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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: April 12, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:57:39 +0000

This week:

Miley is smiley over the box office; Gyllenhaal joins Thompson and Fiennes in Nanny McPhee; Terrance Howard may not be in Iron Man 2 – but he will star with Method Man and Gooding Jr in George Lucas’ Red Tails; Jennifer Garner likes Butter and we discover Burt Dickenson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth.

Box Office

Well if you thought that Fast and Furious’ $70+ million gross was impressive last week then you’ll be amazed that the Hannah Montana The Movie with Miley Cyrus banked $34 million over the weekend. That’s enough to mend Billy Ray’s Achy Breaky Heart.

Fast & Furious sped past the magic $100 million mark with a weekend total of $28 million. Down an okay 59% after its mega opening the Vin Diesel/ Paul Walker pic has now made off with $118 million.

Monster Vs. Aliens brought its total up to $144 million after making another $22 million.

Observe and Report had a modest $11 million weekend. If people observe and report that it’s good then it might have legs (highly doubtful), otherwise it’ll be a DVD performer.

Knowing managed to grab another $6.5 million bringing the total of the Nic Cage film to just under the $70 million mark. I Love You, Man did about $½ million less and its at $58 million.

The Haunting in Connecticut scared up another $5 million giving the low budget horror a pretty decent $46 million.

Dragonball Evolution crashed and burned with a not so good $4.5 million opening. Seriously – who decides to make a movie like this when everybody knows from day one that it’ll be terrible and that’ll tank?

Duplicity eeked out $2 million. It’ll never see $40 million.

Movie news

1. Maggie Gyllenhaal will star in the sequel to Nanny McPhee 2. The Dark Knight star joins Emma Thompson and Ralph Fiennes in the film. The family pic starts shooting next month at Shepperton Studios in England.

Source: Production Weekly

2. George Lucas’ Red Tails has finally started getting its cast together. Cuba Gooding Jr and Terrence Howard and Method Man will join many others in the Anthony Hemingway directed film.

Lucas said:

“I’ve been wanting to do Red Tails for 20 years, and we’ve finally got the means to showcase the skill of the Tuskegee pilots. We’re working on techniques which will give us the first true look at the aerial dogfighting of the era. And our top-notch cast will really make this story special.”

Source: Dark Horizons

3. Jennifer Garner is attached to produce and possibly star in Butter.
According to the Hollywood reporter:

“Butter follows a young orphan who, after being adopted by a Midwestern family, discovers she has an uncanny talent for butter-carving. She eventually finds herself up against the ambitious wife of the retired reigning champion in a town’s annual butter-sculpting contest.”

The script was written by Jason Micallef.

It butter be good!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. Jake Kasdan will direct the comedy Burt Dickenson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth.

“The story centers on a Burt Dickenson, one half of successful two-man team who accidentally kills is partner and loses his inner magic. He has to find a way to rekindle it to fight his rival, a magician named Xander Storm.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 22, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:18:54 +0000

It’s Sunday and therefore it’s Wrap Up time. This week:

We Know who is top of the box office; Cage and Bruckheimer make a date; Beatty fights over Dick Tracy; George Lucas’s Red Tails gets Wild(s); get ready for Demonkeeper; Segal meets Little Fockers and Universal knows the Rites of Men.

Box Office
Nicolas Cage is king of the box office with Knowing. The Alex Proyas (I Robot) directed film should manage about $24-25 million over the weekend. Put it this way, Knowing made more on Friday than Bangkok Dangerous made on it’s opening weekend.

The Paul Rudd- Jason Segal comedy I love You, Man should cash in $18 million over the weekend. The R-rated comedy was similar to the weekend starts of the stars previous film like Role Models and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Julia Roberts re-teams with Clive Owen for Duplicity. The comedy-caper film should steal $14.5 million from audiences over the weekend.

The Rock’s (or Dwayne Johnson‘s) Race To Witch Mountain should gather another $14 million bringing the Disney film to just under the $50 million mark.

Watchmen should bank another $6-7 million bringing the epic comic book movie to the $100 million mark. Not a bad gross, but it’s quite disappointing.

Last House on the Left dropped $65% to $6.5 million.

Liam Neeson’s Taken managed another $4.5 million bringing the total of the film to over $130 with a world wide take surpassing $200 million.

Movie News

1. Nicolas Cage’s forthcoming Disney film The Scorcerer’s Apprentice has a release date set for July 16, 2010. The Jerry Bruickheimer produced film which co-stasr Jay Baruchel, directed by Jon Turtletaub, is a modern retelling of the Disney classic.

It should make a killing at the box office.

Source: Variety

2. Warren Beatty is being sued by Tribune Media Services so that they can regain the rights to Dick Tracy. The action states that the character of Tracy should revert back to the company as Beatty hasn’t made “productive use” of the rights in a decade.

Beatty has however begun work on a Dick Tracy television special, but Tribune Media Services say that the show is only being produced so that Beatty can retain the rights to the character which he purchased in 1985.

Beatty starred in and directed a Dick Tracy movie that was released in 1990. The film grossed over $100 million at the US box office and co-starred Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Madonna.
It’s not a bad little film. Visually it’s very impressive with a pre-digital Sin City style vibe.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. 90210 star Tristan Wilds has been cast in George Lucas‘ Red Tails.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Wilds will play Ray “Ray Gun” Knight, a flyboy nearly blinded over Nazi-occupied Italy who becomes the wingman of his friend and cohort, Marty. The two face the prejudice of the U.S. military as much as the overseas enemy but end up establishing an unprecedented record.”

The film was written by John Ridley and it will be directed by Anthony Hemingway.

Lucas has talked about this film for years, and I honestly believed that it would never see the light of day.

Now just get behind a camera again George and direct something like THX 1138 or American Graffiti.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. The Tale of Despereaux and Flushed Away director Sam Fell will direct a liva-action adaptation of Royce Buckingham’s Demonkeeper.

According to Variety:

“Story follows a Seattle teen who inherits responsibility for a house filled with demons. When the youth finally breaks free of his charges to go on a date, he returns to discover that kids have broken into the house, unleashing its most vicious demon, the Beast, Killer of Lost Children.”

Sounds like an interesting premise.

Source: Variety

5. Peter Segal is in the frame to direct the third Meet the Parents movie which is currently titled Little Fockers.

Segal had been expected to direct Get Smart 2, but Steve Carrell signed on to the comedy Date Night with Tina Fey. With Segal at the helm this will be the first Focker movie to to be directed by Jay Roach.

The Robert DeNiro produced film was written by John Hamburg. Ben Stiller, DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand and Owen Wilson are all expected to return.

Source: Variety

6. Jonathan Herman’s new script Rites of Men has been bought by Universal Pictures. The script is being compared to the sleeper hit Taken.

The Hollywood Reporter said:

“Herman’s script centers on a working-class single dad whose only son is murdered and must then set out on a quest to solve the killing.”

The “dad on revenge” movie seems to be a popular new sub genre. Mark Wahlberg is attached to a similar film called Prisoners while Mel Gibson has the forthcoming Edge of Darkness.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 28, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:48:57 +0000

It’s a sad Sunday for the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up, with the passing of Hollywood Legend Paul Newman. However, the beauty with Hollywood is that great films and great actors will live on forever. Newman has left a great body of work as his legacy, but lets not forget that the man also was hugely charitable, giving millions away from the profits of his Newman’s Own brand. It’s a real shame.

In this week’s wrap up:

George Lucas finds a director to fly Red Tails; Will Smith flies again in Hancock 2; Sony buys Mark Millar’s War Heroes; Sherlock Holmes gets some love and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels sees Pink.

Box Office

Shia LaBeouf consolidated his standing on the A-list with a gross of around $29 million for Eagle Eye. The film has the fifth highest September weekend opening in history. Richard Gere and Diane Lane will capture around $14 million for the romantic drama Nights In Rodanthe, while Samuel L. Jackson’s Lakeview Terrace plunged 60% in its second weekend. Burn After Reading scorched up another $6 million, while The Miracle Of St. Anne eked out a little over $3 million. The big surprise is that Fireproof, a fire-fighting drama grossed $6.5 million from only 839 screens.

Movie News

1. George Lucas’ long in development Red Tails finally has a director. Anthony Hemingway will direct he film, which is due to start shooting in the spring. Lets just hope that it is worth the wait.

Source: joblo

2. While the movie world was foaming at the mouth over the thought of a sequel to I Am Legend, Dark Horizons has news that Smith’s other recent money spinner Hancock also has a follow-up in development.

Will, you have enough money – make one for the sake of art… please.

Source: Dark Horizons

3. Mark Millar’s bank manager must be a very happy man. The Wanted creator has just sold the movie rights of War Heroes to Sony.

According to The Hollywood Reporter :

“The story centers on a U.S. military experimental program developed in light of dwindling enlistments and the expanding war on terrorism that gives ordinary soldiers superpowers. When a rogue group of the supersoldiers breaks off to form a criminal enterprise, one hero rises from their ranks to prevent catastrophic results.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. The Notebook star Rachael McAdams has joined the cast of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. The actress will play love interest, Irene Adler in the Robert Downey Jr starring flick that starts shooting next month.

Check out McAdams early work in the quirky Canadian show Slings and Arrows, with Due South’s Paul Gross.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5. High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank scripter Steve Pink has been hired by MGM to write a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the 1988 film that starred Steve Martin and Michael Caine.

If he brings John Cusack along then this may be worthwile, otherwise I can’t see the point.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: August 24, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:27:01 +0000

Yes folks it’s that time of the week! Once again we troll through the overlooked movie news to give you a fully comprehensive overview of what’s been happening in Hollywood.

This week:

Nicolas Cage decides to Kick Ass, every-one’s favorite Journeyman Kevin McKidd may be a Highlander, Ben Affleck Extract’s something for Mike Judge, Samuel L. Jackson eyes Red Tails for George Lucas and The Sweeney gets shafted by the British Film Industry.

1. Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson and Lyndsy Fonseca have signed on to Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of the Mark Millar comic book Kick Ass. According to The Hollywood Reporter the plot:

“…centers on a high school dweeb named Dave Lizewski who decides to become a superhero even though he has no athletic ability or coordination. Things change when he eventually runs into real bad guys with real weapons.Johnson plays title character, while Fonseca plays the object of the teen’s infatuation who believes Dave is gay. Cage is a former cop who wants to bring down a druglord and has trained his daughter (Chloe Moretz) to be a lethal weapon.“

It sounds like an interesting enough premise, but it also appears that there might be a bit too much going on to make for a focused film. At least Cage appears to be scratching his comic book itch these days, which should keep him away from Superman!

The crazy haired Elvis loving actor will next be seen in Bangkok Dangerous on September 5.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. It looks like Journeyman star Kevin McKidd may be the new Highlander. According to Joblo the actor was talking on Dublin radio and he stated that he’d been approached to star in the reboot of the series which originally starred Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert.

Is there truth in this? Who knows – but he is from Scotland and he has been known to wield a sword (see Rome) so there is a chance that there may be something to this.

Source: Joblo.com

3. Ben Affleck is in negotiations to star in Mike Judge’s new film Extract. According to Variety Affleck would play a lawyer who is the best friend of Jason Bateman’s lead in the new film.

“The Arrested Development actor stars as ‘a flower extract factory owner dealing with workplace problems and a streak of bad luck, including his wife’s affair with a gigolo.’”

It sounds quirky, but I don’t think that it’s going to break Affleck’s losing streak at the box office.

Source: Variety

4. It would appear that Samuel L. Jackson has been approached by George Lucas to direct the long gestating Red Tails.

Jackson told IGN :

“I just read it like two weeks ago. It’s a pretty good script. At one point (Lucas) was asking me if I’d ever want to direct anything. I said, ‘I don’t know, man. I’m trying to find things.’ He said, ‘Well, let me send you this thing. Maybe you might want to direct it.’ Well, I guess if I was gonna direct something George would be a great guy to kind of mentor me through that, especially a big ass special effects flying picture. The script’s good. I like it.”

However, Jackson isn’t too certain that he wants to direct:

“I don’t know. I don’t have a year and a half of my life where I wanna stop acting.”

Not earth shattering news, but it is interesting. Will Red Tails ever get made? Probably, but hasn’t the story already been told in the 1995 TV movie Tuskegee Airmen starring new CSI star Laurence Fishburne?

Source: IGN

5. The film version of the iconic British cop show The Sweeney has been put on hold. The film was due to star Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’s Ray Winstone as Jack Regan, but producers were worried that without a major star the film wouldn’t recoup its $16 million budget.

It’s a shame – the show is hugely influential in the UK and the British Film industry could be doing with a good home grown franchise. Harry Potter and James Bond films are not included as they are made with American money. The 1970’s detective show helped inspire the recent quirky sci-fi cop series Life on Mars. Even with something as small as a budget of $16 million British producers are still afraid to roll the dice on a film.

The British Film industry really needs a good kick in the ass to get motivated and start producing more commercial material for the rest of the world. Romantic comedy aside the UK isn’t really known for producing commercial cinema, and when they do make a good movie it hardly gets a release (if at all).

Every few years we do get a good British film that has commercial and critical success. In the last fifteen or so years we have had films like Trainspotting, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Dog Soldiers and The Full Monty which have been very successful around the world. However, what followed the release of these movies was a series of cheap imitations that ran the respective genres into the ground.

The UK really must get it sorted if it wants to have a selt sustaining film industry that can survive on it’s own.

Source: Variety

That’s it for another week.

See you at the movies!

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: Mar 16, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:09:58 +0000

Welcome to another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up. It’s almost St Patrick’s Day, which is great for everyone, but as I’m Irish it means that I can drink Guinness all day long and no one will look down on me. Well, no more than usual.

That’s enough about me though, I know that you don’t read this item to discover my social calender so I’ll cut to the chase and give you your movie news fix from the past week.

This week we have news on : Mad Max: Fury Road, George Lucas’ Red Tails, The Punisher : War Zone, Wolfgan Petersen’s Uprising and a new version of Heavy Metal.

1. Newsweek spoke with George Miller about the fourth Mad Max film: Fury Road. He is quoted as saying:

Well, the first one will be a Mad Max game. Because what happened was, we were all ready to go, within eleven weeks of shooting the next Mad Max movie, Fury Road. This was way back when the war in Iraq started, and that really threw this out for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which was that the American dollar crashed against the Australian dollar. And apart from that, just insurances, getting vehicles and stuff there on container ships–all that slowed down around the world. So we had to move on to Happy Feet, because that was going to take a long time.

He also says that Mel Gibson was all but signed to the film six years ago, but that when he makes the film it will be without Gibson, as he is too old.

Now Miller wants to make a Mad Max video game before he puts the film into production. Miller says:

The movie was in a very highly advanced stage of preproduction when we stopped it. It’s all prepared, but now I want to stop and do the game and get those schedules in sync.. In other words, I’m delaying the movie in order to do a really good game. Normally what happens everyone’s scrambling to finish a game so it can coincide with the release of the movie.

My interest in this thing has just nose dived if Mel Gibson isn’t involved. Mad Mel is Mad Max!

2. George Lucas has said that the long in gestating Red Tails could be released by the end of the year and that he will then go on to ” do a Coppola” and direct art house style films. Lucas says:

We’re getting towards a script, and probably start shooting before the end of the year, and it should come out next year, maybe. That’s probably going to be the last movie I do, apart from my own movies, but my own movies are going to be more esoteric and probably will come and go in a week and be in one or two arthouses. It’s basically the same as what Francis is doing.

I don’t see Lucas getting behind a camera again to direct, but would have said that fifteen years ago about the chances of another Star Wars film. We will see.

3. The Punisher: War Zone website is now live. There’s not a great deal to see, but you can have a peek at a couple of stills. I’m looking forward to this.

4. Wolfgang Petersen will direct Uprising, a Sci-Fi thriller penned by Charles Leavitt. According to Variety :

(The) story revolves around the resistance efforts of some citizens after Earth has been occupied by a powerful alien race.

Sounds like it could be good. Sounds like it could be crap. Time will tell, but I’m quite a fan of Petersen’s work so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

5. Paramount Pictures will produce an animated film based on the magazine Heavy Metal. The film will be made up of different stories, each directed by a different director. David Fincher will direct one segment, while Tim Miller and Kevin Eastman will direct also. More directors will be added soon.

That’s it for now, see you next week!

Sources: Newsweek , Comingsoon , PunisherMovie.com , Variety

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