It's A 'Scream'

After a disappointing January, Hollywood hopes to scare moviegoers back into theaters with the release of Scream 3. Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd reports that the movie reunites Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox Arquette, and David Arquette for the conclusion of this tongue-in-cheek slasher trilogy. Miramax is hoping to carve out another hit with what they are saying will be the final Scream.

Each of the first two films were box office blockbusters: 1997's Scream took in $106 million. In 1998, Scream 2 took in $103 million, with more than $30 million coming in its opening weekend.

One Last 'Scream' The final installment of Wes Craven's trilogy may be too wrapped up in its own cleverness, but it's still a fond farewell.

Courtney Cox and David Arquette met on the set of the first movie, got engaged on the set of the second, and got married during filming of the third. The writer of the original two films, Kevin Williamson, was too busy with other film and television projects to write this movie, although he is listed among the producers.

Other films to open this weekend:

• Gun Shy, starring Liam Neeson, Sandra Bullock, and Oliver Platt.
• Simpatico, starring Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, and Sharon Stone. Opening at about 500 theaters, this film was originally released for a one-week run in Los Angeles in order to qualify for Academy Award nominations. (Although it did get good reviews, it didn't do that well at the year-end critics' awards and Golden Globe nominations, so chances for Oscar nominations are very slim.)

  The movie is based on a Sam Shepar play about three friends bound by a pact which, after 20 years, is beginning to unravel. After devising a foolproof horse-racing scam, Vinnie (Nolte) invited his girlfriend Rosie (Stone) to share in the take, but things went awry when Rosie and his best friend, Lyle Carter (Bridges), ran off with the money. Twenty years later, he tracks them down to settle the score.

• Topsy-Turvy, a British film which won the Best Picture and Best Director awards from the New York Film Circle Critics awards and National Society of Film Critics. It has also received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.

  Topsy-Turvy was directed by Mike Leigh, whose Secrets and Lies was a major Oscar contender two years ago. His latest movie, set in the late 1800s, tells the story of how Gilbert & Sullivan created one of their best-known operettas, The Mikado.