THE PLAIN DEALER SUNDAY, MAY 7, 1995 Hollywood -dips toe into pool of cyberspace 'EVI 5. By KARA SWISHER 8 391 WASHINGTON POST What, do you get if you cross Hollywood with Silicon Valley? Sil wood? summer, Keanu Reeves and, Sandra Bullock romanced each other as they foiled a mad the blockbuster "Speed" This year, the two sex symbols are starring in bigbudget' movies cozying up to computer chips. NIL: Tinseltown is churning out a slew of cyberspace films and television shows built around people and computers. The slate of offerings, grows daily, as the industry focuses on' making the Internet worldwide network of computers thrilling, the illegal exploits of a hacker gripping and 'hard disks sexy: A "There is a tremendous consumer awareness building about computers, the Internet and the rest, said Keith Benjamin, entertainment, analyst for the Robertson, Stephens Co. brokerage firm- in San Francisco.
"So our little friends in Hollywood, taking notice of the intense popularity, roving in because what was geeky is now cool." Way cool, judging from upcoming offerings: TriStar Pictures in will based release on "Johnny William Mnemonic," "the novel about a high-tech courier played by Reeves with a memory chip embedded in his head. Columbia Pictures Entertainment "The Net" will star Bullock as' a shy computer systems analyst tossed "headlong into- the. middle of a murderous web of corruption and conspiracy." United Artists Entertainment Co. will release "Hackers," being flacked 'as a "cyberpunk thriller" whose protagonists have "awesome power at their fingertips." Walt Disney Co. reportedly is developing "f2f (face to face)" about an on-line serial killer.
Fox Television has "VR.5" and MIDWAY MALL 8 LOCATED at MIDWAY MALL on RTE 57 Just South of 1-90 324-2226 seideu! ALL BARGAIN Different Pulp SHOWS Kiss MATINEES Dolby of STARTING Showtimes Fiction EVERY Stereo Death BEFORE DAY (R) Mon-Thurs 6 (R) $4.00 PM Pyromaniacs: A Love Story (PG) Destiny Turns on the Radio (R) Circle of Friends (PG-13) Jury Duty (PG-13) Dolby Stereo A Goofy Movie (G) Outbreak 9:00 (R) HOZ Major Dolby Payne Stereo (PG-13) I LAZ 31 Angelina Jolie, left, and Jonny Lee Miller star in the cyberpunk thriller, "Hackers." 'So our little friends in Hollywood, taking notice of the intense popularity, are moving in because what was geeky is now KEITH BENJAMIN, entertainment analyst "Sliders," whose heroes are sexy computer geeks. John Markoff, the New York Times reporter who covered the career and capture of hacker Kevin Mitnick, has dozens of offers from studios interested in buying movie rights to his planned book. Mitnick became notorious by allegedly raiding private computer systems to steal thousands of credit card numbers through the Internet. Ed Russell, executive vice president at Columbia-TriStar Motion Picture said preview trailers for "Johnny Mnemonic" are tracking well with audiences. To help promote it and "'The Net," the movie company will tap into the Internet and on-line services, he said.
"With all the interest about the Internet and the uses of it, it is obviously a hot topic," said Russell. "So it's no surprise that we're all racing down the information superhighway." There are lots of competitors, such as "c-net," a computeroriented cable TV network sched- MARTIN LAWRENCE WILL SMITH BAD BOYS COLUMBIA Re NOW REGAL CINEMAS GARFIELD MALL SHOWING Rocks ide 1 Tumey 662-6155 REGAL CINEMAS REGAL CINEMAS GREAT LAKES MALL GREAT NORTHERN Greet Lakes Mall-951-3500 Brookpark Lorain-777-4600 GENFRAL CINFMA LAKESHORE 7. RIDGE PARK SO. E.226th Lakeshore 731-1700 H450 Ridge Road -740-4344 REGAL CINEMAS REGAL CINEMAS SEVERANCE SOLON COMMONS Mayfield Taylor Aurora, Enterprise Pay SOUTHGATE STRONGSVILLE CINEMA Libby North 14769 Pearl 572-0134 HOYTS CINEMAS REGAL CINEMAS TOWER CITY 11 WESTLAKE PROMENADE Tower City Cir. 621-1172 30147 Detroit Rd.
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871-7661 FOR THEATRES SHOWTIMES CALL 777-FILMO In new role, Pullman finally gets to romance the girl By JAMES RYAN NEW YORK TIMES Bill Pullman puts a lot of stock in shoes. The right footwear can help him locate a character. He has some 30 pairs in his collection, from $9 plastic tap shoes to ancient suede cowboy boots. To audition for his latest movie, the Disney romantic comedy "While You Were Sleeping," Pullman chose a pair of brown leather lace-ups that belonged to his father, a doctor who died two years ago. "They had so much integrity," he explains.
"I remember seeing those shoes on his feet when he would make the rounds of the hospital." Until recently, the 41-year-old actor had. found himself in the sort of nice-guy loser roles that most leading men turn down. In the 1992 movie "Singles," he played the nice plastic surgeon who talked the Bridget Fonda character out of getting breast implants. He got left behind by Geena Davis in "A League of Their Own" (1992), dumped by Jodie Foster in "Sommersby" (1993), abandoned at the altar by Meg Ryan in "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993), cuckolded by Alec Baldwin in "Malice" (1993) and gunned down in "Wyatt Earp" (1994). Not only that, but many people confuse him with another actor, Jeff Daniels.
"While You Were Sleeping" had the potential to be a watershed in his career because he would finally get to romance the girl, who would be played by Sandra Bullock, an actress who had just come off the surprise hit of last summer, "Speed." Bullock plays Lucy, a Chicago El token taker who falls in love with a lawyer, Peter Callahan (played by Peter Gallagher), who passes her booth every day. She gets involved with Peter's family after he falls onto the tracks, she rescues him, and he is in a coma. Pullman wanted to play the part of Jack, Peter's younger brother. (Since Peter is in a coma for much of the film, Jack is the bigger part.) The film was to be directed by Jon Turteltaub, who had made a hit of "Cool Runnings." Ever since Pullman poked his head from under the covers wielding a Dustbuster as a sexual device as the blond extortionist in the 1986 comedy "Ruthless People," he had had the nagging feeling that he was somehow betray- :1 ice cube Chris tucker frida Ro DO NEW LINE CINEMA: uled to begin in 12 to 18 months. The San Francisco-based channel airs one original show "c-net central," which it likens to a computer version of "Entertainment Tonight" on USA Network.
One of the key investors in "c- net" is Microsoft Corp. COfounder Paul Allen, who paid $500 million for an 18.3 percent chunk of DreamWorks SKG, the vaunted new entertainment company of Hollywood honchos Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Microsoft, run by Bill Gates, bought a $30 million piece of DreamWorks and made a multimillion dollar deal for a joint venture company to produce interactive entertainment products. But can all this meet Hollywood's most important test: Will it make money? Several previous computeroriented movies, such as "Sneakers" and "Tron," did not score big at the box office, and interactive software games based on movies have not taken off as expected. But Warner's recent movie "Disclosure," set at a Seattle computer company and using E- mail and virtual reality in the plot, did well though most attribute that to after-hours clutching by stars Demi Moore and Michael Douglas.
"A lot of this Internet and computer stuff has been hyped beyond belief, and these popular movies will show better whether there is a real interest on the part of the general public rather than some small group of fans," said Keith Benjamin of Robertson Stephens. "And Hollywood has proved again and again that it can still make a bomb regardless of how hot the topic is." SONY THEATRES SONY THEATRES GENERAL CINEMA H90919Z 13961 CEDAR Cedar Rd CENTER 371-2300 Richmond EAST Mall 8 449-4321 ERIE COMMONS 8057 Plaza Bivd-974-8383 REGAL CINEMAS HOYTS CINEMAS SONY THEATRES SOLON COMMONS SOUTHGATE TOWER CITY 11 Aurora, Enterprise Ply -248-7373 Libby Northfleld -475-3211 Tower City Cir. 621-1172 Pearl Brookpark-661-6330 I Everything from imaginary playmates to real life 49 9 Every Saturday. The Plain Dealer's Family section looks into houscholds across Northeast Ohio and honestly addresses the joys and issucs faced by families of every nature. From finances to parenting.
Fanily vacations and day trips to time management. This weekend make our Family a part of yours. To start home delivery, cull The Plain Dealer at 1 800 231-8200. MAN NIL URL THE PLAIN DEALER News from around the world and around the comer. ing himself.
He envisioned himself in the bashful Jimmy Stewart hero mold but accepted the doofy Ralph Bellamy parts. As fate would have it, Pullman found himself in the audition room with Bullock before he time to slip his shoes on. "We had a lot of great actors audition," Bullock recalls. "As soon as he walked into the room; everybody felt the chemistry." Pullman, who ended up using the shoes as a prop in the scene they improvised, adds: "I really am a believer in the right pair of shoes to oriented. Whether or not they're on your feet, it's still a good to bring them along." Pullman wore a very different pair of shoes tasseled slip-ons in his mold-breaking role lasti year as the 4, greedy, pharmaceuticalgrade cocainepilfering! medical student of John Dahl's noir thriller "The Last Seduction." Dahl says: "I knew Bill could bring across an edginess, a grittiness, and be hilarious.
I knew he had the ability to ooze smarminess and the audience would laugh with him." Dahl's ability to see qualities in the actor that other di-' rectors have overlooked stems in part from a friendship that dates back to when Dahl was a student of Pullman's at the NEW YORK TIMES Bill Pullman: "I really am a believer in the right pair of shoes to get you oriented. Whether or not they're on your feet, it's still a good idea to tana. University of Mon- bring them "Because I know him, I've kept track of his career and have seen almost every film he's done," says Dahl. "He can do The director was particularly interested in some of Pullman's lesser-known movie roles: his part in "Malice," in which he evolved from an academic milquetoast to a murderous blackmailer, and his aggressive developer in Mike Figgis' sultry film "Liebestraum." The sixth of seven children born to a doctor and a nurse, Pullman grew up on Main St. in Hornell, a hamlet in upstate New York near Corning that he says closely resembles the small town Linda Fiorentino retreats to in "The Last Seduction." While most of his siblings chose careers in medicine, Pullman was drawn to the stage.
Educated at the State University of New York at Oneonta and armed with a master's degree in theater education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he accepted the Montana teaching job in 1979. "It seemed like a fortune," he says. "I'd been living on $4,000 as a graduate student." Shortly before turning 30, he quit his post to pursue an acting career in New York and won ac- "A TRIUMPH! One of the best films of the new year!" Travers. ROLLING STONE PRIEST R. 3 FT 1 O- NOW SHOWING I CLEVELAND CINEMAS EXCLUSIVELY 2163 Lee CEDAR Road LEE 321-8232 claim starring with Kathy Bates in an off-Broadway revival of Sam Shepard's "Curse of the Starving Class." In 1985 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film career.
Arriving for breakfast at a West Hollywood restaurant in a Dodge pickup truck, Pullman was 'dressed in a black denim shirt (tail hanging out) and blue jeans. He announced that he would spend the afternoon at a park i in Malibu with his wife, Tamara, an ex-dancer, and their three children, ages 2 through 7. The Pullmans often spend time between films at a working ranchette in Montana that he owns with his brother John. A favorite of the director Lawrence Kasdan, Pullman played William Hurt's publisher in "The Accidental Tourist" and the doomed Ed Masterson (another nice guy) in last year's "Wyatt Earp," a part Kasdan wrote for him and then had to talk him into playing. "There's a real playfulness about him and an energetic embrace of the whole process," Kasdan says.
"Whether it's a 100-seat theater or a $40 million movie, it's the same thing with him." Pullman is slated to play another romantic lead opposite Ellen DeGeneres in the Disney comedy "Mr. Wrong," which should offer him a chance to spoof his earlier movie persona. And he recently completed Steven Spielberg's "Caspar," a comedy that opens Memorial Day weekend. Pullman says he plays "a New Age ghost therapist" and single father to Christina Ricci. Was it difficult finding the right shoes? shoes were the least inspired," he says.
"But they found a' 'great sweater for me. A $300 cardigan from Barneys. It's kind of old-fashioned, just the sort of thing Jimmy Stewart would have "Two THUMBS Up!" SAN A PERI HO MAN I AL BEFORE RAIN 5 HIST PIC LURE SK sPolyGram MUSIC FILMS DO GRAMERCY NOW SHOWING EXCLUSIVELY 270 Euchd HIS Centrum Bird 932 5950 THE MOST EXPLOSIVE MOVEMENT OF OUR TIME. PANTHER DO 1 Poly' aram 01995 ALL POLYGRAM RIGHTS FILM RESERVED PRODUCTIONS 8 GRAMERCY LIBBY 8 SOUTHGATE MILES MILES AVE. DRIVE-IN 662-1090 RIDGE PARK SQUARE 267287H Now Showing GENERAL CINEMA At These Theatres: NORTHFIELD 475-3211 19001 HBO, RIDGE ROAD 749-4344 HOYT CINEMAS REGAL CINEMAS SONY THEATRES SONY THEATRES TOWER CITY 21 GREAT LAKES MALL CEDAR CENTER TOWER CITY CTR 621-132 GREAT LAKES MALL 951-3500 14961 CEDAR RD.
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