This weekend:

It’s Gamer over as the box office has a Final Destination; Kevin Smith loses his Dicks; Blake Lively moves into Affleck’s Town; Liam Nesson and Bono are introduced to The Virgin of Las Vegas; Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Gabriel Byrne swim with Two Birds and Keanu Reeves helps solve Henry’s Crime. Woah!

Box Office
It’s Labor Day weekend again and that can only mean one thing – low box office. Horror franchise film The Final Destination 3-D held onto the top spot with a pretty decent $12 million 3-day take. It should have $15 million in the bag by the close of business Monday giving it a $50 million total. This is going to be the highest grossing film in the series, so expect another installment – soon.

Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper should capture the runner-up spot with the comedy All About Steve. The pair are both coming off summer comedy sleepers with The Proposal and The Hangover, both of which had significantly more positive critical response. The fact that those films played so long probably had an impact on this film’s opening box office. All About Steve should bank about $13 million by the end of play on Monday.

Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds continues to do well with another $13 million or so over the long weekend. The Brad Pitt flick is closing in on $100 domestically and it will become the highest grossing film in the director’s career. Unadjusted of course!

Gerard Butler’s Gamer had a soft $10 million opening, showing that his one for the girls and one for the boys means that The Ugly Truth is the actor’s highest grossing film since 300. I presume more romantic comedies are on the way.

District 9 crossed the magical $100 million marker this weekend giving the $30 million film some hefty profit.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween II went down like a friend of Hugh Grant’s. With less than $6 million over the four days and $25 in the till since it opened, it looks like this franchise reboot won’t run as long as the original series – unless they inject new blood into it. I hope Rob Zombie has signed on to his next film.

G.I. Joe. banked a little less than $7 million. This means that the film will happily clear $150 million. The sequel is a safe bet.

Julie and Julia shows that Meryl Streep still has that box office magic! The cooking comedy has just under $80 in the pot. It won’t hit $100 million but it shows that Streep still has the bankable chops.

The Time Traveler’s Wife should make just under $5 million this weekend. The film should finish its run with a little less than $70 million. Not too bad.

Poor Mike Judge. The guy can’t catch a break. A great cast and great reviews couldn’t help Extract make more than $4.5 million over the weekend. Ouch.

Movie News

1. It looks like Kevin Smith’s Bruce Willis-starring cop comedy, A Couple of Dicks, is facing the chop.

Speaking to MTV, co-star Adam Brody said:

“I don’t think it’s gonna happen. We were talking about [changing the name]; you can’t really advertise that before 9. If that’s the case, so that really hampers [the studio]. I know he feels a little burned, because he fought really hard for Zack and Miri Make a Porno and then it didn’t do that well. This time he’s like ‘F-ck the title, you can call it Cream Cheese, I don’t care.’ So, I’d be surprised [if he kept it].”

You see this is what annoys me – Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a terrible title for a film and that’s probably why it didn’t do well. A Couple of Dicks on the other hand (so to speak) is great – it’s worth fighting for.

Grow a set Smith and hold onto your Dicks!

Source: MTV

2. Blake Lively has signed on to Ben Affleck’s The Town. The Gossip Girl star will join Affleck, Man Men’s Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner in the adaptation of Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves.

Lively will play Affleck’s ex-girlfriend in the film.

Chris Cooper, who recently starred with Affleck and Kevin Costner in The Company Men, is also in negotiations to join the cast.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. Liam Neeson will star in The Virgin of Las Vegas. The film will be produced by fellow Irish man and U2 singer, Bono.

According to Variety:

“[The Film] affectionately recalls the Irish pop culture phenomenon of show bands. Show bands, which became popular across Ireland before the onslaught of TV, used to play cover songs in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll and amassed large followings across the country. Neeson will play an aging show band singer, prone to drink and living in Vegas, who finds his life turned on its head following the arrival of a mysterious stranger.”

The show bands were huge in Ireland in the 50’s. 60’s and even the 1970’s with local stars attracting a huge following – while not quite on a level of The Beatles, they were pretty damn big and the show band tours are still big events for Irish women of a certain age.

One for my mum!

Source: Variety

4. While we’re talking Irish cinema I might as well mention Brendan Gleeson’s directorial debut, At Swim-Two-Birds.

Irish heavyweights Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Gabriel Byrne will star alongside Gleeson in the coming of age drama.

“[The plot follows] a 19-year-old student who sees the fictional characters in the play he’s writing intertwining with the people in his life.”

Sounds very interesting. However, I like all of the above actors and I’m Irish, so I might just be slightly biased!

Source: Variety

5. Keanu Reeves will star and produce the romantic comedy Henry’s Crime.

Malcolm Venville will direct the film which is being pitched a “Capraesque”. The plot follows a big-hearted man who is accused of robbing a bank.

I’m sure that lessons are learned and there’s some sort of moral. Or maybe not.

The film is currently without distribution. I’m sure that Reeves’ involvement means that this won’t be for long!

Source: Variety

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

• Hall & Hamm Go To “Town” With Ben Affleck
• Movie News Wrap Up: April 6, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 13, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 8, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: June 21, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 10, 2009

Mallrats, Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, blah, blah, blah. Yet there’s a dark little place in my heart that secretly loves Jersey Girl.  There, I said it. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I am intrigued (and a little tickled) by the prospect of the new Kevin Smith film, A Couple of Dicks.

I hesitate to prematurely pass judgment on the film based merely on its pedigree, but given Smith’s track record, and the cast of Dicks, February of 2010 has more to look forward to than Martin Luther King, groundhogs, and chocolate hearts.

ComingSoon has revealed the latest photos from A Couple of Dicks, which currently filming in Brooklyn.  These new production pictures feature the film’s stars, Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, as well as one of the newest additions to the cast,  Michelle Trachtenberg (Harriet the Spy,  Eurotrip).  Also featured in the movie are Jason Lee, Kevin Pollack, Sean William Scott, Adam Brody and comedian Jim Norton. Smith has been slated to direct the film, though unlike previous projects he is not the writer; that credit goes to Heist creators (and brothers) Mark and Robb Cullen.

This movie really takes Willis outside his comfort zone as an actor and gives him a real challenge (sarcasm alert!).  He’ll be playing a cop forced to battle with gangsters and money launderers, while searching for a Mexican beauty and a stolen baseball card. Testing his acting chops right along side Willis, Morgan plays his partner in crime-fighting, and reprises a role he is familiar with – the comic relief:

Click on either image for a hi res version

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Head to Coming Soon for a full gallery of pics.

Kevin Smith is no stranger to actors portraying similar characters across multiple films. Those of us that made it through the 90s unscathed remember a few great things that came out of an otherwise mundane decade: Monica Lewinsky, Dolly the sheep, Dolly the sheep, the death of Princess Diana, and the slow, welcome, demise of the mullet. But the Hyper-Color decade wasn’t all bad.  We got introduced to Jay, Silent Bob, Jason Lee, and various characters that all got reprised movie after movie.

Not only that, but Smith gave us Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Alanis Morissette as God! So he should have no problem with Willis being cast as his usual brooding and cynical cop/terrorist/ghost/hero character, or Tracy Morgan as, well, Tracy Morgan. This is also yet another shot at the comedy target for Willis – a bull’s eye he’s been failing trying to hit for some time now.  But watching Bruce Willis in comedies has always been a bit like being screwed in a very uncomfortable place (like the back seat of a Volkswagen?): you’re not happy it’s happening, and when it’s over, you’re left with bad taste in your mouth…or so I’ve heard.

Given its cast of characters and its director, it shouldn’t be too difficult for A Couple of Dicks to hit its mark.  However, come February 2010, don’t be surprised if you don’t see the actual words “A Couple of Dicks” up on the marquee; if Warner Bros. has its way, the film’s title might be overhauled with prudish sensibilities to something closer to “A Couple of Cops”.  When asked about the title change, Filmdrunk reports Smith told friends “It’s like there’s a hole in my heart where some dicks used to be.”

A Couple of (Dicks? Cops?) is set for release on February 26, 2010.

Sources: Slash Film, Coming Soon & Film Drunk

• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 8, 2009
• Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – June 4, 2009
• Bruce Willis Is Still A Man Of Action
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 31, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 6, 2009
• New Posters: Surrogates, Pandorum, The Informant!

In this Mid week’s  Wrap up: Javier Bardem eyes Wall Street; The Cox’s Scream again; Henson does Kung-Fu; Jones goes from Moon to The Deep; Robert Pattinson and Pierce Brosnan Remember Me and we get an eyeful of Bruce Willis’ Dicks.

1. No Wall Street For Old Men.

Oliver Stone and 20th Century Fox want Javier Bardem to star opposite Michael Douglas and Transformer 2 Shia LaBeouf in Wall Street 2.
Whilst Bardem hasn’t met with Stone or the studio as of yet, the Spanish star is at the top of their wish list to play the villain in the sequel to the Oscar-winning hit.

Apparently the plot of the movie involves LaBeouf’s character seeking revenge on (what would be) Bardem’s evil stock trader. In order to navigate the choppy waters of Wall Street the kid befriends Douglas’ Gordon Gecko who has been released from prison following the shenanigans of the first film. The pair form an unlikely friendship as Gecko tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter, who is the fiance of LaBeouf’s character.

The original is a highly-rated 1980’s classic (though a bit dated) and I’m interested to see what Stone, Douglas et al bring to the table in these troubled financial times.

Wall Street 2 starts shooting in August, hopefully for a February 2010 release.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

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2. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette are in negotiations for Scream 4 (or whatever they end up calling it). It’s expected that the couple will only have cameos or supporting roles in the film that is being aimed at a younger demographic.

Kevin Williamson is penning the Scream 4 script (and allegedly two more sequels that would form a companion trilogy to the 90’s franchise).

There’s no word on whether director Wes Craven will Scream again or if Neve Campbell will return.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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3. Taraji P. Henson has joined the cast of The Kung-Fu Kid.
Henson will play the mother of Jaden (son of Will) Smith, who plays the titular kid.
Jackie Chan is signed-on play the 21st Century Mr. Myiagi, who has incidentally been renamed Mr Han in this remake of the 80’s coming-of-age drama, The Karate Kid.

I still ask the question – why?

Source: Slash Film

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4. Moon director Duncan Jones will direct Escape From the Deep.
According to Variety:

“Escape” tells the (true) story of a legendary World War II U.S. navy submarine that sank after a torpedo malfunction, leaving the crew stranded on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Faced with drowning, nine men made it out alive after swimming the 180 feet to the surface without getting the bends.”

Alex Kershaw wrote the script from his book of the same name.

FYI: Jones is the son of legendary recording artist David Bowie.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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5. Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, along with Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Lost’s Emilie de Ravin and possibly Lena Olin will star in Allen Coulter’s Remember Me.

“Pattinson plays a young man whose brother’s suicide has split up his parents (Brosnan and Olin) and left him sleepwalking through life. De Ravin will play a young woman who, after watching her mother get killed before her eyes, seizes life to its fullest. Cooper is being courted to play her father.”

Sounds like Oscar bait.

Source: Variety

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6. Shooting has started on Kevin Smith’s A Couple of Dicks and Total Film had some onset snaps of the production. Check out one below:

Bruce Willis looks exactly like…er…Bruce Willis!

Kevin Pollack has recently joined the cast of the comedy that already includes Tracy Morgan, Seann William Scott and Adam Brody.

(P.S. – look at that photo, do Willis and Morgan make for an odd couple or what?)

Source: Total Film

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

• LaBeouf To Follow Stone and Douglas Back To Wall Street
• Wall Street 2 Adds Susan Sarandon
• Money Never Sleeps For Charlie Sheen
• Shia LaBeouf Says Indiana Jones 5 Is ‘Gearing Up’
• Frank Langella Headed For Wall Street
• First Look at Michael Douglas in Wall Street 2

In the Wrap Up this Week:

The box office is UP; Robert Downey Jr might still saddle up for Cowboys and Aliens; Lucy beats Nicole Kidman to the Punch; Natalie Portman, Danny McBride and James Franco salute Your Highness; Seann William Scott and Adam Brody are A Couple of Dicks and Chevy Chase dips his toes in the Hot Tub Time Machine and he may return as Fletch.

BOX OFFICE:
The summer season is now well and truly here. Pixar’s Up shows that family films and the Pixar brand are hugely profitable. The animated film banked a huge $68 million over the weekend. For a film that sells most of it’s tickets in half price matinees that’s a lot of attendance.

Last week’s champion Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian had to settle for the runner up spot with a weekend take of $25 million. With a total now over $100 million it looks like we might be in for a third installment.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man stop-gap, Drag Me To Hell, opened to a disappointing $16 million. It probably cost about $20 million to produce, so it’ll be profitable, but I’m sure Raimi wanted more.

Speaking of more – will we ever get to see any more Terminator films? With a weekend take of just $16 million for Terminator Salvation it looks like McG might not get to finish his proposed trilogy. Maybe international grosses will help. It looks like the franchise needed Schwarzenegger’s charisma and not just a grumpy looking Christian Bale.

Star Trek flew past the $200 million mark with a weekend gross of $12 million. Angels & Demons has crossed the $100 million milestone, but will the film be profitable to warrant a sequel? Doubtful.

Dance Flick made another $4 million giving the spoof a total gross of almost $20 million. Who pays money to see that?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine made just under $4 million this weekend bringing the Hugh Jackman starrer’s total to $170.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past hit $50 million and Beyonce Knowle’s Obsessed is closing in on $70 million.

MOVIE NEWS

1. Everyone wants Robert Downey Jr in their movie these days. It’s funny how times have changed. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have spoken about how they still hope to snag the Iron Man for their upcoming adaptation of Cowboys and Aliens.

Speaking to Sci-Fi Wire the duo said that they‘ve been speaking to Downey Jr about the film but that scheduling is the issue:

“We’ve been talking to him about that. He’s one of the busiest men on the face of the Earth. If the schedule can line up, we’d absolutely love it.”

The pair also said that they’re finishing up scripting duties on the film:

“We are just about to finish our draft of Cowboys and Aliens, which we are writing with Lost’s Damon Lindelof. For Cowboys and Aliens, we got an amazing first draft from Mark Fergus, who wrote Iron Man, and now we are continuing on with Damon. We are in the middle of the second draft.”

*Please note that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman do speak separately.
They’re also incredibly in demand with Transformers 2 and Star Trek out this summer alone!

Source: Sci Fi Wire

2. Nicole Kidman has dropped out of Woody Allen’s forthcoming film. The Aussie star will be replaced by British actress Lucy Punch.

The plot and title for the film are unknown but sources believe:
“Punch will play a high-priced call girl similar to Ashley Dupre, who was at the center of the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.”

The cast for the film is pretty darn good – even for a Woody Allen film. Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Naomi Watts and Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto have roles in it.

Source: Variety

3. Natalie Portman will join Danny McBride and James Franco in Your Highness for Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green.

According to Variety:

“McBride, who wrote the script with Ben Best, plays an arrogant lazy prince who with his brother (Franco) must complete a quest to save the kingdom and his brother’s fiance. Portman will play a warrior princess that the lazy prince falls in love with.”

The Princess Bride with pot anyone?

Source: Variety

4. Seann William Scott and Adam Brody know A Couple of Dicks. The pair will join Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Kevin Smith’s forthcoming detective comedy.

“Scott plays a thief known as the Sh**t Bandit for the souvenirs he leaves at his robberies. Brody is an abrasive detective not happy to be working with Willis and Morgan.”

A Couple of Dicks starts shooting this Monday in New York.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5. Chevy Chase seems to be on the comeback trail. Not only has the 80’s icon scored a role in John Cusack’s Hot Tub Time Machine but the Weinstein Company have apparently approached him with a script for a third Fletch movie.

With regards to Hot Tub Time Machine:

“Chase plays a mysterious repairman who dispenses pearls of wisdom and may or may not be behind the metaphysical road trip.”

Now, a Fletch film has been in the works for almost a decade. Kevin Smith originally wanted to make a Fletch film with Jason Lee, and then Scrub’s Zach Braff was attached to the project for a while, but nothing ever came of it. This new script is passing of the baton-type film where Chase’s Fletch advises his journalist nephew on his career.

With a bit of luck this will mean that we get to see more of the criminally underused Chase on the big screen.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

• Favreau & Downey Jr vs. Cowboys & Aliens
• Movie News Wrap Up: May 25, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 8, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 20, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: July 12, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 17, 2009

Bruce Willis is an iconic man of action to males (and females) of a certain age. John McClane from the Die Hard films is probably his trademark role (although some might say it’s David Addison from TV’s Moonlighting) and throughout the last twenty years he has been synonymous with the action genre. That isn’t about to change anytime soon.

Willis has been in discussions to star in no less than three new action films – three new editions to a pending slate that already includes A Couple of Dicks (set to be directed by Kevin Smith) and Kane and Lynch.

The three latest films are serial killer flick Inventory, mobster movie Scarpa and CIA pic Red .

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“In Inventory, Willis, who is in negotiations for the role, would play a detective on the trail of a murderer.

In Red, Willis would portray a former black-ops agent who has gone into retirement but is forced back into action when a high-tech assassin comes a-callin’ to threaten him and his girlfriend (The film is based on a WildStorm/DC Comic).

Willis has also been weighing an offer from Morgan Creek to play the title character in Scarpa, a mob biopic directed by Tears of the Sun helmer Antoine Fuqua about Greg Scarpa, an FBI informant who worked deeply undercover in New York’s Columbo family, though the odds are growing that Willis won’t do that pic.”

With regards to Red it’s believed that Willis’ 16 Blocks director Richard Donner will helm the film. Donner is still sprightly and knows how to knock an action sequence together even though he’s now 79 years old.

Willis has often tried to distance himself from the action genre – even though it has given him most of his biggest successes (The Sixth Sense being the biggest exception). He spent many years refusing to return to the Die Hard series before being lured back for 2007’s rather good Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0). He spent a large part of the 90’s and early 00’s making a variety of films in multiple genres, from comedies (The Whole Nine Yards) to drama (Nobody’s Fool opposite the late Paul Newman).

However, now at the ripe old age of 54, Bruce appears to be at ease with his tough guy image and seems willing to stand and kick ass next to the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford.

Bruce Willis will next be seen in Jonathan Mostow’s comic book adaptation The Surrogates which opens in September.

More on Inventory, Scarpa and Red as we get it.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

• Willis Ready For A Fifth ‘Die Hard’ – Are You?
• Morgan Freeman Seeing ‘Red’ With Bruce Willis
• Three New ‘Surrogates’ Clips
• Bruce Willis Confirmed For ‘Kane & Lynch’
• It’s Official – Bruce Willis Is Expendable!
• Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – July 30, 2009

In this weeks Wrap Up:

Watchmen watches the top of the box office; Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are A Couple of Dicks; we may not get Three Stories About Joan but we will get a lot of suing; Wahlberg takes Prisoners; Steve Carrell brings us the worlds first “Testosterone comedy” in Hi-T; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck knows The 28^th Amendment (and breaks my spell check).

Box Office

As predicted Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen captured the top spot at the box office with an estimated $55 million opening weekend. A pretty substantial sum considering the near three hour running time and the R rating. Time will tell if the film has legs and the mainstream crossover appeal to the general public.

Madea Goes to Jail banked another $8.5 million to keep acquire the runner-up spot. So far the Tyler Perry film has netted $76 million.

Liam Neeson’s sleeper hit Taken has earned another $7.5 million on its sixth week in release! The film has now almost taken $120 million. I haven’t seen the film but I can only imagine that someone, somewhere is talking about a sequel.

Slumdog Millionaire has made another $6.5 million over the weekend bringing total gross of the Oscar winning film to $125 million.

According to Variety:

“The scripting team of Robb and Marc Cullen penned the screenplay, centered on a pair of cops who track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money.”

The film will be directed by Kevin Smith – the first time he hasn’t penned his own work.

Variety is also saying that the Warner Bros. film is Smith’s “first major studio pic” – this is untrue as Mallrats was a Universal production.

The studio also thought about calling the film A Couple of Cops but I’m sure that they realized that Dicks had more comedic mileage.

A Couple of Dicks will be released on January 29^th 2010.

Now get your mind out of the gutter (although that was obviously Kevin Smith’s intent – again)!

Source: Variety

2. Speaking of… Bruce Willis – the star and his production company is being sued by producers for breach of contact over his (ill-fated) directorial debut Three Stories About Joan. They claim that Willis quit the film without notice and are looking for $4 million in damages. However, these guys obviously haven’t seen Die Hard because Brucie is fighting back with a counter suit for $8.7 million. Willis’s lawyer Marty Singer said:

“In over three decades of practice, I have rarely seen such an absurd lawsuit. The production companies admitted they did not have the financing in place for the film, failed to pay members of the cast and crew, and failed to deposit Bruce Willis’ compensation in escrow, which resulted in the film not going forward. After Mr. Willis threatened to sue the production companies for their breach of contract, they responded with this baseless lawsuit.

Mr. Willis and other individual producers will proceed with their multi-million-dollar affirmative claims against the production companies this week, and are confident that they will prevail.”

Source: NY Daily News

• First Look: Kevin Smith’s ‘A Couple of Dicks’
• Antoine Fuqua Set To Take ‘Prisoners’
• Bale & Wahlberg Take No “Prisoners”
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 6, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 22, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 31, 2009