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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 4th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 23:10:03 +0000

This week:

The Help stays at the top of the box office while The Debt owes nothing to Apollo 18 and Shark Night; Maria Maggenti has the time of her life writing Dirty Dancing; Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire are driving The Great Gatsby to big screen success; Berenger, Boothe and Winningham join Costner and Paxton in Hatfields and McCoys and Anna Kendrick is Pitch Perfect for her new role.

Box Office

Sleeper hit The Help retained the top spot during another subdued weekend at the box office. The drama should score $18 million over the four day weekend ($14 million for the three days). The film’s total now stands at $122 million.

Sam Worthington’s The Debt (read our review) was at number two with a long weekend gross in the region of $12 million($9.6 million for the three days). The John Madden directed thriller has grossed $14 ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: August 14th, 2011

Sandy Schaefer — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:48:06 +0000

This week:

Apes continue to rise, The Help has a heyday, and Final Destination 5 keeps the franchise alive… for now; The Smurfs will return in 2013; Bridget Jones’s love woes aren’t over yet; Disney is giving Cinderella a makeover; Patrick Wilson jumps onboard the Prometheus ship; and Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston is writing and directing his own movie.

Box Office

Neither Emma Stone nor Death itself could stop Rise of the Planet of the Apes from snagging the box office crown a second time this weekend. The popular prequel dropped about 49% from its opening for an estimated $27 million take and a $104.4 million total. Suffice it to say, 20th Century Fox will want Rupert Wyatt to start giving more thought to his sequel(s) plans, ASAP.

Positive buzz helped propel The Help to the #2 spot over the weekend, where it took in some $25.7 million for a ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: August 7th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:59:19 +0000

This week:

Apes rise to the top of the box office as Rise of the Planet of the Apes captures the top spot; Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon are in deep…Mud; Kenneth Branagh moves from Thor to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road faces even more problems; J.J. Abrams gives reasons for the delays on Star Trek 2; Ethan Hawke teams with the makers of Insidious and Paranormal Activity and there is news on the new futuristic and geographically inaccurate Robin Hood.

Box Office

It looks like 20th Century Fox’s risky reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise has paid-off. Rise of the Planet of the Apes surpassed studio expectations and should bank an estimated $54 million over the weekend, an impressive number considering that last film in the longstanding franchise was Tim Burton’s critically mauled “re-imagining” of the classic Planet of ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: July 31, 2011 [Updated]

Niall Browne — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:56:33 +0000

This week:

It’s a stand-off at the box office as Cowboys & Aliens has a showdown with The Smurfs- but the Cowboys win; Simon Pegg has A Fantastic Fear of Everything; Miles Teller, Justin Chon, Skylar Astin and Sarah Wright are 21 and Over; Val Kilmer and Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt gets interactive; John Cusack and Nic Cage re-team for The Frozen Ground and Antoine Fuqua gets ready to Storm Las Vegas.

Box Office

A fierce battle was fought at the box office over the weekend, as Cowboys & Aliens faced off against The Smurfs (read our review). Cowboys won the weekend taking $36.4 million, while The Smurfs had to settle for second place with $35.6 million. This is good news for The Smurfs, but bad news for Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. The pricey sci-fi/western combo was expected to bank in the region of $40 million on its ...

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‘The Smurfs’ Review

Ben Kendrick — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:20:12 +0000

Screen Rant’s Ben Kendrick reviews The Smurfs

Many film fans will undoubtedly look back on The Smurfs animated series as a staple of their childhood (or their children’s childhood). While the iconic 1980s show established the characters in American pop culture, the little blue inhabitants of Smurf Village had already been around for over twenty years (thanks to Belgian creator Peyo) – even spawning a black and white cartoon film, The Adventures of the Smurfs.

Now, over fifty years after their debut director Raja Gosnell (Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Scooby-Doo) has delivered live-action Smurfs to theater screens here in America – with appearances by Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofía Vergara, and Hank Azaria. Without question, The Smurfs (in 3D) is set to dazzle a new generation of children who never got to ...

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Interview: Neil Patrick Harris Talks ‘The Smurfs’ & Geek-Love

Roth Cornet — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:40:07 +0000

Sony’s live-action adaptation of Peyo’s little blue creation The Smurfs, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Hank Azaria, Katy Perry and Jonathan Winters, opens in theaters this Friday. We had the chance to sit down with Harris and talk about the film, his most beloved roles, and being the object of unabashed geek-love.

SR: You’ve had quite a varied career, but this is a bit of a departure from what people know of you and the characters you have tended to portray in recent years. Was that one of the appeals of taking on the role?

“I think so. I like that Patrick’s sort of an everyman. I’ve been playing kind of the wacky friend for a little while, so I think it’s nice to kind of ground it in a bit of normalcy. And yet it doesn’t seem like too ...

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‘The Smurfs’ Edit Bay Visit and Chat with Hank Azaria & Jayma Mays

Roth Cornet — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:17:00 +0000

“La, la, la, la, la, la [insert clever-phrase here].” (Have a go at filling in that blank in the comments section… keep it clean please.)

We recently had the opportunity to attend an edit bay visit for the upcoming live-action/CGI adaptation of the classic and beloved Peyo children’s comic-strips The Smurfs. Most of us are likely more familiar with the Saturday morning cartoon version of the little blue-ones – but the creators of The Smurfs movie assure us that they are drawing primarily from the original source material.

Fun fact! Peyo came up with the name for his creatures when he momentarily forgot the word for “salt” at a dinner with a friend and very politely requested they pass the ...

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‘The Smurfs’ Trailer #2 – Spot That Product Placement

Kofi Outlaw — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:05:31 +0000

Well, we knew from the start that a film like The Smurfs - i.e., a CGI/live-action re-imagining of a beloved classic cartoon – would follow in the footsteps of Scooby-Doo, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Yogi Bear as being the type of silly film only kids would enjoy. We also knew that the ‘adult humor’ – primarily the suggestive use of the word “Smurf” – was something likely to give a lot of parents headaches, if and when their toddlers begin spouting those borderline phrases.

However, it wasn’t until the arrival of The Smurfs‘ second trailer that we discovered something else about this film – that it’s one big advertisement disguised as a movie, designed to enslave the minds of the youth.

Ok, so maybe that last statement was a bit on the hyperbolic side – ...

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New TV Spots: ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Cowboys & Aliens’, ‘The Smurfs’

Sandy Schaefer — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:37:26 +0000

The marketing campaigns for some of this summer’s biggest titles rage on, which means there are new television spots for three pics due to hit the big screen this July – specifically, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Cowboys & Aliens, and The Smurfs.

All three of these titles are technically brand names in the sense that they are based on a massive best-selling novel, a relatively obscure comic book, and a comic strip-turned popular animated 1980s television series, respectively. Anticipation for each project, however, varies greatly.

Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is easily THE movie event of the season for the millions who’ve been watching the Harry Potter film adaptations since Sorcerer’s Stone was released a decade ago. Fast forward to 2011 and now Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), ...

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Movie Poster Roundup: ‘Fast Five’, ‘Thor’, ‘X-Men: First Class’ & More

Paul Young — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:09:24 +0000

Today is the fresh new start of something we used to do every week at Screen Rant – the Weekly Movie Poster Roundup! Each week we will scour the Internet looking for the best, the worst and the most interesting movie posters we can find and post them all in one place for you to enjoy.

From mainstream films to unknown independent films, we are sure to have something that appeals everyone’s movie tastes, so make sure you come back each Friday to see what we’ve dug up.

In this week’s roundup we’ve have posters for the following movies: Fast Five, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, X-Men: First Class, Source Code, The Smurfs, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Hop, Priest, Scream 4, Bad Teacher, Warrior, The Ward, ...

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‘The Smurfs’ Trailer Debuts

Ben Moore — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:42:23 +0000

There has been a strange and somewhat horrifying trend developing with regard to big-screen adaptations of decades-old cartoons. From the Garfields to Alvin and the Chipmunks and its Squeakuel to the more recent, but no less revolting, Yogi Bear.

They almost always feature live action human actors, terribly animated CG characters, a bevy of fart jokes and/or stupid puns. Based on this new trailer, The Smurfs looks to be no different.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Smurfs, such that it is:

When the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) chases the Smurfs out of their village, they’re forced through a portal, out of their world and into ours, landing in the middle of New York’s Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them ...

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Take a Smurfy Look at a New Poster & Image from ‘The Smurfs’

Paul Young — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:18:33 +0000

Hollywood continues to mine our childhood memories for movie ideas by taking some of our favorite cartoons – Richie Rich, Josie and the Pussycats, and Fat Albert – and turning them into miserable big screen adaptations. Even Alvin and the Chipmunks and most recently Yogi Bear have been turned into 3D shells of them former selves.

Waiting in the wings to take their stab at the big 3D screen are The Smurfs – those lovable blue creatures who are three apples high, harvest smurfberries and sing in the woods all day. We got our first good look at the iconic creatures in the Smurfs teaser trailer as they rode through the streets of Manhattan clinging to a speeding taxi.

Today we get a better look at some of the more popular Smurf characters ...

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Sony Animated Movie Snags ‘Nemo’ Writer & ‘Iron Giant’ Animator

Ross Miller — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:27:55 +0000

Fans of Pixar’s beloved Finding Nemo might want to sit up and take notice as one of the film’s writers, David Reynolds, is set to write the script for an original, yet-to-be-titled animated film which was just picked up by Sony Pictures Animation.

Heat Vision has the news of the new animated film, the plot of which is being kept under wraps for the time being. Along with the news of Reynolds writing the script, animation veteran Stephan Franck will direct the film.

Franck has been working in animation for years, with some of his most notable work being as a storyboard artist on Despicable Me, a story artist on How To Train Your Dragon and an animator on The Iron Giant and Space Jam. Franck actually came up with the ...

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First Image From the New Muppet Movie & ‘The Smurfs’ Promo Pic

Sandy Schaefer — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:16:32 +0000

Both adult and younger moviegoers should get a kick out of next year’s The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made, while kids make up the target audience for the upcoming 3D movie adaptation, The Smurfs.

The first official image of Jason Segel and his puppet costars from the set of the new Muppet movie has been released, along with a promo pic that offers a better look at the CGI blue-skinned Smurfs.

Here’s a semi-official synopsis of the Muppet’s next cinematic venture (which looks to be titled The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made after all):

‘The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made’ is about Gary (Segel), Mary (Amy Adams), and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man’s life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang – now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them ...

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Tuesday Movie Poster Madness

Paul Young — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:30:19 +0000

In the past, posters were one of the primary items that studios would use to promote their upcoming films – and the only way a person could see them was at the local movie theater. Well, like the great Bob Dylan once said, “Times, they are a changing.” With the advent of the Internet, studios can now put their posters in front of more eyes, and they aren’t just limited to standard one-sheets either.

Today fans can enjoy all sorts of media types, sizes, and forms. All kinds of posters are popular and with more and more talented artists becoming increasingly adept at using Photoshop we’ve surely not seen the limit of their abilities yet.

Today we’ve scoured the blog-o-sphere to share with you fifteen posters for eight upcoming films – so let’s jump right into it.

The Walking Dead

Anticipation ...

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‘Smurfs’ Teaser Trailer is Strictly for the 5 & Under Crowd

Mike Eisenberg — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:10:19 +0000

A new teaser for Sony Pictures Animation’s The Smurfs has finally been released. Neil Patrick Harris, one of the many stars of the film, presents the first look at the part live-action, part-CGI film.

The teaser is pretty limited, but gives a close-up (if brief) look at the film’s titular stars. As expected, the Smurfs are tiny in comparison to their real-world counterparts. It might be fun to see them interact with the hectic environment of New York City.

Instead of focusing on the Smurfs, it acts like a faux disaster movie. Major monuments around the world are turning blue in what appears to be some kind of attack. But that’s no terrorist attack… The world is simply getting “Smurf’d!”

That word and the color blue are going to be everywhere next summer. But no ...

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‘Smurfs’ Set Pics & Videos

Paul Young — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:22:45 +0000

The movie about blue creatures who commune with nature to defend themselves from an evil human presence, Avatar The Smurfs, has been in production for quite a few months now – just recently, principal photography began shooting in New York City.

The invention of video capable cell phone, combined with filming in a well populated city, makes it inevitable that amateur video of cast members shooting a scene would hit the web.

Collider was kind enough to point us in the direction of these two below:

Gargamel Running After Something

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_v0mzOF82c

Gargamel Bumps into Johan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhjIC1CcDHg

One of the important things to note here is in the second video. It had been previously stated that Gargamel’s faithful feline sidekick Azrael would be a live action cat – ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 2, 2010

Niall Browne — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:11:08 +0000

This week:

A Nightmare On Elm Street scares away Dragons; Mickey Rourke Talks Khan; Glee star Dianna Agron is Number Four, we meet even more Smurfs and lots, lots more!

Box Office

A Nightmare On Elm Street scared away all the competition over the weekend. The Freddie Kruger horror re-imagining stole $34 million from cinemagoers giving the long-running franchise a record best opening. The Michael Bay produced reboot already has a sequel in the pipeline and it looks like this franchise still has a lot of scares left in it. Jackie Earle Haley wears the striped sweater originally worn by Robert Englund.

Freddie did something that Jennifer Lopez was unable to do last weekend – dethrone How To Train Your Dragon. The leggy animated tale brought in $10.5 million over the weekend, giving the film a ...

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First Look at Hank Azaria as Gargamel in The Smurfs

Rob Frappier — Sat, 01 May 2010 08:37:54 +0000

The Smurfs is one of the more interesting films coming out next year (and by interesting I mean it has the potential to be good or really, really bad). Besides the fact that it’s coming out in 3D, which is always hit-or-miss, the movie boasts a wildly diverse cast including Anton Yelchin and Fred Armisen, as well as pop singer Katy Perry, Glee star Jayma Mays, and Hank Azaria.

Among those names, the person I’m most interested in seeing is Hank Azaria as the Smurfs’ arch-nemesis, Gargamel. Azaria has long been one of my favorite supporting actors and I think that if anyone can help The Smurfs find success in the frequently flimsy family comedy genre, it would be him.

Recently, Splash News (via Coming Soon) released the first ...

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Anton Yelchin & Fred Armisen Join Smurfs; Plot Confirmed

Christopher Campbell — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:23:31 +0000

We’ve been able to speculate for a while now, but a press release from Sony confirms that the plot of The Smurfs will be very smurfamiliar to moviegoers who’ve seen Enchanted, Masters of the Universe (and its clone, Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time), Fat Albert, Howard the Duck, and probably many other such “clever” films involving characters who transport from their dimension to modern-day Earth.

This time, the little blue guys are chased out of their village by Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and “tumble” into New York City, where they befriend Neil Patrick Harris. Here’s the official wording, just because I want you to read the Big Apple line:

Audiences everywhere are in for a Smurfy good time as the Smurfs make their first 3D trip to the big screen. When the evil ...

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