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fear dot com
Release Date: August 30, 2002
Pushed back from May 10, 2002
A movie shot during the jittery pre-strike production era of summer 2001, FearDotCom really owes its existence to the dot-com frenzy that washed over the country in 1999 and early 2000.
The premise - murder victims are linked to the Web site fear.com - seems today about as quaint as the notion that people would flock to individual silo Web sites hawking pet supplies or toys. To be sure, the Internet in FearDotCom will be a thing of wonder, limitless possibilities and limitless danger, and the psycho Web master - the primary murder suspect - will be ascribed a level of high-tech prowess that can only exist in movies, where such phantom skills are required by the plot.
Nevertheless, good horror/thriller movies are all about suspension of disbelief. If you can believe that Freddy Krueger can kill you in your dreams, then you can buy just about anything. So stripping away the hokey e-premise of FearDotCom, what is left is a scenario not unlike the giants of the genre (Silence of the Lambs, Se7en). As bodies begin to pile up, the police must first figure out the killer's particular theme, then use that knowledge to hunt him down "before he can kill again". It's a cliché that could ultimately work for FearDotCom if it conjures up comparisons to its undoubted betters. The mass movie-going public votes with their dollars, time in and time out, in favor of well-trod territory, so there is nothing holding FearDotCom back as far as its potential is concerned.
Stephen Dorff (Blade), horror veteran Jeffrey Combs (House on Haunted Hill, many others), Stephen Rea (The Musketeer), and Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show, Ronin) star for director William Malone (House on Haunted Hill) using Josephine Coyle's screenplay. Warner Bros. will handle US distribution.
Recently slated for September 2002, FearDotCom has just been pulled forward to May 10th. The announcement of the date change came just two days after the announcement that Michael Jackson's Neverland Entertainment bought a major stake in FearDotCom's international distributor, MDP Worldwide Entertainment, Inc., for between $15 and $20 million. Coincidence? Probably not. What does it mean? I have no idea, but my suspicion is that this is a film meant more for overseas audiences. The May 10th release in the US provides MDP with a springboard for the summer season abroad. Actual domestic box office, if any, will just be gravy.
Supporting this theory is the fact that the new release date makes FearDotCom, along with The New Guy and Unfaithful (Richard Gere), the filling in a Spider-Man (May 3rd)/Star Wars (May 17th) sandwich. With a production budget of $40 million, FearDotCom will have to rely on MDP's international distribution savvy to ultimately make a profit, as it seems likely to get lost in the summer blockbuster shuffle. (Calvin Trager/BOP)
Vital statistics for fear dot com
Main cast Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea, Udo Kier, Amelia Shankley, Jeffrey Combs, Nigel Terry, Gesine Cukrowski
Supporting cast Siobhan Flynn, Derek Kueter, Elizabeth McKechnie
Director William Malone
Screenwriter Josephine Coyle
Distributor Warner Bros.
Official site http://feardotcom.warnerbros.com/
