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.

Short Version: While Valkyrie offers a few thrills, the rest is just OK.

Screen Rant reviews Valkyrie

Valkyrie is director Bryan Singer’s WWII true-life ensemble film about a cabal of Nazi officers who conspired  to kill Adolf Hitler during the later days of the war. Overshadowing all of that is, of course, Tom Cruise, who stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the German officer who hatches the plan to overthrow Hitler, codenamed Valkyrie.

It’s that time of the week again. Sunday is here and therefore we must be due a Weekend Movie News Wrap Up. This week we look at the box office as well as:

No Cleo for Hugh Jackman; Mars attacks G.I. Joe; Thor lands in present day and Zombie unleashes a look at Michael Myers in Halloween 2.

All has been quiet on the Tom Cruise future project front lately, however have no fear! We finally have an update!

Charlize Theron is “in negotiations” to join Tom in The Tourist, an espionage thriller that we told you about way back in August. According to Variety:

“Theron will play a female Interpol agent who uses an American tourist in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair.”

Finally! This film is done moving around and about to come out (I hope).

Yesterday, Coming Soon was given some exclusive images from United Artists for the upcoming WWII movie Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise. In addition to that, the final trailer for the film was released today and it looks great!

This project has been rife with controversy and an ever-changing release schedule so I’ll provide a brief background: The first trailer was released an entire year ago for a planned theatrical opening this summer. Then the film was shuffled around the summer followed by being pushed back twice; first into October, then again to next February.

This raised suspicions and doubts about the quality of the film.

Today we have a look at the first poster for Valkyrie as well as a brand new trailer. The first trailer was released last November (I cannot believe it’s been that long already). I didn’t really see much hope for the film from that trailer and I certainly do not buy Tom Cruise’s character… especially since he sounds and seems to act like he does in all of his other films with that American accent.

Another Sunday brings another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

We look at the weekend box office and why Robert De Niro doesn’t like the Edge of Darkness, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington make a sequel, we get to see Where the Wild Things Are, Russell Crowe goes Holmes and Tom Cruise might go to Florence.

Another Wednesday and therefore another Mid-Week Movie Wrap up to furnish you with the latest movie news around.

This week we look at:

Why Tim Roth isn’t in Inglorious Bastards, who will be directing a new Tarzan film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles go live action, Jerry Bruckheimer decides that Killing Rommel is a good idea and we search for The 39 Clues.

Tom Cruise – actor, legend, husband, father, religious icon and couch jumper.

Love him or loathe him, Cruise has had an incredible career and you have to admit that his place in film history is secure. However in the last few years the star has had a bit of a rough time, not only from the press, but also by the head honchos in Hollywood.

This week has seen a flurry of Tom Cruise related news, and as Screen Rant’s main Cruise supporter and apologist it has come down to me to report it.

We have seen Valkyrie’s release date change (again), Cruise drop out of Edwin A. Salt, the star realize that he has a love of comedy – as well as thriller and his friend/ mentor Paula Wagner was booted from the United Artists lot.

The months of January to April are pretty much when studios dump their garbage on the movie-going public.

So when news broke a few months back that Bryan Singer’s WWII thriller Valkyrie was being pushed back to a February 13, 2009 release, I assumed that the film was in fact going to be a piece of cinematic garbage.

Well maybe I simply jumped to conclusions too quickly…

A WWII thriller directed by an acclaimed filmmaker (who is responsible for two major superhero franchises, no less), starring an international cast (including a box-office super-star turned public punchline) and featuring an awesome trailer.

Is this really a film you want to dump in the “film wasteland” of February?

Apparently, that’s the mindset over at MGM/United Artists.

For the second time now, Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie has been pushed back; this time to February 13, 2009 where it will face off against Disney’s Confessions of a Shopaholic and Sony’s Pink Panther 2.

The film was originally slated for an August 8th release, then it was bumped to June 27th before it settled on October 3. But at least that move made sense.

I haven’t done any coverage of the Tom Cruise starring film Valkyrie, but I thought you might like to see the trailer.

There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding the shooting of this movie over in Germany due to Cruise’s Scientology beliefs, which they (correctly) labeled as a cult. Anyway, the movie is based on the true story of a number of German officers who conspired to assassinate Hitler during World War II. It was directed by Brian Singer, who you probably know is the guy behind the very well done X-Men, X-Men 2, The Usual Suspects and the not so great Superman Returns.

This looks to be quite good and probably a film that my wife will actually come with me to watch at the movie theater.

The trailer follows after the jump.