Upcoming Movies for 2003

[Another Voice]

Here’s a list of all the family and/or blockbuster movies for the year. Be warned – these release dates are subject to change at any moment. Even more than last year, the studios are going to juggling movies around to get them a better shot at winning the weekend. And so that Roger Ebert doesn’t have all the fun, I’ve thrown in some of what I’ve heard too.

I've also highlight Disney's movies. But I am not including marketing releases such as 'Jungle Book 2' and 'Lizzie McGuire' because they're not real theatrical movies, they're direc-to-video flicks given an extra marketing ploy.

That said, let’s begin:

The Recruit – Jan/ 31 Disney tries Bruckheimer style action without Bruckheimer. You’ve seen the ads by now.

Shanghai Knights – Feb. 7 Sequel to surprise hit ‘Shanghai Noon’. Proved that Owen Wilson has talent. And like the first one, this one’s being released by Disney.

Daredevil – Feb 14 The first big comic book movie of the year. Favorite comment so far is that it will be interesting to see if Ben Affleck’s acting can pull off an action movie, or if his body can pull off spandex and leather.

Johnny English – Mar. 14 Mr. Bean does Austin Powers for the younger set.

The Core – Mar. 28 Scientists drill to the Earth’s core in a movie that had a lot of very strong buzz about it. But it was pushed back from last year and that’s not a good sign.

Anger Management – Apr. 11 Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler together again for the first time.

Timeline – Apr. 11 ‘Jurassic Park’s’ Michael Cricthon returns with a story about time travel to the middle ages. It has knights, castle storming, gratuitous sword fighting – everything you need for a really great action movie except a script that’s worth all the bother (or the $7.75 ticket price).

Holes – Apr. 18 Based on the children’s book, this Disney released movie’s tagline is “A warden at a juvenile detention center has children dig large holes, claiming it builds character, but is really looking for a legendary hidden treasure.” Stars Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight. And the author of the book also wrote the screenplay (a nicety these days).

X-Men 2 – May 2 Summer starts with the first mega-sequel a year of mega-sequels. The buzz about this one is pretty strong, much better than the first movie. And considering how the careers of its stars are going, expect it to be the last to feature all of the cast.

Daddy Day Care – May 9 The first Eddie Murphy family comedy of the year. Rumor is Disney’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ may go to video if this one flops.

The Matrix Reloaded – May 15 Keanu’s back. The long, long, long, long in production sequel to ‘The Matirx’ hopefully is finished on time. And if you like this one, there’s more on the way soon.

Bruce Almighty – May 23 Jim Carey gives up on the Oscars and goes back to making comedies – but he still thinks he’s God. This one has family-movie-heart-tugger written all over it.

Open Range – May 23 The former Mr. Snow White Kevin Costner comes home to Disney and returns to the Wild West in search of his career. He's "a former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman." I don't think there's anything more that needs to be said.

Finding Nemo – May 30 At last, the first big Disney movie of the year, and it’s from Pixar. Don’t believe all the rumors that were leaked earlier this year, this one is getting very strong word of mouth. The fate of the entire Disney-Pixar deal hangs with this movie. Disney’s big card to prove they didn’t need Pixar was ‘Treasure Planet’. Well, you know. There are rumors production of final two Pixar films will be accelerated so Pixar can dump Disney even sooner than before.

The Faster and the Furious – June 6 Sequel to ‘The Fast and The Furious’, a movie rumored to be used by Michael Eisner as the kind he wants to make (cheap with lots of box office). This sequel, while still a crime, is at least Vin Diesel free.

Master and Commander – June 6 Big time action adventure on sailing ships with the Royal Navy starring Russell Crowe. A good chance to see if Disney’s ‘Pirates’ is going to be a good decision, and firing Crowe from ‘The Alamo’ was as well..

Rugrats Meet The Wild Thornberries – June 13 Synergy just got ugly. And no, this isn't a joke.

The Hulk – June 20 The biggest of this year’s comic book films, this one has a surprisingly good cast and crew: Ang Lee directing with Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly starring. It will push the limits about how much of the original story can be changed and still be accepted by the true fans.

Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle – June 27 The most expensive sequel ever made and proof that Old Guard Hollywood is quickly spending itself into non-existence in a race to the bottom. At least Drew Barrymore continues to push the development of photo-realistic (and slimmer) CGI characters, bring the era of the actor to a swifter close.

Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde – July 2 Reese Witherspoon is much, much too good for this. Go rent ‘Election’ instead.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas – July 2 This is Dreamworks’ big animated film for the year. They say they’re releasing it as counter=programming for all the too-violent for kids flicks around the fourth of July. Maybe. This one has the voices of Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones to help it out. And yea, they’re neverours about it after ‘Treasure Planet’ tanked.

Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines – July 2 Costing more than ‘T2’, more than ‘The Abyss’, more than even ‘Titanic’, and without all the fuss and bother of James Cameron. Generally considered the biggest gamble of the summer.

The Pirates of the Caribbean – July 9 Yes, Disney’s most expensive movie made is being released at the height of the summer slaughter season opposite ‘Hulk’ and ‘Terminator’. Will the crowds wanting over the top action and mayhem want to watch a bunch of guys in wigs on boats? The answer has a lot riding on it now. ‘Pearl Harbor’ blasted Disney out of the Hollywood big leagues, a failed ‘Pirates’ could leave Disney as nothing but a niche studio making micro-budget family flicks.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – July 11 How about this for a change, an art house comic book movie? Captain Nemo, Tom Sawyer, Dorian Gray, Nina Harker, Dr. Jekyll and other characters from Victorian era fiction form their own Super Hero group to stop world domination. Unfortunately the buzz is that the concept is far more interesting than its execution.

Bad Boys II – July 18 Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, Disney’s former “big hit” movie team, continue to look elsewhere to take their work. And that’s not always a bad thing.

Dumb and Dumberer – July 18 No, that’s not a typo. As I said, the race to the bottom continues.

The Exorcist: The Beginning – July 18 See above.

Spy Kids 3 – July 25 The second one ran out of gas at the box office very quickly. Plans for a ‘Spy Kids’ movie every year seem to have been stopped. Now expect a long line of direct-to-video sequels and a Disney Channel series if it’s cheap enough.

Lara Croft and the Craddle of Life: Tomb Raider 2 – July 25 The first one is generally considered to be a big box office disappointment. Unless this one’s a huge hit the series will probably end. I haven’t heard one peep about this one. Either it’s very secret or it’s very embarrassing.

American Pie 3: American Wedding – Aug. 1 Have I ever mentioned that most of Hollywood exists simply so people can give each other jobs?

Gigli – Aug 1 A moive starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. As if their marriage will last to the release date.

Hidalgo – Aug. 8 The one Disney movie you’ve probably not heard of. It stars Viggo Mortensen (Aagorn from ‘The Lord of the Rings’) as Frank T. Hopkins, a long-distance endurance horse rider. Beyond that, I don’t know much about it either.

S.W.A.T. – Aug 8 The last gasp of Hollywood’s previous trend - the television series into movie franchise - thuds into theaters. Yep, it’s the same elementary school favorite from the 1970’s before it became unfashionable to actually show cops shooting people. Sadly, really bad movies never seem to fall from favor.

The Young Black Stallion – Sept. 26 A prequel to the Francis Ford Coppola family classic, but without FFC. The movie was finished last year, but was put on the shelf.

Cold Creek Manor – Oct. 3 Disney goes after the Fall adult thriller crowd with this one. Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone move into a big house in the country. Then the former owner gets out of prison and decides he wants his house back.

Freaky Friday – Oct. 10 How many times can Disney remake the same movie? Wait, I don’t want to know the answer. This one stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan (from the Disney remake of Disney’s The Parent Trap). You know the rest.

Good Boy! – Oct 10 Dogs are aliens bent on world domination. Not directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Bears – Nov. 7 Disney Feature Animation Flordia’s likely final film has been moved up an entire year to cover over problems with Burbank’s CGI mess ‘My Peoples’. Abused, maligned, maltreated – these great people deserve a heck of a lot better treatment from their corporate master than they’ve ever gotten. Sadly, the buzz is this film is going to be dumped (look below) so Disney can more quickly turn itself into a garbage company.

The Matrix Revolution – Nov. 7 The third of the ‘Matrix’ movies and the second one this year. All action all the time (sadly with frequent Keanu content).

Looney Tunes: Back In Action – Nov. 14 As if ‘Bears’ doesn’t have enough competition. All of the Warner Brothers characters chase Brendan Frasier around the Warner’s lot. Early buzz is this is very much in the ‘Roger Rabbit’ style of live action/animation over the top comedy. In other words, the sequel Disney refused to make is finally here..

The Cat in the Hat – Nov. 21 Why ruin just one Dr, Suess book for upcoming generations? Mike Meyers (Austin Powers) plays the cat in a movie with fanatic sets and absolutely nothing to do with the book you had read to you as a child.

Disney’s The Haunted Mansion – Nov. 26 So if you thought releasing ‘Bears’ against ‘Matrix’ and ‘Looney Tunes’ was stupid, how about ‘Mansion’ up against ‘Cat’ and a full month after Halloween!!!! Then again based on rumors around town it’s probably best that as few people as possible see this movie. Chances are also very strong that this will be the last “ride” movie ever to make it to theaters. There may still be some attempt at a direct-to-video franchise, but the expected poor box office and “high” production costs of theatrical features means ‘Big Thunder’ won’t be in a multiplex near you.

The Last Samurai – Dec. 5 Tom Cruise is a 19th Century American who goes to Japan to train the Emperor’s army to fight the last remaining samurai. They’re expecting a lot from this movie and visions of ‘Gladiator’ size money and Oscars are dancing in people head’s. At least the sets are impressive.

The Alamo – Dec. 12 Much discussed on these boards already, Eisner’s cut rate epic is supposed to make it to the screen: we’ll see. P.S. Look what opens three days later..

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Dec. 15 A rough edit of the film already exists and rumors all over town are praising it as the strongest of the three strong films. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the entire ‘Rings’ series on the movies you will see for the rest of this century. Not only did the filmmakers violate every rule that Hollywood has, they have produced one of the best films ever made (there's a rumored "master cut" that links all three films together which will run more than 14 hours). It’s already expected that the three films will bring in close to five billion dollars in worldwide first run box office. Add to that the video, re-releases, cable, broadcast and merchandise. Not bad for a small independent group in nowhere New Zealand. And all of this could have been Disney’s too, except Eisner gave the film away. Now do you understand why there are a lot of bitter people in Burbank?


Some Disney films don’t have release dates yet, including Under the Tuscan Sun, George of the Jungle 2, and Bringing Down the House.

Like I said, everything above is subject to change. If people are interested I’ll try to keep this list up to date.

 

[Sarangel]

Rugrats Meet The Wild Thornberries

Please tell me you're joking...

I know you're not, but the optimist in me keeps hoping.

Sarangel

 

[BRERALEX]

thanx for all the movie info.

i go to the movies every week maybe twice a week (2002)

i go to the movies maybe once a month (2003)
(twice for LOTR)

 

[Planogirl]

This is a VERY interesting list! Any word on the film "Gods and Generals" by any chance?

The Alamo – Dec. 12 Much discussed on these boards already, Eisner’s cut rate epic is supposed to make it to the screen: we’ll see. P.S. Look what opens three days later..

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Dec. 15 A rough edit of the film already exists and rumors all over town are praising it as the strongest of the three strong films. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the entire ‘Rings’ series on the movies you will see for the rest of this century. Not only did the filmmakers violate every rule that Hollywood has, they have produced one of the best films ever made (there's a rumored "master cut" that links all three films together which will run more than 14 hours). It’s already expected that the three films will bring in close to five billion dollars in worldwide first run box office. Add to that the video, re-releases, cable, broadcast and merchandise. Not bad for a small independent group in nowhere New Zealand. And all of this could have been Disney’s too, except Eisner gave the film away. Now do you understand why there are a lot of bitter people in Burbank?
Like I said, everything above is subject to change. If people are interested I’ll try to keep this list up to date. [/B]

I can't believe the timing of these two movies. Frankly, based on the way things have been going, I'm very glad that Disney didn't end up with Lord of the Rings. I can't begin to imagine how it may have ended up with Disney's current cost-cutting mindset.

Please do update the list when you have time! This is very fascinating.

 

[Razor Roman]

I'll go see the Looney Toons movie in the hopes it will do well and Disney will finally make "Who Discovered Roger Rabbit"

 

[airlarry!]

Thanks, M. AV for the great info! Please keep it coming.

This may be the most underwhelming year of movies that I've seen in a while. There just isn't that much to excite me, BUT, I am looking forward to:

The Matrices (Matrici?), Finding Nemo, Shanghai Knights (Owen & Jackie again!!), Timeline (loved the book), and LOTR.

I refuse to believe that some of the movie titles you have provided are real movies in production. Next you'll tell me there were more than two Police Academy movies.

When I look at some of these movies, it gives me hope that a talented young novelist/screenwriter might have hope of finding a deal....seems like there might be a dearth of talent in Hollywoodland....is it just me or is every other movie this year a sequel?

 

[Safari Steve]

Anger Management co-stars Jack Nicholson, not Robert DeNiro.

 

[Another Voice]

This list is not a full and complete list of every movie out this year – simply the ones I think people around here might be interested in, i.e. the blockbusters and the Disney releases. If there are any other’s that you have heard about, post the question on this thread or check the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com). That site has an amazing amount of information. There are a lot of movies coming out from Miramax and Dimension as well (Disney’s “independent” studio), but few people are really interested in the release date of the next Hellraisier installment.


Gods and Generals started out life as a miniseries for the TNT cable network. It’s about Gen. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. It also features the most ironic bit of casting ever as real life Democratic Senator Robert Byrd plays a slave-owning Confederate General as well. It’s in theaters mostly as a vanity piece – the show was made by Ted “The South Shall Rise Again” Turner’s production company. He’s also the largest individual shareholder in AOL TimeWarner – and AOL’s board needs to keep Teddie really happy right now. It hits theaters on February 21. More information is available at http://www.godsandgenerals.com .


Given the skill of studio carpet-bombing marketing these days, it’s very difficult for a major studio release not to make the $100 million target (which is why flops like ‘Treasure Planet’ and ‘Gangs of New York’ are so newsworthy). “Hit” or “miss” these days is really determined by a studio’s expectations. That’s why a movie like ‘The Road to Perdition’ is considered to be a hit, while something like ‘Harry Potter 2’ can be considered a miss.

Looking just at Disney’s plate, there’s no real stand-out mega movie. There’s not even a good sized hit like last year’s ‘Signs’. The chances of any of these movies exceeding expectations are rather low (although the bar has been very low for ‘Mansion’ and nothing will ever cause Disney to admit that ‘Nemo’ is a hit).

What you’re seeing is the direct result of ‘Pearl Harbor’. Production and marketing costs were so high, and expectations so large, that when the movie failed it caught Disney completely unprepared. The Studio cut $600 million from this year’s production budget – that’s ten average movies. It also left Disney without the resources to after large outside projects, which is why ‘The Hulk’ and others are at other studios.

This is going to be another very lean year for the Mouse.


You’re not the only one that now says Disney giving away ‘Lord of the Rings’ was a good thing. Peter Jackson has not made much of a secret about the contempt he holds for Eisner’s demands. The ‘Rings’ that we have seen simply would not have existed if Disney had retained the project. We could have very likely seen something along these lines: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2003/01/jaromir.html .


The ‘Roger Rabbit’ characters are owned 50-50 by Disney and Amblin Entertainment. Amblin is Steven Spielberg’s personal production company. Steven now is a partner with Jeffrey Katzenberg over at Dreamworks. Jeffrey used to work for Michael Eisner until the two got into a disagreement over who should be the next President of Disney (Jeffrey thought he deserved the job; Michael wanted to borrow a figure from ‘It’s A Small World’ and have it programmed to say only “Yes Michael, you’re right”). Words were exchanged. Jeffrey got very, very, very rich as a result and us stockholders got much, much poorer.

Since the split is exactly 50-50, nothing can be done with the character unless both sides agree. Furthermore, Eisner has made it a life goal to see that Jeffrey doesn’t get a dime more. That’s why all the Roger Rabbit stuff in the Parks has been disappearing over the years. There was a lot of work done on the ‘Rabbit’ prequel and some it is very stunning. But it will never been seen by the public as long as Eisner runs Disney.


And thanks Mr. Safrai on the mistake I made for ‘Anger Management’. My punishment for writing too much from memory. I’ve fixed the original posting. I forgot the Robert De Niro’s been banned from comedy after ‘Analyze That’.

 

[rpink58]

Voice,
Gods and Generals was a planned theater release from the start. I was on set for about 8weeks of the filming.It is set to be release nation wide on Feb 21. There is also a sequal to Gettysburg , the screen play was to be completed at the release of G&G, Last Full measure.

 

[King Triton]

I can't wait to see "Gods and Generals"!

I loved Gettysburg and this looks like an awesome movie. You can't leave this off the list. Thank you Ted Turner!!

 

[rpink58]

If you liked Getysburg you will like this whole lot more. With a bigger budget and a better book from which the story comes will make this a better movie. I have seen about 1hr of the film(minus the Digital effect) and it was great. The movie again has three main characters Lee, Chambelain, and Jackson; it takes you from Pre civil war thru Chancellorsville.