Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – July 15, 2009

It’s officially mid-week and here’s what’s going on:

Harry Potter waves his wand at midnight and conjures box office records; the Heathers may be gone for good; Cox and Arquette are Screaming again; Robin Hood has its King Richard; The Limey may get a sequel; it’s a wrap for Nightmare on Elm Street; The Crow will fly again for the first time; Warner Bros. may be returning to the Major League; and The Toronto Film Festival has a list of flicks that could become next year’s greats.

Let’s get to it:

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1. Variety is reporting that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince conjured up a whopping $20 million in box office receipts from midnight showings alone. If this figure holds, it would make the sixth installment of J.K. Rowling’s wizard adventure the highest-grossing midnight debut of all time. Previous record holders were The Dark Knight ($18 million) and Revenge of the Sith ($17 million).

I myself had to walk almost a quarter-mile to my theater at 1 a.m. this morning to see HBP, the parking lot was so full. People love that Harry…

Source: Variety

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2. Winona Ryder recently got Generation Xers all in a tizzy by once again floating the notion that there could be a forthcoming sequel to the 1988 high school shooting black comedy, Heathers. This isn’t the first time Ryder has touched on the subject, however this time, Heathers director Michael Lehmann is shooting down the rumor, claiming “Winona’s been talking about this for years — she brings it up every once in a while and [screenwriter] Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as far as I know there’s no script and no plans to do the sequel.”

That’s good news: I don’t think we’re quite ready to start laughing at school shootings again.

Source: Slash Film

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3. David Arquette let E! Online know that he and wife Courtney Cox-Arquette are officially signed on for Scream 4. We’ve known the deal was in the works for some time but you don’t get much better confirmation than this:

I fell in love with my wife on Scream, so the opportunity to bring [Dewey] back to life and for my wife to play that really bitchy character again, it’s just going to be really fun…It’s just great.

Awwwww, how romantic! Let’s hope one (or both) of them gets butchered. Four films in a horror franchise is longer than anybody deserves to live.

Source: E! Online

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4. Actor Danny Huston sure is keeping busy: he’s was the head vamp in 30 Days of Night, Wolverine’s nemesis Col. Stryker – he has an upcoming role playing a god in the Clash of the Titans remake and now he’s been crowned king of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood.

That’s right, Huston will play the role of King Richard I. In Robin Hood folklore, Richard’s time away from England while fighting The Crusades is what led to the power-grabs of Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. The role sounds minor, but I’m sure Huston will make it memorable.

Source: Coventry Telegraph

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5. Steven Soderbergh’s wife, former E! host Jules Asner, was doing in interview with Adam Carolla when she let a little nugget slip regarding Soderbergh’s 1999 cult-hit The Limey, starring Terrence Stamp: “[Steven] wants to do a sequel to The Limey and Terrence wants to do it.”

The Limey 2: it’s just wishful thinking right now – but then again this IS Hollywood, and where there’s a buzz, there’s a way…

Source: Digital Spy

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6. The Crow will fly again – but we should all just pretend like its the first time.

Blade director Stephen Norrington has reportedly turned in a draft of a Crow script that is “a whole new story about a whole new character.” Fans of Alex Proyas’ (Knowing) 1994 version of The Crow (starring the late Brandon Lee), try not to be too disappointed.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

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7. Thanks to Twitter we now know that the A Nightmare On Elm Street remake has officially wrapped its shoot. As tweeted by producer Brad Fuller: “Just wrapped- sad. This was a fun movie to make,”.

The film now goes into post-production so that they can add all the crazy f/x needed to transform Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) into your worst razor-fingered nightmare.

A Nightmare On Elm Street will be in theaters on April 16, 2010.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

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8. Actor Bob Uecker, who famously played booze-swilling announcer Harry Doyle in 1989s Major League, recently let it be known that he’s been contact by the creative team behind the Major League trilogy (yep, there’s three of them), about reprising his role for Major League 4.

Although this year marks the 20th anniversary of the baseball comedy that helped usher the careers of Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Dennis Haysbert, Renne Russo and others, early speculation is that Major League 4 will go straight to the minors, a.k.a. the DVD bargain bin.

Source: Slash Film

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9. Finally, the 2009 Toronto Film International Festival has released the list of movies which will be featured this year. If you’re interested you can keep up with ever-evolving list by going here.

That’s it for now. See you again at the end of the week.