Movie News Wrap Up: March 30, 2009

This week:

Monsters Vs Aliens tops the box office; the Coens remake John Wayne’s True Grit; Val Kilmer talks up a reteam with Robert Downey Jr; Matthew McConaughey is The Lincoln Lawyer; Tobey Maguire knows The Limit; Ben Affleck and Matt Damon hunt for Good Will after Bourne again and Affleck hits The Town.

Box Office

Monsters Vs Aliens was the big winner this weekend with a powerful gross of $58 million. It’s the best opening gross of a movie this year (beating Watchmen). Also, horror isn’t dead with The Haunting in Connecticut scaring up $23 million in ticket sales.

Nicolas Cage’s Knowing dropped a decent 40% with a weekend take of almost $15 million giving the action flick a total gross of $46 million – despite bad reviews.

I Love You, Man managed another $12,7 million, while the Julia Roberts- Clive Owen heist movie Duplicity banked another $7.5 million for a $25 million total.

Dwayne Johnson’s Race To Witch Mountain fell over 50% giving the Disney film a total of $53 million.

Fellow wrestler John Cena misfired with 12 Rounds. The Renny Harlin directed film managed a poor $5 million weekend.

Watchmen eked out another $2.8 million bringing its total to $103.3 million.

Taken took another $2.7 million bringing the action pic’s gross to a huge $137 million.

Horror remake The Last House on The Left managed a weekend take of $2.6 million.

Movie News

1. The Coen brothers will remake John Wayne’s True Grit – the film that won the cinematic legend an Oscar!

The film will be based on the book by Charles Portis.

Variety states:

“Portis’ novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory.
But while the original film was a showcase for Wayne, the Coens’ version will tell the tale from the girl’s p.o.v.”

So who will the Coens get to replace Wayne? After all they are big, big boots to fill.

Didn’t they learn their lesson with The Ladykillers?

Source: Variety

2. Val Kilmer believes that we will see a sequel to 2005’s action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
The star twittered:

“RDJ, Jr (Robert Downey Jr) and I talked AGAIN about a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sequel… Now that he is king of all time and space it will happen.”

I hope this is true. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an exceptional film that didn’t get the release that it deserved by Warner Bros. Funny, compelling and extremely well written – you must seek it out.

Source: Twitter

3. Matthew McConaughey will take the lead in The Lincoln Lawyer.

“The legal thriller that centers on low-level criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller who finds himself representing a wealthy client with ties to a previous murder case Haller handled.”

The film which is based on the book by Michael Connolly will be a return to the leagal thriller genre for the bongo playing star who made his name in Joel Schumacher’s adaptation of John Grisham’s A Time To Kill.

Source: Variety

4. Tobey Maguire is attached to star in Columbia Pictures’ The Limit. According to Variety:

“Maguire will star as Phil Hill, who went against his good friend and Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips in the 1961 Drivers Championship.”

Maguire will produce the film through his Maguire Entertainment production company.

I think that it’s no coincidence that Maguire’s company is set up at the studio that produces the Spider-Man films.

Source: Variety

5. Best friends and Good Will Hunting co-stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will reunite for a new film next year.

The film will start shooting after Damon makes the next Bourne movie. Affleck is apparently mulling over directing duties on the film that was not written by the Oscar winning duo.

Affleck told Collider:

“We have a project but we haven’t said what it is just because of lame political money reasons. This is the movie we’re going to do together and I think it will be good.”

Source: Collider

6. Meanwhile, Affleck has been talking up his next directorial effort following the excellent Gone Baby Gone.

“I’m directing another movie and I’m going to act in the movie as well. That’s a slightly daunting prospect, but we’ll see. I’m nervous but excited. It’s called The Town – that’s the title I’m using now but I’m not sure it’ll be that – and it’s based on a book called Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. It’s based on a true fact that there is this neighborhood in Boston called Charlestown where there are more armed robbers per capita than anywhere else in the world. It’s about this group of guys who rob a bank and an armored car.”

Source: Collider

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