K
DIANE
KEATON
 ONE
BIG HAPPY: Steve Martin, Diane
Keaton (Paramount) What we have here is a comedy about a family
that is far from happy and has been that way for a long while. But
you can bet that Ma and Pa, played by Keaton and Martin, will patch
everything up in time for a big happy ending--just as they did in
“Father of the Bride” and "Father of the Bride
Part II." Opening date to be announced
FOR GUY FLATLEY'S 1974 LOS
ANGELES TIMES INTERVIEW WITH DIANE KEATON,
click here.
NICOLE KIDMAN
 RABBIT
HOLE: Nicole Kidman (Written
by David Lindsay-Abaire; Fox Searchlight) The serenity of a suburban
family is shattered when a four-year-old boy is killed by the driver
of a speeding car. Will a visit from the teen-ager who was behind
the wheel bring solace to the boy’s mother, or will it fill
her with rage? David Lindsay-Abaire's play won the 2007 Pulitzer
Prize for Drama, and Cynthia Nixon was awarded a Tony for her performance
as the grief-ravaged woman. Does that mean Nicole Kidman, who received
an Oscar for "The Hours," will be nabbing another statuette?
Opening date to be announced
AUSTRALIA:
Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham,
Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, Barry Otto (Directed by Baz Luhrmann;
Written by Ronald Harwood; Fox) Hugh Jackman, who made a hasty entrance
when Russell Crowe made an even hastier exit over a salary squabble,
plays an enigmatic Australian who comes to the aid of a British
damsel in distress (Kidman). In danger of losing her recently inherited
ranch to villainous robber barons, the determined Brit allows the
take-charge Aussie to escort her and her 2,000 head of cattle to
the presumed safety of Darwin, an Australian site the scurrying
couple could scarcely know would soon become the target of the very
Japanese forces that had just bombed Pearl Harbor. Opening
date to be announced
EMMA’S WAR:
Nicole Kidman (Directed by Tony Scott; Fox)
Darn! Nicole’s paddling in hot political (maybe even terrorist)
water again, topping the trouble she encountered at the U.N. in
"The Interpreter." This time, she’s a British do-gooder
who falls hard for a Sudanese warlord, marries the bloke and then
eggs him on in his effort to seize a sizable chunk of his homeland.
Here's proof that behind every great warlord there is a great warlady.
Opening date to be announced
HEADHUNTERS:
Nicole Kidman (Written by Jez and John Henry
Butterworth; Fox 2000) Four not-quite-destitute women from New Jersey
have a brainstorm--they’ll trek to Monte Carlo, pretend to
be tres wealthy, and land four wealthy-for-real husbands.
As it turns out, the lads they land are just silly gold-digging
gigolos. Is this how to marry a millionaire? Based on what sounds
like a wildly original novel by Jules Bass, the movie will be produced
by Nicole Kidman, and it should be noted that Jez Butterworth, author
of Kidman’s un-festive “Birthday Girl,” is writing
the screenplay. His brother, John Henry Butterworth, is collaborating
with him, so maybe Jez will be luckier this time out. Opening
date to be announced
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI:
Nicole Kidman (Written and directed by Wong
Kar-Wai) Wong Kar-Wai, the Chinese auteur responsible for numerous
stylistic gems, may do for Kidman what he did for Maggie Cheung
in 2002’s haunting, exquisitely sensual “In the Mood
for Love”--which would be a great deal indeed. It’s
said that the writer/director generally remains mum about his scenarios,
sometimes keeping secrets even from his leading players--a practice
that will probably seem perfectly natural to the actress who spent
eons in the dark with Stanley Kubrick on “Eyes Wide Shut.”
(Don't hold your breath waiting for this "Lady" to arrive
at your local multiplex--it's been rumored that Kidman is having
second thoughts about the project.) Opening
date to be announced
BEN KINGSLEY
 WAR,
INC.: John
Cusack, Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Dan Aykroyd, Ben
Kingsley, Ben Cross, Montel Williams (Directed by Joshua Seftel;
Written by John Cusack, Mark Leyner and Jeremy Pikser; First Look
International) Something’s rotten in Turaqistan, and that
something is Brand Hauser (John Cusack), the hit man dispatched
to the war-ravaged Middle East nation by the former U.S. vice president.
What is Brand’s mission? To bump off the CEO of a company
that’s competing with the VP’s company for a spectacular
outsourcing military contract. Cusack, in a twist on his memorable
portrait of a professional terminator in “Grosse Pointe Blank”
(1997), is joined by sibling Joan Cusack, also doing a “Pointe
Blank” encore, this time playing the assassin’s nutty
assistant. Marisa Tomei is a relentlessly snoopy journalist and
Hilary Duff’s a shallow celeb who plans to wed it wealthily
in Turaqistan. Opens 5/23/08
GREG KINNEAR
 GREEN
ZONE: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear,
Amy Ryan, Brandan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, Antoni Corone (Directed
by Paul Greengrass; Written by Paul Helgeland; Universal) The army
officer played by Matt Damon is assigned to work with a CIA official
on a mission to track down Saddam Hussein’s vanished weapons
of mass destruction. One of the problems is that the duo spend most
of their time in the Green Zone, the turf that is as safe as it
gets in Iraq but also so sheltered that it is difficult to get a
of view of what’s truly going on in the rest of the country.
The thriller, based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s “Imperial
Life in the Emerald City,” also stars Amy Ryan (“Gone
Baby Gone”) as a New York Times reporter investigating the
mystery of the missing weapons. To
read about more war movies, click here.
Opening date to be announced
SHAME
ON YOU: Dennis
Quaid, Greg Kinnear (Written and directed by Dennis Quaid) Good
old boy Spade Cooley was sometimes a bad old boy, most notably on
the day in 1961 when he stomped, strangled and burned his wife Ella
Mae to death in the presence of their daughter Melody. What madness
drove the famed Western Swing fiddler to murder? You’ll find
out a while after Quaid starts his cameras rolling on what he hopes
will be a New Orleans location. Katie Holmes was set to play Ella
Mae, but she dropped out due to a dizzying schedule. Greg Kinnear
will be on hand, however, as warbling cowboy Roy Rogers. To
read about more new biopics, click
here. Opening
date to be announced
KEVIN KLINE
 AS
YOU LIKE IT: Kevin Kline, Bryce
Dallas Howard, David Oyelowo, Adrian Lester, Brian Blessed, Janet
McTeer, Alfred Molina, Romola Garai, Justin Hoong-Fai Chan, Sacha
Bennett, Yee Tsou, Paul Chan (Directed by Kenneth Branagh; Picturehouse)
Kenneth Branagh, who brushed up his Shakespeare impressively in
filmed adaptations of “Henry V,” “Much Ado About
Nothing,” “Hamlet” and “Love’s Labour’s
Lost,” is at it again. But this time, with the complexly comic,
gender-bending romance of “As You Like It,” he’s
decided to stay behind the camera, and he’s taken the liberty
of moving the magical Forest of Arden to 18th-century Japan. Bryce
Dallas Howard and David Oyelowo play the love-struck Rosalind and
Orlando. And if Kevin Kline, as mercurial courier Jacques, is even
remotely as funny as he was playing Guy Noir in Robert Altman’s
“A Prairie Home Companion,” we’re in for a rollicking
time. Oooops! This one went directly to HBO/Cable.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
 ATONEMENT:
Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Vanessa Redgrave,
Romolo Garai, Saoirse Ronan, Brenda Blethyn, Juno Temple (Directed
by Joe Wright; Written by Christopher Hampton; Focus Features) In
the wake of her frantic yet flimsy contributions to the achingly
trivial “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy, Keira Knightley
apparently decided it was time to get serious. So she took on the
challenge of playing the tormented Cecilia Tallis in “Atonement,”
Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel.
This heavy-duty drama has been directed by Joe Wright, who, in 2005’s
“Pride & Prejudice,” helped Knightley reveal the
wit and vulnerability beneath her glossy, high-fashion façade.
Her spirited portrait of Emma Bennet earned an Oscar nomination,
and the fact that “Atonement” was selected to open the
2007 Venice Film Festival suggests she may well be among the Best
Actress nominees when the next batch of Oscars are handed out on
the night of February 24, 2008. Keira--or, rather, Cecilia Tallis,
the heroine of McEwan’s 2002 Booker Prize winner--is a privileged
member of a prominent 1930s British family who is home from Cambridge
in the summer of 1935 with handsome classmate Robbie Turner (James
McAvoy), the son of the Tallis’ cleaning woman who has risen
to the enviable position of Cecilia’s lover. Witnessing an
intimate exchange between the two, Cecilia’s dangerously imaginative
13-year-old sister Briony contrives a story so shocking that it
results in the imprisonment of Robbie. Life soon becomes a nightmare
for the Tallis clan and for those unfortunate enough to have been
part of their not-so-charmed circle. Their anguish endures through
many stages and does not end until the dawning of the 21st century.
So who plays the deceitful Briony? Saoirse Ronan, at the time of
the big lie; Romola Garai, at the age of 18; and , blessing of blessings,
Vanessa Redgrave as the older, presumably wiser, Briony. Now
Playing
BEYONCE KNOWLES
 DREAMGIRLS:
Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy,
Jennifer Hudson, Keith Robinson, Hinton Battle, Sharon Leal, Anika
Noni Rose, Danny Glover, Loretta Devine, John Lithgow (Written and
directed by Bill Condon; DreamWorks/Paramount) A trio of R&B
singers from Chicago enter a competition at Harlem’s Apollo
Theater and eventually achieve fame as mainstream pop artists--but
at a high emotional price. Though he does not play a member of the
trio, Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx is top-billed as the girls’
fast-talking, not-totally-trustworthy manager. Written and directed
by Bill Condon, who last gave us “Kinsey,” this adaptation
of the 1981 Broadway blockbuster will also treat us to the sight
and sound of Eddie Murphy as James “Thunder” Jones,
a red-hot king of pop. Now Playing
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
 HE’S
JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU: Ben
Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin
Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson,
Kris Kristofferson, Justin Long (Directed by Ken Kwapis; Written
by Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn; New Line Cinema) Smart, attractive
and variously driven men and women meet, mix, meld and sometimes
split in exotic, erotic Baltimore. The star-studded story is based
on the self-help book by “Sex and the City” writers
Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo and is being directed by Ken Kwapis,
who deserves credit for his contributions to television’s
“The Office,” “The Larry Sanders Show,”
“The Bernie Mac Show” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Mention should be made, too, of Kwapis’ big-screen, big-flop
“License to Wed,” starring a spectacularly unfunny Robin
Williams as a man of the cloth who's determined to put Mandy Moore
and John Krasinski through holy hell before deigning to marry them.
To read about more
new comedies, click here; for Diane
Baroni's 1998 interview with Kris Kristofferson, click
here. Opens 8/1/08
FOR A COMPLETE ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF STAR
TURNS, CLICK HERE.
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