Ah, yes: The ill-advised attempt to revive Zorro. I dig Zorro. I really do. I did not dig this film. But Catherine got to sword fight, and she and Antonio Banderas do make a smashing onscreen couple.
Though Catherine had actually had quite an impressive career in musical theatre early on, it was her straight acting work on the British television adaptation of H. E. Bates’ novel The Buds of May that first got her noticed. The show followed a large, boisterous family in Kent in the 1950s; Catherine played Mariette on the show for three years.
While Catherine was off in the idyllic countryside, Michael was getting hot and heavy with Sharon Stone. Quite the contrast!
Honestly, it’s been so long since I’ve seen The Phantom that I can’t remember whether it was any good; but even though it tanked in the cinemas, it’s apparently had a pretty healthy life on VHS and DVD. It was based on Lee Falk’s comic strip of the same name, and Catherine plays a pirate named Sala. Arrr.
Well, hey, at least they’re both using guns this time! The Ghost and the Darkness is decidedly less light-hearted than The Phantom, though, as it’s based on the true story of two lions in Africa that killed 130 people over the course of nine months. Alongside Val Kilmer, Michael played one of the guys trying to hunt the lions down and kill them.
Ah, yes: The ill-advised attempt to revive Zorro. I dig Zorro. I really do. I did not dig this film. But Catherine got to sword fight, and she and Antonio Banderas do make a smashing onscreen couple.
Wall Street isn’t the only movie Michael has played a moneyman in; there’s also A Perfect Murder. Unfortunately, Steven Taylor, his character in A Perfect Murder, is no nicer a guy than Gordon Gecko; he’s trying to murder his wife for her money in this one. Hopefully this isn’t indicative of Michael’s own personality.
These are both terrible movies. In some ways it’s sort of a shame that these two films are how Catherine spent 1999, but at the same time, maybe it’s a good thing that she got them out of the way in one go. The Haunting is particularly egregious; it bears absolutely no resemblance to the amazing Shirley Jackson novel it’s allegedly based off of. Sigh.
Now THIS is a wonderful film! Strictly speaking, Wonder Boys came out in 2000, but it’s close enough to 1999. Consider it a two-for-one deal. Unfortunately, this one also failed at the box office, which is something I will never understand. Anyway, Michael plays a professor at a Pittsburgh university (the university is unnamed, though it was shot at Carnegie Mellon) who’s wife has left whom, who is having affair with the university chancellor, and who has spectacularly failed to repeat the massive success of his first novel. Worth checking out if you haven’t already.
By the time the happy couple appeared together in Traffic, they had already met. When and where did the meeting happen? At the Deuville Film Festival in France in August 1998. Danny DeVito introduced them. They were dating by March of 1999, and they got engaged on December 31 of that year. And in the meantime, they made drug trade drama Traffic with director Steven Soderbergh. Quite a busy time!
Wait, what? That cartoon on PBS about American history? Yes. Michael voiced founding father Patrick Henry on Liberty’s Kids in 2002. Weird.
There’s nothing quite like the Coen brothers, George Clooney, Catherine Zeta Jones, Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cedric the Entertainer working on the same movie, is there? The usual ups and downs of Coen brothers films apply.
Apparently Michael was still on his American history kick, because he spent 2003 as Benjamin Franklin in Freedom: A History of Us. He also reunited with his dad, Kirk, in It Runs in the Family, which told the tale of a dysfunctional New York family attempting to reconcile.
Oh, right! The cooking movie! With Abigail Breslin and Aaron Eckhart! Did anyone actually see this one?
To be fair, I’m not sure many people saw this one either, but I’m kind of thinking that I might have to hunt it down because it looks really interesting. Evan Rachel Wood has been abandoned by her mother, while her dad, who is, of course, Michael Douglas, is spending some time in a mental institution. Things get wacky when he gets sent home, because he’s sort of obsessed with the idea that the long-lost treasure of a Spanish explorer is buried somewhere near their house. Sounds fun!
A rom com with Justin Bartha. Because everyone needs more Justin Bartha in their lives.
A mid-life crisis film with an A-list cast: Susan Sarandon, Jenna Fischer, Jesse Eisenberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Danny DeVito. Nice.
You guys! They’re making a movie of the Broadway musical Rock of Ages! Catherine is playing the meanie who wants to stop the music, so this might be an interesting change of pace for her.
Yep: Michael is playing Liberace in a biopic about world-renowned entertainer Liberace.
Anyway, happy birthday, you two crazy kids!
