BACK TO BASIC

IT’S BEEN NINE years since one and eight years since the other. But, within a two-day period in June, former Carolco partners Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna announced sequels to two of their most successful movies: Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (but not, according to sources close to him, to be directed by James Cameron); and Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone, albeit without director Paul Verhoeven or writer Joe Eszterhas.

Terminator 3 will be one of the first movies to be produced by Kassar and Vajna’s new company, C-2 Pictures, and has so far got a screenplay by Tedi Sarafian, who wrote Tank Girl. Basic Instinct 2 likewise has only a script at this stage - written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean, who did Desperately Seeking Susan - (plus, of course, Stone, who is rumoured to be getting $15 million - her highest paycheck to date - for the movie).

There is one big project that has eluded them, however - and that, it was recently announced, will feature one of this issue’s three cover actors in the lead role. Within days of being picked for the front of the September issue of Preview, Tobey Maguire had been offered one of the most talked-about movie roles of the turn-of-the-millennium: that of young photographer Peter Parker, who is bitten by an irradiated arachnid and becomes… Spiderman.

When James Cameron first wrote a script for a big-screen version of one of the staples of Marvel’s family programming stable (featured, incidentally, in an early issue of Preview Television), the plan was for Carolco to make the movie: this was, after all, early 1993. Then the company hit the rocks, while Cameron hit an iceberg, paradoxically making him the hottest director in Hollywood.

The whole legal morass that resulted from Cameron’s deal with Carolco took years to sort out, but Cap’n Jim’s screenplay nevertheless formed the basis for the first new-generation Spiderman script, which was written by The Lost World’s David Koepp. That version has in turn been reworked by Scott Rosenberg (who wrote Gone in 60 Seconds).

In the meantime, along came X-Men, which proved just how much fun you can have - and just how much money you can make - with a Marvel franchise. And, wouldn’t you know it, before long, Columbia were fast-tracking the web-slinging one for a Thanksgiving 2001 release.

Maguire apparently impressed the studio with the result of recent visits to the gym, and Sam Raimi - who had been lined up to direct Spiderman for some time - had been keen on him all along anyway. It all finally came together at the end of July, and Maguire should start climbing walls before the end of the year.

CROC OF GOLD

SPEAKING OF FOLLOW-UPS, it’s been over a decade since Mick Dundee’s particular brand of Aussie humour confronted audiences. The first episode in the carefully marketed saga of an outback crocodile-hunter dealing with life, love and the occasional water buffalo began by warming up moviegoers to Paul Hogan with the Australian Tourist Board’s ‘Put another shrimp on the barbie…’ commercials, then the first movie was test-screened until it was just right. The result, ‘Crocodile’ Dundee, launched in 1986, broke records in Australia, stormed the US box office, took over $360 million worldwide, and was the Number One movie in more countries than you could shake a digeridoo at. ‘Crocodile’ Dundee II followed a couple of years later, bringing the joint total to well over $600 million.

Now, inevitably, the big fella is back. And while Croc II showed what he could when faced with the Big Apple, the third episode lets him loose in LaLa Land and it is called, appropriately enough, ‘Crocodile’ Dundee in Los Angeles. Production began on the Australian sequences in Queensland on August 5, before moving to the title location a few weeks later.

The story again involves journalist Sue Charlton, played by Linda Kozlowski, who is assigned to run the L.A. bureau of her father’s newspaper to investigate a murder. Somehow, Mick also gets involved, together with Sue’s 10-year-old son, Mikey, played by Aussie newcomer Serge Cockburn. Simon Wincer directs, with Paramount releasing in the US and Kathy Morgan International handling world sales.