FEATURES 46 How the West Was Fun BY Fred Schruers Welcome to the high-concept chaparral (actually, it's Arizona): Mix Mel, Jodie,
and the Lethal Weapon director with a William ciriman script based on the TV classic
Lwaick. Then saddle up the original Maverick James Garner to you), and we'll all
Ride off into the sunset in Warner Bros.' Gilfstream jet. That's the way it works
in ahe mod, wild West of Blockbuster City.
58 Platoon Struck
BY ELIZA BERGMAN KRAUSE
Move over GI Joe. With director Penny Marshall calling the drill, just watch these
Renaissance Man men (including Marky Mark, no relation to da Vinci) turn into
lean, mean fighting machines.
60 Fraser's Edge
BY CATHERINE SEIPP
A funny thing happened to Brendan Fraser on his trip from Seattle to grad school
in Texas: He stopped in L.A. and was snatched up by an agent his first day there.
As he remembers it, "I wrote a letter to the college apologizing, explaining
I'd just been cast in a Paramount picture called School Ties." He goes back
to school again (Harvard, no less) in With Honors. Whatta guy.
64 FamiLee
BY MARTHA SOUTHGATE
Are you here for the Lee family reunion? Spike collaborated on the Crooklyn script—
about a family growing up in Brooklyn—with his sister and brother. They
claim it's not autobiographical. Hmm.
68 The Low Road to 'Chinatown '
BY Peter Biskind
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." In the twenty years since that line
sealed its grisly denouement, Chinatown has passed justly into legend. Here's
a look back at the epic harangues, confrontations, and carryings-on, starring
some of Hollywood's most outrageous figures. Did you know that Robert Towne originally
wrote a happier ending? What about director Roman Polanski's war with star Faye
Dunaway? And then there's Polanski's showdown with Jack Nicholson (over the actor's
viewing of a Lakers game during filming). They don't make 'em like this anymore—or
if they do, we won't find out about it for another twenty years.
80 Sons of Beaches
BY JACK BARTH
An intrepid journalist-for-hire with no previous aquatic experience (read: He
don't float) sets sail in search of Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer II, the sequel
to the biggest surf movie ever. And he even gets stoked, or was that just a perfect
wave of queasiness?
85 Anatomy of a Rewrite
BY STEVEN E. DE SOUZA
Say you're holding the purse strings of a Bruce Willis–Eddie Murphy enormo-pic,
and suddenly a dip in exchange rates wipes out your "foreign coin" (as
Variety would say). What's a producer to do? A coscripter of Die Hard shows how
a snappy rewrite can save, oh, $23 mil. Lunch is on me, babe.
88 Hindu Love Gods
PHOTOGRAPHED BY MARY ELLEN MARK
TEXT BY ANDREW POWELL
India, Inc.: It's one of the most productive film communities in the world, producing
800 features per year. Meet the Bogarts and Bacalls of Bollywood, Bombay's answer
to Hollywood. SPECIAL SECTION
95 The Ultimate Summer Movie Guide
Not to pat ourselves on the back, but we picked a quiet little sleeper called
Jurassic Park as number one last year. In our eighth annual preview, calling the
top twenty is riskier, with fewer sequels and no Spiel-berg. In any case, Herr
Schwarzenegger will be back—if director James Cameron isn't fibbing about
making the date for True Lies. DEPARTMENTS
19 Rushes
EDITED BY HOLLY MILLEA
The stars and studio moguls descend on Vegas for the ShoWest convention, Delroy
Lindo plays papa for Spike Lee, and yes, Virginia, there is an Arquette brother.
35 Independents
BY J. HOBERMAN
So what if Reality Bites bit the box office dust? Here's a look at River of Grass,
Clerks, and Go Fish —the true scions of Slacker.
39 If You Ask Me
BY LIBBY GELMANWAXNER
Subtle as a macing, Libby chaperons her daughter's first date— at Four Weddings
and a Funeral.
42 California Suite
BY CORIE BROWN
Producers Arnold Kopelson and Lynda Obst play tug-of-war over a story about ...
a monkey virus? Yup.
119 Home Guide
A not-so-reluctant How-to Guru returns to the scene of his sex crime. Plus, our
screen testers mangle some classic dialogue, and Ted Casablanca is bewitched by
Meryl Streep. OTHER
16 LETTERS
129 CLASSIFIEDS
132 FILMOGRAPHIES
