Ahhhh, a second interview... of sorts, an exclusive for AICN, by a French spy named Liam. He cornered Bill Mechanic and got him to talk. Ohhhh how I love this....
What's up Harry! Okay, here's the deal: I live in France and, inevitably, do the trip to Cannes every year (I got back Thursday evening). Saw lots of people: Bruce Willis, Robert Duvall, Steve Buscemi, Oliver Platt, Alan Parker, John Boorman, David Duchovny, etc,etc... But, above all, I spoke with BILL MECHANIC! Yes the chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment himself! I saw him twice: once after the screening of Stanley Tucci's THE IMPOSTORS, another in front of the Carlton Hotel. We probably spoke for about 6 or 7 minutes in all. So, of course, my Aint It Cool reader instinct woke up, and I asked him about the few projects I could think of that Fox is linked up with. He was very nice, funny and articulate. His answers are not to be taken as scoops but as the official word on all these films.
1) ALIEN 5
No, there will not be a fifth ALIEN film. "We did alright with the fourth one, but you don't do films just to do alright". That's what I call a direct, logical, down-to-earth answer.
2) STAR WARS--EPISODE ONE
NO, there will not be a trailer running in front of the X FILES. "And does the film have a title yet?" "No, it's still EPISODE ONE." "How about BALANCE OF THE FORCE? That would be a great title!" "Well, George thought of calling it THE BEGINNING but he knows that's not good." Lucas has good taste, I knew that.
And who's gonna direct number 2 and 3 ? "We'll see if George wants to direct them after we finish this one." And what does this one look like? "It's different and it feels good to see characters you already know." He already saw an half an hour of it.
3) TITANIC 2
"NO, there will never be a TITANIC 2!" YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!
4) JAMES CAMERON'S NEXT
"TRUE LIES 2, TERMINATOR 3, FORBIDDEN PLANET ?..." "Probably none of these. I spoke with him on the phone last night, he's still recovering from TITANIC. He has an assignement to write PLANET OF THE APES right now." And, what's up with SPIDERMAN ? "We'd like him to do that."
Then he asks a few questions about me: "Oh, you're a film buff, etc, etc..." "Well, Liam (that's my name), nice talking to you." He holds his hand out. " I'm Bill ".
I'm typing this with my left hand only since the right one is already sealed under a glass dome. I mean, HOW COOL IS THAT??? I still have a hard time believing it myself.
That's it Harry. You asked for reports from Cannes, there you go!
Liam... back to the Dark Side!
