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Updated: 30 weeks 16 hours ago
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James T Kirk has traveled to a different universe to kiss Princess Leia. [nerdcore]
Finding Nemo and WALL-E director Andrew Stanton is now on Twitter: @6Mman (confirmed by @leeunkrich)
British film director Ken Annakin (The Battle of the Bulge, Swiss Family Robinson) died last week at the age of 94. [reuters]
37 news stories, not fit for the front page, available after the jump.
Check out this first photo of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in Universal Soldiers: The Next Generation. [quietearth]
Speaking of… JCVD is now available for Netflix Watch Instantly (via: /film reader Ian W)
Natalie Portman has launched a new website which takes a behind-the-scenes look at filmmaking: MakingOf.com.
Estevan Garza created these two fan made posters for The Avengers (teaser, left, poster, right).
Star Trek is on the cover of Newsweek (image right). You can read the cover story “We’re All Trekkies Now” on Newsweek.com.
Watch the third and final viral video for the direct to DVD sequel S. Darko on YouTube.
Screenwriter John August reminds aspiring writers that they only have to destroy the Death Star, you don’t have to fix The Big World Problem by the time the end credits roll: “Darth Vader and the Empire are still very much kicking at the end of A New Hope. Nazis are alive and well at the end of Raiders, The Guns of Navarone, and every WWII epic you’ve seen. By the end of The Matrix, Neo has learned something of his powers, but the world is largely unchanged.”
Terrance Howard talks to Rotten Tomatoes about his five favorite films: Jesus Christ Superstar, On the Waterfront, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins, and Hustle & Flow.
IMPAwards has the poster for the documentary No Impact Man, which premiered at Sundance.
“No Duh!” of the Week: Leonard Nimoy says that he’s open to doing more Star Trek movies. [AP]
Elizabeth Banks is attached to star in and produce the workplace comedy Forever 21 for DreamWorks. [THR]
I’m not sure exactly why this animated gif image has a kitten is running backwards on top of a boulder that has Jean-Luc Picard’s face on it, chasing after Indiana Jones, but I found it funny. [dailywhat]
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is working with Paul Thomas Anderson on a Blu-ray release of Punch Drunk Love. [cinematical]
Attack of the Show co-host Olivia Munn revealed on Twitter that she’s been cast in two upcoming movies: One is the upcoming Steve Carell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night, and the other is some project that she isn’t “legally” allowed to publicly discuss yet. [Joblo ]
Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich tweeted a photo of the sign outside Pixar’s Up Wrap Party, and inside joke to characters from the film. They also apparently screened the Toy Story 3 Teaser at the party. “Great reaction from the crowd!” says Unkrich.
Could Judd Apatow’s Funny People be Academy Award-level?? [incontention]
Kevin Macdonald (State of Play, The Last King of Scotland) will develop and direct a big screen adaptation of the 1955 Isaac Asimov novel The End of Eternity, about a ruling class whose members can manipulate time and alter history. [varitey]
Watch the trailer for IFC Films horror thriller The Skeptic. The film stars Tom Arnold, Zoe Saldana, Andrea Roth, and Tim Daly. [FirstShowing]
Kevin Smith’s production company View Askew is auctioning off props from Jersey Girl, Dogma, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Clerks 2. [auctionsaskew]
Warner Bros has launched the official website for The Hangover - hangovermovie.com. Cinematical has a first look at the film’s poster.
A man got slapped with an insane $62,000 bill after downloading WALL-E on vacation in Mexico over his wireless carrier’s network. [ARS Technica]
Gizmodo has solved the mystery of “How the hell do they dit all those DVDs in those Red Box Rental machines?”
Jackie Chan has booked his 100th film project, an action caper titled Chinese Zodiac, which he we star in and co-direct. [THR]
The Crazies will now hit theaters on February 26th 2010.
The trailer for the direct-to-dvd sequel The Cell 2 is now online. Definitely doesn’t look as visually amazing as Tarsem’s original. [QuietEarth]
/Gamer has the opening cinematic for the Ghostbusters video game. Looks like Gozer is back!
Parka Blogs has a review of the upcoming Chronicle Books release, The Art of Up!
Texas will hold the largest US convention for Twilight fans. [etonline]
LucasFilm has created a new Star Wars t-shirt, updating the classic Ralph McQuarrie New Hope concept art logo with the Clone wars. [starwars.com]
Robert De Niro and Edward Norton will star in director John Curran’s (The Painted Veil, We Don’t Live Here Anymore) Stone, about a parole officer who develops a friendship with a teaching assistant. [prodweekly]
Stephen Dorff has been cast in the porn industry comedy Born to Be a Star, co-written by Adam Sandler for Sony Pictures. [variety]
Tyler Stout’s limited edition Flight of the Conchords poster will go on sale on TStout.com on Monday April 27th at Noon pacific time.
Eli Roth talks to MTV about playing Sgt. Donnie Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds: “[He's] a guy from Boston, a huge Red Sox baseball fan — and his plan is to take a baseball bat and get all the Jews in the neighborhood to sign it, and then he’s going to beat every Nazi to death with it, any Nazi he can find, he’s going to beat to death with the bat.”
IO9 takes a look at 9 graphic novels you should read before you see X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
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Categories: Film
James Gunn’s Greatest Horror Tale Yet: Working for Microsoft
A while back, director James Gunn (Slither) produced a series of shorts for Xbox Live that gathered together some of the new talent in horror films today. Dubbed Horror Does Comedy, the series was supposed to allow Gunn and other horror directors like James Wan (Saw) and David Slade (Hard Candy) creative freedom to produce some quick and dirty content exclusively for Xbox Live. Unfortunately, according to a blog post by Gunn, the process was more akin to an elaborate torture scene from Saw.
He describes his first short, Humanzee, as “the most balls out, fucked up thing” he’s ever done. Unfortunately, it was a bit too much for the Xbox folks and it was never aired. Gunn recovered the rights to Humanzee and then went on to develop Sparky and Mikaela, the superhero crime fighting tale of a young girl and her best friend (who happens to be a racoon). The Xbox folks said they would approve of it as long as it was along the lines of PG-13 with no sex, but apparently the finished product freaked them out again. Gunn writes:
Obviously they had no fucking idea what PG-13 was, as they wanted me to cut the words “penis” and “vagina.” They made me cut a piece of very fake poop and a bunch of other stuff. And then, when they were done making me cut things, they took the final cut and cut it up themselves even more before airing it.
To sum things up, Warner Bros was a bastion of creative freedom on SCOOBY DOO 2 in comparison. I’m not exaggerating or being facetious. Microsoft/XBox was by far the most dreadful, non-talent friendly company I’ve ever worked for. And if you think I had it bad, some of the other directors (most specifically, SAW director James Wan, who just happens to be one of my favorite people in the world) had it even worse.
Ouch. Gunn goes on to point out the obvious hypocrisy in allowing games to feature sexual themes and ultra-violence while clamping down so hard on this series of shorts.
At first, I thought the main reason for Microsoft’s trepidation was because they don’t have the means to block mature videos using parental controls, but a quick look at my Xbox 360 settings proved me wrong. The console has the expected ability to block video content based on film and TV ratings, but it also has the option to block “explicit” and “unrated” content. It sounds like Microsoft was fighting very hard to keep the shorts out of the explicit category, which seems to me a ridiculous limitation if you’re hiring such talented horror directors.
The big issue with placing Horror Does Comedy in the unrated category is that there’s tons of harmless category in that content as well. If MS had truly wanted the directors to have creative freedom, they would have aimed for the videos to end up in the explicit category so responsible parents could block them if they wanted.
Gunn goes on to respond how this fiasco ultimately undermines any future for original series on Xbox Live:
I really think XBox could have been their own Network, as well as a gaming console, DVR, and way to buy movies. I saw them as the future. But because of the small-mindedness of the Microsoft executives, who preemptively censored a lot of our scenes for fear of freaking out stockholders, they crushed the potential for something that would have kept them relevant for a long time to come. It seems, instead, the visionaries have landed at other companies.
Read the full post at James Gunn’s blog, where he also has a video up from G4 that was shot before the major cuts to Sparky and Mikaela. Gunn also announced that the uncut versions of all the Horror Does Comedy will be available eventually.
Discuss: Did you enjoy any of the Horror Meets Comedy videos on Xbox Live? Do you have any words of wisdom for the Xbox folks?
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Categories: Film
James Gunn’s Greatest Horror Tale Yet: Working for Microsoft
A while back, director James Gunn (Slither) produced a series of shorts for Xbox Live that gathered together some of the new talent in horror films today. Dubbed Horror Does Comedy, the series was supposed to allow Gunn and other horror directors like James Wan (Saw) and David Slade (Hard Candy) creative freedom to produce some quick and dirty content exclusively for Xbox Live. Unfortunately, according to a blog post by Gunn, the process was more akin to an elaborate torture scene from Saw.
He describes his first short, Humanzee, as “the most balls out, fucked up thing” he’s ever done. Unfortunately, it was a bit too much for the Xbox folks and it was never aired. Gunn recovered the rights to Humanzee and then went on to develop Sparky and Mikaela, the superhero crime fighting tale of a young girl and her best friend (who happens to be a racoon). The Xbox folks said they would approve of it as long as it was along the lines of PG-13 with no sex, but apparently the finished product freaked them out again. Gunn writes:
Obviously they had no fucking idea what PG-13 was, as they wanted me to cut the words “penis” and “vagina.” They made me cut a piece of very fake poop and a bunch of other stuff. And then, when they were done making me cut things, they took the final cut and cut it up themselves even more before airing it.
To sum things up, Warner Bros was a bastion of creative freedom on SCOOBY DOO 2 in comparison. I’m not exaggerating or being facetious. Microsoft/XBox was by far the most dreadful, non-talent friendly company I’ve ever worked for. And if you think I had it bad, some of the other directors (most specifically, SAW director James Wan, who just happens to be one of my favorite people in the world) had it even worse.
Ouch. Gunn goes on to point out the obvious hypocrisy in allowing games to feature sexual themes and ultra-violence while clamping down so hard on this series of shorts.
At first, I thought the main reason for Microsoft’s trepidation was because they don’t have the means to block mature videos using parental controls, but a quick look at my Xbox 360 settings proved me wrong. The console has the expected ability to block video content based on film and TV ratings, but it also has the option to block “explicit” and “unrated” content. It sounds like Microsoft was fighting very hard to keep the shorts out of the explicit category, which seems to me a ridiculous limitation if you’re hiring such talented horror directors.
The big issue with placing Horror Does Comedy in the unrated category is that there’s tons of harmless category in that content as well. If MS had truly wanted the directors to have creative freedom, they would have aimed for the videos to end up in the explicit category so responsible parents could block them if they wanted.
Gunn goes on to respond how this fiasco ultimately undermines any future for original series on Xbox Live:
I really think XBox could have been their own Network, as well as a gaming console, DVR, and way to buy movies. I saw them as the future. But because of the small-mindedness of the Microsoft executives, who preemptively censored a lot of our scenes for fear of freaking out stockholders, they crushed the potential for something that would have kept them relevant for a long time to come. It seems, instead, the visionaries have landed at other companies.
Read the full post at James Gunn’s blog, where he also has a video up from G4 that was shot before the major cuts to Sparky and Mikaela. Gunn also announced that the uncut versions of all the Horror Does Comedy will be available eventually.
Discuss: Did you enjoy any of the Horror Meets Comedy videos on Xbox Live? Do you have any words of wisdom for the Xbox folks?
Related Stories
Categories: Film
The /Filmcast: After Dark - Ep. 47 - Michael Mann and Rian Johnson’s Brick (GUEST: Dan Trachtenberg)
The /Filmcast: After Dark is a recording of what happens right after The /Filmcast is over, when the kids have gone to bed and the guys feel free to speak whatever is on their minds. In other words, it’s the leftover and disorganized ramblings, mindfarts, and brain diarrhea from The /Filmcast, all in one convenient audio file. In this episode, Dave Chen, Peter Sciretta, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley discuss some of the works of Michael Mann, lavish praise on Rian Johnson’s Brick, and debate whether or not it’s okay to Twitter during a movie. Special guest Dan Trachtenberg joins us from the Totally Rad Show.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next MONDAY night at Slashfilm’s live page at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST as we review State of Play.
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Categories: Film
Bea Arthur Died Today at Age 86
Golden Girls and Maude star Bea Arthur died today at Age 86. “Thank you for being a friend…” [Los Angeles Times]
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Categories: Film
Case 39 Trailer Finally Leaks
It has now been almost three years since Case 39 went into production. That’s some delay and seeing as the best information we have on a release date simply indicates a vague 2010 (I’m told that you shouldn’t believe the September ‘09 you will see in some places) I’m surprised to see a trailer online at all but one has turned up unofficially within the last hour on YouTube.
To get you ready for the trailer - embedded after the break - here’s the official synopsis from the placeholder page now constituting an official site:
…a horror film starring Renée Zellweger as family services social worker Emily Jenkins. Emily thinks she has seen it all until she meets her newest, most mysterious case, troubled 10-year old Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland). Emily’s worst fears are confirmed when the parents try to kill Lilith, their only daughter. Emily saves her and decides to take her in herself until the right foster family comes along. Then the real horror begins…
You can see a lot of that “real horror” in this trailer, which I’d guess takes us some way into the third act.
The film is directed by Christian Alvart, who subsequently made Pandorum - which is set to be released this September. Screenwriter Ray Wright was previously guilty of the Pulse remake and has The Crazies redo pending. If that doesn’t make you worried about the new Crazies, then I don’t know what will. Here’s hoping Wright is actually a very talented screenwriter and somebody else screwed Pulse.
Judging from early word on Case 39 however…
The young girl at the heart of the story is played by Jodelle Ferland, previously seen in Silent Hill and Tideland. She’s going to have acted in more R-rated scenes by the time she comes of age than I’d have seen by the time I went from minor to major.
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Categories: Film
Our First Look at The World of Avatar and It Looks… Quite Like Aliens
Somebody else to also pick up a copy of the latest Empire magazine has scanned perhaps the most interesting image from the entire publication and, via the magic of photoshop, given us an absolutely incredible look into not the set, but the actual world of James Cameron’s Avatar.
As well as showing you the image, I’ll also have to explain to you just how come we’re getting to see it.
So, before I post the picture, some context. All officially released Avatar images have so far been on-set snaps, showing James Cameron with cameras, computer gear and lots and lots of green. There’s one picture in Empire, though, that shows a monitor, and on that monitor’s screen, a real-time CG rendering of a shot. This is how Cameron is working - he’s having on-the-fly versions of imagery created so that he can look at his screen and get a very strong idea of what his composition will look like in the completed movie.
With a little perspective alteration, the screen image has been reformatted to appear front-on, as Cameron would see it on his monitor. Here it is:
To my eye, the stylings are similar to Cameron’s own Aliens. I guess that’s no real surprise, and its definitely not a bad thing. I could speculate as to exactly what we are seeing here, but I think you’d probably do a better job with those guesses yourself and I look forward to reading your comments.
Marketsaw posted the image (it was scanned by one of their readers) along with some of the remaining on-set ones. As I did in my recent Lovely Bones post, Marketsaw are encouraging you to pick up a copy of the magazine for yourself by not including every image, nor every piece of information. The interview with Cameron inside the magazine is a good one, and well worth any fan’s time.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like an Avatar trailer is going to premiere any time soon, with the rumours of its appearance before Wolverine now being denied. Each of these new reveals could be tiding me over, but instead they’re just making me more hungry.
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Categories: Film
More Photos From The Lovely Bones
Those of you who stepped out and snapped up the 20th Anniversary issue of Empire will already have seen the latest - and indeed, greatest - images from Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. For those of you no lucky enough to live ‘over here’, the good news is that some industrious souls have scanned those pages and posted them online.
After the break, a look at a couple of these images - but, really, do seriously consider shelling out for the actual magazine. For one thing, there’s so much in there, and only a certain amount of it is going to ever roll up online.
Here’s Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon:
And here’s Susie and her Grandmother, as played by Susan Sarandon:
At the head of the post, you can see Mark Wahlberg as Susie’s father. Notice the ship in a bottle - you would also have seen one in the image of heaven released previously.
As well as the images (one of which I have not reproduced here - go buy the magazine), Empire have provided some good quotes and information about the film. Perhaps the crucial bit revealed is that the film is fully finished and only postponed until December to make the film more typically-positioned for awards hoopla. I was also much pleased to learn that the whole film has been scored by Brian Eno. Some Eno tracks were specifically named in the script but I never dreamed we’d get him composing the entire soundtrack.
All looks great. Perhaps Jackson will finally have made a film better than Heavenly Creatures…? I do dare to hope.
Conflicting reports from a test screening of the film have been published on Aint it Cool. The positive report doesn’t seem to me to have as many odd gaps and weird notions as the negative one.
Via: The Access Saoirse fansite.
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Box Office: Obsessed Is The Biggest Last-Weekend-of-April Opener Ever
Recording superstar Beyonce Knowles is building a bankable resume for herself as an actress with Sony Screen Gems’ Obsessed as the latest title burnishing her resume. Co-starring the excellent Idris Elba (The Wire), this low budget, PG-13 genre pic has scored a far-above-expectations $11M on Friday, and it will likely reach $27.5M for the weekend. That is the best opening yet for the former Destiny’s Child lead vocalist as an above-the-title star, topping 2003’s The Fighting Temptations and Cadillac Records from late 2008.
OPENINGS FOR BEYONCE MOVIES
1. Austin Powers: Goldmember - $70.3M opening
2. Obsessed - $27.5M opening (projected)
3. Pink Panther (2006) - $20.2M opening
4. Dreamgirls - $14.1M wide break (after a platform start)
5. The Fighting Temptations - $11.7M opening
6. Cadillac Records - $3.4M opening
Now a million-selling solo artist with ubiquitous hits like Irreplaceable and Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), she is beginning to cash in at the box office. She parlayed supporting roles in Mike Myers Austin Powers: Goldmember and Steve Martin’s Pink Panther into the showy Deena Jones role in the film adaptation of Dreamgirls, which topped $100M domestic (although the most of the awards hardware was ultimately taken home by Jennifer Hudson, winning Best Supporting Actress at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards). Beyonce received generally good notices for her turn as Etta James in Cadillac Records in December, although the movie was a box office dud with just $8.2M domestic. Now she has managed a surprise hit on her own with Obsessed.
By all accounts the movie is not very good. Sony didn’t screen it for critics, and the early reviews trickling in decidedly negative (25% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). Perhaps the excellent Pete Hammond from Hollywood.com sums it up best saying, “It’s strictly a generic thriller, perhaps the 105th blatant rip-off of Fatal Attraction, but not without its own guilty pleasures.” My hunch is that there is some trashy fun here with a “girl-on-girl smackdown” (Geoff Berkshire’s words from his review on Metromix.com), and the other girl is the stunning Ali Larter from NBC’s Heroes. Still when all is said and done, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine (Fox) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) starring Matthew McConaughey, both due next Friday, are certain to make Obsessed a one-week wonder, and it may get a speeding ticket on its way to home video.
Even if Beyonce’s “movie legs” aren’t as long as her real (and shapely) legs, Obsessed has set a new opening record for the last weekend of April, traditionally a studio dumping ground for schlock and tough-to-sell movies.
ALL-TIME TOP 10 OPENINGS ON LAST WEEKEND OF APRIL
1. Obsessed (2009) - $27.5M (projected)
2. Mean Girls (2004) - $24.4M
3. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe (2005) - $21.1M
4. Baby Mama (2008) - $17.4M
5. RV (2006) - $16.4M
6. Identity (2003) - $16.2M
7. Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008) - $14.9M
8. XXX: State of the Union (2005) - $12.7M
9. Driven (2001) - $12.1M
10. United 93 (2006) - $11.5M
Zac Efron is proving to be a little less durable among the teen and pre-teen set than I would have thought. 17 Again (Warner Bros), also starring Matthew Perry and Mrs. Judd Apatow (Leslie Mann) has delivered a second Friday in the $3.61M range. The weekend could hit $10.83M or so, enough for second place, for a new 10-day cume of $39.13M, but that represents a deeper-than-expected 54% drop.
Next comes the long-delayed Robert Downey Jr./Jamie Foxx project The Soloist (Dreamworks/Paramount). Originally slated for December with hopes of a Best Actor nomination for Downey, Jr., the Joe Wright-directed tearjerker was first moved to March before settling into this unfriendly last weekend of April slot. Reviews are respectable (61% Fresh on RT) and Downey, Jr. and Foxx both have real drawing power. At just over 2,000 playdates, the movie has managed a tuneful $3.43M (#4 for the day) to start the frame, and opening weekend could reach $10.29M, good for third place. The 25 Plus appeal, especially with women, gives this one a chance to do respectable business over the next couple of weekends as counter-programming to the first few summer blockbusters.
Aside from the monstrous upside surprise for Obsessed, the strong performance of Fighting (Rogue) ranks as the biggest box office upset of the weekend. This Channing Tatum vehicle from his A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints director Dito Montiel didn’t seem to have much traction in pre-release audience tracking, but the PG-13 street fighting yarn has actually delivered the second-best Friday gross with about $3.72M. It will be pretty front-loaded, but should still reach a better-than-expected $9.74M by Monday.
Rounding out the top five, and a bit of a disappointment, is Earth (Disney). The studio’s calculated use of Earth Day to release its Cliffs Notes version of the BBC miniseries Planet Earth has, however, paid some dividends. The 11-hour miniseries has been boiled down to the cutest and scariest animals along with the most fascinating images and picturesque landscapes in a tight 90-minute package, and the re-purposed result generated just over $4M for Wednesday’s Earth Day celebration, adding another $1.6M or so on Thursday. Now the nature doc, which is running at 83% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, has slumped to an estimated $2.61M in Friday sales. It will play big with family audiences on Saturday and Sunday (the kids will be unable to resist baby polar bears sliding down a snowy arctic slope), but I am penciling in Earth for a 3-day of only $9.39M. That gives it the biggest 3-day opening ever for a nature doc, although this is also the widest opening ever for a movie of this type.
ALL-TIME TOP 3-DAY OPENINGS FOR NATURE DOCS
- total domestic cumes included -
1. Earth - $9.39M (projected)
2. March of the Penguins – $7.1M opening - $77.4M cume
3. Two Brothers – $6.1M opening - $19.1M cume
4. Winged Migration – $470,000 biggest weekend - $10.7M cume
5. Arctic Tale - $207,000 opening - $830,000 cume
2004’s Two Brothers, a story of tiger cubs from director Jean-Jacques Annaud, was a wide release like Earth, but the other 3 films listed above were platformed. Disney’s abridged version of Planet Earth has no chance of reaching the staggering success of 2005’s March of the Penguins, but Earth could get to the $30M range even with summer’s biggest guns blazing starting next Friday.
EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON EARLY FRIDAY ESTIMATES
1. NEW – Obsessed (Sony) - $11M, $4,375 PTA, $11M cume
2. NEW – Fighting (Rogue) - $3.72M, $1,610 PTA, $3.72M cume
3. 17 Again (Warner Bros) - $3.61M, $1,109 PTA, $31.91M cume
4. NEW - The Soloist (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $3.43M, $1,695 PTA, $3.43M cume
5. NEW – Earth (Disney) - $2.61M, $1,447 PTA, $9.39M cume
6. State of Play (Universal) - $2.58M, $1,029 PTA, $22.12M cume
7. Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney) - $2.21M, $685 PTA, $61.41M cume
8. Fast & Furious (Universal) - $1.86M, $524 PTA, $5.79M cume
9. Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $1.8M, $536 PTA, $168.09M cume
10. Crank: High Voltage (Lionsgate) - $1M, $450 PTA, $10.11M cume
EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON EARLY 3-DAY ESTIMATES
1. NEW – Obsessed (Sony) - $27.5M, $10,939 PTA, $27.5M cume
2. 17 Again (Warner Bros) - $10.83M, $3,327 PTA, $39.13M
3. NEW - The Soloist (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $10.29M, $5,084 PTA, $10.29M cume
4. Fighting (Rogue) - $9.74M, $4,219 PTA, $9.74M cume
5. NEW – Earth (Disney) - $9.39M, $5,208 PTA, $15.04M cume
6. State of Play (Universal) - $8.38M, $2,987 PTA, $26.61M cume
7. Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $7.56M, $2,251 PTA, $173.85M cume
8. Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney) - $7.41M, $2,295 PTA, $66.63M cume
9. Fast & Furious (Universal) - $5.79M, $1,625 PTA, $144.95M cume
10. Crank: High Voltage (Lionsgate) - $2.8M, $1,259 PTA, $11.91M cume
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Categories: Film
Wolverine To Have Multiple Secret Endings
While the theatrical version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine doesn’t contains 10 minutes of footage not seen in the leaked workprint as Tom Rothman claimed, it does contain some added “Easter eggs”. Gavin Hood appeared at a press screening in Hollywood tonight, and the director revealed that the theatrical cut would feature multiple “Easter egg endings” (or what some call “a button”) following the credits.
FirstShowing was in attendance and saw one of the endings, which Alex tells me ran 25-30 seconds in length and featured the character of Deadpool. It’s not clear how many different endings will be released, but the director said more than one.
Discuss: Will the “easter egg endings” lure fans who watched the leaked workprint into the threater?
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Categories: Film
Speculation: Is Jake Gyllenhaal a Dead Spy Running?
I have a love/hate relationship with “take a meeting” stories. I hate them on one hand because they’re so speculative and gossipy. On the other hand, I love rumors and speculation. What is a “take a meeting” story? It is when a two people, usually a director and an actor or a writer and an actor are spotted in the wilds of Los Angeles having “lunch”. And of course, no one is Hollywood just has lunch to have lunch, especially not filmmakers and actors (I’m kidding… but also partly serious). Anyway, if you’re going to get upset over a highly speculative story, please skip over this post.
Jake Gyllenhaal was spotted taking a lunch meeting with Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning screenwiter/director Stephen Gaghan at Caffe Luxxe on Friday afternoon in Santa Monica (photo from JustJared). Chances are they were meeting about something, but what could it be?
The only announced project that Gaghan is currently working on is an adaptation of the Jon Stock spy novel Dead Spy Running, the first of a possible trilogy of films/book about a newly trained spy who goes on a globe trotting adventure to exonerate his father. Gaghan is writing the screenplay for McG to direct. It is more than possible for an interested star to be involved in the development of the screenplay. And I’m not sure about you, but I can certainly picture Gyllenhaal in a Bourne-style spy action thriller.
But who knows. The meeting could be for some other project all together, or nothing at all. I just thought I’d post about it in the rumor mill since it’s going to be a slow weekend.
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Categories: Film
Robert Rodriguez Talks Predators
I know what you’re thinking: “Not another blog post about Rodriguez’s new Predator movie?!” I said it so you don’t have to. Lets move on.
Robert Rodriguez sat down and answered some questions for AICN regarding the recently announced Predator reboot Predators. The filmmaker confirmed that 20th Century Fox co-president of production Alex Young became excited about a Predator reboot after discovering a Predator sequel treatment Rodriguez had written 15 years ago. It is unclear right now if the original treatment will be used as a basis for the film, but since that was why Rodriguez was brought on board to carry the project, I’d be surprised if they didn’t use some of the core ideas.
“What I’d like to do with it is expand on ideas I dreamt up back in the original treatment, that had really expanded on the universe both the Predators and other species live in. We’d create new otherworldly characters while not taking away from the draw our main Predator has.”
No writer or director have been hired for the project, but the plan is for Rodriguez to produce the film at the Austin-based Troublemaker Studios so that Rodriguez “can feel free to walk to the PREDATORS soundstage, pick up a camera and co-shoot the coolest scenes.” I really wonder what kind of a director is going to be comfortable with that kind of producer collaboration. You can read the full interview on AICN.
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Universal Puts Bioshock on Hold
Universal Pictures has decided to sideline Gore Verbinski’s big screen adaptation of the popular video game Bioshock. This comes weeks after Verbinski announced that he would not be returning for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film due to this new project. Apparently the projected budget is huge, a projected $160 million, and growing by the day.
Variety is reporting that some of the production staff has been let go, and that Universal and Verbinski are going to try to figure out a way to bring the budget down to a more reasonable number (I’m guessing in the $125m range). Alternatives being discussed include shooting in London, or other countries that might offer tax credit/incentives.
We do know that Take-Two Interactive received a multimillion-dollar advance against gross points on the film, a sum believed to be the biggest video game-to-movie deal since the infamous aborted Halo movie deal between Universal and Fox, for which Microsoft got $5 million against 10%. The BioShock deal is structured in a way ensuring the movie won’t end up in turnaround. We will keep you updated when we learn more.
Aviator screenwriter John Logan penned the script.
Since it’s release in August, Hollywood has eyeing a big screen adaptation of this popular first-person shooter. Praised for its morality-based storyline, immersive environment and Ayn Rand-inspired dystopian setting, the game has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, and ranks as the thirteenth best video game on Game Rankings. Set in an alternative history 1960, BioShock follows the story of a plane crash survivor named Jack, who must explore the underwater Objectivist-dystopian city of Rapture, and survive attacks by the mutated beings and mechanical drones that populate it. Jack is drawn into a power struggle during which he discovers that his will is not as free as he’d thought.
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30 Seconds of Pixar’s Partly Cloudy
Want to see 30 seconds of Pixar’s next movie? I’m not talking about Up, I’m talking about the short film (which will be attached to Up), titled Partly Cloudy. The directorial debut of storyboard artist and animator Peter Sohn (he also provided the voice of Emile in Ratatouille) tells the story of where babies come from.
Click on the image below to see the 30 second clip on Animation World. Also check out a three page interview with Sohn on AWN.
“Everyone knows that the stork delivers babies, but where do the storks get the babies from? The answer lies up in the stratosphere, where cloud people sculpt babies from clouds and bring them to life. Gus, a lonely and insecure grey cloud, is a master at creating “dangerous” babies. Crocodiles, porcupines, rams and more–Gus’s beloved creations are works of art, but more than a handful for his loyal delivery stork partner, Peck. As Gus’s creations become more and more rambunctious, Peck’s job gets harder and harder. How will Peck manage to handle both his hazardous cargo and his friend’s fiery temperament?”
Partly Cloudy will be attached to Up which hits theaters on May 29th, 2009.
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Set Pictures/Video and More Details on Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go
Mark Romanek is currently on location in the UK town of Clevedon, North Somerset, filming his melancholy sci-fi mystery Never Let Me Go with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and just about every other great British actor currently in their 20s. In case you do not yet know, it was adapted by Alex Garland - who previously scripted 28 Days Later and a draft of the proposed Halo film - from a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
As well as a video clip snooping on a scene being shot (which you can see hosted on a BBC website but was not designed so that it might be embedded elsewhere) several paparazzi-style pictures have appeared here and there, showing the filming taking place and, as ever, the actors standing about between takes. I’ve put some after the break as well as some every basic, and not very spoilery, information to help you contextualise them.
Here you can see Knightley clocking the camera, alongside Carey Mulligan.
From right to left below you can see Andrea Riseborough, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley and… please tell me, because I don’t know. And boy, do I want to know who he is. They are playing the characters of, I believe, Chrissie, Tommy, Kathy and Rodney, again from right to left.
And here are Knightley and Mulligan again. A good shot for looking at some details of costume and styling.
Mulligan has the lead role of Kathy H., and Knightley has the supporting part of Ruth. That’s not what many people may have expected, but I am rather glad to learn it.
The Sweet Keira fansite have done a pretty good job of compiling every last pap-snap of the filming from all over the web.
From what I can see, this filming is for a scene in the second half of the story. I think that the characters are shown on a day trip to Norfolk, where they are looking for somebody in particular… somebody who might just be very close to one of them.
I’ve had an opportunity to read a draft Alex Garland’s script and was slightly taken aback by one of the major changes in this section. Garland has removed the novel’s subplot revolving around a music cassette that mysteriously goes missing and is then later, during the sequence we see being filmed here, replaced. This is by no means a mortal wound, but I find it something of a curious omission and can’t help but wonder if it won’t be reinserted by the time shooting is done.
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Set Pictures/Video and More Details on Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go
Mark Romanek is currently on location in the UK town of Clevedon, North Somerset, filming his melancholy sci-fi mystery Never Let Me Go with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and just about every other great British actor currently in their 20s. In case you do not yet know, it was adapted by Alex Garland - who previously scripted 28 Days Later and a draft of the proposed Halo film - from a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
As well as a video clip snooping on a scene being shot (which you can see hosted on a BBC website but was not designed so that it might be embedded elsewhere) several paparazzi-style pictures have appeared here and there, showing the filming taking place and, as ever, the actors standing about between takes. I’ve put some after the break as well as some every basic, and not very spoilery, information to help you contextualise them.
Here you can see Knightley clocking the camera, alongside Carey Mulligan.
From right to left below you can see Andrea Riseborough, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley and… please tell me, because I don’t know. And boy, do I want to know who he is. They are playing the characters of, I believe, Chrissie, Tommy, Kathy and Rodney, again from right to left.
And here are Knightley and Mulligan again. A good shot for looking at some details of costume and styling.
Mulligan has the lead role of Kathy H., and Knightley has the supporting part of Ruth. That’s not what many people may have expected, but I am rather glad to learn it.
The Sweet Keira fansite have done a pretty good job of compiling every last pap-snap of the filming from all over the web.
From what I can see, this filming is for a scene in the second half of the story. I think that the characters are shown on a day trip to Norfolk, where they are looking for somebody in particular… somebody who might just be very close to one of them.
I’ve had an opportunity to read a draft Alex Garland’s script and was slightly taken aback by one of the major changes in this section. Garland has removed the novel’s subplot revolving around a music cassette that mysteriously goes missing and is then later, during the sequence we see being filmed here, replaced. This is by no means a mortal wound, but I find it something of a curious omission and can’t help but wonder if it won’t be reinserted by the time shooting is done.
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RSVP For The 20 City Transformers 2 Trailer Premiere Event
Paramount Pictures has released the official list of RSVP e-mails for the 20 city Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer premiere which is taking place on April 29th. If you live in one of the 20 cities and would like to attend the event, send an e-mail your your name and information.
The trailer is attached to a one-time screening of Michael Bay’s 2007 film Transformers. Paramount is also holding a costume contest - come dressed as your favorite Autobot or Decpticon to enter to win a trip to Los Angeles for the premiere of Revenge of the Fallen in June. The movie will be presented in IMAX in the five top markets: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Toronto. No word on if the new trailer will also be presented in IMAX at the selected theaters, but if it is, it might be the first time we see Transformers footage, shot in IMAX, on the IMAX screen.
Click on the flyer above to see the e-mail addresses that you need to RSVP to. Please note that seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first come, first served basis. So arrive really early. Full list of cities/theaters after the jump.
Los Angeles: 7pm at The Bridge Cinema De Lux, in IMAX
New York: 8pm at AMC Loews Lincoln Square in IMAX
San Francisco: 7pm at AMC Metreon in IMAX
Chicago: 8pm at Navy Pier in IMAX
Toronto: 7pm at Scotiabank in IMAX
Philadelphia: 7pm at UA King of Prussia in DIGITAL
Washington DC: 7pm at AMC Georgetown in DIGITAL
Dallas: 7pm at Studio Movie Grill Royal Lane in 35MM (UPDATED)
Boston: 7pm at AMC Boston Common in 35MM
Phoenix: 7pm at Harkins Tempe Marketplace in Tempe in DIGITAL
Seattle: 7pm at Cinerama in 35MM
Atlanta: 7pm at Regal Atlantic Station in 35MM
Miami: 7pm at AMC Sunset in South Miami in 35MM
Detroit: 7pm ar Emagine Novi in Novi, MI in DIGITAL
San Diego: 7pm at Regal Edwards Mira Mesa in 35MM
Denver: 7pm at UA Colorado Center in 35MM
Sacramento: 7pm at UA Market Square in 35MM
Orlando: 7pm at Premiere Fashion Sq Mall in DIGITAL
Minneapolis: 7pm at AMC Southdale in Edina in 35MM
Baltimore: 7pm at AMC White Marsh in 35MM
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Bruno Movie Poster
Universal Pictures has finally unleashed the official poster for Bruno, is Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. I’m actually kinda surprise they didn’t go for something more outrageous. I’d definitely loving the tagline, “Borat was so 2006.” Check out the full poster after the jump.
Click on the image below to enlarge.
The film arrives in theaters on July 10, 2009.
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Confirmed: Michael Caine Joins Nolan’s Inception
Earlier this month, Michael Caine told MTV that Christopher Nolan might have a part for him in his new science fiction action film Inception. I didn’t really take much credence to the quote, because Caine had told me a couple days earlier at ShoWest that he had not yet gotten a call about the project. And with last night’s addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, no mention was made of Caine’s possible involvement. Well fear not Batfans, Alfred has been confirmed for Nolan’s latest.
Caine reveals to our friends at InContention that he has “a little part in it.”
“Just a tiny part. Chris and I are very good friends so I’ll do that little part. I think I’ll work about three days. It’ll be extraordinary, wait until you see this one. I think if I say another word he’s going to kill me!”
This will be Nolan’s fourth film in a row that features Caine.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays the lead, a CEO-type, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose, Public Enemies) is his wife, Ellen Page (Juno) is a young college grad student and DiCaprio’s sidekick, and Levitt plays an associate working for DiCaprio. Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Sunshine) is also signed on, but no details are known about his character. Details about the project are being kept tightly under wraps. All we know so far is that the movie is a contemporary science fiction action movie “set within the architecture of the mind.”
All we know is that Nolan approached Warner Bros with the project, and they preemptively snapped it up before Nolan could approach other studios. Which is kind of obvious, because they want/need him to return for a third Batman film. Inception hits theaters on July 16th 2010.
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Predators Gets July 2010 Release Date, Robert Rodriguez NOT Directing
Yesterday we told you that Robert Rodriguez had announced that he was officially developing a Predator reboot for 20th Century Fox titled Predators. Well, apparently the project is almost ready to go because Fox has already announced a July 7th 2010 release date, according to ERC. Also, apparently the filmmaker will NOT be writing or directing the movie.He will be producing the project, which he hopes will shoot at his Austin-based studio.
The film will play 5 days after M Night Shyamalan’s Avatar live-action big screen adaptation The Last Airbender hits theaters. The Steve Carell/Jason Segel comedy Despicable Me is due to hit theaters 2 days later. Predators is expected to follow a team of commandos who must face a mysterious race of vicious monsters. That’s right, multiple Predators… not just one.
Rodriguez has said that he will go into production in the action movie Machete, based on the mock trailer in Grindhouse, in June, co-directing with Ethan Maniquis. Next up, After that, Rodriguez is scheduled to have the sci-fi action film Nerverackers in theaters for a April 15th 2010 release date. As I said above, Rodriguez will not be directing Predators, but he is still expected to be very hands on with the project and I’m not sure where he is going to find time.
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