Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 6, 2009

This weekend:

It’s Gamer over as the box office has a Final Destination; Kevin Smith loses his Dicks; Blake Lively moves into Affleck’s Town; Liam Nesson and Bono are introduced to The Virgin of Las Vegas; Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Gabriel Byrne swim with Two Birds and Keanu Reeves helps solve Henry’s Crime. Woah!

Box Office
It’s Labor Day weekend again and that can only mean one thing – low box office. Horror franchise film The Final Destination 3-D held onto the top spot with a pretty decent $12 million 3-day take. It should have $15 million in the bag by the close of business Monday giving it a $50 million total. This is going to be the highest grossing film in the series, so expect another installment – soon.

Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper should capture the runner-up spot with the comedy All About Steve. The pair are both coming off summer comedy sleepers with The Proposal and The Hangover, both of which had significantly more positive critical response. The fact that those films played so long probably had an impact on this film’s opening box office. All About Steve should bank about $13 million by the end of play on Monday.

Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds continues to do well with another $13 million or so over the long weekend. The Brad Pitt flick is closing in on $100 domestically and it will become the highest grossing film in the director’s career. Unadjusted of course!

Gerard Butler’s Gamer had a soft $10 million opening, showing that his one for the girls and one for the boys means that The Ugly Truth is the actor’s highest grossing film since 300. I presume more romantic comedies are on the way.

District 9 crossed the magical $100 million marker this weekend giving the $30 million film some hefty profit.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween II went down like a friend of Hugh Grant’s. With less than $6 million over the four days and $25 in the till since it opened, it looks like this franchise reboot won’t run as long as the original series – unless they inject new blood into it. I hope Rob Zombie has signed on to his next film.

G.I. Joe. banked a little less than $7 million. This means that the film will happily clear $150 million. The sequel is a safe bet.

Julie and Julia shows that Meryl Streep still has that box office magic! The cooking comedy has just under $80 in the pot. It won’t hit $100 million but it shows that Streep still has the bankable chops.

The Time Traveler’s Wife should make just under $5 million this weekend. The film should finish its run with a little less than $70 million. Not too bad.

Poor Mike Judge. The guy can’t catch a break. A great cast and great reviews couldn’t help Extract make more than $4.5 million over the weekend. Ouch.

Movie News

1. It looks like Kevin Smith’s Bruce Willis-starring cop comedy, A Couple of Dicks, is facing the chop.

Speaking to MTV, co-star Adam Brody said:

“I don’t think it’s gonna happen. We were talking about [changing the name]; you can’t really advertise that before 9. If that’s the case, so that really hampers [the studio]. I know he feels a little burned, because he fought really hard for Zack and Miri Make a Porno and then it didn’t do that well. This time he’s like ‘F-ck the title, you can call it Cream Cheese, I don’t care.’ So, I’d be surprised [if he kept it].”

You see this is what annoys me – Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a terrible title for a film and that’s probably why it didn’t do well. A Couple of Dicks on the other hand (so to speak) is great – it’s worth fighting for.

Grow a set Smith and hold onto your Dicks!

Source: MTV

2. Blake Lively has signed on to Ben Affleck’s The Town. The Gossip Girl star will join Affleck, Man Men’s Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner in the adaptation of Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves.

Lively will play Affleck’s ex-girlfriend in the film.

Chris Cooper, who recently starred with Affleck and Kevin Costner in The Company Men, is also in negotiations to join the cast.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. Liam Neeson will star in The Virgin of Las Vegas. The film will be produced by fellow Irish man and U2 singer, Bono.

According to Variety:

“[The Film] affectionately recalls the Irish pop culture phenomenon of show bands. Show bands, which became popular across Ireland before the onslaught of TV, used to play cover songs in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll and amassed large followings across the country. Neeson will play an aging show band singer, prone to drink and living in Vegas, who finds his life turned on its head following the arrival of a mysterious stranger.”

The show bands were huge in Ireland in the 50’s. 60’s and even the 1970’s with local stars attracting a huge following – while not quite on a level of The Beatles, they were pretty damn big and the show band tours are still big events for Irish women of a certain age.

One for my mum!

Source: Variety

4. While we’re talking Irish cinema I might as well mention Brendan Gleeson’s directorial debut, At Swim-Two-Birds.

Irish heavyweights Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Gabriel Byrne will star alongside Gleeson in the coming of age drama.

“[The plot follows] a 19-year-old student who sees the fictional characters in the play he’s writing intertwining with the people in his life.”

Sounds very interesting. However, I like all of the above actors and I’m Irish, so I might just be slightly biased!

Source: Variety

5. Keanu Reeves will star and produce the romantic comedy Henry’s Crime.

Malcolm Venville will direct the film which is being pitched a “Capraesque”. The plot follows a big-hearted man who is accused of robbing a bank.

I’m sure that lessons are learned and there’s some sort of moral. Or maybe not.

The film is currently without distribution. I’m sure that Reeves’ involvement means that this won’t be for long!

Source: Variety

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