FEATURES
57 Wrap Party '98
There were asteroids hurtling toward Earth, a big lizard in - Manhattan, Nazis
in Normandy—and that sinking ship that simply refused to go down. In a special
year-end, section, PREMIERE takes a long, hard look at the way it was—the
winners and the losers, the brazen and the bizarre, the overexposed stars and
the underappreciated gems of 1998.
70 Long, Cool Daddy
BY JOHANNA SCHNELLER
It's not as though Vince Vaughn has ever played it straight. From his too-slick
"you are so money" player in Swingers to his sociopathic serial killer
in Clay Pigeons, he has always been charismatically over-the-top. But the real
Vaughn, the one taking a stab at stardom by playing Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's
Psycho remake, is even more outrageous than his onscreen characters.
78 Welcome to the Jungle
BY RACHEL ABRAMOWITZ
Twenty Twenty years after disappearing into the ether of his post—Days of
Heaven acclaim, Terrence Malick comes out of hiding to direct The Thin REd Line,
a sprawling ensemble tale of war that had just about every actor in Hollywood
begging for a part. This exclusive on-the-set report reveals how a legendarily
eccentric artist whips his cast and crew into a memorable (and very cinematic)
frenzy.
86 Wild Angel
BY TOM ROSTON
Tattoos, knife scars, and blood unions aren't mctiv de rigueur for rising Hollywood
talon. But Angelina Jolie, the surprise splash is Playing by Heart's heavyweight
acting pool, doesn't have time to follow the pack—she's too busy staying
in motion. DEPARTMENTS
33 Hollywoodland
Travolta heads for Earth; power gets a new address; calling all fledgling screenwriters!
Plus: Michael Caine on Demi Moore and kissing Christopher Reeve.
44 IF YOU ASK ME
I Love New Jersey
BY LIBBY GELMAN-WAXNER
After exploring the Garden State's gorgeous greenery, glowing Wal-Marts, and gargantuan
malls, Libby questions the meaning of Happiness and decides that she'll take Manhattan.
47 TOWN WITHOUT PITY
Irreconcilable Differences
BY JOHN HORN
Good news: Mel Gibson is producing and starring in your directorial debut. Bad
news: Mel Gibson is producing and starring in your directorial debut. How Brian
Helgeland lost control of Payback.
51 ON THE SET
Gorilla Warfare
BY JOHN HORN
While animatronic techies and computer gurus battle for the future of cinematic
special effects, Mighty Joe Young's prodigious primate proves that, at least for
now, both sides are winning.
54 'Little' Wonder
BY GLENN KENNY
The petite English star of Little Voice—Jane Horrocks, of Absolutely Fabulous
fame— reveals the diva inside her by belting out bravura imitations of Judy
Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Billie Holiday. OTHER
18 LETTERS
20 CINEMASCOPE
27 IN THE WORKS
90 HOME GUIDE
97 CLASSIFIEDS
100 CLASSIC SCENE
EDITOR'S LETTER
MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS: READ more novels; go to the gym; always order air-popped
popcorn. Hollywood's resolutions: stop spending $100 million on dumb movies; stop
making movies that last longer than Gone With the Wind but aren't Gone With the
Wind; start casting Adam Sandler and Cameron Diaz in everything. Every year, Hollywood
turns out its share of long-shot hits and surefire disasters. And every year,
the lessons the movie business learns from those twelve months of idiocy and excess
are the wrong ones. ("Sure, Spielberg already did his two dinosaur movies,
but our lizard is bigger!") A boom in teen horror flicks leads to a glut
quicker than you can say Jennifer Love Hewitt. (Watch for next year's I Think
I Still Know What You Screamed Last Labor Day!) The hint that audiences might
actually want some serious fare brings on the Oscar-worthy heavyweights. ("Sure,
Spielberg already did his antislavery picture, but we've got Oprah!")
Thank God we have Howard Karren to make sense of it all. As the unflappable mastermind
behind our annual Wrap Party, deputy editor Karren sifted through a mountain of
trivia, traUmma-porn-star">Uma, genius, and madness to produce this sparkling distillation of
the year in movies. West Coast editor Anne Thompson contributes her incisive box
office analysis to deliver the lessons Hollywood ought to have learned by now.
Also on hand for the party is Psycho sensation Vince Vaughn, whose current appearance
as a reimagined Norman Bates caps the remarkable rise of a genuine talent. Johanna
Schneller (who delved fearlessly into the depths of Val Kilmer's soul in the April
1997 issue of PREMIERE) captures the essence of this neo-rat-packer in a rollicking
cover profile. And Andrew Macpherson's cover shoot certainly conveys Vaughn's
ability to immerse himself in the moment.
This month also marks the return of a filmmaking visionary: Badlands and Days
of Heaven director Terrence Malick, who followed those groundbreaking '70s films
with a disappearing act worthy of J.D. Salinger. When word spread that he was
coming out of seclusion to film an epic version of the James Jones World War II
novel The Thin REd Line, it seemed as if every actor in Hollywood was jockeying
for a part. Spearheading PREMIERE'S exclusive coverage, writer at large Rachel
Abramowitz and legendary photojournalist Sylvia Plachy journeyed to the Australian
location to document this extraordinary production. "It was a most thrilling
place to be," reports Plachy, whose son Adrien Brody is one of the leads
in the film. "I heard a huge black beetle sing, and flying foxes screeched
overhead at dusk. And I was grateful at the end of each day to go home to a clean
hotel and have a beer with the boys, who let me sit with them because I was `Adrien's
mom,' and it was only a movie."
