenes.

Page 1 of 5 Next