Watchmen watches the top of the box office; Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are A Couple of Dicks; we may not get Three Stories About Joan but we will get a lot of suing; Wahlberg takes Prisoners; Steve Carrell brings us the worlds first “Testosterone comedy” in Hi-T; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck knows The 28^th Amendment (and breaks my spell check).

Box Office

As predicted Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen captured the top spot at the box office with an estimated $55 million opening weekend. A pretty substantial sum considering the near three hour running time and the R rating. Time will tell if the film has legs and the mainstream crossover appeal to the general public.

Madea Goes to Jail banked another $8.5 million to keep acquire the runner-up spot. So far the Tyler Perry film has netted $76 million.

Liam Neeson’s sleeper hit Taken has earned another $7.5 million on its sixth week in release! The film has now almost taken $120 million. I haven’t seen the film but I can only imagine that someone, somewhere is talking about a sequel.

Slumdog Millionaire has made another $6.5 million over the weekend bringing total gross of the Oscar winning film to $125 million.

According to Variety:

“The scripting team of Robb and Marc Cullen penned the screenplay, centered on a pair of cops who track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money.”

The film will be directed by Kevin Smith – the first time he hasn’t penned his own work.

Variety is also saying that the Warner Bros. film is Smith’s “first major studio pic” – this is untrue as Mallrats was a Universal production.

The studio also thought about calling the film A Couple of Cops but I’m sure that they realized that Dicks had more comedic mileage.

A Couple of Dicks will be released on January 29^th 2010.

Now get your mind out of the gutter (although that was obviously Kevin Smith’s intent – again)!

Source: Variety

2. Speaking of… Bruce Willis – the star and his production company is being sued by producers for breach of contact over his (ill-fated) directorial debut Three Stories About Joan. They claim that Willis quit the film without notice and are looking for $4 million in damages. However, these guys obviously haven’t seen Die Hard because Brucie is fighting back with a counter suit for $8.7 million. Willis’s lawyer Marty Singer said:

“In over three decades of practice, I have rarely seen such an absurd lawsuit. The production companies admitted they did not have the financing in place for the film, failed to pay members of the cast and crew, and failed to deposit Bruce Willis’ compensation in escrow, which resulted in the film not going forward. After Mr. Willis threatened to sue the production companies for their breach of contract, they responded with this baseless lawsuit.

Mr. Willis and other individual producers will proceed with their multi-million-dollar affirmative claims against the production companies this week, and are confident that they will prevail.”

Source: NY Daily News

Bruce Willis steps behind the camera for Three Stories About Joan; Ben Affleck also grabs the megaphone for The Town; Jim Sheridan makes I,Claudius; Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito reunite; Brett Ratner ponders Conan and Dwayne “The Rock Johnson visits Tomorrowland.

1. It has taken a long time but Bruce Willis is finally set to direct. The iconic action star is about to start shooting his directorial debut Three Stories About Joan. The film is a psychological thriller which will start shooting on October 2 until November 10.  Owen Wilson and Kieran Culkin will co-star in the pic that has a budget of $25-30 million.

Bruce has worked with some great directors in his time, so he should have picked up a trick or two.

Source: CHUD

2. Bruce’s Armageddon co-star Ben Affleck will return to directing with The Town. Affleck will also star in the film which is based on the novel Prince of Thieves. The plot follows a  professional thief who falls in love with the manager of a bank. I presume that the manager is female and that the thief intends to rob her bank.

The film was originally being developed by Adrian Lynne, but now Affleck will rewrite the script to his own tastes.

Source: Variety

3. My fellow Irishman Jim Sheridan is about to direct a film version of Robert Graves’ classic novel I, Claudius. The novel (and I presume the film) follows Claudius, a stuttering Roman who everyone believes to be a few biscuits short of the packet, but soon he defies all odds, with the use of his cunning to become Emperor of Rome.

A who’s who of British acting talent starred in the 1976 BBC adaptation.

This will make my dad very happy.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito are set to reunite in the dramedy Solitary Man. The Romancing the Stone/ Jewel of the Nile/ War of the Roses duo star in the film, of which Variety gives the following synopsis:

“Douglas plays a former owner of a car dealership chain whose career and marriage were destroyed by his business and romantic indiscretions.”

Susan Sarandon and Jenna Fischer also star.

It looks like when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Source: Variety

5. Word on the street is that fanboy favorite Brett Ratner is mulling over the opportunity to direct Conan.

Nope, that’s not a joke.

The long in development film hasn’t had a director attached, and apparently Ratner has been offered the directors chair to the epic adventure. However, he currently has about another 2000 films that he might like to make.

True or false? Who knows, but I always thought that Chris Tucker would make a good Conan.

Source: Dread Central

6. Dwayne “The Rock Johnson is making Tomorrowland for Disney. The film will be based on a section of their theme parks. The epic film will be an action adventure set in space.

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore are on scripting duties for the film which Disney denies has anything to do with its theme park. I wonder why, ahem…Haunted Mansion…ahem.

Source: Variety

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