- Now that Godzilla is upon us, the hype’s growing for Armageddon. There’s a lot of stuff going on inthe press about the flick, so we thought we’d just throw these 2 into 1 story. The first comes fromPremiere Magazine, where they listed the film as their number 1 best bet this summer:
1.) Armageddon
The Pitch : With an asteroid the size of Texas hurtling toward the third rock from the sun, NASA (headed by Billy Bob Thornton) decides that a motley crew of oil drillers has the right stuff to blast it to smithereens from outer space. Awaiting the safe return of her father (Bruce Willis) and lover (Ben Affleck) is an earthbound Liv Tyler.
Off-Camera : Director Michael Bay (“The Rock”) says screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh (“Jumanji”) came to him with a novel concept: “What if we make this great asteroid movie, and make it totally real and not this hokey bullshit?” (Of course, the concept seems a little less novel considering Armageddon follows “Deep Impact” by two months.) Willis was cast, holding up his end of a two-picture deal he made with Disney execs after they bailed him out of the aborted Broadway Brawler. Steve Buscemi, the mission’s comic relief, is in one-liner heaven after having his role cleverized by “Con Air” scribe Scott Rosenberg. Bay also confims that the late Michael Hutchence, INXS‘s lead singer, read for a part as one of the oil drillers. He didn’t get the role.
News from the front : “Good Will Hunting” was released during the Armageddon shoot, and as Affleck’s star rose, so did the on-set battle of the biceps between the film’s action heroes. “Bruce was like, ‘What is [Affleck] wearing a tank top for?’ ” Bay recalls. “So I said to Bruce, ‘I want women to see this, too.’ I think he took offense, but I didn’t mean it to be offensive.” Willis didn’t flinch, however, at having a grown-up daughter in the film. “I said, ‘Bruce, we’re going to have to put some graying in your temples,’ ” producer Jerry Bruckheimer (The Rock, Con Air) says. “He said, ‘Go for it. Just don’t make her too old.’ ” Affleck concedes that he plays the “young hero guy,” but insists he’s a pussycat at heart. “I would’ve been, like, ‘The asteroid’s coming!’ ” he says. ” ‘Let’s all hide in the basement!’ ” The actors had to wear 65-pound spacesuits while filming on the asteroid set, a huge soundstage filled with smoke, dust, and noxious fumes. Willis told Bay he wasn’t coming out of his trailer (known on the set as BruceWorld) until the director suited up and felt his pain. “I came out after lunch and did 35 push-ups,” Bay says. “I’m running around like this is no big deal, you guys are a bunch of wimps. I never told anybody, but man, my body was so tweaked after that.”
Prediction : We have liftoff $260 million. (Touchstone, July 1)
And. courtesy of Mr. Showbiz, comes this news about how the filmplayed at Cannes:
By BRUCE KIRKLAND — Toronto Sun
CANNES — Armageddon came much too soon for Bruce Willis at the Cannes FilmFestival early yesterday morning.
A rough assemblage of footage from the big Hollywood thriller, which issupposed to be one of the summer’s blockbusters, was shown in themarketplace at Cannes to tease some hype out of a gaggle of journalistshere. But the ploy by the Disney marketers may have backfired, part of anincreasingly testy reaction to hype at Cannes this year.
The Armageddon footage generated unintentional laughs, according to aBritish Fleet Street journalist who attended. “And Bruce Willis, who wasthere for the last few minutes of the presentation, heard the laughs. Ithink he went away really pissed off. This was all a really bad idea.”
Armageddon is yet another end-of-Planet-Earth thrillers, this one forrelease July 1.
No big surprise that it was disliked, really…It just doesn’t seem like the Cannes type of flick. Eventhough they DO seem to love Bruce over in France so much. We’ll see who’s laughing when the film rakesin the dough this July and skyrockets Ben to international fame!
Got Something To Say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.