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Issue Date: May 6, 2007
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2007 Summer movie preview
Things you didn't know about this summer's biggest and best releases.
By Jamie Malanowski
LUCKY YOU (May 4 release) For this film about professional poker players, authenticity was a major objective. Not only did Eric Bana and Robert Duvall train for months with professional players to seem genuine as they handled their cards and chips, but Bana even worked on giving his character a tic, learning a three-chip hand manipulation that he uses throughout the movie.
GRACIE (June 1) In this film based on the experiences of Andrew and Elizabeth Shue, the brother-and-sister actors who as young people were nationally acclaimed soccer players, Dermot Mulroney, who plays the dad, was showing Carly Schroeder, who plays his daughter, how to move the ball. The scene required a lot of quick takes and the two of them were moving so fast with the ball that they smashed heads, and Mulroney gave Carly a massive shiner.
MR. BROOKS (June 1) Some of the scenes in this film, in which Kevin Costner plays a serial killer, were shot in a graveyard. Halfway through the first night, the crew was told to be careful because there were tarantulas all over the place. And there were -- big, black, fuzzy tarantulas. Of course, after that, the cast and crew couldn't stop themselves from freaking each other out by saying, "Hey, you've got a tarantula on you!"
LICENSE TO WED (July 4) John Krasinski, who plays the groom-to-be in this comedy about a marriage counselor who puts couples through a grueling relationship course, was thrilled to learn that the actor playing the marriage counselor would be Robin Williams. When he was young, Krasinski wrote a fan letter to Williams, who sent him back an autographed picture.
JOSHUA (July 6) Eleven-year-old Jacob Kogan, making his film debut in this psychological thriller about the destruction of a young family, impressed everyone with his film-making savvy, but he didn't know everything. On the first day of filming, co-star Linda Larkin (best known as the voice of Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin") introduced herself to Jacob by saying, "I'm your teacher." Jacob responded, "But I thought I already finished my classes for the day." Linda quickly explained that she would be playing his teacher in the film, not tutoring him on the set.
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY (July 20) This comedy about two New York firefighters who fake a gay relationship to obtain better benefits was filmed in an actual Brooklyn firehouse. At one point, the crew thought it would be funny to pull a prank on the firefighters and set off an alarm. The firemen, who were asleep, jumped out of their beds, slid down the pole and got ready to go out. Once the joke was revealed, everyone was amused, and no one pressed charges for sounding a false alarm.
THE INVASION (Aug. 17) Anyone who has a D-Day movie in the planning stages should think of calling actress Veronica Cartwright -- invasion movies are her specialty. Not only does she play a patient of Nicole Kidman in this film about a woman who believes her husband's personality has changed, but Cartwright also starred in 1978's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
PENELOPE (Aug. 17) In this comedy about a young woman who is afflicted with a strange family curse, the production was dismayed when two $50,000 helium light balloons became unmoored and flew away in the middle of the night. "We began to figure out their whereabouts," says director Mark Palansky, "when local newspapers printed that there had been a UFO sighting."
GOOD LUCK CHUCK (Aug. 24) Actor Dan Fogler recalls filming a scene from this comedy in which he and Dane Cook were pretending to be riding in a Hummer. In reality, they were sitting in a Hummer that was on the back of a flatbed truck that was being driven around. After they got the shot, says Fogler, "We got out to stretch our legs, and everyone took off; through the smoke we heard, "We'll send a van for you!" So Dane Cook and I waited, and waited; in the middle of the suburbs, in the middle of nowhere. Two thoughts went through my mind: What if some weirdo poked his head out of the window and dragged both of us into his house, "Silence of the Lambs"-style by machete point? Or, suppose a zillion teeny-boppers come rushing out of their homes screaming, 'Dane!!' Turns out we were fine. We walked back the several blocks. No one seemed to notice we were missing. That's when I said to myself, 'Dan ... you've finally made it.' "
THE BROTHERS SOLOMON (Aug. 31) This comedy about a pair of socially inept brothers who are trying to find perfect mates in order to provide their dying father with a grandchild required working with a lot of babies. "That was a major eye-opener," says writer and star Will Forte. "There are a lot of rules with babies -- you can't film them for more than like an hour at a time, they always need to be chaperoned. And that left kind of a bad taste in my mouth. Needless to say, with that kind of poor work ethic and diva-like attitude, I will not be working with babies again."
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