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Movie News Wrap Up: March 30, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:44:37 +0000

This week:

Monsters Vs Aliens tops the box office; the Coens remake John Wayne’s True Grit; Val Kilmer talks up a reteam with Robert Downey Jr; Matthew McConaughey is The Lincoln Lawyer; Tobey Maguire knows The Limit; Ben Affleck and Matt Damon hunt for Good Will after Bourne again and Affleck hits The Town.

Box Office

Monsters Vs Aliens was the big winner this weekend with a powerful gross of $58 million. It’s the best opening gross of a movie this year (beating Watchmen). Also, horror isn’t dead with The Haunting in Connecticut scaring up $23 million in ticket sales.

Nicolas Cage’s Knowing dropped a decent 40% with a weekend take of almost $15 million giving the action flick a total gross of $46 million – despite bad reviews.

I Love You, Man managed another $12,7 million, while the Julia Roberts- Clive Owen heist movie Duplicity banked another $7.5 million for a $25 million total.

Dwayne Johnson’s Race To Witch Mountain fell over 50% giving the Disney film a total of $53 million.

Fellow wrestler John Cena misfired with 12 Rounds. The Renny Harlin directed film managed a poor $5 million weekend.

Watchmen eked out another $2.8 million bringing its total to $103.3 million.

Taken took another $2.7 million bringing the action pic’s gross to a huge $137 million.

Horror remake The Last House on The Left managed a weekend take of $2.6 million.

Movie News

1. The Coen brothers will remake John Wayne’s True Grit – the film that won the cinematic legend an Oscar!

The film will be based on the book by Charles Portis.

Variety states:

“Portis’ novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory.
But while the original film was a showcase for Wayne, the Coens’ version will tell the tale from the girl’s p.o.v.”

So who will the Coens get to replace Wayne? After all they are big, big boots to fill.

Didn’t they learn their lesson with The Ladykillers?

Source: Variety

2. Val Kilmer believes that we will see a sequel to 2005’s action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
The star twittered:

“RDJ, Jr (Robert Downey Jr) and I talked AGAIN about a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sequel… Now that he is king of all time and space it will happen.”

I hope this is true. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an exceptional film that didn’t get the release that it deserved by Warner Bros. Funny, compelling and extremely well written – you must seek it out.

Source: Twitter

3. Matthew McConaughey will take the lead in The Lincoln Lawyer.

“The legal thriller that centers on low-level criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller who finds himself representing a wealthy client with ties to a previous murder case Haller handled.”

The film which is based on the book by Michael Connolly will be a return to the leagal thriller genre for the bongo playing star who made his name in Joel Schumacher’s adaptation of John Grisham’s A Time To Kill.

Source: Variety

4. Tobey Maguire is attached to star in Columbia Pictures’ The Limit. According to Variety:

“Maguire will star as Phil Hill, who went against his good friend and Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips in the 1961 Drivers Championship.”

Maguire will produce the film through his Maguire Entertainment production company.

I think that it’s no coincidence that Maguire’s company is set up at the studio that produces the Spider-Man films.

Source: Variety

5. Best friends and Good Will Hunting co-stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will reunite for a new film next year.

The film will start shooting after Damon makes the next Bourne movie. Affleck is apparently mulling over directing duties on the film that was not written by the Oscar winning duo.

Affleck told Collider:

“We have a project but we haven’t said what it is just because of lame political money reasons. This is the movie we’re going to do together and I think it will be good.”

Source: Collider

6. Meanwhile, Affleck has been talking up his next directorial effort following the excellent Gone Baby Gone.

“I’m directing another movie and I’m going to act in the movie as well. That’s a slightly daunting prospect, but we’ll see. I’m nervous but excited. It’s called The Town – that’s the title I’m using now but I’m not sure it’ll be that – and it’s based on a book called Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. It’s based on a true fact that there is this neighborhood in Boston called Charlestown where there are more armed robbers per capita than anywhere else in the world. It’s about this group of guys who rob a bank and an armored car.”

Source: Collider

That’s it for now. 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: March 15, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:41:28 +0000

This Week:

We watch the Watchmen’s grosses; Ben Stiller leaves family comedy behind with Greenberg; Brendan Fraser returns to The Center Of The Earth; Vance joins Fraser and Harrison Ford in Crowley; Mickey Rourke has Passion and The Strangers become familiar.

Box Office

Dwayne Johnson’s Race To Witch Mountain captured the top spot with an estimated weekend gross of $25 million. There was once a time that people thought that “The Rock” was going to inherit Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action throne – not it appears that he’s the new family Eddie Murphy.

It looks like people aren’t watching the Watchmen – with a drop off of 67% showing that the film does not have legs. With a weekend of $18 million and a total take of $86 million far from a financial disaster, the film must be classed as an underachiever. Having said that – it’s a miracle that the film was ever made at all.

The Last House On The Left remake managed an opening of $14 million. Not bad for a horror remake that has very little name recognition, but poor considering horror openings of recent months.

Taken banked another $6 million giving the film an amazing $126 million total. With a sequel on the way it looks like this is a film that audiences really love.

Madea Goes To Jail managed another $5 million giving the Tyler Perry flick $83 million in the bank.

Slumdog Millionaire continues to connect with audiences grossing another $5 million. So far the film has banked $132 million and with DVD imminent, the film will be very, very profitable.

Speaking of profitable – Paul Blart: Mall Cop arrested another $3 million bringing its total to $137 million.

The top ten was rounded out by He’s Just Not That In To You, Coraline and Miss March all making $2 million plus over the weekend.

Movie News

1. Noah Baumbach will direct Ben Stiller in the “dramedy” Greenberg. Rhys Ifans, Brie Larson and Juno Temple will co-star in the film.

According to Variety:

“Penned by Baumbach, story centers on a New Yorker (Stiller) who moves to Los Angeles to housesit for his brother and figure out his life. He ends up having a relationship with his brother’s assistant.”

It sounds like Stiller is returning to his low budget roots. At least it’s not set in a museum!

Source: Variety

2. Brendan Fraser will star in a sequel to last years surprise hit Journey To The Center Of The Earth.

According to Variety:

“The sequel’s based on Richard Outten’s script Mysterious Travels: The Lost Map of Treasure Island, in which Prof. Trevor Anderson and his nephew embark on a journey to a mysterious island that was the subject of three classic novels (Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels).”

Talk about pillaging classic literature.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth cost $60 million to make and grossed $241 million world wide. Do you see the financial sense?

Source: Variety

3. Speaking of Brendan Fraser – Courtney B. Vance will join The Mummy star and Harrison Ford in Crowley.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Vance will play a father whose daughter has the same genetic disease as the children of Fraser’s character.”

4. Mickey Rourke is a very busy man. Having signed on to Iron Man 2, The Expendables and Broken Horses he has now attached himself to Passion Plays.

The drama film will be written and directed by Mitch Glazer, the writer behind Scrooged and The Recruit. The plot is being kept secret.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

5. Horror movies need sequels. It’s almost an unwritten rule.

Laurent Briet is now in talks to direct a sequel to Rogue Pictures surprise hit The Strangers .

The low budget horror starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman cost $9 million and grossed $81 million worldwide.

Expect a remake in 10 years.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

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

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‘Taken 2′ & ‘District 13′ American Remake In The Cards

Ross Miller — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:20:37 +0000

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, scriptwriter Robert Mark Kamen (who wrote the three Transporter movies, the three Karate Kid movies and The Fifth Element, amongst others) has been talking about the the next assignments on the table for the French “action factory” Mediacorp. And among the projects mentioned, two of them were a sequel to the surprise smash-hit Taken and an English language remake of the French free-running flick District 13 (or to use it’s French title, Banlieue 13).

Now not much was said beyond Taken 2 being in the development stage (although it’s very early on I’d imagine), and the American remake of District 13 being crafted by Kamen. But since it was mentioned it’s worth pondering: Does Taken need a sequel? And does District 13 need to be in English?

Let’s start with Taken.

Taken is a film I was not a fan of, not because I thought the action was sub-par or anything like that (actually if it was in another movie I would’ve loved it) but simply because of the morally bankrupt piece that it was. I won’t go into that in-depth but let’s just say morals were nowhere to be seen when that was supposed to be the whole point of why Liam Neeson’s character was doing what he was going.

But clearly I am in the minority (for example, Screen Rant head honcho Vic really liked the film). It was a smash-hit not just in the UK and Europe but in a fickle movie market like the US. It’s still playing in places in the States and already it has grossed over $180 million worldwide – just think how rare that is for the type of film Taken is. I see nothing so drastically different in it that should allow it to make such money.

But clearly because of this fact they’re obviously going to at least think about making another one. However setting aside my grievances with the film, I don’t think it needs a sequel. The whole point of the first one was about this guy who goes forcefully after the people who kidnap his daughter – it’s a one shot that doesn’t warrant a sequel. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to allow that to happen to his daughter again, and if he did wouldn’t it just be a clone of the first film as far as plot goes?

I could (at a stretch) see a prequel, since outside of the kidnap story of his daughter, the character’s background has potential for some major kick-ass scenes.

Now as far as an English language remake of District 13 goes I am actually all for it. Although the first one feels very French in how it was shot and all that, the type of action flick that it was lends itself very well to the American style of action. American action movies are all about the over-the-top “that would never happen in real life” stuff and I think English language audiences would really respond to it.

However it should be noted that there’s already a sequel to the original been made (click here for the trailer), so perhaps it’s best to wait a couple of years before they remake it into English.

What do you think of the notions of both a sequel to Taken and an English language remake of District 13?

Sources: /Film and Los Angeles Time

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 1st, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:51:13 +0000

This week:

Madea is the champ at the box office; Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal sing; Zorro meets Woody; Original Films remakes Total Recall and Arthur will have something to say soon.

Box Office

Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail stayed locked up in the top spot with an estimated weekend take of $16 million.

Jonas Brothers: 3-D Concert Experience underperformed with an estimated weekend take of about $12.5 million. Not bad for a film showing on only 1, 271 screens, but the film was expected to gross double that!

Slumdog Millionaire rides the train of Oscar success and manages another $12 million for a $115 million total. Expect Danny Boyle to do whatever he pleases for his next film.

Liam Neeson’s Taken continues to impress with another $9 million in the bank. So far Taken has…er… taken over $100 million.

He’s Just Not That Into You, Coraline and Paul Blart: Mall Cop all managed about another $5-6 million each while Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li was pummelled at the box office with a dismal $4.5 million opening. Expect to see Kristin Kreuk back on Smallville soon.

Movie News

1. In some totally bizarre casting news Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a new film version of Damn Yankees. What’s odd about that I hear you say?

Well, it’s a musical!

According to Variety:

“Damn Yankees, which bowed on Broadway in 1955 and won seven Tony Awards, focuses on Joe Boyd, a happily married middle-aged man whose devotion to a hapless pro baseball team prompts him to make a Faustian bargain with the devil to help the team. He’s transformed into slugger Joe Hardy, in exchange for Boyd’s soul. Boyd can break the deal, but the deadline occurs during the World Series. For good measure, the devil engages Lola, a gorgeous lost soul, to seduce the slugger and seal his fate.”

Source: Variety

2. Antonio Banderas has signed on to Woody Allen’s new and as yet untitled film.

The Zorro actor will join the star packed cast that includes, Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins and Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto.

The film will shoot in London this summer.

3. An unnecessary remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall is in the works at Columbia. The irony of the story being that the film is being produced by Neil Moritz’s Original Films.

The original film was based on the Philip K. Dick story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.

What next, a reboot of Schwarzenegger’s Terminator?

Source: Hollywood Reporter

4. While we’re talking about remakes – Peter Baynham has been hired to write the remake of Arthur. The film about a drunken millionaire is being developed as a starring vehicle for UK comedian Russell Brand.

Baynham co-wrote Borat and Sacha Baron Cohen’s forthcoming Bruno.

Source: Variety

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: February 1st, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:51:58 +0000

It’s February and Sunday and that means it’s Wrap Up time.

This week:

We look at the box office and Mickey Rourke sees Broken Horses; a Watchmen star watches women; Puss in Boots shuffles forward and Bryan Singer says Logan’s Run is slow.

Box Office

Liam Neeson’s Taken surpassed expectations and shot up an impressive $24 million over the weekend – despite the Super Bowl.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop arrested another $14 million bringing its total to $84 million. I’m guessing that at some point somebody will start talking sequel.

The Uninvited grabbed $10 million, while New In Town was pretty much ignored with a $6.5 million weekend. Looks like Rene Zellweger will be talking about Bridget Jones 3.

Gran Torino crossed the $100 million milestone and made another $8.5 million. Looks like Clint is going out on a career high.

Oscar hopeful Slumdog Millionaire made $7 million and managed to come within spitting distance of $70 million. $100 million is now almost a given.

Movie News

1. Mickey Rourke is in negotiations to star in Gangster film Broken Horses.

Indian director Vidhu Vinod Chopra will direct.

I’m guessing that the producers will offer Rourke more than $250,000.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. Watchmen star Jeffrey Dean Morgan will star with Hilary Swank in The Resident. The Hammer Horror film will be directed by Antti J. Jokinen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“The story centers on a young doctor (Swank) who moves into a loft in Brooklyn where mysterious occurrences lead her to suspect that she is not alone in her home. She discovers that her seemingly charming landlord (Morgan) has developed a dangerous obsession with her, resulting in a terrifying game of cat and mouse. “

The last horror film that Morgan and Swank starred in was PS I Love You.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. Shrek fans rejoice! The Puss In Boots film has got a writer. Tom Wheeler will write the Shrek spin off. In the meantime Shrek Goes Fourth opens on May 21, 2010.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. If you’ve been looking forward to Bryan Singer’s Logan’s Run then you might be unhappy to learn that the film is far away. If it’s even in the distance.

Also, it looks like Superman isn’t on Singer’s plate either as the director plans to take some time off. Speaking to LA Times writer Chris Lee Singer said:

“At the moment, I haven’t decided. I really don’t know. I’m taking a genuine break. The last four years have been really busy with the miniseries, the TV and the movies. I’m taking a few months to collect myself and figure out what I’m going to do in that regard. We did a lot of development on that movie and a lot of work. To start it up again, I wouldn’t start it up again without a full commitment. So I have decisions to make. Right now, that’s just hanging around.”

Source: LA Times

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

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Taken Review

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:01:56 +0000

Short version: While parts of it are a stretch, overall Liam Neeson makes Taken an extremely satisfying action flick.

Screen Rant reviews Taken

My opinion of Taken may be skewed – I have a daughter. So a movie that shows a father’s daughter being kidnapped and the father going after the perpetrators with a vengeance most definitely speaks to me.

Another factor in favor of the film is casting an older actor as a kick ass action hero: Liam Neeson. Of course the flip side is that having a 56 year old “regular guy” kicking major amounts of butt does strain credulity just a bit.

Taken opens with Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) in the living room of a modest home. He’s alone and seems lonely. It turns out that he is divorced and is trying to make up for lost time with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). His ex-wife Lenore (a very stiff Famke Janssen) has married a rich man, and Bryan is having a hard time competing with that, even though his Kim obviously loves him.

Kim wants to go on a trip to France with a friend, but being ex-CIA and familiar with the dangers that are out there doesn’t want her to go. His ex-wife bullies him and his daughter’s disappointment finally convinces him to reluctantly let her go, but with a bunch of rules for calling him and checking in often.

Of course he turns out to be right and she and her friend are kidnapped rather soon after their arrival in Paris. Kim calls her dad while terrified as she sees her friend being manhandled, knowing that she is next. Bryan immediately goes into “CIA mode” during the call and when one of the kidnappers gets on the phone Bryan tells him that he has kidnapped the wrong person in no uncertain terms.

He heads off to Paris alone to track down the kidnappers and save his daughter, and that’s where the fun really begins. Despite the heavy tone of the film and what is at stake, it’s great watching Neeson as he follows the breadcrumbs, taking twists and turns (some of which are VERY unexpected) in tracking down his daughter’s whereabouts.

Surprisingly, Taken is rated PG-13. They manage this with the old “no blood visible” trick, but from the amount of violence and the subject matter (teen girls being kidnapped for sale into prostitution and addicted to serious drugs) I certainly think this should have been rated R.

Neeson is calm, cool and he kicks all kinds of bad guy butt. I enjoyed the film so much I could easily sit through it again, but it did have its flaws. Why did his CIA buddies not offer to go along and help? Some of the action scenes are a bit unbelievable considering how outnumbered Neeson is and the fact that they don’t present him as an uber-buff Stallone character. The number of dots he connects within a short span of time is also hard to swallow. And one of the people he kills at the end of the film with no repercussions is a bit hard to swallow.

But enough with the nit-picking: Taken was a rocking good time, especially during this January/February time of year when there isn’t much worth seeing at the movies.

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: January 11, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:54:23 +0000

In this Weeks Weekend Movie News Wrap Up::

Clint Eastwood drives to the top of the box office with Gran Torino; Ewan McGregor is Pierce Brosnan’s Ghost; Sienna Miller will not be visiting Nottingham; Morricone is not a Basterd; Moore, Neeson and Seyfried know Chloe; the Joker may have the last laugh in Batman 3 and Farrell, Weir and Harris are on their Way Back.

Box Office

Clint Eastwood showed his star power by capturing the number one position at the box office with a fantastic $30 million gross for Gran Torino. Clint’s Oscar touted movie was making good bank on limited release but it looks like the American masses love the ageing action icon. The film should have good legs and a final gross of $100 million is not out of the question.

Bride Wars should claim the runner-up position with about $20 million showing that women will watch Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson in just about anything. David Goyer’s The Unborn had a good start and should gross about $18 million. Okay David – you have Monday to celebrate and then it’s down to getting Chris Nolan to start writing the next Batman movie.

Not Easily Broken surprised many and should bank $6 million by Monday, which isn’t bad for a movie that’s only showing in 724 screens. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Bedtime Stories inch closer to the magic $100 million mark and Tom Cruise shows that he’s a bigger star than Will Smith as Valkyrie has out grossed Seven Pounds.

Movie News

1. We thought that The Ghost was going to be a Pierce Brosnan and Nicolas Cage team-up, but it looks like Cage has dropped out and Ewan McGregor has stepped in as the ghostwriter for the former British Prime Minister in the Roman Polanski helmed thriller.

Source: Pierce Brosnan

2. There’s more trouble in Nottingham as it appears that Sienna Miller has dropped out of the next Russell Crowe, Ridley Scott team-up. Miller was due to star as Maid Marrian in the re-imagining of the popular legend. The film has had numerous delays because of weather, script troubles and reported fights between Crowe and Scott.

There’s no official reason as to why Miller made (maid?) the descision but if you believe the unreliable Page Six then it’s because of Crowe’s vanity:

“Originally the movie was about a love triangle between Maid Marian, Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. It is now all about Russell’s Robin Hood. Literally, 40 pages of script were redone and now are just devoted to him and his massive ego. It’s amazing.”

Sounds to me like it’s all a lot of Crowe bashing, but I’m sure we will find out more in the near future.

Source:IMDB

3. It was previously reported that master soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone would be scoring the music for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, however he will now be composing Giuseppe Tornatore’s Baaria instead.

It could be worse, he could have gone on to score Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables.

Source: Playlist

4. Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried will star in director Atom Egoyan’s Chloe.

Accpording to Variety:

“Moore will play a successful doctor who suspects her husband (Neeson) of cheating. She tests his fidelity by hiring an escort (Seyfried) to seduce him. The move creates complications that put her family in danger.”

It sounds very 1990’s and that’s not a bad thing!

Neeson will next be seen in Taken while Seyfried was in the smash hit Mama Mia – yikes!

Source: Variety

5. The Dark Knight producer Charles Roven spoke with MTV about the follow-up to the mega grossing film. The producer (although coy) did indicate that The Clown Prince of Crime may appear in future instalments of the Bat-franchise. Roven said:

“We have to separate the actors from the role. On a personal level, Heath (Ledger) was a friend of mine. We had worked together before The Dark Knight, but I still think that The Dark Knight is its own thing, and we have to separate them.”

If they decide to recast I think Joaquin Phoenix woul be a good choice – it’s a shame that he has “retired.”

Source: MTV

6. Colin Farrell and Ed Harris will star in Peter Weir’s The Way Back alongside Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan. According to Variety:

“The thesps are in final negotiations to star for Weir in the fact-based story of a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942. Weir wrote the script, based on the memoir by Slavomir Rawicz. Farrell plays a tough, tattooed Russian; Harris an American; and Sturgess portrays a young Polish inmate. Ronan will play a Russian on the run who meets up with the fugitives.”

Sounds interesting, Weir is always one to watch and both Harris and Farrell are talented actors – could be one to watch next awards season. Although, I don’t know if I could buy the Irish Farrell as a Russian.

Source: Variety

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

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