You love me, you really love me... The last issue of this wonderful column brought RECORD hits to this website. Last Friday, TNMC experienced their busiest day since they began publishing online. This column contributed to 1/3 of the hits for the day. Thank you for reading. I would also like to thank 'Agent Payne' for that killer Planet of the Apes piece and 'Q-Brick' for another great review. We're expecting more stuff on Planet of the Apes this week. So please comeback on Thursday, to read *GASP* the first script review of Planet of the Apes. In the meantime, enjoy two reports on Montreal-bound Film productions and a script review of Scooby Doo.

Will Stone make 'A Sound'?

A Sound of Thunder is one of many projects shooting pre-strike in Montreal. Renny Harlin is directing from a script from Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly based upon a Ray Bradbury short story. There's no surprise in the fact that Harlin has picked Montreal to shoot this project. Driven, Harlin's last film, was shot in part in Montreal and Franchise Pictures, the production company behind the film, has been a Montreal fixture for years (99's Battlefield Earth, The Art of War etc...). The story deals with rich hunters who decide to go for the ultimate kill, go back in time and hunt down a T-Rex. Unfortunately, the hunters screw-up the past and almost destroy the future.

Pierce Brosnan has been signed on this project for a while. An anonymous source within the production has told me that Sharon Stone has been offered the leading lady role. With word that Basic Instinct 2 will not make it's pre-strike start date, Stone is seriously thinking of climbing onboard this project. It will all come down to timing. Casting on this project has not been finalized so expect others to join Brosnan's hunting team. Shooting will start in March and will split time between two studios, one in downtown Montreal and the other a brand new facility in Saint-Hubert. Plans have been made for the eventual shutdown due to the strike. The production will continue working on special effects scenes and shooting scenes with stand-ins (who are not members of SAG).

(Scoop sent in anonymously.)

Scooby Doo Script Review

"Every once in a while, you get a script that is so bad, you wanna burn it and feed the ashes to the neighbor's dog. Well Scooby-Doo by James Gunn doesn't even deserve this treatment. Gunn needs to be checked for psychological problems. The man is medically speaking, INSANE. In one interview concerning this project, he declared that he wrote the script thinking of it as if the Mystery Inc. crew were REAL peoples. Needless to say that the man doesn't know where to draw the line between fiction and his own pathetic existence. Will Warner ever learn?

After a good run at unmasking supernatural events as fakery created by evil normal humans, the Mystery Inc. gang have been disbanded for a few years. After Shaggy (Matthew Lillard)'s cousin Isabel disappears at Spooky Island, a spring break resort, the team reunites to save her. Spooky Island is run by the evil Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson), who has an ex-Mexican wrestler for henchman. On their first night at the resort, the local Holiday Inn is rampaged by demons. The next morning, Isabel reappears brainwashed and so are Freddie (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Velma (Linda Cardellini). What is happening down at Spooky Island? Why are the demons trying to capture Scooby-Doo? More importantly, who greenlighted this crap and how can director Raja Gosnell make us forget Big Momma's House?

Surprisingly enough, the opening is not that bad. It features the funniest stuff of the script. The 'Behind The Music'-type of interviews are hilarious with the Mystery Inc. members contradicting themselves. It's all downhill from there though. The second half of the script focuses a lot on Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby. None of them are particularly funny or interesting. Daphne becomes a wannabe Buffy, which is hilarious when you think about it. Sarah Michelle is way above this crap and must certainly be doing a favor for her boy toy Freddie. The awful Jr. plays a role not too far from real life, an idiot. No need to stretch those amazing acting skills for that one boy-o. Rowan Atkinson, aka Mr. Bean, picked this garbage for his American debut. Note to Mr. Atkinson: Please fire your American agents and managers. What could possibly be worst than all of this? SPOILERS!!! You would think that the demons are fakery created by Mondavarious. Well Gunn's brilliant idea is that THEY ARE REAL DEMONS!!! I'm not making this shit up. END SPOILERS!!!

Bottom line, don't even bother seeing it when it will come on Network Television in 2005."

(Scoop by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)

Bringing Home Katie

God, I love her. Friends and readers have known for a longtime of my obsession with Dawson's Creek star Katie Holmes. Her silver screen career has been mildly low-key with performances in Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Wonder Boys and The Gift. Her Dawson character Joey Potter lost her virginity three weeks ago in a memorable episode. What better could happen? Well, the lovely beauty just hosted an amazing installment of my favorite show, Saturday Night Live. Wasn't she great? EXCUSE ME, What does any of this have to do with MOVIE NEWS, J-F???

Well, next week, the ravishing knockout is coming to Montreal to shoot a film called Abandoned. (Cue heart attack now!) The enchanting belle had been attached to this film since early 2001. It was pretty low on my radar of future film happenings. Stephen Gaghan, the writer of Traffic, was then picked to make his directorial debut with this flick. Abandoned is apparently his script adaptation of Harold A. Zlotnik's Toys of Desperation. I don't know much about the storyline of the book, but the film deals with a Harvard student (Katie Holmes) who has visions of her missing ex-boyfriend. There's something more sinister about her and it might involve another vanished person.

John Moore, from MIX 96, was the first to report that Abandoned was coming to Montreal. He emailed me to tell me that they'll mostly be shooting campus scenes where Loyola and McGill will double for Harvard. I hope to bring you readers some set reports and more info on the production. If anyone out there has some juicy details, please email me...

(Scoop sent in by John Moore.)

Stay tuned...

That's all folks...

DeadPool