[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.
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