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Music Video: Launch.com

Movie Fan Sites:
Felix Royce's Fan Site

Josie and the Pussycats Fan Art

Josie and the Pussycats did disappointing box office in it's opening week, in spite of an early bow on Wednesday. The Archie Comics-based film limped in at a disappointing #7 on the charts. The movie brought in $5.2 million over the weekend and $7.2 for the entire week.

Spy Kids continued to dominate, holding the top spot for the third straight week, earning $12.8 million this weekend for a total take of $68.6 million.

Josie and the Pussycats got a favorable review from Variety this week. The trade calls the movie, "sensationally exuberant, imaginatively crafted and intoxicatingly clever." 

The review indicates that the movie should have broad appeal even though the target audience is the under-25 females demographic. The reviewer praises the film as "a revealing and richly detailed snapshot of contemporary pop culture."

The movie opens today in theaters everywhere.

Timed to the nationwide opening of Universal Pictures' Josie and the Pussycats, Universal Citywalk will do its first-ever live Astrovision simulcast on Wednesday, April 11 at 4 PM PDT with the MTV Total Request Live premiere of the video of the film's first single, "Three Small Words." A live-action comedy based on the popular Archie comics series, the film stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson as three small-town girls with big-time dreams for their rock band.

This live public simulcast will allow L.A.'s music fans to watch MTV's most popular show, TRL, on the giant Astrovision screen in the same manner as their New York counterparts do in Times Square. The Astrovision screen is located between the Universal Studios Cinemas and the Hard Rock Cafe. Josie and the Pussycats was written and directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan. In addition to Cook, Reid and Dawson, the film stars Alan Cumming, Gabriel Mann, Paulo Costanzo, Missi Pyle and Parker Posey. TRL host Carson Daley appears in the film as himself.

Josie's music was produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds with Dave Gibbs. Kaplan and Elfont co-wrote "Three Small Words" with Gibbs. The soundtrack also includes contributions from Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Jane Weidlin of the Go-Go's and Adam Schlessinger of Fountains of Wayne.

Josie and the Pussycats, which is due in theaters on April 11, will get a boost from internet video kiosks in 32 shopping malls across the U.S. The Centerlinq system, which provides touch-screen access to the Internet will be used to promote the movie. Centerlinq was recently used to provide support for last year's The Family Man.

Not to be outdone by the amazing Spider-Man website Universal Pictures has now given a proper opening it's Josie and the Pussycats.

The site has been up and running with only a splash screen since November. This week, the revamped website features plenty of content to promote the movie which opens in just a few weeks. The movie stars Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson.

Josie fans visiting the site can enter a contest to win a Samick Guitar, like the one used by Cook in the film and a rock and roll wardrobe from The Diesel Clothing Co.

Visitors to the site can download the movie's trailer and music video. Additional video clips are set to be rolled out at a later date. Fans can download 5 virtual trading cards. The first 500 to collect them all will win actual printed copies of the collectibles while everyone else gets a free Josie screen saver. The site also features music clips, song lyrics and band member profiles.

Under the heading of "coming soon" are the "Make Our Video" and "Horoscope" sections of the site.

The site also features butt-loads of product placement. Be careful where you click as you may pop open a new browser window featuring a website for one of the movie's numerous sponsors.

The most intriguing link on the site leads to DuJourTheBand.com. Fans will recall that Du Jour is the name of the rival boy band in the movie played by Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, Donald Faison and Alexander Martin. Unfortunately the Du Jour website isn't actually up and running yet, and the link is presently a dead end.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Josie and the Pussycats will follow their big-screen, live-action debut with a small-screen, animated project.

A new animated TV show is in the works from DIC Entertainment under a deal with Riverdale Productions (who are also producers on the movie) and MultiModal Media Group. DIC has produced other animated shows based on Archie characters such as The New Archies, Archie's Weird Mysteries and Sabrina, the Animated Series.

DIC CEO Any Heyward, DIC chief creative officer Michael Maliani and Riverdale's Chuck Grimes an Tony DeRosa-Grund will be producers on the Josie show. "Josie is poised for enormous success, and we are excited to bring her adventures to animation," Heyward told The Reporter.

The movie opens in theaters April 11, 2001.

Volition.com is offering free passes to an advance screening for the Josie and the Pussycats movie.  Be the first to see the girls from Riverdale make it big. Visit the Volition site to enter the contest. Entry deadline is April 1.

The movie screenings will be held in Albuquerque, NM - Monday, April 9 at 7:30 pm and in Phoenix, AZ - Monday, April 9 at 7:30 pm.

If you are not in one of those locations, you can still enter to win a prize pack. The prize pack with be a tee-shirt, a music CD and a movie poster. Enter and win!

Last week the music video for Josie and the Pussycats appeared on Launch.com. This week the Movie-List website has the full trailer for the film. The trailer is currently available in an 11 meg QuickTime download.

In other Josie news the MPAA has assigned the movie a PG-13 rating "for language and mild sensuality."

For a sneak peek at Josie and the Pussycats tune your browsers to the Launch.com website. Launch has an exclusive download of the Josie music video, "Three Small Words" featuring Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson. The video is presented as a poor-quality Real format download, so you'll need the RealPlayer to see it. When you hit the site click the "Destination" tab and go to the "CineMatrix" section.

JAKKS Pacific Inc. announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group as the master toy licensee for Universal Pictures' and Riverdale Productions' feature film release of Josie and the Pussycats. 

The film, a live-action comedy based on the comic book series with music produced and composed by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, is scheduled for release in April, 2001. 

JAKKS Pacific will create a line of 11.5" fashion dolls based on each of the Josie and the Pussycats characters, Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), the redheaded heart, soul and lead singer of the band; Valerie (Rosario Dawson), their beautiful and reliant bassist; and Melody (Tara Reid), the bubbly, blonde, animal-loving drummer. Each Pussycat's doll is accompanied with her character's own microphone with stand and musical instrument. 

Using REAL SCAN technology, JAKKS' doll designers worked with the movie's stars, taking 360 degrees scans of their heads to achieve close to 100% accuracy. With revolutionary life-like bodies, the Pussycat fashion dolls have 16 points of articulation and can capture the fun rock star poses and fashions from the movie for purrfect play value. 

"JAKKS has a strong track record for aligning with evergreen properties and we feel that Josie and the Pussycats is the ultimate retro-brand," said Jack Friedman, chairman and CEO, JAKKS Pacific. "We are thrilled that Universal chose our innovative doll body design to represent the new Pussycats for this film." 

"Josie is a hot contemporary property," said Tim Rothwell, senior vice president, licensing, merchandising and retail development, Universal Studios Consumer Products Group. "The lifelike dolls reflect the music and fashion of today. Retailers are looking for strong girl properties that girls can identify with." 

JAKKS joins a merchandising program with over 20 licensees on board for Josie and the Pussycats across all categories including apparel and accessories, gifts and stationery, home furnishings, health and beauty, collectibles and toys. 

Josie, Melody and Val are three small town girl musicians determined to take their rock band out of their garage and straight to the top -- while remaining true to their own look, style and sound. When the girls are "discovered" by band manager Wyatt Frame (Alan Cumming) and Mega Records CEO Fiona (Parker Posey), who instantly offers them a recording contract, it looks as if Josie and the Pussycats are on their way. 

Based on the popular Archie comic book, Josie and the Pussycats features some of the hottest young actors working in Hollywood today, as well as an all-new power music soundtrack from some of the music industry's hottest names. The film is written and directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (Can't Hardly Wait) and produced by Marc Platt and Tracey Edmonds.

A federal judge has dismissed comic creator Dan DeCarlo's lawsuit against Archie Comics according to Beau Yarbrough's Comic Wire column at Comic Book Resources. DeCarlo, creator of  Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina the Teenage Witch  and the Archie Comics' house style, brought the suit against the company to assert his ownership of the Josie and the Pussycats characters, prior to the release of this summer's live-action movie.

The federal judge ruled that DeCarlo, in failing to assert his claim for such an extended period of time, essential ceded his rights to the characters. DeCarlo's attorney Whitney Seymour, has filed a Motion of Appeal and for a Summary Reversal of the judge's decision.

DeCarlo said he will probably go see the upcoming movie, but isn't sure how he feels about it. "Sometimes I wish it would flop, sometimes I wish it would be a success," the creator told Yarbrough. "I have mixed feelings. But I definitely have to see what they did with it."

Check out Comic Book Resources for complete details of the ruling and DeCarlo's reaction to it.

Up until now only a few small images of the girls from Josie and the Pussycats have been available to fans clamoring for a peek. But now American Mule Entertainment provides us with our first good look at the feline fatales in full film fashion.

American Mule has published 24 studio test photos of Rachel Leigh Cook as Josie, Rosario Dawson as Val and Tara Reid as Melody.  The website pulled a similar feat earlier this year, by publishing the first really good images of studio tests from the X-Men movie.

Check out the American Mule Entertainment site for the complete set of images!

Upcomingmovies.com reports that filming on Josie and the Pussycats was completed last month.

The Upcoming Movies website tipped everyone off to the fact that the official Josie and the Pussycats website is now up and running at www.josiethemovie.com. The site currently consists of only a splash screen and a brief, one-page synopsis of the production.

Upcoming Movies reports that Universal Pictures has set a release date for Josie and the Pussycats. According to that website, the movie will open April 6th of 2001.