Entertainment Weekly
4/25/2003
Summer Movie Preview issue

Starring: Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert

Written by: John Logan

Directed by: Tim Johnston, Patrick Gilmore

The backgrounds are mainly computer generated. The sea monsters are too. But the human characters in this loose cartoon retelling of the Arabian Nights tale--fortuitously set in the Mediterranean rather than Baghdad, which could have made it awkwardly topical--are all hand drawn fiqures. "There's a kind of subtle animation acting you can only get out of pencil and paper", says codirector Johnson (Antz). "Especially in close-ups".

There's also a promotional boost you can get only by hiring top stars to pro vide 'toon voices. DreamWorks learned that with its computer-animated Shrek (which grossed nearly half a billion dollars worldwide), while last summer's story-is-the-star horse saga Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron stumbled out of the gate.

Russell Crowe, in the Dreamworks stable because of Gladiator (also cowritten by Sinbad scribe Logan) was initially in line to play the titular sailor/thief but fell out, reportedly over scheduling. In came Pitt, who wanted to make a film his nieces and nephews could see. "They can't get into my movies", he says, "People's heads getting cut off, and all that.' Pitt had tried out as the narrator of Spirit, but "it didn't work, so Matt Damon ended up doing it". He worried Sinbad might not pan out either, since the character is Middle Eastern, "Now he's Missourian", says Pitt, "it bothers the purist in me".

But the filmmakers insisted Pitt's Midwestern accent was just the mood lightener they wanted. Meanwhile, Pfeiffer struggled playing Eris, goddess of chaos. "She likes to stir up trouble for Sinbad for sport", says the actresss. "Then she watches from above. Like her own form of reality TV". But getting the villianess right required multiple rewrites. "First she was too sexual", says Pfeiffer. "Then we lost the fun. After the third time, I called (DreamWorks cochief) Jeffrey Katzenberg and said, "You know, you really can fire me". He assured me it was just part of the process".

The Lowdown: Could be breezy fun. But it will be work getting families on board with so many live-action fantasies crowding the waters. (July 2).