cameron diaz movies
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 Chapter 1 - Getting Started
When Charlie's Angels was released in November 2000, its resounding success exceeded anything the filmmake s had anticipated. The film's $40 million opening we e kend still holds the re c o rd for the best debut by a first-time director.
Just as unanticipated was the breadth of the audience. As producer Leonard Goldberg acknowledges, "We were surprised because, even though we wanted to be respectful of the series for the generation of fans who grew up with it, we also wanted to take the Angels into a new millennium. So we were feeling our way, trying to blend the old with the new. Thanks to McG, we were able to bring in both the audience that remembered the series and an entire new generation."
The decision to make a sequel was decided informally by McG and his three costars some time after the first film was completed. But, says Angel Drew Barrymore, one of the films' producers, "We also made a pact that we wouldn't do it if it meant repeating ourselves. Now the question was how to balance that responsibility and still have a lot of fun."
"It all starts with the writing, of course," Barrymore continues. "In this film we learn more about the Angels, delving deeper into their backstory. We've also sharpened the comedy and notched up the action."
Nancy Juvonen, Barrymore's partner in Flower Films, and producer of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, explains that in the first film time was devoted to setting up the concept and the characters. ÒEven though it had been a popular TV show, there was an entire generation that wasn't familiar with it," says Juvonen, Òwhich left us less time to develop the characters. So this was a great opportunity to have all three Angels come back and pick up where we left off."
In the new film, the Angels' histories are revealed through a series of vignettes. Barrymore's character was Òthe scrappy little orphan," says director McG, "all over the place, always falling for the wrong guy. We see her wrestling in a sort of backyard circuit as "Lady Insane.' We also see her as a 'monster' trucker on the county fair circuit 'not the classiest game in town' though she gives it her all."
Since Lucy Liu's character, Alex, has been raised in the finest schools, "We see her as a young gymnast being coached by Bela Karolyi. Later, we see her beating a Bobby Fischer-type chess genius in a world championship match in Switzerland," says McG. "We allude to her being an astronaut in the first film and now we discover she's also a neurosurgeon."
As for Diaz's character, ÒI always envisioned her coming from a happy, idealized Midwestern family with seven older brothers - which is how she learned to be so wild. She has such a great sense of self and she's so compassionate and caring and optimistic. She sees the world through the bright eyes of the bushy-tailed newborn fawn that she is. Then she proceeds to beat the living daylights out of everybody."
In Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, the Angels deal with personal problems while fighting crime. "They put themselves together with these incredible costumes, then go undercover and kick butt," says Juvonen, "but their private lives are not exactly perfect."
Producer Goldberg feels the trick to rekindling the concept was understanding what worked in the original and building on that. "At the same time, we needed to have a few tricks up our sleeve to surprise the audience. This is a movie that has glamour, that has sex appeal, that has dancing, that has really great action all mixed together in one big confection. The audience knows going in that they're really going to be entertained."
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