Screen Rant » angels and demons

2009: A Big Year for Movie Mistakes

Paul Young — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:35:40 +0000

We’ve all seen it before: A soundman’s boom mic dips slightly into frame or an entire camera crew shows up in the reflection of a shiny car window. For as long as there are humans making films, there will inevitably be mistakes in those films. We are, after all, only human (unless of course 10 more years pass and James Cameron figures out a way to change all that).

Personally, I love finding mistakes in movies – and not just the microphone and crew type, either. Mistakes in continuity, timelines and even scenery can sometime run amok in a film. The script supervisor is usually the person responsible for making sure that the character wearing a pink ball cap turned to the left and standing in front of a tall fichus tree in one scene looks exactly the same after ...

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2009 A ‘Milestone Year’ For Movie Profits

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:16:45 +0000

I groaned out loud back in August when I found out about the record-breaking summer 2009 box office profits. Now we’re hearing new projections stating that when New Year’s Eve rolls over into New Year’s Day, the movie industry will have crossed a box office milestone, with profits predicted to exceed the $10 billion mark.

I’m sure we’d all be happy that our favorite medium was thriving in the midst of sharp economic downturn – that is, if so many movies hadn’t turned out to be crap this year. Now, the only thing I’m wondering (and you should too) is: “What lesson will Hollywood take from this?”

Variety is the publication cracking open the profit prediction. If you go back and read our Summer 2009 box office analysis, ...

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Summer 2009: The Season Of Bad Movies [Updated]

Heath McKnight — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:38:14 +0000

Well, the summer movie season is officially over, and while box office earnings are way up, it seems like the quality of the films have actually gone way down. But for every few badly-written movies (like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2, and G.I. Joe–though some will say it’s not that bad), there was a diamond in the rough like District 9. So why were so many movies so bad in the summer of ’09, even if they did make a lot of money? Hint: The Writers Strike!

Before the summer began, I wrote an article about how the 2007 Writers Strike might affect the summer 2009 movies. I speculated that back in 2007, studios were nervous about how long the writers strike could last, leaving them with a ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 17, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:49:46 +0000

This week:

Tom Hanks is the box office champion; Terry Gilliam kills Don Quixote…again; Spider-Man has a new Green Goblin (on stage); the Basterds are online; Toy Story 3 is moving Up; Ewan McGregor won’t be Trainspotting and who are the Six Suspects?

Box Office

Tom Hanks charged to the top of the box office with Angels and Demons. The sequel to The DaVinci Code grossed $48 million over the weekend, which is down from the $77 million opening for the first film. Having said that, reviews are better and the audience is more mature so it might have legs to make it profitable. Expect a third movie – but might they replace Hanks with someone younger and cheaper next time?

Star Trek showed great legs with a second weekend take of $42 million and a drop of less than 45% ...

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Angels & Demons Review

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:01:06 +0000

Short version: Angels & Demons is better than The Da Vinci Code and if you’re a fan of the books you’ll probably enjoy it – otherwise… I suppose there are worse ways to kill a couple of hours.

Screen Rant reviews Angels and Demons

I was not a fan of The Da Vinci Code.

Just thought I should get that out there right of the bat. I found that film incredibly boring and dull, and Tom Hanks just didn’t work for me in the role.

Having said that, Angels & Demons is an improvement over the previous film.

While I undersand that Angels & Demons was written prior to The Da Vinci Code, in the film it is treated as a sequel instead of a prequel. The events of the previous film are alluded to here in ...

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Did The Writers Strike Hurt This Summer’s Movies?

Heath McKnight — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:13:57 +0000

We all remember the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike that lasted 100 days (from late 2007 to early 2008) and cost Hollywood a couple of billion dollars in lost wages and revenue. Sure, plenty of movies went into production anyway so there would be at least some new movies, but without writers to do onset re-writes has the quality suffered?

For example, the recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace; writer Paul Haggis turned in the script right before the WGA strike began in November 2007, and the film started shooting soon after. Production was well underway by the time the strike ended, so it is possible they had some rewrites done, especially if there were any major reshoots.

The movie opened November 2008, and while our own Niall Browne gave it 4 out of ...

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Wolverine Shreds Box Office: $87 Million Opening Weekend

Heath McKnight — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:35:26 +0000

They call him Wolverine, and he’s the best at what he does, and what he does is shred the box office with berserker rage! Okay, enough of the Wolverine analogies, but you can’t help but be impressed with the $87 million haul of X-Men Origins: Wolverine!

What a way to start off the summer–with the 2009 box office up over last year, people are still hungry for movies, even in this economy. Fox need not fret any more about the pirated version that leaked out, hurting the box office, because the Hugh Jackman-starrer proved that people love to see movies in the theaters.

But the one thing Wolverine’s healing factor and near-indestructible adamantium-laced skeleton can’t stop, and that’s the critical drubbing it’s receiving. It stands at an awful 37% rating over at RottenTomatoes.com, though Screen ...

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Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon Will Return In ‘The Lost Symbol’

Niall Browne — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:27:37 +0000

Angels and Demons hasn’t even been released yet, but Columbia Pictures is already planning a third adventure for Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon.

Dan Brown’s third Langdon adventure, The Lost Symbol is set to go into production soon – even though the book hasn’t been published yet and the plot is unknown (the Freemasons are expected to be involved).

Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Brown’s Publisher), said:

“This is a great day for readers and booksellers.

It is not a bad day for Columbia Pictures either, which has another continuing global franchise to go along with Spider-Man.”

The Lost Symbol will be released on September 15, 2009. The novel will have a first printing run of 5 million copies- the largest in the publisher’s history.

Both Hanks and director/producer Ron Howard aren’t contracted to do another movie, but if Angels and ...

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The Latest Batch O’ Movie Posters

Ross Miller — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:51:40 +0000

Today Screen Rant has a bunch of new posters for you viewing pleasure: Angels & Demons, Astro Boy and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The first is for the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, which is based on the book by Dan Brown. One is in English, the other is in French; The first has a strange and intriguing feel to it – I like it. The second…. hmm, not so much. It’s kind of wasted because of how prominent Tom Hanks is, although I do like the statues and the bright light behind him.

Check them out below and see if you agree (click on them for large versions):

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New Angels And Demons Trailer

Rob Keyes — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:22:43 +0000

The new trailer for Angels and Demons, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code has been released and it’s better than the first teaser.

I really disliked The Da Vinci Code in theaters and it was the first time I ever disliked Tom Hanks in a movie (and it’s not just because of his hair style in the film). So when I heard of the prequel novel being made into feature film, I was not excited at all.

The first movie unjustly made over three-quarters of a billion dollars ($758,239,851!) despite a poor 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. My expectations of the prequel were that people have learned from watching The Da Vinci Code and will avoid it… At least I would.

However, after seeing this trailer my final thought is it makes me go from “I’m ...

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Which Movie Trailers Will Air During The Super Bowl?

Rob Keyes — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:51:06 +0000

We’ve all heard stories of the insane amounts of money it costs to run TV spots during the Super Bowl ($3 million for a 30 second spot this year) but it’s certainly not stopping several of the major studios from debuting their highly-anticipated trailers during this year’s broadcast from Tampa Bay.

The following snippet from a Variety article lists the confirmed trailers:

Confirmed for this year’s roster are high-profile titles like Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Star Trek” and “G.I. Joe“; Sony’s “Angels and Demons“; DreamWorks Animation’s “Monsters vs. Aliens“; and Universal’s “Land of the Lost” and its fourth installment in “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. Disney is also planning to use the game to raise the profile for Pixar’s next toon, “Up.”

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Studios Ramp Up Production Prior To SAG Strike

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:30:48 +0000

As it stands, Hollywood studios are deadlocked in their contract negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild. That news stirs up foul memories of a year ago, when the Writers Guild of America was at a similar juncture with the studios… Soon after that there were no TV shows for about half a year.

And we all know what that did last year’s TV season.

In anticipation of the worst (which has ironically become the norm in these days and times), studios are turning to the pre-strike protocols they devised after the 2007 WGA strike, pushing as many films as they can into production so that the 2010-2011 movie roster doesn’t end up barren.

Check out the studio by studio list of the films that are either currently in production, or are headed into production in light of the looming strike.

The ...

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Angels and Demons Banned By The Vatican

Niall Browne — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:41:55 +0000

Everybody loves Tom Hanks, right?

The everyman actor has a box office golden touch stretching back almost 20 years, and with The Da Vinci Code Hanks made his first film with sequel potential. Okay, I know that we could have seen Turner and Hooch 2 by now, but we won’t get into that!

Hanks returns as Robert Langdon in Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, but one guy who isn’t happy is The Pope.

Sure, he had to have been pretty miffed over the contents of The Da Vinci Code movie (and book) but he isn’t willing to turn the other cheek. His Holiness has now banned the production from filming on the grounds of The Vatican or in any church in Rome.

Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic ...

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Angels & Demons Updates

Jamie Williams — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:38:53 +0000

Sure, it starred a mullet-wearing Forrest Gump and was helmed by Richie Cunningham.

But dammit, if The Da Vinci Code sucked.

However, it made $750 million. So it was obvious that the other best-selling Dan Brown novel Angels & Demons would head to the silver screen too.

After the WGA Strike delayed the adaptation from being finished by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (i.e. the man who helped ruin Batman before Mr. Nolan fixed everything), the production is now moving full-speed ahead.

Ayelet Zurer (i.e. best known for having flashback sex with Eric Bana in Munich) and Sir Alec Guinness impressionist Ewan McGregor have joined the cast that also includes the returning Tom Hanks – who stands to walk away with a lot of money from this film.

From the sound of things, both actors basically play sidekicks to Hanks’ Robert Langdon. ...

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They Can Crack The Da Vinci Code, But They Can’t Crack A Script!

Niall Browne — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:19:10 +0000

Now that the writer’s strike is in full swing there appears to be quite a few planned films falling at the first hurdle. The most high profile being Angels and Demons, the sequel/prequel/virtual remake of The Da Vinci Code.

This is the film that Akiva Goldsman was paid four million dollars to write. Yes four million and it still needed work. Crazy.

What’s strange about this news, is that Naomi Watts has apparently signed on to play the female lead.

What I find quite surprising about this news is the quality of the talent involved. Sure, the first film had bucket loads of talent and it made almost $800 million around the world, but you wouldn’t exactly call it a critical success. I’m very surprised that Hanks and Howard are returning for this new film, as they’ve never made any ...

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