Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: April 12, 2009

This week:

Miley is smiley over the box office; Gyllenhaal joins Thompson and Fiennes in Nanny McPhee; Terrance Howard may not be in Iron Man 2 – but he will star with Method Man and Gooding Jr in George Lucas’ Red Tails; Jennifer Garner likes Butter and  we discover Burt Dickenson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth.

Box Office

Well if you thought that Fast and Furious’ $70+ million gross was impressive last week then you’ll be amazed that the Hannah Montana The Movie with Miley Cyrus banked $34 million over the weekend. That’s enough to mend Billy Ray’s Achy Breaky Heart.

Fast & Furious sped past the magic $100 million mark with a weekend total of $28 million. Down an okay 59% after its mega opening the Vin Diesel/ Paul Walker pic has now made off with $118 million.

Monster Vs. Aliens brought its total up to $144 million after making another $22 million.

Observe and Report had a modest $11 million weekend. If people observe and report that it’s good then it might have legs (highly doubtful), otherwise it’ll be a DVD performer.

Knowing managed to grab another $6.5 million bringing the total of the Nic Cage film to just under the $70 million mark. I Love You, Man did about $½ million less and its at $58 million.

The Haunting in Connecticut scared up another $5 million giving the low budget horror a pretty decent $46 million.

Dragonball Evolution crashed and burned with a not so good $4.5 million opening. Seriously – who decides to make a movie like this when everybody knows from day one that it’ll be terrible and that’ll tank?

Duplicity eeked out $2 million. It’ll never see $40 million.

Movie news

1. Maggie Gyllenhaal will star in the sequel to Nanny McPhee 2. The Dark Knight star joins Emma Thompson and Ralph Fiennes in the film. The family pic starts shooting next month at Shepperton Studios in England.

Source: Production Weekly

2. George Lucas’ Red Tails has finally started getting its cast together. Cuba Gooding Jr and Terrence Howard and Method Man will join many others in the Anthony Hemingway directed film.

Lucas said:

“I’ve been wanting to do Red Tails for 20 years, and we’ve finally got the means to showcase the skill of the Tuskegee pilots. We’re working on techniques which will give us the first true look at the aerial dogfighting of the era. And our top-notch cast will really make this story special.”

Source: Dark Horizons

3. Jennifer Garner is attached to produce and possibly star in Butter.
According to the Hollywood reporter:

“Butter follows a young orphan who, after being adopted by a Midwestern family, discovers she has an uncanny talent for butter-carving. She eventually finds herself up against the ambitious wife of the retired reigning champion in a town’s annual butter-sculpting contest.”

The script was written by Jason Micallef.

It butter be good!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. Jake Kasdan will direct the comedy Burt Dickenson: The Most Powerful Magician on Planet Earth.

“The story centers on a Burt Dickenson, one half of successful two-man team who accidentally kills is partner and loses his inner magic. He has to find a way to rekindle it to fight his rival, a magician named Xander Storm.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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