Second time around

By Katharine MacColl

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THERE'S nothing like a familiar face to draw in the crowds at the box office. So much so, in fact, that it seems that the majority of Hollywood's biggest hits these days are either sequels�or remakes of classic favourites.

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The Powers that be

Not content with the runaway hit of Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me, Mike Myers is busy planning Austin Powers 3 and says his dream is to make a series of six. Suprise, suprise�the next one will have an all to familiar�storyline.

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But do we really need to be subjected to yet another intallment of the antics of this over-sexed spy - well it all comes down to money. After the second film grossed four times as much as the original low-budget comedy, is seems a further sequel makes good economic sense.

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So, are we as�cinema-goers being are offered an endless diet of spoofs, sequels and rehashes Are Hollywood film-makers facing creative bankruptcy Well, it seems so.

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Recently we've seen�Anthony Hopkins came back for seconds in Hannibal, the much-hyped follow-up of Silence of the Lambs.� And now even Spiderman is�set to swing back onto our screens. Production on a sequel started at Sony's sound stages in Los Angeles last month and the new film, starring Tobey Maguire as the shy Peter Porter, is due out in May 2002.

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Are we just looking at a new genre in the Hollywood movie-making or are the LA movers and shakers scared to go out on a limb like their British counterparts who have come up with surprise hits such as The Full Monty or Billy Elliot

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What do you think Are you bored with the same faces or are we more comfortable with what we know Have your say on our message boards