Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: December 07, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:39:47 +0000

It’s hard to believe that we are now into December. It seems like only yesterday I was talking about the big summer releases – and now we are looking forward to next years big movies.

This weeks Weekend Movie News Wrap Up features the obligatory box office wrap up as well as:

La Beouf is The Associate; Stiller talks Zoolander 2; who is Angelina Jolie? Zombie returns to Halloween and Brownlow Vs Captain Blood.

Box Office

America just loves Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. How do I know this? Simple: Four Christmases grossed another $18 million over the weekend, keeping it the top movie at the box office despite terrible reviews. That’s only a 41% drop from opening weekend, usually an indication of a movie being very popular.

Twilight should bag another $14 million keeping it in the No. 2 position. Man, it must suck being a Studio Executive who turned this vampire flick down.

Bolt should manage another $10 million, keeping Disney quite happy with its gross. $100 million is well on target.

Bond, James Bond should collect another $8 million or so giving Quantum of Solace a little over $150 million.

Australia should manage another $6 million giving the Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman film a weak $30 million gross. Not good. After Deception flopped earlier in the year and now this – Jackman must be praying that Wolverine does well.

Punisher: War Zone flopped HUGE on its opening, grossing just $4 (four!) million – about half of what Thomas Jane’s The Punisher grossed in 2004. It looks like the movie-going public just don’t dig Frank Castle. This is the third attempt to bring The Punisher to the screen and it will probably be the last. It looks like the Lexi Alexander directed film didn’t benefit from all of the pre-release rumor that was floating about over the summer. It should make a killing on DVD, so maybe a series of straight to DVD Punisher films is what is needed. Just a thought.

Movie News

1. Shia La Beouf goes where Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Matthew McConaughey have gone before. Get your mind out of the gutter – it has nothing to do with Penelope Cruz. He will be top-lining a John Grisham adaptation. La Beouf will star in The Associate, a legal thriller based on an as yet unpublished novel by Grisham.

According to Variety:

“LaBeouf will play a student who’s about to graduate from Yale Law School when he’s manipulated into accepting a job at a prestige law firm and given privileged information about a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.”

Sounds like pure Grisham. Should be another $100 million hit under Shia’s belt.

La Beouf’s Transformer producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing.

Source: Variety

2. Ben Stiller must be in the sequel mood as he’s developing a follow-up to 2001’s cult favorite Zoolander.

Stiller currently in the UK promoting Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa told The Sun:

“I’ve been trying to get Zoolander 2 together and we’ve had a few scripts. I feel that is the sequel I really would like to do some day because I like the original and I would make sure it was something new and worthy of it first.”

He also reportedly threatened another Meet The Parents.

Take these rumors with a pinch of salt a British tabloids have a habit of being creative with the truth.

Source: The Sun

3. Speaking of Salt, there appears to be some confusion of Angelina Jolie’s forthcoming action-thriller Salt.

Salt is a thriller that Jolie inherited from Tom Cruise – originally titled Edwin A.Salt. Some believe that the film may be Erika Salt, while others are of the opinion that the film will be simply called Salt – with the character called Evelyn..

Apparently in the sequel she teams up with a soldier from the US Army called Sgt. Pepper. This follow-up will be called Salt and Pepper.

Sorry – I just made up the last bit.

Source: Joblo

4. It looks like shock-rocker Rob Zombie will helm the sequel to his re-imagining/remake/rehash of John Carpenter’s Halloween.

Originally Zombie had stated that he would not return, but I’m guessing that Dimension made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo were originally signed to make the film, but they left due to “creative differences.”

Apparently shooting is due to star in March, however there is no confirmation of a script being in place.

That’s never stopped a movie though!

Source: Shock Till You Drop

5. John Brownlow will write the script for Phillip Noyce’s remake of the legendary Captain Blood.

The original starred Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone. The remake won’t have anyone half as cool.

Source: Dark Horizons

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

Screen Rant » zoolander 2

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: December 07, 2008