Only a couple days away from Universal’s first film for 2004, Along Came Polly we have finally gotten our hands on the full slate for Universal 2004, totalling 14 films.
To give you a quick set of links before we go further in-depth you can click on the following titles and get more information, trailers if they are available, stills, synopsis, casting, directors, and more:
1. Along Came Polly
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Connie and Carla
4. Van Helsing
5. The Chronicles of Riddick
6. Two Brothers
7. The Bourne Supremacy
8. Thunderbirds
9. Wimbledon
10. Friday Night Lights
11. Synergy
12. The Interpreter
13. Cinderella Man
14. Meet the Fockers
Now to give you a quick idea what you are in for:
Along Came Polly (January 16) : Ben Stiller portrays risk-averse Reuben Feffer, whose best-laid plans for life and love careen wildly off track when his bride (Messing) dumps him on their honeymoon for a muscle-bound scuba instructor (Azaria). Stunned, humiliated and in the grip of acute indigestion, Reuben plans to play it safer than ever. But a chance encounter with an adventure-craving, childhood friend named Polly (Aniston) shoots him into a whirlwind of extreme sports, spicy foods, ferrets, salsa dancing and living in the moment.
Dawn of the Dead (March 26) : A ragtag group of desperate survivors in a Wisconsin town seek refuge in a large indoor mall, where they must learn not only to protect themselves from the ever-increasing zombie horde, but also to co-exist with each other as a last bastion of humanity. Sealed off from the rest of what used to be the world, the group uses every available resource (both within and without) in their against-all-odds fight to remain alive and human.
Connie and Carla (April 16) : Vardalos and Collette play Connie and Carla, two struggling Chicago dinner theater performers who accidentally witness a mafia hit…and who subsequently hit the road, running for their lives. Assuming the killers will never look for them in a place devoid of culture, the pair head to Los Angeles, where they assume new identities and find their middling talent at song and dance perfectly suited to new careers–as drag queens. Much to their surprise, they inadvertently become the toast of the cabaret circuit. As their ruse becomes increasingly difficult to maintain, they discover that it is indeed lonely at the top, especially after Connie meets Jeff (Duchovny), a guy she’d really like to be a real girl with. With the mafia zeroing in and the line separating their onstage/offstage personas blurring beyond the point of recognition, Connie and Carla soon discover the power of not compromising to pursue your dreams, fighting the good fight, and never, never underestimating the transformative power of cosmetics.
Van Helsing (May 7) : Deep in the mountains of Carpathia lies the mysterious and mythic land of Transylvania–a world where evil is ever-present, where danger rises as the sun sets, and where the monsters that inhabit man’s deepest nightmares take form. Innovative filmmaker Stephen Sommers–who so imaginatively re-envisioned Universal’s classic Mummy character in the worldwide blockbusters The Mummy and The Mummy Returns–now widens his cinematic scope and multiplies his creative inspiration by breathing new life into the most time-honored pantheon of classic Universal monsters and setting them in a stunning new world of fantastical reality. Sommer’s all-encompassing vision for a world as tangible, real and visceral as any caught in the stranglehold of inescapable evil blends the recognizable and the unimaginable into a vivid, epic backdrop for his tale of ultimate evil against a lone force of good: Van Helsing.
The Chronicles of Riddick (June 11) : Vin Diesel reprises his star-making Pitch Black role of enigmatic anti-hero Richard B. Riddick in the new science fiction action-adventure epic, The Chronicles of Riddick.
Two Brothers (July 9) : An epic adventure story about the power of friendship, the bond between brothers and the spirit that connects us all, Two Brothers stars Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential) as the adventurer whose tragic intervention into the idyllic lives of the twin cubs forever intertwines their fates. Two Brothers was filmed on location in Cambodia and Thailand. The screenplay was written by Jean-Jacques Annaud and Alain Godard (The Name of the Rose, Enemy At the Gates) from an original story by Annaud.
The Bourne Supremacy (July 23) : The Bourne Supremacy re-enters the shadowy world of expert assassin Bourne (Damon), who continues to find himself plagued by splintered nightmares from his former life. The stakes are now even higher for the agent as he coolly maneuvers through the dangerous waters of international espionage–replete with CIA plots, turncoat agents and ever-shifting covert alliances–all the while hoping to find the truth behind his haunted memories and answers to his own fragmented past.
Thunderbirds (August 6) : Hidden from the world, Tracy Island, a lush patch of land situated in the remote waters of the South Pacific, is home to brilliant entrepreneur and former astronaut Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton) and his five sons. It is also the headquarters of Tracy’s top-secret organization, International Rescue – and it is under siege. Master criminal The Hood (Sir Ben Kingsley) has breached island security, intent on commandeering International Rescue’s fleet of five highly advanced rescue vehicles, each designed to accomplish a specific task. Deploying Jeff and his four eldest sons on a mission, The Hood finds his plans obstructed by Jeff’s youngest son Alan (Brady Corbet), who will do anything to save the Tracy family and the Thunderbirds.
Wimbledon (September 24) : Wimbledon is a sweet and funny tale of romance across the net. Peter Colt (Bettany) is an unlucky guy, scoring “love” both professionally and personally. Seeded near the bottom of the world tennis ranks, he manages to score a wild card, allowing him to play in the prestigious Wimbledon tournament. There, he meets and falls in love with American tennis star Lizzie Bradbury (Dunst). Fueled by a mixture of his newfound luck, love and on-court prowess, Peter works his way up the ranks of the tournament players and actually stands a chance of fulfilling his lifelong dream of winning the men’s singles title–if his luck can just hold out.
Friday Night Lights (Fall, 2004) : A town for sale, Odessa, Texas has seen better days–the financial bust evident in its boarded-up shops and broken lives. Yet one hope sustains the community where, once a week during the fall, the town and its dreams come alive beneath the dazzling and disorienting Friday Night Lights…when the Permian High Panthers take to the field. In a city where economic uncertainty has eroded the spirit of its inhabitants, nearly everyone seeks comfort in the religion of the Friday night ritual, where the unfulfilled dreams of an entire community are shifted onto the shoulder pads of a team of high-school athletes.
Synergy (Fall, 2004) : Dan Foreman (played by Dennis Quaid) is headed for a shakeup. He is demoted from head of ad sales for a major magazine when the company he works for is acquired in a corporate takeover. His new boss, Tom (played by Topher Grace) is half his age–a business school prodigy who preaches corporate Synergy. While Dan develops clients through handshake deals and relationships, Tom cross-promotes the magazine with the cell phone division and “Krispity Krunch,” an indeterminate snack food under the same corporate umbrella.
The Interpreter (November 19) : Nicole Kidman stars as South African U.N. interpreter Silvia Broome, who inadvertently overhears a hushed, after-hours conversation in the General Assembly Hall. And what she hears could topple a government…if she can just survive long enough to get someone to believe her.
Cinderella Man (December 17) : Russell Crowe stars in the story inspired by the life of legendary athlete Jim Braddock, a once-promising light heavyweight boxer forced into retirement after a string of losses in the ring. As the nation enters the darkest years of the Great Depression, Braddock accepts a string of dead-end jobs to support his wife, Mae (Renée Zellweger), and their children, while never totally abandoning his dream of boxing again.
Meet the Fockers (December 22) : Now that Greg Focker (Stiller) is “in” with his soon-to-be in-laws, Jack (De Niro) and Dina Byrnes, it looks like smooth sailing for him and his fiancée, Pam (Polo). But that’s before Pam’s parents meet Greg’s parents, the Fockers. The hyper-relaxed Fockers and the tightly-wound Byrneses are woefully mismatched from the start, and no matter how hard Greg and Pam try, there is just no bringing their families together–which all adds up to a disastrously funny time of “getting to know you.”
