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Digital Media FX News Archives

Tuesday - July 17, 2001
- Joe Johnston Thought of Quitting Jurassic Park 3
- The Mummy Returns Tops $400 Million Worldwide
- Final Weekend Box Office Numbers
- News Link of the Day - Hitch-Hiker Returns to TV

Joe Johnston Thought of Quitting Jurassic Park 3
(by digitalmediafx.com) Joe Johnston is being candid in interviews regarding the disjointed production of Jurassic Park 3 and the fact that even well into production, no one had an idea how to end the movie (thus the reason for the reported weak ending). Joe Johnston told Sci-Fi Wire the following about wanting to quit the production:

"I thought about it a few times... And there were actually phone calls where I called my agent and I said, 'Look, you have to get me off this movie. I don't care what it takes. I don't care if it's the end of my career, you have to get me off tomorrow'...It's hard enough to make a movie when you've got a script that you really love and it's been polished to death. But to start over, and start shooting a $100 million movie without a script, you want to blow your brains out."

Johnston and Universal are taking some heat for proceeding in the production of Jurassic Park 3 without a finished script. The original script for the movie was thrown out just weeks before production began, resulting in the movie being made while it was being filmed. This is a far cry from Johnston's more organized productions like last year's critically acclaimed October Sky movie and the adventure Jumanji.

Jurassic Park 3 opens domestically in theaters tomorrow. It is only 90-minutes in length.

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The Mummy Returns Tops $400 Million Worldwide
(by digitalmediafx.com) Universal's The Mummy Returns has topped the $200 million mark domestically and overseas to bring its worldwide total to $400 million. The movie opened in the #1 slot in every country it played in. It also had the highest opening of any movie ever in Korea, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Russia, Taiwan and Venezuela.

"We have always had faith that this exciting and action-packed movie would captivate audiences worldwide," said Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal Pictures, "and we are very pleased that our partners around the world have brought the film so successfully to its audience. This fantastic success is also a testament to the strength of 'The Mummy' franchise which continues to satisfy audiences around the world."

The Mummy Returns is only the second movie this year to top $200 million domestically. The first was Shrek, which is still playing in theaters with a total of $247.3 million domestically to date.

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Final Weekend Box Office Numbers
(by digitalmediafx.com) Final weekend box office numbers are in and here are the results for the top animated and visual effects movies:

The gain/loss represents the movie's performance when compared to last weekend.

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News Link of the Day - Hitch-Hiker Returns to TV

According to BBC News:

"The hit sci-fi comedy The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy is to return to BBC TV as a tribute to its creator, Douglas Adams, who died in May.

The series, first shown in 1981, will be repeated from the end of July, with a special edition of Omnibus about the author's life also planned..."

Click here for the full story.

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