DATE=10/6/2003

TYPE=ENGLISH PROGRAMS FEATURE

NUMBER=7-37916

TITLE=HOLLYWOOD HIGHLIGHTS 2003-40a (Top 5 Film)

BYLINE=ALAN SILVERMAN

TELEPHONE=202-619-2023 (editor)

DATELINE=HOLLYWOOD

EDITOR=ROB SIVAK (WASHINGTON, DC)

CONTENT=

(INSERTS AVAILABLE FROM AUDIO SERVICES; VOICED VERSION 4:45vo)

Intro: School is in session at North American movie theaters: a rock and roll school comedy, that is, which opens up in first place. Also new to the box office chart: a film-noir thriller starring an Oscar winner. Alan Silverman runs down the week's top five films, starting with a pair of Oscar winners in a heartwarming comedy at number five:

AUDIO CUT ONE "SECONDHAND LIONS" CLIP

"You sleep up there. We don't know nothing about kids."

"If we kick off [die] in the middle of the night, you're on your own."

TEXT: "SECONDHAND LIONS" stars Robert Duvall and Michael Caine as cantankerous brothers who take their shy, 14-year-old nephew in for the summer and teach him lessons that last a lifetime. /// OPT /// His character has a "what every boy needs to know to become a man" speech, but Duvall says he's n-o-t much for telling other people what to do:

AUDIO CUT TWO DUVALL

I try n-o-t to give advice unless anybody asks me. You have to be careful doing that. Timing has to be right to do something like that. /// END OPT ///

TEXT: Haley Joel Osment co-stars and "SECONDHAND LIONS" ends up in fifth place:

AUDIO CUT THREE "UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN" CLIP

"I'd like to make an offer on the house. This is what I can pay, minus the work on the place and a rental car to drive off a cliff when this all turns out to have been a terrible mistake."

"But you have n-o-t even seen the house."

"I can't go back."

TEXT: American divorcee Diane Lane rejuvenates her life when she buys a dilapidated villa in Italy in "UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN," adapted from the popular novel by Frances Mayes. /// OPT /// Director Audrey Wells, who wrote the screenplay, acknowledges there are significant differences from the book:

AUDIO CUT FOUR WELLS

Frances loves the movie and I know that she sees her book in this movie, even though almost all of the characters are my invention, because they have something important in common. I think that both her book and my movie are internal adventure stories. In both cases somebody is going on an interior journey and that's what we're both dramatizing. /// END OPT ///

TEXT: Sandra Oh and Italian heartthrob Raoul Bova co-star and "UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN" shines on at number four.

Last week's top film gets smacked down to third place:

AUDIO CUT FIVE "THE RUNDOWN" CLIP

"Well, 'option A' is you and I walk out of here nice and easy, we get in my jeep and drive back to the airstrip. There will be no blood, no broken bones, no problems."

"What's 'option B?'"

"Pretty much the opposite of 'A,' but I wouldn't recommend that one."

TEXT: Dwayne Johnson, better known by his pro wrestling stage name "The Rock," stars as a bounty hunter in the action-buddy comedy "THE RUNDOWN." Seann Willian Scott co-stars as the quarry who becomes the buddy and the cast also features Christopher Walken. After its first place debut last week, "THE RUNDOWN" gets run down to number three bumped from the top by a pair of new films.

Denzel Washington stars as a small town police chief framed for murder in the thriller "OUT OF TIME:"

AUDIO CUT SIX "OUT OF TIME" CLIP

"Chief."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm a homicide detective and there are two dead bodies. We're going to have to take this over."

"I'm the chief of police."

"Yeah, but of a four-person department, Matt."

"I know it's a small office, but it's my office."

TEXT: Eva Mendes co-stars as the homicide detective who is also his estranged ex-wife /// OPT /// despite a significant age difference: in real life, Washington is 48 and Mendes is half that age:

AUDIO CUT SEVEN MENDES

I would call him 'grandpa' sometimes, just to bug him. I'd go 'hey, gramps' and sometimes I'd get the look that was like 'oops, maybe I'd better not' /// END OPT ///

TEXT: Also featuring Sanaa Lathan and Dean Cain and directed by Carl Franklin, "OUT OF TIME" opens up in second place.

The new first place film stars comic actor and sometime rock star Jack Black as a would-be rock star who accidentally becomes a teacher; but he does manage to teach the 11-year-old school kids the one thing he knows best:

/// OPT /// AUDIO CUT EIGHT "THE SCHOOL OF ROCK" CLIP

"I think it's time we started our new class project: rock band."

"Can we tell our parents?"

"No!"

TEXT: "THE SCHOOL OF ROCK" showcases Black's raucous style, although he does rein in his tendencies toward profanity and lewdness:

AUDIO CUT NINE BLACK

Obviously, you have to mind your 'p's and q's' a little bit, but I didn't hold back at all. I didn't want to go soft. I didn't want to be a softer version of Jack. Just because you take out the curse words doesn't mean you have to be less funny. In fact, I think I was more funny to make up for the no cursing. You get more intense. You have to communicate those curse words through your face muscles. /// END OPT ///

AUDIO CUT TEN "THE SCHOOL OF ROCK" CLIP

"The first thing you do when you start a band is talk about your influences. That's how you figure out what kind of band you want to be, so who do you like?"

"Christina Aguilera."

"Who? No! Come on."

"Puff Daddy."

"Wrong."

"Liza Minelli?"

"Oh, what do they teach in this place?"

TEXT: Co-starring a classroom full of cute kids who can actually play their instruments and sing, "THE SCHOOL OF ROCK" rolls into first place, starting its run as the new most popular movie at North American theaters. (signed)

MUSIC "THE SCHOOL OF ROCK" from "THE SCHOOL OF ROCK" soundtrack (vocal)

VOA/AS/rms