Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 20, 2009

This week:

The outlook for the box office is Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs; Scott Glenn delivers Zack Snyder a Sucker Punch; Rebecca Hall is a Liar; Gael Garcia Bernal and Kate Hudson are Earthbound and Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawk are Brooklyn’s Finest.

Box Office

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs hit the top spot at the box office this weekend with a hefty $30 million debut. It shows that animated films in 3D are big money.

Matt Damon and Stephen Soderbergh go together like er… George Clooney and Stephen Soderbergh. The Informant! had a $11 million-ish opening – which isn’t bad for an arty comedy film. Is Damon bankable without Bourne? Time will tell.

Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad By Myself dropped down to third place this weekend with a gross of $10 million. The total take for the film is nearly at $40 million, so it looks like another hugely profitable film for Perry.

Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart’s Love Happens had a disappointing start with a $9 million weekend. The terrible title and poster probably didn’t help.

Jennifer’s Body (the film, not Aniston’s) had a really bad start with just $7 million in the bank over the weekend. The much-hyped Megan Fox film shows that the actress isn’t a star and that Diablo Cody’s Oscar hype might be wearing off. I can only assume that Fox will be sending Michael Bay some flowers and an apology in the hope that he casts her in Transformers 3.

9 made another $5.2 million for a $22.5 million total. That’s a lot of numbers in a sentence that isn’t about math.

Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds scalped another $4 million for a $110 million total.

The Final Destination banked another $3.5 million for an impressive $63 million cumulative tally, meanwhile All About Steve grossed a smidgen less giving the Sandra Bullock film a $26 million total. At least The Proposal still shows she can anchor a hit.

Sorority Row brought in just over $2.5 million giving the fright film a grand total of just $9 million. A spot on the DVD shelf awaits!

Movie News

1. The gruff and wrinkled Scott Glenn has joined the cast of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch.

According to Variety:

“Set in the 1950s, the pic revolves around Baby Doll, a girl who creates an alternate reality to escape the every-day world after her stepfather commits her to a mental hospital with plans to have her lobotomized. Glenn will play a mentor and guide to Baby Doll and the other girls in the asylum.”

The actor will share the screen with the less gruff and wrinkly Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Amand Seyfried and Emily Browning.

Source: Variety

2. British actress Rebecca Hall has joined the cast of Richard Linklater’s Liars A-E.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“The actress will play the role of Bacall Loomis, a woman who sets out on a road trip during the Obama inauguration to reclaim items that used to be hers from ex-boyfriends.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. Gael Garcia Bernal is in negotiations to star opposite Kate Hudson in Earthbound.

The film follows a terminally ill woman who falls in love with her doctor.

Is it just me or does this sound really, really terrible? I mean could they try and make it any more cliched? I think not.

Source: Variety

4. Overture Films has acquired the distribution rights to Anton Fuqua’s latest Brooklyn’s Finest for $2 million.

“(The film) follows three Brooklyn cops who end up at the same deadly location after experiencing diverging career paths.”

The action-thriller stars Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawk.

It sounds Fuqua and Hawk are trying to reclaim their Training Day mojo, while Gere is patrolling the same neighbourhood as 1990’s Internal Affairs.

Source: Variety

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