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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: November 15, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:33:02 +0000

This week:

Disaster at the box office with 2012; Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro re-team for Fockers; Brad Pitt’s Moneyball may finally roll; Belgian actress de France plays French alongside Matt Damon in Eastwood’s Hereafter and Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey dance with Portman and Kunis in Black Swan.

Box Office

Say what you will about Roland Emmerich and his films, the director knows how to destroy the world on screen and make shed loads of money. His most recent disaster epic 2012 destroyed all competition and banked an impressive $65 million over the weekend to capture the number one position. The film has so far grossed an amazing $225million worldwide from a $200 million budget.

Disney’s A Christmas Carol is showing legs like a supermodel. The film dropped only 23% from last weekend for a $23 million take. It should play well in the run-up to Christmas and then have a decent life on DVD and with re-releases.

Precious was third with a highly impressive $6.2 million from just 174 locations. Never under-estimate the power of Oprah!

George Clooney’s The Men Who Stare At Goats was fourth with just a smidgen over $6 million.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It banked $5.1 million. The film has now made over $67 million in the US and huge $200 million worldwide. Not bad for a film that is essentially a DVD special feature.

Meanwhile Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox grossed a mighty $250, 000 from just four screens!

Movie News

1. Harvey Keitel has joined the ever growing cast of Little Fockers.

Keitel will play a contractor employed by Stiller’s character in the Paul Weitz directed comedy.

The film also stars Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner and Owen Wilson, Jessica Alba, Laura Dern and possibly Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand.

I still can’t believe the amount of talent that this film is attracting. The first two are entertaining enough films and they made enough money to warrant a third return to the well, but the budget must be pretty high unless everyone is looking for a huge backend on the gross.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. It looks like Brad Pitt’s troubled Moneyball may be inching closer to making it on to the big screen.

Since Steven Soderbergh’s departure from the film no director has been attached but now it looks like two interesting candidates have emerged as the front-runners to tackle the Sony picture.

Capote director Bennett Miller and (500) Days of Summer helmer Marc Webb have set their sights on the baseball film.

With Pitt still attached, the film is obviously still a high priority for Sony and I’d imagine that they want to snag a director soon before his interest wanes. Both Miller and Webb are interesting candidates but they aren’t Soderbergh so my interest in the film (unlike Pitt’s) has died.

It’ll be interesting to see if this film makes it to the screens. We’ll keep you posted.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. Belgian actress Cecile de France will join Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter.

De France will play French journalist who has a near-death experience in the supernatural drama.

According to Variety:

“Hereafter tells the story of three people who are touched by death in different ways.”

The film which started shooting last month will take in global locations including Paris, London, Hawaii and San Francisco.

Damon will next be seen alongside Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus which opens next month.

Hereafter opens on December 10, 2010.

Source: Variety

4. Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey have joined the cast of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. The supernatural drama stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as warring ballerinas – one of whom may or may not exist.

SlashFilm has the character breakdowns for these new addiations to the cast:

“Ryder will play Beth, Nina’s (Portman) “sorta friend” who has been the school’s running lead in all the productions, but who is nearing the end of her career. All the dancers are aiming to take her place as Odette, the Swan Queen, in the next big ballet: Swan Lake. Cassel will be playing the ”handsome but sinister Yevna,” the director of the new stage production. And Hershey will play Nina’s mother.”

While the film doesn’t seem to fit into any sort of commercial box, I’m always interested in seeing what Aronofsky will do and I’m sure that at the very least, the film will have an interesting visual appeal.

Source: SlashFilm

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

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Steven Soderbergh Prepares To ‘Knockout’ Audiences

Ross Miller — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:49:49 +0000

After all the drama surrounding Moneyball earlier this year, Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s trilogy, The Informant!) has shrugged his shoulders of it and is moving onto another project, the bluntly titled Knockout. The film is a spy thriller that will see the true acting debut of female MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter, Gina Carano, and is described as being closer to La Femma Nakita and Kill Bill than Million Dollar Baby.

Knockout will be directed by Soderbergh, produced by Gregory Jacobs (Soderbergh’s long-time collaborator) written by Lem Dobbs (who’s written a couple of Soderbergh movies before) and financed/produced by Relativity Media.

Carano’s big-screen debut will see her playing, “a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is given a second chance to use her skills for constructive purposes.” Soderbergh considers it an action film in the style of James Bond, as opposed to being set in and around the (fighting) ring like the aforementioned Million Dollar Baby.

Carano is considered the face of women’s mixed martial arts fighting, and has a record of seven wins to one loss (the latter being last month). Along with fighting in MMA, she’s also appeared as the Gladiator “Crush” on American Gladiators, as well as starring in a couple of documentaries, appearing in some cut scenes in Command & Conquer 3, and a small role in the Michael Jai White action film, Blood and Bone. So we know she has the kick-ass credentials for a film like Knockout. Added to that, Carano is… well, let’s just say she’s got the looks, too.

This isn’t the first time Soderbergh has directed a film starring a young woman who has never truly acted before (Carano’s not totally inexperienced, but has never appeared in a leading role). Soderbergh’s indie film The Girlfriend Experience (see my review) starred adult-film star Sasha Grey in the lead role (not that good of a movie IMO, but Grey was great in it) – so maybe if Carano does well in her Knockout role, then Soderbergh can add another thing to his lists of filmmaking talents.

What do you think of Soderbergh’s next project? Do you think Carano will do well in her first proper starring role?

Knockout is planned by Soderbergh to start production in late January next year, with shooting hoped to take place around the world in locations like Turkey, Ireland and the U.S. No release date has been set yet, but domestic distribution is expected to be locked very soon.

Sources: Variety and ThePlaylist

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Brad Pitt (Finally) Speaks About Moneyball

Jacob Waldman — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:56:57 +0000

Let’s run the bases real quick and recap the whole Moneyball fiasco(cue the movie-montage):

Oscar winner Steve Zaillian spun a script from Michael Lewis’s book about Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget. Sony picked it up, Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh hopped on board, Soderbergh retooled the script into something more along the lines of a documentary with “if it didn’t happen in real life, it won’t happen on the big screen” running through its veins. Sony bucked, the head of Sony, Amy Pascal pulled the plug the morning of the first day of shooting. There. Now we’re all on the same page (for more details, go here).

Today we have new details on Moneyball’s current status and a few words from its (almost) star, Brad Pitt.

So Soderbergh turned in this new script that was (allegedly) some kind of bastardization of Sony’s original vision for Moneyball. At the outset, the movie was reported to capture the essence of Billy Beane and his frantic energy that revamped the professional baseball recruiting process. The movie reportedly would’ve resembled something akin to Major League, only based more in reality and without Charlie Sheen (unfortunately). But once Soderbergh got his hands on it, what was once a sure thing became a fakakta mess, so Pascal put the kibosh on the project.

However, rumors are circulating that maybe it wasn’t Soderbergh and Pascal’s difference of opinion after all that caused Moneyball to strike out – maybe it was Pitt’s pits! You see, Brad Pitt is notorious for a few things: having nineteen visible abdominal muscles, liking “dahgs,” buying kids in six packs, being able to rock an outfit that would make the rest of us look like D.J. Qualls… and pulling out at the last minute (of projects, that is).

Let’s look at his track record, shall we? The actor dropped out of The Fountain, State of Play, and The Fighter in various degrees of last-minute scenarios. So it wouldn’t be surprising to find that he once again suffered the morning-of jitters and decided to leave the bride at the alter, so to speak. Now mind you, this is all speculation based on a few whisperings here and there on the Interwebs, but still, it seems like a rumor worth considering.

weird bobble-head Pitt

Now consider this: new reports are surfacing that in fact, Pitt was whole-heartedly behind the project, and still is. Pitt was rocketed questions rapid-fire regarding Moneyball during a walk-by on a red carpet. Granted, this isn’t the best time for an in-depth interview regarding the outlook of future projects, however The Playlist reports that Pitt spoke out about the project for the first time in public since the whole fiasco went down. When asked if he thinks Moneyball can recovered, or if it’s going the way of the dodo, Pitt responded with:

“My gut says yes. It’s a weird climate right now. But we’re still trying to re-mount it. I hope we get to do it soon.”

Wow, Pitt, you couldn’t be more vague if you were running for public office (consider that option, pal). But still, it’s something, right? What’s more, Soderbergh is off the project, but Pitt, Sony, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (who is writing a new draft of the script) and producers Mike DeLuca are still trying to keep the film alive and bring aboard a new director.

So whaddya think? Will the American public dig a flick about baseball recruiting, starring Brad Pitt (especially if he doesn’t take his shirt off)? Is there a large enough demographic that justifies making a movie about one dude and his strategies for picking players? And, if you could choose, who would you get to direct Moneyball? Does this film have what it takes to – here it comes – hit a home run? ZING!

Source: The Playlist

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: July 5th, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:21:13 +0000

This week:

Revenge of The Fallen meets Dawn of the Dinosaurs; it’ll take 6 years to see the last Airbender; Adams looks on as Batman fights Marky Mark; George Clooney leaves Warner Bros; The Green Hornet is delayed and Tony Scott, Denzel Washington and Chris Pine are stoppable.

Box Office

Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen and Ice Age 3-D: Dawn of the Dinosaurs fought it out over the weekend to see who would get the top spot. The fight was so close that it’ll take final numbers on Monday to see who the box office champion is. Both films should bank about $43 million over the July 4^th weekend. Tranformers 2’s total currently stands at just under $300 million. Public Enemies should bank about $25 million from Friday to Monday giving the Johnny Depp starrer a pretty decent $40 million over five days. The Michael Mann film appears to have been pretty good counter programming for those not wanting to see animated creatures, computer generated robots or Megan Fox.

Sandra Bullock’s The Proposal banked a little less than $14 million bringing the total of the comedy to $86 million. The magic century mark is within spitting distance.

The Hangover is hanging in there with a gross of $4.5 million. The R-rated comedy now has a spectacular total of $198 million.

The Cameron Diaz starring My Sisters Keeper took about $6 million giving the film a total of $23 million. The Taking Of Pelham 123 has so far taken $56.9 million – look for it to stop at the $60 million mar.. Year One banked just over $2 million for a flaccid $37 million total while Night at the Museum 2: Battle Of The Smithsonian took home just under $2 million to bring its grand total to $166 million.

Movie News

1. Now that the marketing machine has started up for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender all eyes have turned to the potential sequels to the film.

The producer of the film, Frank Marshall has discussed the possible time frame of the sequel and Shaymalan’s involvement. Marshall said:

“One of the things we’ll be doing is using the sets, ships and elements for each different nation in this film and incorporating them into movies two and three. We’re not waiting. There just isn’t enough time. Night will finish this movie, then the script and then we’ll prepare for the next one. I think it’ll probably happen over six years.”

I’ve been a fan of Shayamalan’s work for the last decade or so, and while I will admit that his films have been declining since he made his mark with The Sixth Sense I’ve always been willing to defend his choices. However, I can’t say that I’m looking forward to The Last Airbender. I’m not a fan of animation and the film looks terrible.

I know that there’s a lot of people out there looking forward to this – but I’m not one of them.

Source: SlashFilm

2. Amy Adams will join Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in David O. Russell’s The Fighter.

“(The long in-development film) revolves around the life of boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and trainer-brother Dick Eklund (Bale), chronicling their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund’s battle with drugs and Ward’s eventual world championship in London.”

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Bale will be intense, Wahlberg will be wooden and Adams will be a love interest.

Over the years Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Darren Aronofsky have been attached to the troubled film that is set to start shooting soon.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. George Clooney is ending his longstanding relationship with Warner Bros. The star along with his producing partner Grant Heslov will move their Smokehouse production company off the Warner lot to Sony Pictures.

Warner Bros has been behind most of Clooney’s big hits over the years from his star-making stint in ER through to The Perfect Storm and The Ocean’s trilogy.

Read the press release below to see what Sony head Amy Pascal and Clooney have to say, as well as a list of the films that Smokehouse is currently developing:

“George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures are in final negotiations to sign an exclusive two-year theatrical development and production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, it was announced today by Amy Pascal, Co-Chairman of Sony Picture Entertainment and Chairman of the studio’s Motion Picture Group.”

“Commenting on the announcement, Clooney said, ‘Warner Bros. has been a great place to work and I’ve felt like part of a family for almost 20 years. So in moving on, I’m leaving a terrific company and a lot of dear friends. They’re a class act. In looking ahead, I’m tremendously excited to be working at Sony Pictures, and we all feel like it’s a perfect match for Smokehouse. Grant Heslov and I hope to deliver the kind of films that will make them proud.’”

“We admire and respect George and Grant as filmmakers and producers and we couldn’t be more excited to be in business with them and their talented team at Smokehouse Pictures,” said Pascal. “The broad range of quality projects they have championed and the compelling and sometimes provocative material they support says everything about their company and their creative aspirations. While we have been trimming production deals overall for the last few years, we see real value in opening our doors to producers with their critical and commercial track record and their artistic point of view, and we know they will be a fantastic addition to the Sony Pictures family.”

“My nine year relationship with Warner Bros. was extremely gratifying and now, George and I look forward to Smokehouse being a part of the Sony family,” Heslov said.

The Smokehouse Pictures team includes Senior Vice President of Development Nina Wolarsky, and creative executive Alex Meenehan. The company is currently in development on the following projects with Warner Bros:

THE CHALLENGE
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. An adaptation of Jonathan Mahler’s nonfiction book chronicling the historic Supreme Court case in which two lawyers sued the Bush administration on behalf of accused terrorist Salim Hamdan.

OUR BRAND IS CRISIS
A satirical comedy about American spin doctors competing in the same Presidential election in Bolivia. Based on the documentary by Rachel Boynton, with a script by Peter Straughan (MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS).
FARRAGUT NORTH
An adaptation of Beau Willimon’s critically acclaimed play, set during the Iowa primary of a presidential race.

ESCAPE FROM TEHRAN
The true story of how the CIA used a fake movie project to smuggle hostages out of 1979 Tehran. Chris Terrio is writing the screenplay.

THE TOURIST
A contemporary spy thriller about a spy who risks everything to reveal a conspiracy after he’s accused of a murder he didn’t commit. Based on the bestselling book by Olen Steinhauer. Tony Peckham is writing the screenplay.

THE INNOCENT MAN
Based on the bestselling nonfiction book by John Grisham, the true story of murder and injustice in a small town in Oklahoma. Adapted by David Gordon Green..”

The irony of this story being that just days before this deal was sealed Pascal ditched Clooney’s Ocean movie pals Steven Soderbergh and Brad Pitt’s Moneyball due to script issues.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

4. Those of you who have been waiting to see Seth Rogan as The Green Hornet better prepare to wait a little bit longer.

The comic book adaptation’s release date has now been changed from June 25, 2010 to July 9, 2010 release. It’s only two weeks so don’t worry too much.

The Michel Gondry directed Green Hornet will now be sandwiched between Toy Story 3 and Twilight: New Moon.

Source: Film School Rejects

5. It looks like Tony Scott’s runaway train film Unstoppable might be…er stoppable after all.

The film was set to star Scott’s go-to-guy Denzel Washington and Star Trek’s Chris Pine, however 20^th Century Fox have hot the brakes of the film because of budget concerns.

Unstoppable was set to go before cameras this fall but that start date now looks uncertain. One of the reasons for the studios cold feet is the so-so performance of the latest Scott and Washington action film The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 which has so far grossed $56 million from an estimated $100 million budget.

Washington currently gets $20 million a film while Pine is probably asking for a couple of million following the success of Star Trek.

More when we get it.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

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Update on the Sony/Soderbergh/Pitt ‘Moneyball’ Fiasco

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:46:20 +0000

Last week started off with the crazy news that Sony Chairman Amy Pascal had pulled the plug on Moneyball, Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’s book about Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, mere hours before the film (which starred Brad Pitt as Beane, no less) was set to start shooting.

Well now that some dust has settled, Pascal is speaking up about the Moneyball fiasco, essentially trying to walk the tightrope of preserving her relationship with Soderbergh and Pitt while still maintaining that she made the right call.

Studio execs-in-training, pay attention and see how it’s done:

As Pascal told the L.A. Times:

I’ve wanted to work with Steven forever, because he’s simply a great filmmaker…But the draft he turned in wasn’t at all what we’d signed up for. He wanted to make a dramatic reenactment of events with real people playing themselves. I’d still work with Steven in a minute, but in terms of this project, he wanted to do the film in a different way than we did.

Pascal is of course referring to the incident five days prior to the scheduled start date of Moneyball, when Soderbergh turned in the final draft of his shooting script to Sony – a draft that completely re-imagined the film Sony thought they had signed-off on.

According to Patrick Goldstein at the L.A. Times, the original script for Moneyball (written by Oscar winner Steve Zaillian) “was a baseball movie, but it was loaded with great comic moments and dazzling dialogue that captured the frenetic energy of Beane…who operated more like “Entourage’s” Ari Gold than the buttoned-down insiders who normally run big-league teams.”

Sounds good, right? Get Brad Pitt in there, have him do a kind of an Ocean’s Eleven-meets-Burn After Reading type character with Soderbergh making everything look snazzy and bada-bing bada-boom, funny/entertaining baseball movie a la Major League. I dig it.

However, according to Goldstein, Soderbergh’s rewrite tossed out all that yuck-yuck good feeling in favor of one totalitarian strict doctrine: “If it didn’t happen in real life, it wasn’t going to be in the movie.” Sorderbergh wanted to interview the actual people involved with Beane’s transformation of the way baseball players are scouted and developed, with real footage shot in real parks, resulting in more of an artistic exploration of America’s favorite pastime and the way it was changed by Beane, for better or worse.

Interesting idea (worthy of a documentary, for sure) but is it any surprise that Sony didn’t want to sink nearly $60 mil into something that had little chance of turning a profit? There is a recession on, and baseball movies are FAR from guaranteed money-makers.

Pitt & Soderbergh: Bros before box office?

So what is the fate of Moneyball now? Well, Pascal extended an olive branch of sorts by allowing Soderbergh the freedom to shop the film around town in order to secure new financing. No such luck for Soderbergh as of yet, and The New York Times is even reporting that he’s now officially off the project. If no one else scoops Moneyball, it’ll land back in Sony’s lap, and Pascal, for one, seems willing to make another go of it (especially if Pitt is involved): “We really hope we can still make this with Brad Pitt.”

Brad Pitt is of course a longtime friend of Steven Soderbergh, so barring an insistent go-ahead from his buddy, it’s more unlikely than not that Pitt will remain attached to the project. Could happen though. Sony would also need to find another director that could bring Zaillian’s ‘funny engergetic’ script to life, and considering the disaster with the last director and the $10 mil already wasted spent on the project, it’s unclear at this point whether or not Sony will take another swing at Moneyball.

We’ll keep you updated.

Source: L.A. Times

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Sony Pulls Plug on Pitt/Soderbergh Project, Moneyball

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:03:34 +0000

Like just about everybody these days, Hollywood is tightening its belt to weather the economic downturn, which basically translates to cutting loose any and every project that is not a guaranteed cash-cow, or doesn’t seem likely to strike gold.

Well, Sony Chairman Amy Pascal is flexing her executive muscle and showing that she isn’t afraid to make the hard choices for the (perceived) good of the studio: Pascal has pulled the plug on Moneyball, an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ baseball bestseller, starring $uperstar leading man Brad Pitt, and helmed by Ocean’s Eleven franchise director, Steven Soderbergh.

Did I mention that Pascal brought the ax down on Moneyball mere hours before the film was supposed to start shooting today??? Talk about a reality check: Pitt and Soderbergh have been big power player$ in Hollywood for at LEAST the last half decade, despite any economic turmoil that has occurred in those years. When is the last time you think either of them (let alone both of them) got behind a project and were ready to roll, only to be told at the last minute, “Not going to happen”?

It’s easy to read a scenario like that and think: “Have the studio suits lost their minds???”

So let’s talk about: is Amy Pascal losing it or showing the kind of hard-nosed edge that keeps studios afloat during uncertain times?

According to Variety, Pascal originally backed Moneyball until Soderbergh turned in a shooting script that was something of a departure from the original script by writer Steven Zaillian. Those changes were enough for Pascal to reverse her position and swing the aforementioned ax, just when the movie was gearing up to shoot.

For those who don’t know, here is a quick synopsis of what Moneyball is all about:

The story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget, by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Baseball fans are of course familiar with Beane’s story, and how the Oakland A’s manager arguably helped redefine how professional baseball players are ranked and measured. To me Moneyball sounds like a wonderful ESPN or HBO Sports documentary – but I can easily see how a film adaptation can be viewed as a risky venture. As Thompson on Hollywood points out, baseball films are (no pun) hit or miss and often have a hard time finding an audience overseas in countries where baseball is not a major sport. Think about it: how many Americans would run out to see a movie about the recruiting practices in professional soccer?

Don't let the smile fool you: Pascal means business!

As for Moneyball: Pascal shouldn’t be viewed as being totally ruthless: Soderbergh will have to find a way to get the film financed if he still wants to do it – which means covering tens of millions in pre-production and script costs – or else the property returns to Sony, where Pascal will likely go with the Zaillian script she first approved, likely under the helm of a new director. Either that or the studio would simply cut its losses and shelf the project altogether. We’ll see.

Brad Pitt’s subsequent involvement with the project is anybody’s guess at this point. Depending on how much prepping he did to play the role of Billy Beane – and/or his loyalty to Soderbergh – I’d think its fair to say the actor is in an awkward position right about now.

What do you think: is Amy Pascal making a shrewd move? Or is she pissing-off two major players in Pitt and Soderbergh?

No telling at this point IF Moneyball is ever going to hit theaters, let alone when. We’ll keep you posted.

Sources: Variety & Thompson on Hollywood

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: June 21, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:49:25 +0000

This week:

First there’s The Proposal and then there’s The Hangover; Moneyball gets thrown a curve-ball; Scream 4 isn’t Neve Campbell’s favorite scary movie; it looks like The A-Team won’t be Common and there’s an up and coming Red Dawn.

Box Office

Sandra Bullock scored the biggest opening of her career with The Proposal. The romantic comedy which co-stars Ryan Reynolds grossed $34 million over the weekend.

The Hangover remained a popular choice and moved into the runner-up spot with a weekend take of $26 million. With $152 million in the bank after three weeks, it looks like this is going to be a hugely profitable film and franchise for Warner Bros.

Up took in another $21 million from Friday to Monday giving the Pixar film a mighty $224 million tally.

Jack Black’s Year One opened a disappointing third this weekend with a gross of $20 million. It’ll need good legs to see a decent profit.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 stole $11 million from audiences over the weekend giving the Denzel Washington/ John Travolta thriller a total gross of $43 million.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian took in another $7 million giving the Ben Stiller comedy a stellar $155 million.

The interstellar Star Trek took just under $5 million to give the film a $239 million total tally.

Land of the Lost’s total now stands at $43 million after taking almost $4 million over the weekend. Not a good total for a film that cost a reported $150 million.

Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That dropped 43% from last weekend to $3 million. The film now has a terrible total of $11 million.

Terminator Salvation rounds out the top ten with $3 million. The Christian Bale film now has a total of $119 million.

Movie News

1. Columbia Pictures has scrapped production of the Steven Soderbergh directed, Brad Pitt starring, Moneyball – even though the film was due to start shooting on Monday!

Apparently when Steve Zaillian handed in the latest draft last week it wasn’t what studio head Amy Pascal had expected and she got cold feet on the film due to the $50 million budget. The sports drama has now been put into turnaround in the hope that another studio decides to make it.

According to Variety

“Moneyball is based on the bestselling Michael Lewis book about Billy Beane (Pitt), the former phenom who undermined his playing career by taking a big paycheck before he was ready, who resurfaced as Oakland A’s general manager who found success fielding competitive teams for low cost, compared to the payrolls of league rivals like the New York Yankees.”

Source: Variety

2. It’s looking like Scream 4 will not star Neve Campbell.

Franchise creator Kevin Williamson twittered:

“Trying to figure out a Sid-less scenario. She won’t do it. This sucks.”

David Arquette and Courtney are in negotiations to return.

There’s still no news on whether Wes Craven will return to direct.

Source: Ace Showbiz

3. Common was mooted as a possible candidate to play B.A Baracas in the big screen version of The A-Team. Looks like they’ll have to find another actor to step into Mr. T’s shoes.

The actor-rapper has signed on to the Queen Latifah sports film Just Wright.

Considering that the film starts shooting in July, it looks like he’ll be unable to join Liam Nesson and Bradley Cooper in Joe Carnahan’s film.

Source: Variety

4. Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck and Adrianne Palicki have joined the cast of MGM/UA’s Red Dawn remake. The new version is rumored to feature an invasion of Chinese troops on U.S. soil, instead of Russians.

Dan Bradley will direct the film that is set to open on September 24, 2010

Source: Hitfix

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

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Movie News Wrap Up: February 8th, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:33:29 +0000

Yes, we’re a day late this week – blame it on flakey internet connections – moving on…

This week:

Brad Pitt plays Ball; Mangold looks for thrills; does Nottingham have its Marian? Mickey Rourke attaches himself to St Vincent – with an old friend.

Box Office

Audiences were really into He’s Just Not That Into You. The all-star movie featuring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson grossed an impressive $27.5 million showing that female powered movies keep making money at the box office.

Liam Nesson’s Taken continues to impress with a slight 18% drop with a gross of $20 million.

Coraline grossed a solid $16 million showing that stop motion animation isn’t dead. The really good news is that The Pink Panther 2 crashed and burned managing a poor $12 million weekend. Considering that the first movie made $10 million more on its debut – it looks like we may have seen the last of Steve Martin in a trench coat.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop showed incredible legs arresting another $11 million for a $97 million total. It looks like the makers of Push will be kissing franchise hopes goodbye following a pretty low $10 million gross. DVD and foreign money is the films only hope.

Slumdog Millionaire continues to do well with more awards at the BAFTA’s and a gross of $77 million it looks like this little film is a success on all levels.

Movie News

1. Brad Pitt will re-team with his Ocean’s director Steven Soderbergh for Moneyball. The film which is based on the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game followsi:

“Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics who used a sophisticated computer analysis system to piece together a team that regularly contended for the World Series despite a payroll dramatically lower than such big-market rivals as the New York Yankees.”

The film will replace Cleo as Soderbergh’s next film following Hugh Jackman’s drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Cleo will now shoot next year.

Source: Variety

2. James Mangold is attached to direct an untitled thriller for Bold Films.

According to Variety:

“The script, which is being penned by Sasha Jenson and Casey La Scala is based on the true story of a pair of New Orleans lawyer brothers who took on a multinational oil company and its heavyweight legal teams to rep the rights of the families of an oil rig that sank in a typhoon. “

It all sounds a bit generic.

Source: Variety

3. It looks like Cate Blanchett will be romanced by Russell Crowe in Nottingham. Mark Strong, who signed up to play Sir Guy of Gisbourne told The Telegraph:

“I think Cate Blanchett is set to take the Maid Marian part. She is a wonderful actress and it would make it a much classier film if she was in it.”

Take that Sienna Miller!

Seems like a done deal.

Source: Telegraph

4. Mickey Rourke just gets busier and busier. The comeback kid who just nabbed a BAFTA will rejoining his Johnny Handsome director Walter Hill for St. Vincent. According to Variety:

“St. Vincent, scripted by Cameron Young, centers on a hit man returning to his former New York City neighborhood to finish off the botched killing of an informant. He’s then forced to masquerade as a priest and finds himself taking the confessions of his target.”

Hill used to be a director to watch and Rourke is on a comeback trail that seems to be very long – with Iron Man 2 (something he said he was doing last night at the BAFTA’s) and a script that he’s been working on for 18 years on the horizon along with Stallone’s The Expendables it can be said that Rourke is truly back.

Source: Variety

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

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: October 19, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:33:44 +0000

Sunday again and that means that it is time for the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

We see who is top of the box office; Kevin Smith ups his budget and goes into space; Brad Pitt goes on an Odyssey and plays an Unfair Game; Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci do Life and Ronin zooms to the small screen.

Box Office

Marky Mark Wahlberg is the box office champion with Max Payne. The film should manage about $20 million over the weekend giving 20^th Century Fox their first solid hit in months.

Oliver Stone’s W bucked the political movie trend by making a solid bit of cash. Grossing around $12MM for the weekend the film should be a modest hit. Considering the current political overkill going on in the press this is a considerable coup.

The Secret Life of Bees had a modest opening too, and should match the gross of the Bush film.

Meanwhile Sex Drive stiffed it on its opening with around $3.5 million. Could it be the death of the teen sex comedy?

Beverly Hills Chihuahua is showing legs with about another $11 million barked up by Monday morning. Meanwhile Ridley Scott’s costly Body Of Lies should manage another $7 million, the same as Eagle Eye.

Movie News

1. Kevin Smith will write direct and no doubt cameo in a $50 million space comedy. The Weinstein Company has read part of the script and seems interested in forking out the cash.

Smith has this to say:

“The moment someone steps out of the spaceship, it’s going to cost a little more.
All the relationships in the flicks I’ve done have been done before, have been either a guy falling for a girl or two dudes hanging out in a ‘bromantic’ comedy. I wanted to explore a father and son.”

The film won’t be made until after Smith’s Red State.

Expect at least one Uranus joke.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. Speaking of space – Brad Pitt will star in a futuristic retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey which will be directed by George Miller.

Pitt previously starred in an adaptation of Homer’s The Iliad, which became Troy.

Expect no Uranus jokes in this one.

Source: Variety

3. Speaking of Brad Pitt – the star may appear in Steven Zaillian’s adaptation of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The film is set to be directed by David Frankel. According to Variety:

“The Book’s subject is Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who assembled a contending baseball club on a shoestring budget by employing a sophisticated computer-based analysis to draft players.”

Source: Variety

4. Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci will star in After. Life (yes, the “.” supposed to be there).

Neeson will play a funeral director who is contacted by a woman (Ricci) who is caught between life and death (much like her career following Speed Racer). Agnieszka Vosloo will helm the film.

Source: Variety

5. The 1998 Robert De Niro film Ronin is coming to the small screen. The film which will likely be shot in Europe (like the film) will be co-financed by the BBC. The original film was helmed by John Frankenheimer and it played a bit like a middle-age Mission: Impossible, so a show should (or could) be interesting.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for this week – see you at the movies!

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