It’s Sunday again and that means that it’s Weekend Wrap Up time.
This week:
We look at the weekend box office; Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley move to London Boulevard; Michael Uslan talks The Shadow; Spider-Man knows Good People; George Clooney returns to TV and Charlie’s Angels 3 appears to be heading this way!
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Box Office
Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans are fighting it out for the top spot. Both Sony films should make about $21 million over the weekend showing that all America wants is women in skin tight PVC and fat men in cop uniforms. There’s a movie pitch in there somewhere.
Brendan Fraser’s lucky streak at the box office ran out with Inkheart bagging just $2 million on Friday. A weekend of maybe $6.5 million should mean that Fraser will be knocking at Universal’s door come Monday looking for a fourth Mummy movie.
Clint Eastwood kicked all new comers off his lawn this weekend with a $14 million gross for Gran Torino. Who says that you need Oscar nominations for box office?
Speaking of Oscars - Slumdog Millionaire leads the pack with a predicted weekend gross of $9 million. Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet’s Revolutionary Road should manage about $5 million by Monday, which is far from Titanic numbers.
Meanwhile on the opposite end of the prestige picture scale My Bloody Valentine should murder another $9 million while that other horror movie Bride Wars should scare up another $5 million bringing its total just short of $50 million.
Movie News
- Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley will team up for London Boulevard. The thriller marks the directorial debut of The Departed screenwriter William Monaghan. The thriller which is based on the novel by Ken Bruen is inspired by the classic film Sunset Boulevard. Farrell will play a recently released convict who befriends a reclusive actress (Knightley).
London Boulevard will start shooting in London (obviously) this summer.
Source: The Daily Mail
2. Comic book adaptations keep coming. The Shadow is on his way and Batman producer Michael Uslan has given some details on the film.
Uslan told MTV:
“I think the one thing going in is we all see The Shadow as more of a force of nature than a specific person in a secret identity. The Shadow may actually be many people. We’ve gone back to the pulp roots, the comic book roots of The Shadow, with a dash of the radio roots, but we’ve deeply ensconced ourselves in the world of pulps and comics.”
I wouldn’t hold your breath for this one though. When asked about when we might see the film he replied:
“Sam (Raimi) and Josh Donen are my partners and we have it set up Sony, and a wonderful writer named Siavash Farahani who has worked for me before is writing the screenplay. It’s coming along great, we’re very excited about it. You know, it takes time to nurture these things. You probably know all the stories. The first Batman film took me 10 years to get made.”
The Shadow was originally made into a film in 1994 starring Alec Baldwin. It wasn’t very good.
Source: MTV
3. Spider-Man himself – Tobey Maguire is developing a film called Good People based on a novel by Marcus Sakey.
According to Variety:
“Good People concerns a couple in debt from several rounds of futile fertility treatments who think their problems are solved when they stumble upon money found in their deceased tenant’s apartment.”
Sounds like Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave.
Maguire is producing and is mulling over starring in the film that will be scripted by Kelly Masterson.
Source: Variety
4. George Clooney is set to return to the role of Doug Ross in E.R . Clooney left the medical drama ten years ago to have a successful film career, but now that the show is wrapping up after 15 years they’ve lured him back with a final guest-starring role.
Ladies you can check out a more mature Doug Ross below.
He scrubs up well. Get it?
Scource: Extra TV
5. Be afraid – be very afraid.
It looks like Charlie’s Angels 3 might be on its way. Producer and star Drew Barrymore seems keen on returning to the franchise. Whilst promoting He’s Just Not That Into You Barrymore said:
“I’m so into it-’Charlie’s Angels 3!’”
Barrymore’s producing partner Nancy Juvonen remarked:
“It’s percolating up. It’s rising to the surface.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and say if this does go ahead don’t expect McG to be at the helm. He appears to be trying to distance himself from the Angels movies and with Terminator: Salvation on the horizon he wouldn’t want to open old wounds.
The original films (based on the television series) co-starred Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.
Source: Coming Soon
That’s it for now. See You at the movies
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14 Comments
The Shadow as more then one person?
A group?
Sounds intruiging.
I have as much interest in the SHadow as I would in the Phantom, Dick Tracy, The SPirit, etc…very little but the premise sounds more interesting that the previous movie with Alec Baldwin…The problem is that they have not updated the characters at all and they seem to be outdated now…
Charlie’s Angels 3
Why for the love of Mike Why?
I guess it goes to show that fear and common sense are not factors involved in film making in Hollywood…
The 1994 “The Shadow” WAS very good. It had the right amount of cheese, but the rest was pure class. Sure, it was riding the Batman trainwagon, but it took all the right ingredients. It also had an ALL STAR cast, btw.
It stayed very close to its roots and it’s a shame there weren’t any sequels.
So … many people being the Shadow?
No thanks!
Actually, put it on halt altogether, there is no need for another Shadow movie. It’ll probably try too hard to be Dark Knight anyway.
Oh, and to dig me an even deeper grave:
I kinda look forward to a third Charlie’s Angels.
No, I am not insane.
I … think.
@ David
I agree the Shadow had a good cast for it’s time although I think Tim Curry was over-the-top unintentionally and it was written by David Koepp (although my opinion of him is changing since Indy 4). I’m just of the opinion that we don’t need another Shadow film ( although if I stuck by my logic on that one then I would not have supported another Batman film after Batman & Robin
). I also enjoyed The Phantom with Billy Zane but I am in no hurry to see another Phantom movie…
But Charlie’s ANgels dude? It’s like saying you need another bacterial pneumonia on top of the viral pneumonia you already have…
@ greenknight
The Phantom joined the strange “under the radar” club of “kinda great comic book movies”, but I prefer The Shadow over Billy Zane in a pink stretchy. If only he’d have switched costumes with Catherine Zeta Jones … *sigh*
Anyway, let me clarify my “Angels” opinion.
I never understood it when people said “relax, it’s only a movie” until I saw the two Angels flicks.
Being a total and complete movie enthusiast, I HATE it when a film acts like it’s just “for fun” … especially when there’s beloved source material involved.
That WASN’T the case with Charlie’s Angels. The show was meh and what “McG” (crappy name) did with it was actually kinda clever.
He created a self-contained universe in which 3 hot chicks kick unrealistic ass.
The films serve the same purpose like a well made porno.
You watch it, it ends, you’re satisfied.
If you’re a fan of the original show or demand a realistic approach … the two Angels films are a friggin disgrace, true.
But chained to a chair Clockwork Orange style, I would watch them ANYTIME over Indy 4, Quantum Of Solace or … a certain other movie that I won’t mention now because of the incredible wave of “WHAT???” replies that would break loose.
Phew.
This post didn’t change anything, right?
At least I stole you, the reader, a few seconds of precious life-time!
*Cue evil laughter*
@ David Hasselbach
GREAT post dude!!
“The films serve the same purpose like a well made porno.”
LMAO…and was your third choice a certain costumed vigilante who got bitten by a really big dog?
And you didn’t steal anything from me that I wasn’t prepared to surrender..although maybe a little more time than neccesary as I am a S-L-O-W reader..but as I stated to Ken J awhile back my purchases of Volumes 1 & 2 of the Electric Company are helping improve my reedin and com-pree-hen-shun skills..By-the-way, if you read this consider us even on the time-theft issue
WUU-HA-HA-HA !!!!
Cheers
“… same purpose AS a well made porno” … it’s damn late … need … sleep …
The dog wasn’t that big.
And the movie gets better on the second viewing. But not much.
Great crime movie though.
Dammit. I feel like I should be ashamed for not raving about it. I LOVE the character … but this one … I don’t know what went wrong.
Ok, I will end this discussion before it actually begins.
“Begins” … *sigh*
It would end up with me crying and sobbing in a fetus position anyway.
A pitiable sight.
Which I will spare you.
G’night, sir.
Until next time!
The “Charlies Angels” films truly ended up worse than I could have ever expected. I enjoyed the show as a kid, but that wasn’t enough to make the movies enjoyable. Those films were just dreadful examples of film-making.
That said, I will confess to having enjoyed the Alec Baldwin “Shadow,” but even I couldn’t hold it up as an example of how pulp hero concepts should be adapted to film. Sorry.
@Bill
No need to be sorry.
I don’t think The Shadow OR Charlie’s Angels are shining examples of filmmaking and I FULLY understand if people don’t like them. I just don’t understand actual hatred against these particular films.
In perspective, you’ll always get an Uwe Boll for a Christopher Nolan, but a hell lot of “normal” filmmakers in between.
And McG is no Boll.
Actually, NO ONE apart from Boll is Boll.
Luckily.
Interestingly, this whole thread made me think about a more “back to the roots” version of Charlie’s Angels. More 3 hard-ass women (possibly with tragic backstories) that do their secret agent thing…
Could have been possible. Definitely.
But we have to sit out 2 more sequels before they reboot the franchise.
And anyway, isn’t Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE coming out soon, anyway??
One more thing for Bill:
just curious: what movie DO you hold up as an example of how pulp hero concepts should be adapted to film?
David, that last question is a mighty good one, and the honest truth is that I’m not sure I can even think of one. Heck, has a single one been made right, and can one even be made right? I’ve never seen what was done with “The Phantom,” so I’m not sure how that turned out.
Although, I have to type a bit of a qualifier to my previous post. I’d had “The Shadow” in my NetFlix queue to watch online anyway, and this thread got me curious to see it. I just finished watching it, and I’m really surprised to see it was a better movie than I remembered. I think a lot of the credit goes to the actors. They managed to make a lot of the camp stay grounded just enough to work. And jeez! I had no clue that Ian McKellan was in that film (can’t wait to surprise my wife with that bit of trivia).
I can understand why some people outright hate what was done for “Charlie’s Angels,” but I also think it would be foolish to say those films weren’t staying true (somewhat) to the original series. After all, those old shows were pretty goofy, too. It’s kind of like the old Batman TV series. I loved it as a kid, but now that I’m grown up, watching them kind of makes me cringe.
I dearly hope The Shadow is picked up quicker than that.
@Gary:
In the pulps, the Shadow has several identities, most of which are borrowed from real people, and a number of agents he recruits to spy on the underworld. He is also a master of disguise who can look like anyone. He’s less powerful than the Baldwin version, but much darker and interesting.
I can imagine filmmakers using more than one actor to portray the Shadow, although the character is really just one person.
I love all the non-corny bits of The Shadow with Alec Baldwin. He really nailed the character. However, I would have preferred less of a backstory, which is almost entirely acanonical with the pulps or radio show.
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