Entertainment Today: Showbiz News

FIRST SEPT. 11 FEATURE TO OPEN IN MARCH

The first feature film to examine the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 and their aftermath, is scheduled for release this March.

Based on Anne Nelson's play of the same name, "The Guys" is a powerful and unexpectedly humorous film about a New York City journalist (Sigourney Weaver) enlisted to help a fire captain (Anthony LaPaglia) write eulogies for the eight men he lost in the World Trade Center. As the fireman begins to open up and work through his grief, the two form an unexpected bond. Producers of the film say they hope it will help the audience rediscover the quiet heroism that informs everyone's daily lives.

Although several documentaries have chronicled the terrorist attacks on New York and several feature films have been shot there since Sept. 11 "The Guys" is the first motion picture to dramatize the tragedy.

Focus Features released "The Guys" in Los Angeles on Dec. 13, 2002 for a one-week, awards-qualifying run at Pacific Theatres' The Grove Stadium 14. The film will begin its general theatrical release March 28.

GIBSON RECALLS 'UNEXPLAINABLE' RESCUE

"Signs" star Mel Gibson may not believe in little green men from outer-space, but that doesn't mean he dismisses the unexplainable.

Talking to reporters in New York about his new alien drama, Gibson recalled a car accident he had in Australia when he was 21 that probably should have ended his life.

Explaining how he was "doing about 95 in my little four-cylinder Ford, little junkbox" from Adelaide to Sydney, the 47-year-old actor said he drove off a rain-slicked road while impatiently trying to pass a truck.

"So, I swerved away and there was a truck coming in the other direction," Gibson explained. "I'm really cooked here and so I swung out of the way and lost all control of the steering and it was just gonna go over the cliff. I remember before I covered up in a crouch position and let go of the steering wheel into the hands of the Almighty there was a massive gum tree coming right at me at a very rapid speed. Just before (the car) went down over the cliff I covered my head and said a very short prayer and felt this, 'Bang, boom.' I took my hands off and the big gum tree was pressed against one side of the car door and had dented it in. The other side of the car was a sapling and I had been caught between the two trees and the front wheels were hanging over the abyss. I had to crawl over the front seat and get out the back doors because the front doors were jammed from these two trees."

He concluded: "I kind of thought that was pretty wild to get caught by a couple of saplings before going over a cliff, not getting hit by either of the trucks, so somebody had his hand on me that day. It's things like that that inform you of something greater than yourself walking with you."

"Signs" comes to video stores Tuesday.

WALKEN: I WANTED TO BE MORE ROMANTIC

When casting romantic leads, the command producers don't usually bark: "Get me Christopher Walken!"

The veteran of some 100-odd films says he doesn't know why that is.

"I actually wanted to be more romantic," confesses the 59-year-old "Deer Hunter" and "Pulp Fiction" star. "I could sort of see myself on a horse with a hat, sort of a cowboy, romantic."

An accomplished dancer and charming comic actor, the native New Yorker is better known for his portrayal of quirky, sinister characters, usually in crime or war dramas. However, his halting speech and serious facial expressions have fueled his image as a scary individual in real life, as well.

Asked if he is aware some folks actually are afraid of him, Walken dismisses the question, noting," I hear that, you know, but I think that if that's true that it has to do with the movies that I've done."

And the nutty characters he has played? "Yeah, you know, I've had guns and things," he remarks.

Walken can now be seen in the action comedy "Catch Me If You Can."

PETER PAN GOES TO COURT

A Canadian author is suing a British children's hospital over the rights to the fairy tale character, Peter Pan.

According to Book magazine, James M. Barrie supported London's Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick Children by giving it the copyright to his now classic 1904 play, "The Adventures of Peter Pan," in 1929. Since then, directors and merchandisers wishing to use the images of the Pan, Wendy, Tinker Bell or Captain Hook have contributed a portion of their profits to the charity.

Author Emily Somma recently filed suit against the hospital, claiming after almost a century, Peter Pan belongs to the public. Book describes the suit as "pre-emptive," stating it is in anticipation of a suit the hospital likely is to file to halt publication of Somma's "After the Rain: A New Adventure for Peter Pan," a story in which Peter Pan is taken away from Neverland to grow up.