Home
BEAN
Nincompoopish Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson), he of the eponymous hit BBC series seen here on PBS and HBO, stumbles from the telly to the movies as a hapless museum worker who supervises the installation of a priceless painting in L.A. While Atkinson's character is generally a man of very few words, he does speak on the big screen. ''He has to improvise a talk on Whistler's Mother,'' says Atkinson. ''Of course, it's complete balderdash.'' (Nov. 7)
SICK
Writer-director Kirby Dick's graphic portrait of performance artist and professional masochist Bob Flanagan, which chronicles his life and death from cystic fibrosis, divided Sundance audiences, who found it either exhilarating or -- not surprisingly -- sick. But according to Dick, ''Bob was one of the sanest people you ever met. People focus on the S&M, but the movie is really about love and art.'' And nails (trust us -- don't ask). (Nov. 7)
LIAR
Fresh from her turn as Tom Cruise's leading lady in Jerry Maguire, Renee Zellweger plays a working girl of another sort: In a thriller from identical-twin directors Josh and Jonas Pate (The Grave), she's a murdered hooker whose entanglements with a disturbed Princetonian (Tim Roth) and two cops (Chris Penn and Michael Rooker) unravel in flashback. Zellweger says this woman's ''a lot rougher'' than her Maguire character, ''but you don't wanna play Dorothy Boyd in every picture.''(Nov. 21)
KISS OR KILL
If Hitchcock had attempted a sexy road movie in the Australian desert, the result might have been this $4 million thriller about two young grifters who begin to suspect each other of the murders piling up in their wake. Writer-director Bill Bennett, who went back down under after his 1996 Sandra Bullock mishap Two if by Sea, says: ''A little distance from Hollywood can be good. But I did miss having my own cappuccino machine on the set.''
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE
Director Jon Amiel (Copycat) had to retool this British caper on the fly after veddy American Bill Murray signed on as a hero naif who unwittingly foils some crooks. ''Sometimes Jon and I would be about to shoot a scene, and we'd just make it up,'' says Peter Gallagher, who plays Murray's worried brother. ''It was an exhilarating experience -- one we hope never to go through again.'' (Nov. 26)
THE MATCHMAKER
Janeane Garofalo (The Truth About Cats & Dogs) lends her dark presence to another romantic comedy, starring as an American targeted by a love broker (Milo O'Shea). Director Mark Joffe (Coso) took cast and crew to Roundstone, Ireland (pop. 250), a scruffy village that lacked such amenities as Porta-Johns for outdoor shooting. According to Garofalo, it made for a very non-Hollywood shoot: ''If you dared to say anything prima-donna-wise, you'd be so made fun of.'' (Oct. 3)
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE
No doubt hoping for English Patient-size results from this Henry James adaptation, Miramax is already planning an Oscar campaign for Helena Bonham Carter, whose well-raised character faces conflict from her affair with a journalist (Linus Roache) and her new friendship with a traveling American heiress (Alison Elliott). Among the similarities: a love triangle, picturesque locales, and a three-named British actress baring all in, as Bonham Carter puts it, ''my first full-on nude-and-bonk.'' (Nov. 7)
