Faces to Watch in ’95 : We’re Counting on Them : MOVIES

Some of them you know. Some you don’t. But the following artists, entertainers and executives have one thing in common: We’re counting on each to mae a significant impact or difference in their respective fields this year. Sure, there will be thers who make a splash, but after we talked with dozens of people who work in entertainment and the arts, these were the names mentioned most often. You might say that Jim Carrey was a face to watch in ‘94, and you would be right. But, based on “Ace Ventura,” “The Mask,” and “Dumb and Dumber,” Carrey’s ’95 should bear watching. Another pair of familiar faces--Jay Leno and David Letterman--appear on our list. Why? Haven’t we looked at these guys enough? Well, truth be told, how do you know what’s going to happen to them this year? Fame can be sooooo fleeting.

Danny Cannon

On the strength of his first feature, the $4-million “Young Americans,” English-born Danny Cannon landed one of Hollywood’s more ambitious assignments: directing this summer’s “Judge Dredd,” Cinergi’s $70-million futuristic epic based on his childhood comic book hero, played by Sylvester Stallone.

Though “Young Americans,” a 1992 thriller about London street gangs, was released only on video in the United States, that was enough to attract the attention of Hollywood’s power players. Cannon, 27, whose prop-master father worked with the likes of Richard Attenborough and Stanley Kubrick, was said to possess the technical skills and cinematic references of directors far older than he.

Turning down a horde of offers, the confident and opinionated Cannon lobbied for “Dredd.” Though the scope of the project was imposing, he never experienced cold feet.

“I never pitch anything I can’t deliver,” Cannon says. “And I stick with things I can make my own. I get tired of the phrase ‘he’s got a great eye.’ Movies aren’t steered by visual qualities but by emotion and truth.”