The film — based on John Ridley's novel Stray Dogs — met with a few odd detours too. After learning that Ridley's novel was to be published months before the film's release, the U-Turn team asked Ballantine Books to wait. "There are big differences between the novel and the movie," Medavoy explains. "We didn't want the audience to read something that wasn't in the movie." When Ballantine refused, Ridley (who had also written the screenplay) was barred from the set. "I was kind of hurt, but it wasn't that big a deal," Ridley says. "It's sort of not nice to be banned from your own movie, but it was like, 'Oh, well, I don't get to sit on a hot set in the middle of Arizona. I can live with that.'" (Stone and Ridley recently exchanged no-hard-feelings notes.)
Casting U-Turn went no more smoothly. Sharon Stone considered the role that eventually went to Jennifer Lopez but passed early on; original male lead Bill Paxton, however, dropped out just 10 days before shooting. "A short time into rehearsal," says Paxton's publicist, Susan Culley, "he said to Oliver, 'I'm just really uncomfortable with this character now. If there's any way you can replace me, that would be great.'"
Ironically, Penn says, "I knew the material because I'd been offered it before." (He'd declined it because of a scheduling conflict.) Even so, the actor was exhausted after wrapping She's So Lovely and The Game, and U-Turn's relentless 44-day shoot amid Arizona's cliffs and canyons left him feeling somewhat disoriented. "It certainly helped his performance," says Stone. (Oct. 3)
UPSIDE Seems like a sure bet at $20 million.
DOWNSIDE Stone has to excite an audience that's grown tired of his
marathon controversies.
DEVIL'S ADVOCATE
STARRING Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Craig T.
Nelson
DIRECTED BY Taylor Hackford
Think the firm meets rosemary's baby. reeves plays an idealistic lawyer who lands a job at a big New York firm, only to find that his boss (Pacino) is Beelzebub himself. "It's not just a special-effects horror film," says Hackford. "It's a Faustian tale with a contemporary twist."
Not too contemporary: The script, in various incarnations, floated around Hollywood for a decade (Brad Pitt was once expected to star and Joel Schumacher to direct). Still, its themes are very '90s: "People see lawyers controlling their lives," says Hackford. "They seem to have the most power and to control the political system. That's why they're villains in so many movies." Theron (That Thing You Do!), who plays Reeves' wife, puts it more simply: "If the devil came to Earth, what would he be? Not selling candy on a street corner. He'd be a lawyer." (Oct. 17)
UPSIDE It's a part even Pacino might sell his soul to play.
DOWNSIDE He and Reeves don't sound like a match made in
heaven.
A LIFE LESS ORDINARY
STARRING Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy
Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Ian Holm
DIRECTED BY Danny Boyle
You Might Also Like
- Movie Review Seven Years in Tibet (1997) | Lisa Schwarzbaum
- Pop Culture News Mt. Everest deaths spark Hollywood's interest | Degen Pener
- Movie News Hollywood and Tibet (1997) | Dana Kennedy
- Cover Story PLACING TIBET
- Video Commentary Reviews of ''Seven Years in Tibet,'' ''Red Corner'' | Mike D'Angelo
- Movie News Holiday box office forecast (Dec 12, 2008) | Christine Spines
