The 'Impossible' preem

Revelers wined, wowed, Wooed

By BILL HIGGINS

If a film school ever teaches a Premiere 101 class, Thursday’s “Mission: Impossible 2” bow could be the textbook case on summer event movies.

Hollywood Boulevard filled with 1,000 fans in bleachers and another 1,000 behind guardrails; a Chinese Theater screening (and requisite schmoozathon) with an industry-heavy crowd; the over-the-top after-party—1,500 guests at a lavishly transformed parking lot, two rock-climbing walls, 20 buffets, a dozen flamenco dancers, building-size optical projections, an elevated dance area covered with high-tech Kodak glass that simulates flames.

“This kind of movie challenges you to try and wow the crowd,” said Merv Griffin Productions’ Paul Cunliffe.

And it looks like Par will try to wow the crowd with another “M-I”: Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone said there’s a “definite commitment” to making the franchise’s third movie. His phrasing was: “Definite in fact, indefinite in time.”

As for this “Mission,” Par topper Sherry Lansing praised director John Woo for “Wooizing” the franchise. Screenwriter Robert Towne said the helmer “creates action sequences that are like operatic arias.” The screenwriter’s role comes, said the Oscar-winning scribe, when the director says: “Here’s the music, I need lyrics.”

Woo himself spoke modestly about “M:I-2,” saying: “the romance and action work pretty well, and it’s different from the first.”

Among those making the pilgrimage to “Mission” were: Par’s Jonathan Dolgen, Rob Friedman and John Goldwyn; producer Paula Wagner; exec producer Terrence Chang; star-producer Tom Cruise with Nicole Kidman; co-stars Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames and Dougray Scott; plus guests Paul Thomas Anderson, Tim Allen, Fiona Apple, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Cameron Crowe, Ice Cube, Sean Daniels, Marvin and Barbara Davis, Kirsten Dunst, Leonard Goldberg, Daryl Hannah, Mark Johnson, Bill Mechanic, Christine Peters, Lou Pitt, Sydney Pollack, Roseanne, Christian Slater, Will Smith and Leelee Sobieski.