This week:

The box office gets Exorcised and there are quite few Takers for Avatar: Special Edition; What happens when you mix A Clockwork Orange with The Dark Knight: Psychopomp; Angry Birds: The Movie; the surfs up for Sam Worthington as he lets his career Drift; Jim Carrey ppppp picks up a Penguin; Carey Mulligan goes for a Drive with Ryan Gosling and more.

Box Office

It was all change at the box office over the weekend as Takers captured the top spot. The crime thriller which stars a slew of familiar faces like Hayden Christensen, Chris Brown and Matt Dillon grabbed $20.5 million worth of moviegoer’s cash in its unexpectedly successful debut.

the last exorcism opens at number one

The Last Exorcism swooped into the  number two position over the three days. The Eli Roth produced frightener scared up $20.3 million despite complaints of a terrible ending.

Sly and the family Stallone dropped to three. After two weeks at the top The Expendables brought in another $9.5 million for an $82 million total - $100 million is now in its grasp.

Julia Roberts’ Eat Pray Love came in at four after grossing just under $7 million. The total for the film now stands at $60 million. It doesn’t have a chance of hitting $100 million, but it shows that Roberts still has some star wattage left.

The Other Guys shot up $6.5 million and upped their total to just under $100 million. Will Ferrell breathes a sigh of relief and audiences want more Michael Keaton. All’s fair in love and war.

Vampires do indeed suck and so does (I presume) Vampires Suck. It’s a film that I wouldn’t be caught (un)dead watching, but someone is as the film only dipped 55% from last weekend’s debut. I say only because that’s a pretty decent decline for this sort of film. Another $5.5 for this frightening movie gives it a respectable $28 million. Kids, save your money and go see Inception.

Speaking of Inception, it has now brought its total up to over $270 million, after banking another $5 million.

Nanny McPhee Returns grossed another $4.7 million and upped its total to $17 million. This film has already made its money on the international circuit, so its US release is just a formality. You may even expect Nanny McPhee Returns Again... or something.

The Switch just didn’t turn on moviegoers. The Jennifer Aniston/ Jason Bateman comedy has only brought in $16.4 million since its launch. It shouldn’t get to over $30 million.

Piranha 3D did what any good horror films does – and dropped by over 50% in its second weekend. The horror remake/ reboot/ reimagining or whatever the hell they’re calling it chewed up another $4.5 million. With just under $18.5 million in the bank a sequel is on the way. I expect that this will make a killing when it hits DVD in an unrated form.

Jim Cameron's Avatar: Special Edition opened at number eleven after scoring $3.8 million. The re-release of the highest grossing film of all time adds an extra 9 minutes of footage to the 3D epic. The film has now brought in a mind (and eye) blowing $753.5 million in the US alone. This Special Edition debut might be something of a disappointment for Cameron and Fox, however considering that the film is already out on DVD, with a double dip on the way – it’s pretty much all gravy at this point.

Movie News

1. Get ready for Psychopomp. “What’s that?” I hear you say.

Well, according to The Hollywood Reporter:

"Psychopomp is the name of the title character, a foul-mouthed anti-hero who roams international hot spots with state-of-the art weapons and technology with the aim of destroying those who violate his code. The script has been described as having tones similar to A Clockwork Orange and The Dark Knight."

Psychopomp: clockwork orange meets the dark knight

Hilary Shor one of the producers behind Children of Men has optioned the script in the hopes of bringing it to the big screen.

Shor says:

"This is the evil twin of the Children of Men future world Alfonso created. A lot of material I'm best known for developing is 'weighty,' for lack of a better word, but this really appealed to me. It's the graphic novel world and something I've been interested in exploring."

Shor(ly) not.

This sounds like one of those films that will go into development and never be made. Then again – what do I know?

Source: THR

2. I don’t have an iphone or an iPad, so I haven't played the top-selling app Angry Birds. But it has sold over 6.5 million downloads. In Hollywood that can only mean one thing – movie! The Finnish company behind Angry Birds, Rovio, plans to turn the game into a franchise.

angry birds

There’s really nothing more that I can say about that without destroying the PG environment of Screen Rant. Nothing at all.

Source: Variety

3. Since December (if not before) a week doesn’t seem to have gone by that we haven’t written about Sam Worthington being attached to one project or another. Guess what?

Yup. Worthington is now attached to a new Australian surfing drama called Drift.

According to Playlist:

“The film will see Worthington — an avid, lifelong surfer — play a photographer and journalist who is instrumental in the evolution of surfing from a pastime into a global industry, as local surf wear manufacturers like Rip Curl and Billabong grow into iconic global brands.”

Worthington had this to say about the $11 million film:

"I'm a [Western Australian] boy at heart and to go back there and put something back into my home town is something I am really looking forward to. There's something pure and true about surfing, and there is something pure and true about this script."

The film is due to shoot next year and presumably it means that Worthington will be able to fit in one or two of his other films before then.

Source: Playlist

4. Disney has picked up a pitch by writers Ahmet Zappa and Michael Wilson titled Monster Witness Relocation Program.

Monsterfoot Productions will produce the film alongside Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. It’s apparently being tooled as a potential starring vehicle for Smith’s son Jaden.

Sounds like this might be Smith Jr’s Men In Black style franchise.

Source: Deadline

5. Jim Carrey is set to star in an adaptation of Mr. Popper's Penguins.

According to Deadline:

“The movie version takes the book into an upscale direction: a high-powered businessman suddenly inherits six penguins. As he gets acquainted with – and increasingly attached to – his winged roommates, Popper’s life quickly unravels: his swanky New York apartment is turned into a snowy winter wonderland, the deal he’s long been working on is derailed, and he almost lands in jail. But thanks to his new charges, Popper comes to understand the importance of family – human and otherwise".

In the past Jack Black , Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller have flirted with the project which is being directed by Mark Waters, the man who brought us Mean Girls and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Word on the street is that 20th Century Fox got Carrey on the “cheap”. I thought that penguins made more of a squawking sound.

Source: Deadline

The Oscar nominated (and BAFTA winning ) actress Carey Mulligan and Bryan Cranston are negotiations to join Ryan Gosling in Drive.

The film follows Hollywood stuntman who works as getaway driver during robberies. When the obligatory bank job goes wrong, he ends up on the run with a contract on his head and an ex-con’s moll in his car. Mulligan would play the female lead in the film(obviously).

Nicolas Winding Refn directs the film, which originally being tooled as a Hugh Jackman starrer.

Mulligan will next be seen in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps alongside Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf which opens on September 24.

Source: THR

Also:

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.