Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: October 26, 2009

This week:
Over the weekend the box office Saw some Paranormal Activity; Carl Ellsworth was hired by Paramount but he wants C.O.D (Cash On Delivery); True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten is Griff the Invisible; Derek Mears gears up for Predators and Laura Dern Meets Stiller and family.

Wow. It looks like the Saw franchise has finally come to a grisly end. The sixth film in the horror franchise opened with 50% less than what was predicted, earning a not-so-good $14.7 million. The film probably only cost about $15 million to make, but this poor gross means that it’ll have to have some serious overseas takings to make new installments viable.

The flipside to Saw’s demise was the $22 million that Paranormal Activity took over the weekend – from a thousand less screens than Saw!

With a cost of approximately $11,000 (yeah, you read that right) it looks like Oren Peli’s spook-fest will be very profitable for Paramount. $62 million is in the bank so far, and $100 million is still in range.

Where The Wild Things Are dropped 55% this weekend bringing the total of the Spike Jonze film to just under $54 million. It’ll top out at about $80million, which is about its production budget, but it’ll be a big DVD seller for a while (I can imagine).

Law Abiding Citizen showed some impressive legs this weekend after takings dipped by only 39%. The Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler team-up has snagged $40 million to date.

Vince Vaughn’s Couples Retreat banked another $11 million. The film now has $78 million and could crack $100 million.

Astro Boy didn’t impress many people and with a $7 million debut it looks like it’ll be hanging out in discount DVD racks in the near future.

For a horror film, The Stepfather held up surprisingly well. Dropping just under 44% the film has now snagged $20 million. It’ll top out near $30-35 million, which means that we might see a sequel.

One film that won’t see a sequel will be Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant. The teen-fiction adaptation was a franchise hopeful but it would appear that not everything with Vampires sees gold – the film earned just $6 million.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ate up another $5 million, bringing its total to $115 million.

Zombieland brought in another $4 million to round out the top ten ($74 million worldwide is the current total for the film).

Meanwhile Amelia crashed and burned outside the top ten with just $4 million. The Hillary Swank, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor film was seen as an Oscar hopeful, but terrible reviews – and now poor box office have put an end to such hopes. Oh, dear.

Movie News

1. Carl Ellsworth has been hired by Paramount Pictures to do some work on C.O.D. - or Cash on Delivery.

“The C.O.D. story line follows a New York City bike messenger who is forced to deliver three bombs under threat of his family receiving one. He must avoid capture by not only the authorities but also by an entire nation looking to stop him.”

Lars Jacobson’s wrote the first draft which was bought by Paramount for a “mid six figure” sum.

Ellsworth has also carried out scripting duties for Y: The Last Man and the forthcoming Red Dawn remake.

Paramount better hope that the film turns out well. You can just imagine the critics saying that the film fails to deliver, or that it’s a package that nobody wants.

2. True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten is starring in Griff the Invisible.

Director Leon Ford said that:

“It is a super hero movie and it is a comedy, but at its core it’s a simple love story about two very unique individuals finding each other and giving the other the strength to be what they want to be.”

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Ryan Kwanten said:

“By day, Griff works in an office. By night, he is a superhero – or is he? It was this question that attracted me to the role. Griff is such an original and boundless character to play.”

It looks like Kwanten has managed to snag himself roles in two very popular genres – vampires and superheroes. Now if you could only merge the two together then you’d have…er… Blade.

Source: Moviehole

3. Bloody Disgusting reports a rumor that Master of Horror John Carpenter is eyeing up directing duties on Fangland.

The film is seen as a possible starring vehicle for Hillary Swank.

According to Bloody Disgusting:

“She would play a TV producer who travels to Romania for an interview with a notorious European arms dealer. Turns out, he’s a modern-day Dracula.”

Sounds cool, but Carpenter seems to attach himself to multiple projects that never seem to nail him down.

He’s currently working on The Ward starring Amber Heard.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

4. Derek Mears is set to suit up and join Adrian Brody, Danny Trejo and Topher Grace in Predators.

The man behind the rebooted Jason Voorhees mask will star alongside the unlikely group who will battle the titular Predators.

I have to say that this film has some odd casting choices. I mean they kind of make Danny Glover’s lead in Predator 2 seem conventional.

Predators opens on July 10, 2010

Source: Film School Rejects

5. Laura Dern has joined the cast of the third Meet the Parents film, currently titled Little Fockers.

The Paul Weitz film also stars Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Owen Wilson and Jessica Alba. It’s also believed that Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand will return to play Stiller’s parents in the comedy.

“Dern plays the headmistress of the elementary school that the Fockers’ kids attend.”

I find it odd that there’s such a big cast in this film who will basically be standing in the sidelines while Stiller mugs to the camera and falls over – a lot. I mean, I do that everyday and I don’t have an A-list audience… or a camera for that matter.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

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