Leo and Marty score the top spot with Shutter Island; we find out when we get a first peek at The Twilight Saga: Eclipse; Wes Craven starts to Scream again in May; Duncan Jones decodes  an interesting cast for Source Code and Carla Gugino is Faster than Salma Hayek.

Box Office

It looks like the relationship between Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese is going to continue. Each film the duo makes grosses more money than the last and Shutter Island is no exception. The thriller took an estimated $40 million over the weekend giving the pair the best opening in their respective careers.

Last week’s champion Valentine’s Day had to settle for the runner-up spot with a weekend take of $17 million. With $89 million in the bank so far it looks like that mooted sequel will be rushed into production!

Avatar was three this weekend, but the film still banked about $16 million or a $687 million total. By next weekend it’ll be over $700 million.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians brought in roughly $15 million over the weekend. The kid-lit pic has banked a decent $60 million. With $100 million likely we might just get a sequel – something that a lot of children’s fantasy novels often want, but never get!

Dropping a pretty big 60+% from last weekend (pretty usual for a horror) was The Wolfman. With just under $50 million it looks like the film will eek out profit by the time international numbers and DVD’s are factored in.

Dear John cried out another $7.5 million from moviegoers. The chick flick has now banked $66 million.

Tooth Fairy took in another $4.5 million for a $50 million total, while Jeff Bridges’ Crazy Heart has upped its total to $21 million. From Paris with Love did the same and Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness brought in just under $2.5 million – the revenge thriller’s total now stands at just over $40 million.

Movie News

1. For those who can’t get enough of Robert Pattinson comes the news that Summit Entertainment have made the shrewd decision of attaching the trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse to the Pattinson starrer Remember Me.

The film which also stars former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, opens on March 12.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse also stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner – whoever they are!

Source: Coming Soon

2. An interview with Wes Craven in The LA Times states that the director plans to shoot the fourth installment of the Scream franchise in May.

Craven is also quoted as saying:

“My goal is to die in my 90s on the set, say, ‘That’s a wrap,’ after the last shot, fall over dead and have the grips go out and raise a beer to me.”

Interesting work ethos!

Source: LA Times

3. Duncan Jones’ Moon follow-up Source Code is assembling a heck of a cast. The film already had Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga signed but now Felix Leiter himself, Jeffrey Wright, has also joined the cast.

The is yet another science fiction film for the director (who is the son of David Bowie) and if it’s like Moon it’ll be a low-key film in the style of science fiction from the late 70’s/ early 80’s. I heard somewhere that Blade Runner is a touchstone for the director – so that’s something.

Having said that, I think Danny Cannon said the same about Judge Dredd way back in 1995.

Source: The Playlist

4. We told you recently that Salma Hayek had dropped out of the Dwayne Johnson starrer Faster. Well, the former wrestler has now found his leading lady in the shape of his Race to Witch Mountain co-star Carla Gugino.

According to Variety:

“Faster follows Johnson’s ex-con character as he sets out to avenge his brother’s murder with a deadly to-do list. Gugino plays the detective in charge of the investigation, hot on his trail and hell-bent on connecting the killings with a decade-old case.”

Gugino who also starred in Watchmen will next be seen in Zach Snyder’s Sucker Punch.

Source: Variety

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

It’s already been confirmed that the original writer of the series, Kevin Williamson, is going to be penning the fourth film, but rumblings have it that he’ll write the whole trilogy.

What suggests this new set of films is a screen capture (shown below) that was sent to Rope Of Silicon showing the report of Scream 4, 5 and 6 in the works.

Now I should point out that this report is totally unconfirmed and therefore this “news” should be treated as a rumor at this point in time. However the ball that’s started rolling with at least one more Scream film suggests that this trilogy report may be legit.

So let’s just take it for a moment that this is in fact true and there is another Scream trilogy on the way – I don’t think it’s a good idea. Since it’s continuing on the series (i.e. numbers 4, 5 and 6) I don’t really see the point; sure, you’re going to get the name recognition but is it just me or did the series decline after the first film – going from an original, pretty creative idea (one which has influenced tons of horror movies since) to just silly and dumb by the third one?

Something they could have done (which I thought they would have went with instead of just continuing the series) would be to do a reboot and start another trilogy from scratch. However even that I think it is pretty pointless because it’s not been that long since Scream 3 (or even the first Scream for that matter), certainly not long enough for a reboot to be warranted.

So either way, I think this is a bad idea – outside of hardcore fans of the series I can’t see this appealing to audiences any more than any of the other horror films that get so plentifully released these days. Even as a single fourth film in the series it seems to be only an attempt to draw money from the name recognition and popularity of a past set of films.

However a couple of rays of hope are that the original writer of the series is confirmed for at least one film and horror master Wes Craven has shown interest in returning to direct. At least that gives the whole idea a stronger backbone of credibility and worthiness.

If this news is true do you think a new Scream trilogy is a good idea? Is it a pointless concept to have any more Scream films at all or do you think there’s potential for something worthwhile?

Sources: Rope of Silicon, Bloody Disgusting and /Film