USA/CHINA : ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, HARRISON FORD AND SHARON STONE HAVE SIGNED UP TO PLAY SEQUELS TO SOME OF THEIR MOST FAMOUS ROLES

Record ID: 389562

  • Title: USA/CHINA : ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, HARRISON FORD AND SHARON STONE HAVE SIGNED UP TO PLAY SEQUELS TO SOME OF THEIR MOST FAMOUS ROLES
  • Date: 25th June 2000
  • Summary: JUYONGGUAN, OUTSIDE BEIJING, CHINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) SMV ARNOLD SCHWARZENNEGER AND WIFE MARIA SHRIVER AT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) SMV HARRISON FORD AND GEORGE LUCAS SHAKING HANDS AT AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE (AFI) TRIBUTE TO HARRISON FORD
  • Embargoed: 10th July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/JUYONGGUAN, OUTSIDE BEIJING, CHINA AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • City:
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAY3CX1CRJS70C99RWAI4C1VAJ
  • Story Text: They'll be back! Signing on the dotted line to reprise their most famous roles are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford and Sharon Stone. So, after a decade, the Terminator is back, and it looks as if Indiana Jones and "Basic Instinct's"
    Catherine Tramell are right behind him.
    Following on the heels of the box office success of Tom Cruise's "Mission Impossible 2", Hollywood heavyweights Arnold Schwarzenneger, Harrison Ford and Sharon Stone have signed-on to reprise some of their biggest screen roles.
    Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed to reprise his role as the cyborg in "Terminator 3," scheduled for a spring 2001 start in Los Angeles for a summer 2002 release.
    Sources close to James Cameron, the writer/director of the first two "Terminator" films, said he is talking with Schwarzenegger about returning to the fold, but that he is currently not attached to the project.
    Cameron created the franchise, co-writing and directing "The Terminator" (1984) and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" (1991).
    Sources close to Cameron say that the only way he will direct "T3" is if Fox handles the film, thanks to the bonding experience they shared during "Titanic."
    Now that Schwarzenegger has embraced "T3" and is wooing Cameron, it seems conceivable that Fox might sign up for another go. Cameron is planning to produce "True Lies 2" at Fox, again with Schwarzenegger in the lead.
    The third installment of the blockbuster "Terminator"
    franchise will be produced by Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna through their C-2 Pictures banner. No domestic distribution is in place.
    "We've been working long and hard to bring 'Terminator' back to the screen and to have Arnold aboard," Vajna and Kassar said in a statement. "This project reunites a team that has had fantastic success, and we look forward to working together again on this much anticipated project."
    "My big wish is that Jim Cameron and I will work together again (on T3)," Schwarzenegger said.
    Meanwhile, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense") is talking with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford about scripting a fourth installment of the "Indiana Jones" series, which Spielberg would direct in 2002.
    The effort to mount an "Indiana Jones" sequel has been long and fruitless since Spielberg, Lucas and Ford agreed in 1993 to make a fourth picture. The third installment, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," hit theaters in 1989.
    The three decided at the time to only do a film if all were involved and mutually approved the concept and script.
    Numerous scripts have been written, and Spielberg, Lucas and Ford have often been preoccupied with other things.
    The campaign to draft the inventive Shyamalan indicates the trio is serious about putting the film into production sometime in 2002.
    No deal is in place, but sources said indications are strong that Shyamalan will start writing in January, once he completes "Unbreakable," a script for which he was paid $10 million by Disney to write and direct, with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson starring.
    Paramount, which distributed the first three films in the series via a deal with Lucas' Lucasfilm banner, is expected to be involved as well.
    No actor has driven more franchises than Ford, counting "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones" and the Jack Ryan series.
    However, Paramount suffered a setback recently when Ford nixed plans for a fourth appearance as Ryan in "The Sum of All Fears," which was to have been directed by Phillip Noyce.
    Paramount is back to the drawing board on that picture.
    Meanwhile, it looks likely that when Ford next reprises a franchise character, he'll be wearing his signature Stetson and cracking a bullwhip as the death-defying archaeologist Indiana Jones.
    Sharon Stone has signed an eight-figure deal to reprise her role as icepick-wielding, seductive murder suspect Catherine Tramell in "Basic Instinct 2."
    But neither original screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, director Paul Verhoeven nor co-star Michael Douglas will return for an encore to the sexy 1992 thriller.
    The picture will begin shooting this fall for domestic release in late 2001 or early 2002. MGM will distribute the film in North America, while the film's producers, C-2 Pictures, will handle international marketing and distribution.
    Since "Basic Instinct," Stone's price has gone as high as $6 million per picture. Her salary for the sequel is believed to be in the $15 million range. "Basic Instinct's" worldwide gross was $400 million, including $117 million domestically.
    "We are thrilled to have Sharon on board for the film,"
    C-2 partners Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna said in a statement.
    "The first film could not have been made without Sharon's mesmerizing performance, and we believe her return engagement will be even more exciting."
    After years of saying she wouldn't return for a sequel, Stone finally committed to reprise the starmaking role of the mystery novelist and murder suspect.
    "Now that the project is in the hands of our original producers and my old friends Mario and Andy, I felt assured that the project will be made with respect to the spirit of the original," Stone said. "I'm hoping that this will also be a two-box-of-popcorn fun experience at the theater."
    The box office returns on "Mission: Impossible 2" have reinforced the value of audience-tested characters, and studios all over town are trying to overcome creative and financial obstacles to put together sequels to smash hit films.
    Columbia and Spielberg's Amblin banner turned a corner recently in the attempt to reteam Barry Sonnenfeld with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in a "Men in Black" sequel when a script by Robert Gordon was delivered.
    Warner Bros. has been equally aggressive on continuing its "Superman" saga. Now armed with a script by William Wisher ("Terminator 2"), WB has been meeting with prospective directors, including Ralph Zondag ("Dinosaur").
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