Coming Soon
- This Week: Dec 14
- (Dec 18)
- (Dec 18)
- Next Week: Dec 21
- (Dec 25)
- (Dec 25)
- (Dec 25)
This Week: Dec 14
STARRING Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Steenburgen
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Marc Lawrence
Ever since she starred with Hugh Grant in the 1996 thriller Extreme Measures, Sarah Jessica Parker hoped she'd reunite with the actor in lighter fare. ''I love Hugh Grant,'' she says. ''I've seen every romantic comedy he's made I've auditioned and screen-tested for most of them. Anyone who works in romantic comedy would want to do a movie with him.''
So when Morgans came her way, Parker signed right up even though she and Grant wouldn't be meeting cute. The two play a rich New York City couple whose marriage is on the rocks. But after they witness a murder, they're forced to live together in the Witness Protection Program in Wyoming. ''While there, they encounter a bunch of things they're not used to seeing: horses and bears and bingo games,'' says Marc Lawrence, who also directed Grant in Two Weeks Notice and Music and Lyrics. Playing a fish-out-of-water on location in New Mexico wasn't a stretch for London native Grant. ''I was just utterly fascinated,'' he says. ''When we were shooting a rodeo, the production company had to put up a sign at the gate saying 'No concealed weapons.' I never thought I'd be on a set like that.''
STARRING Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoë Saldana, Michelle
Rodriguez
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY James Cameron
Avatar had its start before Cameron ever shot a frame of Titanic. Fifteen years ago, he wrote an outline about a paralyzed soldier from Earth who in the body of a 10-foot-tall avatar travels to a lush planet and meets a race called the Na'vi. He brought the idea to his then F/X company, Digital Domain. ''They said, 'We're years away from what you want to do,''' says Cameron. ''So I stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it.'' Since then, he and his F/X posse have had plenty of time (and check-writing goodwill from Fox) to realize his vision. It's been a long haul. Just ask Avatar star Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation). ''I spent 13 months filming with Jim,'' he says. ''One day you love each other, the next you hate each other. But I've never had a guy push me like that. That's why I like working in America. You guys love making big movies!''