Desert Storm: ShoWest Highlights

Hollywood invades Las Vegas for a score bigger than all the loot in OCEAN'S 11 - awards and recognition

By Paul Zimmerman     March 22, 2002

Digital video or film? Platters or conventional projectors? Newspaper ads or TV? These were the burning questions at last week's 2002 ShoWest theater owner and distributor's convention in Las Vegas, and you probably could care less. What you want to know about is which big stars hit town to promote their new films and what did they say. Here are the highlights from the two biggest days:

TUESDAY MARCH 5th:



The three hot tickets of the day are 1) A digitally projected screening of John Woo's new WWII epic WINDTALKERS; 2) the STAR WARS presentation in which producer Rick McCallum will world-premiere the latest ATTACK OF THE CLONES trailer; and 3) Bryan Adams and composer Hans Zimmer performing selected songs from the new animated film SPIRIT.

The faux classy Paris Hotel and Casino is packed full of conventioneers from around the country. In the shadow of the 500-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower, a mad crush ensues at the hotel's Le Theatre des Arts for the 10:30 a.m. screening of WINDTALKERS. A second showing is quickly added.

WINDTALKERS, while as corny emotionally and exhilaratingly violent as the best of any of Woo's films, turns out to be more than the audience bargained for. After the bombastic screening that features breathtaking battle scenes and Nicolas Cage overplaying his battle ailment, much murmuring goes on: "Wow, that was a bit much for 10:30 in the morning"... "What happened to [Frances] O'Connor's part? She's all over the trailer and hardly in the film"... "Screw this, let's go gamble."

The main convention floor area is teeming with theater seat displays, candy counter dioramas and dueling soda presentations between Coke and Pepsi. The well-fed crowd takes it all in and then heads over to a luncheon presentation highlighted by the appearance of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin and several live, dangerous animals he's bought from Australia.



"Crikey! This fella could kill ya if he got the chance," Irwin bellows in his trademark exaggerated Aussie voice as he gingerly handles a diamondback rattlesnake. In town to promote his feature debut CROCODILE HUNTER: COLLISION COURSE, Irwin is careful both to avoid getting bit by a 12-foot alligator and mention the film's title every 30 seconds. Moments later producer Bruce Willis appears decked out in black from head to toe. After making a crack about how he's more used to "two-legged prey," Willis adds, "Ha-ha, we'll be here all week."

"The film is chock-a-block full of dangerous animals," Irwin reminds us. He'd have brought an actual crocodile, he says, but then "there'd be blood and guts everywhere."

After lunch, the lights go down and trailers are shown for the period gang drama DEUCES WILD, Woo's WINDTALKERS, CROCODILE HUNTER and DARK BLUE, an in-production crime film from the writer of TRAINING DAY. Bags of swag are passed out and the crowd hits the casino gaming area.



Four hours later, the STAR WARS presentation has the theater owners drooling. After a no-camera rule is set down, producer Rick McCallum calmly but firmly makes a case for shooting on digital video as the audience gets antsy for the ATTACK OF THE CLONES trailer. McCallum instead offers up a sans-dialogue collection of scenes from the forthcoming film set to a pensive John Williams score.

McCallum stresses Lucas long ago made "a total commitment to drive digital imaging into the art of moviemaking" and then lets fly the hotly anticipated trailer. The crowd laps it up. Gone are the romantic images from the first trailer. In their place is action on sea, land and through busy futuristic cities.

Many think the night has climaxed while a select few slide across town to the new Palms Hotel and its Ghostbar, a circular, glassed-in nightclub boasting 360-degree views from the 55th floor. Within DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg personally narrates select silent scenes from the forthcoming animated kids film SPIRIT while on a tiny stage Bryan Adams and Hans Zimmer bang out selected songs from the soundtrack.

Several video monitors fill with stunning, horse-filled vistas clearly inspired by Remington paintings. Katzenberg's narration is stilted and someone comments Adams' score sounds a lot like Phil Collins. Katzenberg insists the success of SHREK and MONSTERS, INC. does not mean the demise of 2-D animation even though virtually all the backgrounds from SPIRIT shown are computer-animated. Noting "horses are the hardest to animate" and the animation is in fact "more complex than SHREK," Katzenberg reminds the audience the film will be released Memorial Day.



Matt Damon supplies the voiceover narration that's meant to be coming straight from the horse's head, so to speak. Unlike old Disney features, SPIRIT features no talking animals per se.

"After TITAN A.E. you'd have thought Damon had learned his animation lesson," snipes one older fellow, prompting his pal to mutter, "The screenwriters really need to catch up on their history. They're making the cowboys mean to their horses and Indians good. It's all a bit patronizing."

The audience is repeatedly told to quiet down and the bar service is shut off during the performance, making for more conventioneer fidgeting. Katzenberg introduces a song called "Get Off My Back," noting that Adams told him Katzenberg himself was the inspiration.

Katzenberg laughs as Adams pipes up, "That's not a lie either."

"This summer, after STAR WARS and SPIDER-MAN, SPIRIT is the movie they're going to want to see," Katzenberg says with a self-deprecating smile.

THURSDAY, MARCH 7:

Awards night.

"Build 'em awards and they will come" goes the old adage, and tonight's line-up is stellar by any standard. In the largest ballroom the Paris Hotel has to offer thousands sit under four giant video screens as star after star is wheeled out. And just to make things grander, the presenters are stars in their own right. Tom Cruise presented to Steven Spielberg. Ridley Scott to Josh Hartnett. Magic Johnson to Chris Tucker. You get the drill.



THE STAR: Nicole Kidman
THE AWARD: Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film
COMMENT: "I don't think in terms of success, I think in terms of the project. Just, is it going to be a fulfilling experience. That's very easy to say and very hard to do. As an actor, most of the time you're just happy to be working. I'm now in a position where I get to choose. At the beginning of my career I didn't have that."

THE STAR: Josh Hartnett
THE AWARD: Male Star of Tomorrow
COMMENT: "I guess the biggest thing a lot of people have been asking questions about since BLACK HAWK [DOWN] is what I thought about America intervention. I guess really the only thing, the only mission for a better world, is that we evolve past violence, and it's obviously not going to be that way."

THE STAR: Julian Fellowes
THE AWARD: Screenwriter of the Year (GOSFORD PARK)
COMMENT: "My wife called and asked me, 'What is Vegas like?' And I told her, 'Vegas is not like anything - that's the whole point.'"



THE STAR: Chris Tucker
THE AWARD: Comedy Star of the Year
COMMENT: "I love sneakin' into theaters. Put my hat down low. One time I did that in New York and it was packed on the first night of RUSH HOUR. And I scooted over and this cat yells, 'Get out of the way, you ain't Chris Tucker!'"

THE STAR: Ron Howard
THE AWARD: Director of the Year
COMMENT: (on the Vegas odds on who's going to win the Best Director Oscar) "My brother Clint, who's a bit of a games player, he once and a while tells me the odds are looking good. I haven't checked recently, though. I'm absolutely thrilled to be nominated. We were in Berlin at the Berlin Film Festival when we got the word [about the nomination] and you know it's thrilling. I'm looking forward to the 24th and I've got my fingers crossed, but I'm trying to enjoy every day between now and then."

THE STAR: Jennifer Lopez
THE AWARD: Actress of the Year
COMMENT: "I'm a very spiritual person and I follow different kind of philosophies, you know what I mean? One of them is work hard and don't hurt anybody. I don't do anything that doesn't come from a place of just wanting to be something really good."

THE STAR: Will Smith
THE AWARD: Actor of the Year
COMMENT: "When we heard a couple of weeks ago that I was nominated for an Oscar [for ALI] we were in Australia and it was like one o'clock in the morning when it came out. And my father called me - he'd heard the news and he was excited. And he said to me, 'Do you remember when I told you that there is no such thing as luck?' I said, 'Yeah, yeah, dad.' And he said, 'Do you remember when I told you that all you had to do is work hard and you can have anything that you want?' And I said, 'Yeah, yeah.' And he said, 'Do you remember when I told you that there is no such thing as luck, only what you make?' And I said, 'Yeah dad, I remember.' And he said, 'That's bullshit. You are the luckiest niggah I ever met.'"



THE STAR: Steven Spielberg
THE AWARD: Lifetime Achievement Award
COMMENT: "If I could hope for something, if I could hope for anything, it would be that my body of work and in general the scope of movies will forever be exceeding the expectations of our audiences. That we'll continue to surprise and excite people who watch our films so that millions of people will continue to fall in love with movies the same way I fell in love with movies a long time ago. My worst fear is to give the audience what I think they want. My greatest pleasure is to give people an experience that they've never had before and could never have even imagined."