With ticket sales in excess of $100 million, a sequel to Disney's "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" is a foregone conclusion. Not so definite: the direction in which it will be headed.
To cover its bases, Disney's registered these titles with the MPAA: "Honey, I Can't Get the Kids Out of My Head," "Honey, I Turned the Kids Into Animals," "Honey, I Turned the Kids Into Giants," "Honey, I Faxed the Kids," "Honey, I Turned the Kids Invisible," "Honey, I Sent the Kids to the Moon," "Honey, I Xeroxed the Kids" and "Honey, I Ate the Kids."Not registered: "Honey, I Exploited the Kids."
-Tough Booking?:
HOLLYWOOD - Will the right-wing El Salvadoran government give "Romero" its blessing? The film, depicting the political transformation and eventual assassination in 1980 of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, portrays the government as brutally oppressive to all political reformists, Marxist or otherwise.
Warner Bros., handling foreign sales, has an executive in Latin America making play dates for the film.
"I would think it will be a controversial issue (with the El Salvadoran government)," said a Warner Bros. publicity executive. "It may never play there. We just don't know yet."
But Jose Trigueros, a trade attache with the Salvadoran embassy in Washington D.C., predicted otherwise: "It has not been raised as an issue. The ambassador has gone to see it. He had some comments - it's not entirely factual - but he had no problems with it. We are open-minded."
Another source close to the country's political situation questioned whether El Salvador's ruling Arena party, which controls the military and has been linked to death squad activity, would OK "Romero": "In that atmosphere, how much pressure would it take to keep a theater from showing a movie so critical of the government?"
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. will try to book "Romero" in Mexico this spring to coincide with the pope's planned visit. Said the Warner Bros. spokesman: "It's a good hook. We can build some good publicity around it."
On the other side of the world, in Japan, "Eddie Murphy Raw" is getting a very limited release. The Paramount Pictures film would have to be subtitled for Japanese audiences - losing much in translation.
So, "We are looking to put the film into one small theater and hold it for a long time," said Paul White, president of Channel Film Distributors, which acquired Japanese distribution rights.
Target audience: Americans in Japan, and film buffs. - JOHN M. WILSON
-Not So Bueno:
HOLLYWOOD - Whatever mainstream American critics might say about "Old Gringo" - Columbia Picture's romantic saga about Mexico-U.S. relations during the Mexican Revolution in 1913 - the film has proven revolting to a number of Latino newspaper reviewers here and in Mexico.
El Financiero's Jorge Ayala Blanco, a leading Mexican film critic and scholar, said "Gringo" resurrects old cliches and creates new ones: "It is bad literature about la mexicanidad (Mexico's national character)," he wrote bluntly.
Sabado's Gustavo Garcia: "The film is a series of lies about the Mexicans. It portrays death as something Mexicans don't fear, something we laugh at. . . ."
La Jornada's Araceli Hernandez praised the film's "dazzling movements, especially those scenes that capture the ambience and language of the revolution."
But Felipe Coria of Uno mas Uno decried a scene in which General Tomas Arroyo (Jimmy Smits) shoots Ambrose Bierce (Gregory Peck) in the back: "It will only reinforce preconceived notions gringos have about the savageness and brutality of the Mexican."
In the United States, several Latino film critics vented their views on last week's airing of Telemundo's "Cara a Cara," a national Spanish language public-affairs TV program.
"Technically, it's a beautiful movie," declared Jorge Camara of Spanish-language KVEA-TV in Los Angeles. "But the story of the film's main characters isn't clear. It doesn't move you."
Other complaints: The stereotypical portrayal of Mexican women as prostitutes and the character of Arroyo, an undisciplined, brutal revolutionary general. Latino critics decried the character as atypical of the revolution, even griping that his accent was more "Puerto Rican than Mexican." - GREGG BARRIOS - PAT H. BROESKE
-Laughing Gas?:
HOLLYWOOD - Producer John Davis got a mixed message at a test screening of "Enid is Sleeping" recently: The opening scene had some viewers laughing - and others marching out in disgust.
The scene in question: A little girl puts her baby sister into an oven and turns on the gas, followed by a lingering interior shot of the infant as the oven heats up. The black comedy - which stars Judge Reinhold and Elizabeth Perkins - then shows that both sisters have survived to adulthood.
Davis said the scene was included to show "the genesis of the sibling rivalry between the two sisters."
"It may or may not end up in the picture," the producer added. "This is a very preliminary cut . . . the whole movie could be different in two weeks."
Produced last year by now-defunct Vestron Pictures, "Enid" is currently looking for a distributor. - STACY JENEL SMITH
-Quibbles & Bits:
-Ken Wahl - aka Vinnie Terranova of TV's "Wiseguy" - will try for a big screen comeback as the star of Nelson Entertainment's "The Taking of Beverly Hills." He will play an off-duty cop who tries to thwart a plot to plunder the wealth of America's richest town. Sidney J. Furie directs.
-The soon-to-film "Rubirosa" - about the dashing Latin lover, Porfirio Rubirosa, who jet-setted his way to notoriety and died at the wheel of his sports car in 1965, will include depictions of his real-life associates. Like Castro, Barbara Hutton (one of Rubirosa's ex-wives), Juan and Evita Peron and . . . Rubirosa amour, Zsa Zsa Gabor. According to casting materials, she will be depicted "at the peak of her Hollywood popularity."
-The Movie Chart:
Films going into production:
AIR AMERICA (Carolco). Shooting in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. star as unconventional fliers in this action adventure spotlighting the aviation antics at "Air America," the world's most secret airline. Executive producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. Producer Daniel Melnick. Director Roger Spottiswoode. Screenwriters John Eskow and Richard Rush. Distributor Tri-Star (U.S.), Carolco (foreign). Summer release.
BACK STAB (Allegro-Westwind). Shooting in Montreal. James Brolin is a star architect and Meg Foster the lawyer who defends him when he's framed for a homicide that occurs during his architectural company's acrimonious merger with another company. Executive producer William Webb. Producer Tom Berry. Director Jim Kaufman. Screenwriter Paul Koval. Distributor Westwind-Image.
CONVICTS (MCEG). Shooting in Louisiana. Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones and Lukas Haas star in Horton Foote's screenplay of a man who runs a plantation on which prisoners toil and the young boy whom he befriends. Producers Sterling VanWagenen and Jonathan D. Krane. Director Peter Masterson.
ENRAPTURE (Platinum). Shooting in Canada. Erstwhile erotica film maker Chuck Vincent produces-directs this story of struggling actor who embarks on a deadly liaison with a classy femme fatale he meets while driving a limo to support himself. Screenwriters Vincent and Mark Schwartz. Stars Kevin Thomsen and Ona Z. Simms.