Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 28, 2008

It’s a sad Sunday for the Weekend Movie News Wrap Up, with the passing of Hollywood Legend Paul Newman. However, the beauty with Hollywood is that great films and great actors will live on forever. Newman has left a great body of work as his legacy, but lets not forget that the man also was hugely charitable,  giving millions away from the profits of his Newman’s Own brand. It’s a real shame.

In this week’s wrap up:

George Lucas finds a director to fly Red Tails; Will Smith flies again in Hancock 2; Sony buys Mark Millar’s War Heroes; Sherlock Holmes gets some love and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels sees Pink.

Box Office

Shia LaBeouf consolidated his standing on the A-list with a gross of around $29 million for Eagle Eye. The film has the fifth highest September weekend opening in history. Richard Gere and Diane Lane will capture around $14 million for the romantic drama Nights In Rodanthe, while Samuel L. Jackson’s Lakeview Terrace plunged 60% in its second weekend. Burn After Reading scorched up another $6 million, while The Miracle Of St. Anne eked out a little over $3 million. The big surprise is that Fireproof, a fire-fighting drama grossed $6.5 million from only 839 screens.

Movie News

1. George Lucas’ long in development Red Tails finally has a director. Anthony Hemingway will direct he film, which is due to start shooting in the spring. Lets just hope that it is worth the wait.

Source: joblo

2. While the movie world was foaming at the mouth over the thought of a sequel to I Am Legend, Dark Horizons has news that Smith’s other recent money spinner Hancock also has a follow-up in development.

Will, you have enough money – make one for the sake of art… please.

Source: Dark Horizons

3. Mark Millar’s bank manager must be a very happy man. The Wanted creator has just sold the movie  rights of War Heroes to Sony.

According to The Hollywood Reporter :

“The story centers on a U.S. military experimental program developed in light of dwindling enlistments and the expanding war on terrorism that gives ordinary soldiers superpowers. When a rogue group of the supersoldiers breaks off to form a criminal enterprise, one hero rises from their ranks to prevent catastrophic results.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. The Notebook star Rachael McAdams has joined the cast of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. The actress will play love interest, Irene Adler in the Robert Downey Jr starring flick that starts shooting next month.

Check out McAdams early work in the quirky Canadian show Slings and Arrows, with Due South’s Paul Gross.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5. High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank scripter Steve Pink has been hired by MGM to write a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the 1988 film that starred Steve Martin and Michael Caine.

If he brings John Cusack along then this may be worthwile, otherwise I can’t see the point.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for another week. See you at the movies.