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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: October 11, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:37:18 +0000

This week:

Vince Vaughn Retreats to the top of the box office; another comic book adaptation makes it way up the Gravel road to the big screen; Michael Bay kills The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Ryan Reynolds hitches a ride with Motorcade and New Line needs a Vacation – but will Chevy Chase be invited?

Box Office

Swingers duo Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau landed in the top spot with Couples Retreat. The comedy snatched an impressive $35 million from movie-goers despite bad reviews.

Woody Harrelson had to settle for second place with Zombieland. The horror-comedy took $15 million from Friday to Monday, dropping a decent 39% – it looks like the film has a chance of hitting $100 million.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs banked another $12 million for third place. With $96 million in the bank it looks like Meatballs are going to be the order of the day.

Toy Stories 1 and 2 in 3D were fourth with another $7.5 million. The animated double-bill has banked over $22.5 million so far. That’s a pretty spectacular gross considering that these films have been on DVD longer than their target audience has been alive.

Paranormal Activity brought in $7 million from just 159 screens. The low budget shocker is playing like a little film from a decade ago called The Blair Witch Project. We all know how that turned out.

Bruce Willis’ Surrogates made another $4 million for a $32 million total. It won’t hit $40 million. Are Bruce Willis’ action salad days behind him?

The Invention of Lying dropped a huge 52%. The Ricky Gervais comedy took in a little over $3 million for a $12 million total. When your gross doesn’t even match your waistline you know you’re in trouble!

Speaking of trouble – Drew Barrymore’s Whip It took under $3 million on its second weekend. With $8 million in the till so far it looks like Barrymore will have to make another Charlie’s Angels or E.T 2 before she directs again.

Capitalism: A Love Story grossed $2.7 million over the weekend for a $9 million total. Somewhere I hope that Chuck Heston is very happy.

Fame made another $2.5 million for a $20 million total. This version won’t have a television spin-off!

Movie News

1. Legendary Pictures will bring a film adaptation of Warren Ellis’ comic book, Gravel, to the big screen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“(Gravel) blends espionage and dark fantasy in tracking the modern-day exploits of British “combat magician” William Gravel.”

Ellis made a sweet deal for the film as he’s also writing the screenplay and Executive producing.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. Twisted Pictures, the production company behind the Saw franchise, is finishing off a deal to acquire The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The company’s plan is to “contemporize” the franchise and produce a 3D film that is set to be written by The Grudge wordsmith, Stephen Susco.

Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes company re-invented The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the 21st Century with two recent films, but they only had rights to the series on a per film basis. When negotiations with rights-holders Bob Kuhn and Kim Henkel fell apart Twisted Pictures stepped in with a deal that is believed to be for multiple films.

It looks like Twisted Pictures now have two very highly lucrative franchise in their back pocket. Could this lead to a Leatherface and Jigsaw cross-over?

Would they call it The Texas Jigsaw Massacre?

Source: Variety

3. Ryan Reynolds is the new Tom Cruise. Well sort of.

Reynolds is inline to step into the Cruise-vacated role in Motorcade. The actor will star as a disgraced Secret Service agent who “is in the wrong place at the right time” when the US President is Kidnapped in New York City.

Len Wiseman was set to direct when Cruise was thinking about starring in the action film. 24 director John Cassar will direct the film that is set to start shooting next year.

Reynolds next film is Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern.

Source: Variety

4. New Line are developing a new sequel to the Chevy Chase-starring Vacation franchise.

Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin is attached to produce and possibly direct the film that will focus on Rusty Griswold, the son in the original films, as he takes his family on a laugh-filled Vacation.

The Vacation films, started in 1983 with National Lampoon’s Vacation, this was followed by National Lampoon’s European Vacation, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and ended with 1997’s Vegas Vacation (they dropped the National Lampoon).

One of the running gags throughout the series that Rusty and his sister Audrey are played by different actors (with erratic changes in age) in each movie.

With Dobkin aboard, it looks like one of today’s A-list comedy actors might take the wheel of the franchise. Might Will Ferrell or Vince Vaughn take the Griswold’s back on the road? Well, Ferrell doesn’t look unlike Chevy Chase…

With a bit of luck, Chevy Chase and screen wife Beverly D’Angelo return for more than a cameo – couldn’t Rusty take his mum and dad along for the ride?

New Line hopes that the film will be in the mold of Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Little Miss Sunshine.

It’s time that Chevy Chase had a comeback – and with a bit of luck, this film and the forthcoming Hot Tub Time Machine will help secure it.

Oh, and I’d like a Fletch movie made too!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

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Tom Cruise Jumps Onto Wichita

Niall Browne — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:37:00 +0000

It’s been a long time coming but it looks like Tom Cruise has finally chosen his next project. The diminutive star is in advanced negotiations to star alongside his Vanilla Sky co-star Cameron Diaz in James Mangold’s Wichita.

For the past several months Cruise has been circling several high profile thrillers like David Cronenberg’s The Matarese Circle, Bharat Nalluri‘s The Tourist, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’ The 28th Amendment and Len Wiseman’s Motorcade. All of these films went through multiple rewrites (costing several million dollars) to get them “Tom Ready“.

However, it looks like the star wants to mix some comedy with his action and that’s why he’s chosen Wichita. According to Variety the tagline for the comedy-thriller is simple:

Cruise will play a secret agent who pops in and out of the life of a single woman.

All that means is the film could be about anything – but I’m sure if Cruise has chosen this film above the others then the script by Scott Frank, Laeta Kalogridis and Mangold must be pretty impressive.

Mangold is an interesting director having helmed films in multiple genres from westerns (3.10 to Yuma), to rom-coms (Kate and Leopold), musical biopics (Walk The Line) and thrillers (Identity), so he’s pretty much got the credentials to pull off this sort of material. Cruise was originally in talks to star in 3.10 to Yuma in the Russell Crowe role but he withdrew during negotiations.

Now, for those who were excited about the Mission: Impossible star making any of the other movies mentioned up top, don’t worry. There’s still a chance that he’ll make one or more of them at a later date. They just don’t have the same cruise control as Wichita at the moment.

While the film is far from certain, due to the ongoing negotiations, it looks like if all goes well then Wichita will be coming to screens next summer.

Source: Variety

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Tom Cruise Career Update: Getting His Scripts ‘Tom-Ready’

Niall Browne — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:45:05 +0000

The world’s smallest biggest movie star Tom Cruise is a man who does not make decisions lightly. The couch jumping fiend is still mulling over his next film projects.

Currently Cruise has four potential projects in development, with studios spending HUGE amounts of money paying top-tier writers to help tailor the scripts to meet Cruise’s needs.

The four films in the top gun’s firing line include Motorcade, The Tourist, The Matarese Circle and Wichita (with Vanilla Sky co-star Cameron Diaz). Two potential films that have been dropped from his list of potentials include The 28th Amendment (to be directed by (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck), and the romantic comedy Lost For Words (set to be helmed by Susanne Bier). It really is a war of the words.

The world may be undergoing financial troubles right now, and Hollywood may be cutting prices on movie stars and writers, but it would appear that in order to catch Tom Cruise the studios are really showing the color of money.

Script doctors have been making as much as $250,000 a week, for two-to-six week’s work on scripts for Cruise. For some it might be a risky business for others it just shows that the Hollywood legend really is a rain man.

Writers who have been shown the money include Scott Frank, Paul Attanasio, Richard Curtis, Billy Ray, Valkyrie writer Christopher McQuarrie, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The studios involved must have some serious collateral to pay that sort of money out for one man. Having said that, the script doctors that Cruise has chosen are a few good men.

The star hasn’t made the firm commitment to any of the films – but I feel that David Cronenberg’s The Matarese Circle is far and away the most likely choice, as it would team Cruise with fellow A-lister Denzel Washington.

In the last couple of years the press have been saying that Cruise was “losin’ it” with regards to box office appeal, but if he still has all the right moves he should be making a choice soon. With so many scripts to choose from it must be mission: impossible. It would probably be best for Tom to select scripts with his eyes wide shut!

More Cruise news when we get it. (I’m all punned out.)

Source: Variety

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: November 16, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:33:34 +0000

This week:

Spielberg and Eastwood visit the Hereafter; Len Wiseman drives a Motorcade; Guillermo del Toro plays with Pinocchio; George Miller has Happy Feet again and Matthew McConaughey and David O. Russell fight with The Grackle.

Box Office

James Bond captured the top spot of the US box office with an amazing $71 million. The weekend take of Quantum of Solace was higher than any previous Bond entry in the series, and it highlights Daniel Craig’s popularity in the iconic role.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa took the runner up position with another $32 million giving the animated animal film an amazing $100 million. Role Models continues to impress with another $11.5 million in the bank, High School Musical 3: Senior Year grossed another $5.5 million bringing its total to $84million. While this is far from a bad gross (considering its low budget) it must be slightly disappointing for Disney.

Clint Eastwood’s Changeling eeked out another $4 million bringing its total to $27 million. If the Angelina Jolie film is going to make any sort of profit it absolutely needs some award nominations in its future. It looks like Clint’s fans are holding out for Gran Torino.

Movie News

1. Speaking of Clint Eastwood, it looks like he might be helming a supernatural thriller “in the vein of The Sixth Sense.”

Steven Spielberg approached the actor/director with the script Hereafter, which was written by Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan. Whilst he’s not attached yet, don’t be too surprised if Eastwood hops onto the project soon, as he worked with Spielberg previously on Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima.

That’ll make somebody’s day.

Source: Variety

2. Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard) will direct the high-concept thriller Motorcade.

According to Variety Bill Ray’s script is:

“about terrorists attacking the president’s motorcade as it traverses through Los Angeles.”

Could be good, it could be bad and I’m pretty sure that it’ll be mindless. At least it should give some ageing actor the chance to play President.

Source: Variety

3. Guillermo del Toro will produce a new stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“In the retelling, when Pinocchio comes to life, he turns out not to be that nice of a boy, creating mischief and playing mean tricks. He eventually learns a few lessons.”

There’s a good joke about Keanu Reeves’ wooden acting skills in this somewhere.

Guillermo del Toro is making a little art film called The Hobbit in the near future. Bet you didn’t know that!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. When George Miller couldn’t get Justice League made he must have sought solace in Happy Feet, as a sequel is already in production.

The animated pic will be made in Australia and employ 438 people over three years.

Hey George! What about Mad Max?

Source: The Age

5. David O. Russell will direct Matthew McConaughey in The Grackle.

According to Variety in the R-rated comedy:

“McConaughey will play a barroom fighter in New Orleans who hires himself out for $250 to settle disputes for people who can’t afford to hire a lawyer. Harsh language and quick fists are his weapons of choice.”

Mike Arnold and Chris Poole’s script is supposed to have the same vibe as The Wedding Crashers.

Could be interesting.

Source: Variety

That’s it for this week. See you at the movies.

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