Hot Wheels

Once again the phenomenon Empire Online likes to term 'The Hollywood Law of Duplication' (also known as 'Let's nick this idea 'cos it's hot Principle') has surfaced in the movie wires. Previous examples include the asteroid mayhem that became all the rage in 1998 - viz Armageddon and Deep Impact - and the lava frenzy of 1997 that resulted in Volcano and Dante's Peak. But never in all our scientific ponderings did the research team here at Empire Towers predict that the next Hollywood craze would be talking cars. Apocalyptic nuclear war and classical epics maybe, but chatty automobiles never quite seemed to appear in our equations. Our carefully calibrated equipment only registered a minor blip earlier this year when we heard Knight Rider's Michael and his camp car KITT might be accelerating towards our cinema screens