Posted Dec 3rd 2008 5:39PM by Matt Bradshaw
Filed under: Drama, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Box Office Predictions
Holiday humor proved to be what the public was looking for over Thanksgiving weekend as
Four Christmases led the pack. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman's historical epic
Australia took fifth, while last week's third newbie
Transporter 3 finished way down in seventh place. Here's the top five:
1. Four Christmases: $31 million
2. Bolt: $26.5 million
3. Twilight: $26.3 million
4. Quantum of Solace: $18.8 million
5. Australia: $14.8 million
We've got three new releases this week:
Cadillac Records
What's It All About: Set in the 1950s,
Cadillac Records follows the lives of several music legends including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf and Elvis Presley.
Why It Might Do Well: A 60% fresh rating at
Rottentomatoes.com.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The relatively small release will keep it out of the top five.
Number of Theaters: 600
Prediction: $5 million
Punisher: War Zone
What's It All About: Ray Stevenson takes over the title role of the skull-wearing, gun-toting anti-hero and this time he's taking on a mobster called Jigsaw.
Why It Might Do Well: Who doesn't like to watch things blow up?
Why It Might Not Do Well: The Punisher is kind of the ugly stepchild of Marvel Superheroes. Despite two previous films he's not particularly well known outside of comic book circles and this film lacks the star power of
Iron Man and
The Incredible Hulk.
Number of Theaters: 2,400
Prediction: $9 million
Continue reading Box Office: Punish This
Posted Dec 3rd 2008 10:03AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Lionsgate Films, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Religious, Western
There are some great things to discuss, today, so let's just jump right in. But take a moment to admire the art , because I couldn't let
Scott Weinberg outshine me anymore!
- Rendering my Tuesday column somewhat obsolete, George Miller has informed the world that he is still attached to Justice League Mortal, and that the film is still very much alive. Apparently, he was never even on the Australian television show to make such fatal statements. Oh well. We can still talk about whether or not you can ever make a Justice League movie, right? [via SuperheroHype]
- Kevin McKidd told IGN that he is in the running for Thor -- and not for a secondary character, as he previously said, but as the god himself. Nothing is definite, there's just a lot of talk back and forth, but he's very excited that Kenneth Branagh is on board. It's a deal I'd like to see done, as the combo of McKidd and Branagh seems like a winner to me. (I particularly like that IGN caught McKidd at the Punisher: War Zone premiere -- Titus Pollo and Lucius Vorenus, together again!)
- Lexi Alexander might replace Neveldine and Taylor as the director of Jonah Hex. She told Latino Review that she had been sent the script, and really liked it. "I like it even more that Mr. Josh Brolin is still attached. Who knows if he'll stay, but it's more exciting than I thought. You get a story like this you think, 'Oh God, I'm going to be doing the same thing over and over again.' but it's really, really interesting." I haven't seen Punisher: War Zone yet, but all the reviews are positive, and indicate she'd have a similar take to Neveldine and Taylor. Go for it, Alexander!
- Also wanted -- one director for Magdalena. Gale Anne Hurd is looking. She has her cast lined up, and now she just needs a director. They'll have a very prepared star in Jenna Dewan, who Hurd says has "steeped herself" in the character. [via ShockTillYouDrop]
- The running time for Watchmen currently clocks at 2 hours, 35 minutes. Zack Snyder envisions the director's cut to be 3 hours and 10 minutes. And he's putting Tales of the Black Freighter together as you read this. [SciFi Wire]
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 5:50PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Exhibition, Home Entertainment, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
A couple of months ago -- and after watching the film spit out monster box office totals -- there was word Warner Bros. would throw
The Dark Knight back onto IMAX screens (and possibly conventional theaters) for one last run. With the flick currently lingering around the $996 million mark, a re-release would all but guarantee it the much sought-after $1 billion. However, according to
Superhero Hype, it's not gonna happen. They don't give much of a reason or a statement, just that plans to re-release on IMAX screens have apparently been scrapped.
It's unfortunate, too, because the DVD (which we'll review tomorrow) includes a few great behind-the-scenes features on the film's IMAX sequences. And, as someone who did not have a chance to catch the flick on IMAX screens, I was kinda looking forward to taking in a screening this January during the re-release after watching how they went about shooting it. Considering Christopher Nolan and his crew made history by becoming the first major feature film to shoot partly using IMAX cameras, you'd think folks might want to stage an encore engagement. Oh well.
Also of note:
Variety reports that
The Dark Knight will arrive via video-on-demand in South Korea two weeks before the DVD hits shelves, making it the first Hollywood blockbuster release to go VOD before DVD.
Were you looking forward to watching
The Dark Knight again on IMAX screens?
UPDATE: BoF reports (via a Warner Bros. source) that this is not true, and that the film will indeed be released on IMAX screens in January. Superhero Hype has removed the original story from their website. We'll let you know when something a little more official hits, but it looks good for fans ...
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 1:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, The Geek Beat
It's official. Justice League is dead in the water. The last man standing, director George Miller,
has dropped out and the film goes back Warner Bros archives -- something I imagine to be similar to the warehouse at the end of
Raiders of the Lost Ark. Reportedly, Miller told an Australian television audience that Warner Bros wants "bigger stars" in the Justice League movie, and that he believes it will be recast. That's not at all surprising, considering the way the world is wetting their pants over Warner/DC's super competitors,
The Avengers, which is probably going to be nothing but A-List. What studio wouldn't look at the line-up for
Justice League Mortal, where no one compares to Robert Downey Jr., and say "Thanks, but no thanks."
Honestly, I don't know if there can ever be a Justice League movie. Correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will) but what JLA fans want is exactly what Marvel is doing with
The Avengers -- a bunch of solo character movies, establish the universe and the continuity, and then launch a superhero team extravaganza. They want good actors of the appropriate age, not a bunch of young and pretty things. They want it to be a solid effort, not something hastily thrown together for a late summer cash grab -- which is all
Justice League Mortal seemed to be. (No offense to all involved, but hey, we're on the outside looking in here.)
Continue reading The Geek Beat: What Shall We Do With the Justice League?
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 10:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images, War
I know you're probably groaning at seeing yet another
X-Men Origins: Wolverine post, but I can't help it! There's new pictures! And the photos are always
so cool -- and yes, I am easily pleased when it comes to the admantium one ... and yes, at this point the movie could be Wolverine reading a phone book for 2 hours and I would probably count my money well spent.
Anyway, 20th Century Fox has released five new images from
Wolverine -- if you saw the bootleg ComicCon trailer, you'll recognize the image above. I like that Wolverine and Sabretooth appear to be bickering moments before being "executed." Hate runs deep. My favorite of the bunch, though, is the Weapon X photo ...
not because it shows off a lot of Hugh Jackman, but because I'm hoping its an indication we see the whole nasty bonding procedure. If it's another blink-and-you-miss it sequence, well, they just missed the point of doing a Wolverine origin story!
Check out all the photos in the gallery below, accompanied by the two that hit the web last week -- and don't be surprised if there's more before the trailer hits on December 12th because, come on ... where the heck is Deadpool?! Where's Beak? We want to see them, too! Even
I need a break from Jackman sometimes.
[via
Superhero Hype]
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 9:02AM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: Action, RumorMonger, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Fans of the
Transporter films aren't usually looking for a lot of subtlety and nuance, not unless those are codewords for "butt-kicking" and "car crashes." But
Louis Leterrier, the whimsical Frenchman who directed the
second film and co-directed the
first one, said in 2005 that he had a subtext in mind for
Jason Statham's title character: He was gay.
Chris Lee
writes at the
Los Angeles Times' fanboy blog that three years ago, when
Transporter 2 came out, well, so did Frank Martin. According to Lee, Leterrier pointed to the scene where Frank turns down a romantic advance from Amber Valletta by saying, "It's because of who I am." Leterrier said, "That's him coming out!"
"If you watch the movie and you know he's gay, it becomes so much more fun," Lee quotes Leterrier as saying in 2005. "It's so great -- the first gay action movie hero! ... Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, '
The Transporter, that's such a great movie!' If they only knew they're really cheering for a new kind of action hero."
Statham didn't pay much attention to his director's comments, telling Lee in 2005, "It's just Lou-Lou trying to be funny. Although he did say, 'In Part 2, you will become the gay icon.'" That part might have come true, as Statham's many shirtless scenes made him popular in certain quarters, even if the character himself wasn't overtly gay.
Continue reading Did You Know 'The Transporter' Was Gay? Well, He Isn't Anymore
Posted Nov 29th 2008 11:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images
The first photo of
Taylor Kitsch as the card-charging mutant Gambit has leaked online, scanned from the pages of
Empire's upcoming
Wolverine themed issue. He's quite dapper, isn't he? You can get away with wearing silky purple shirts and velvet vests when you're a mutant who can charge everyday objects with lethal kinetic energy. Anyone who mocks your taste in colors and fabrics is going to end up fried by a card, a bowl of pretzels, whatever he can grab first.
Cheesy clothing aside, I think Kitsch embodies Gambit quite well. He's got the right amount of scruff, the right hair, and he flings his cards with a casual machismo. This character is one of my biggest stumbling blocks for the movie, because I just don't get where he fits into a Wolverine origin story. He was a buddy to Wolverine in many of the comics, but was usually relegated to being a French Captain Obvious. "Mon ami, you are going to use them adamantium claws, no?" Fans love him though, and after being left out of three
X-Men movies, I suspect they've used any excuse they can to work him in. But I know Gambit fans are psyched -- and the fact that he's probably being groomed for a spin-off should make up for his lack of
X-Men screentime.
Posted Nov 28th 2008 12:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Poor Hulk! Batman, Iron Man, even Wolverine get more sequel press than he does. But late last week,
Tim Blake Nelson revealed to
MTV that he had signed for Hulk sequels, with every intention of taking the villainous center stage as The Leader. But like the rest of us, he has no idea whether or not they'll come to be, or whether or not
Edward Norton will return. "It's all good, and I really do hope [the sequel] happens, for all sorts of reasons. But yeah, we did, we had a great time on
Hulk together. I'm eager to do
Hulk 2 if they make it ... I'm signed on to do
Hulk 2 and 3 whether Edward's there or not, so it's not even up to me ... I certainly hope Edward is on the sequel - but that's up to Marvel and Edward."
Meanwhile, over in Avengers land, Robert Downey Jr.
mentioned again that Hulk is going to show up in that crown jewel of superhero flicks. It's a strange place for the green giant to be in, because he's going forward, yet lost in a land of sequel rumor and leading man drama.
It's a question
we've thrown out to
Cinematical readers before, but with all this additional info, where do you want Hulk to go from here? Do you think that he should get his planned trilogy, then land with a thunderclap in
The Avengers? Should they just leave well enough alone with
The Incredible Hulk? And how do you feel about yet another Hulk recast?
My personal take is that if Marvel can't make up with Norton, they should just give up franchising Hulk, and just leave him off the big screen until
The Avengers. Theoretically, you
could have an all-CGI Hulk in that, thereby sidestepping the need to replace Norton. It would be clunky, though, and might "really really suck." Sigh. Why does there have to be so much drama in the world of Marvel? Earth's mightiest heroes should have a much easier time uniting than this.
Posted Nov 28th 2008 9:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Every bit of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine news erodes my dignity a little bit more. Okay, I don't actually have any dignity ... but I really should be more patient before posting. Just a few days ago, I wound myself up over Jeff Katz's "last time I talked to
Hugh Jackman, this is
the Wolverine sequel he wanted" quote.
And now, Jackman himself sat down with
MTV and confirmed that he really would love to take Wolverine to Japan. "The most intriguing thing to me was the Japan story. I love the Japan story. I wanted to do the Japan story from around
X-Men 2. Can you just picture Wolverine in Japan with the triads and the samurai? It's just genius."
Now, I used to mock Wolverine's Japan adventures as being a way to cash in on
Karate Kid fever (mostly to annoy other comic devotees), but Frank Miller's vision of him as a ronin
is genius. With a single book (which you need to read if you haven't already), Miller and Chris Claremont deepened Wolverine from a beer guzzling thug to the poetic badass we all know and love today. Of course, now every
Wolverine comic writer gives him a doomed Japanese bride, but there
was a time when it was novel, romantic, and tragic.
So, why didn't Jackman & Co. do that story instead of the mutant extravaganza that
Origin is rumored to be? "How can you do that before you explain his origins? If we tried to mix the origin and Japan together, it wouldn't do justice to either. So you can tell by the answer where I'd like it to go." Darn you, Jackman. You're right, of course, but this just means I have to wait
that much longer, and hope that
Wolverine is good enough for it to happen.
Oh, and check out yet another new
Empire photo after the jump. Looks like he fills out his jeans as nicely as his tanktops.
Continue reading Hugh Jackman DOES Want Wolverine in Japan!
Posted Nov 26th 2008 11:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images
Well, Happy (Almost) Thanksgiving
indeed. Between
Australia and the flood of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine news, you can't turn around without seeing
Hugh Jackman's biceps somewhere this week ... not that I'm complaining. How did it take so long for him to be dubbed Sexiest Man Alive, anyway? The physique should have earned it twice over.
Anyway, get a peek of
Empire's new Wolverine cover, which will be on shelves in December. Click on him to get the whole thing, and tidbits like this from the magazine's tell-all set visit: "There's a scene in the first
X-Men movie," says Jackman, "where Wolverine's introduced in a bar, fighting in a cage, and you felt that he did this every night of his life. If this movie is successful, you should feel that this guy can walk straight off the end of this film and into that bar. "
And in other
Origins news,
ComingSoon has confirmed that the film's trailer will be seen on December 12th, attached to
The Day the Earth Stood Still. Some say that means the sci-fi remake isn't very good, and Fox is counting on the trailer to bolster ticket sales. But do people really do that, particularly in these tough economic times, and with bootlegs providing instant gratification? I doubt it. We'll post it as soon as it appears online, though, count on that.
Posted Nov 26th 2008 10:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Fandom, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Robert Downey Jr. is, quite simply, a god of geekdom. If there's a holy trinity, he shares it only with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman because it is so rare that actors just
get it, and even rarer that they'll say it. Witness Downey's thoughts on
The Avengers to
MTV: "If we don't get it right it's really, really going to suck. It has to be the crowning blow of Marvel's best and brightest because it's the hardest thing to get right. It's tough to spin all the plates for one of these characters."
He also may have let slip who The Avengers might be battling in his concerns that Iron Man remain in a real-world setting: "The danger you run with colliding all these worlds is that Jon was very certain that
Iron Man should be set in a very realistic way. Nothing that happened in
Iron Man is really outside the realm of possibility. Once you start talking about Valhalla and supersized super soldiers and jolly green giants, it warrants much further discussion." This could mean
Giant Man, or Captain America could be looming big in Downey's thoughts.
Continue reading Robert Downey Jr. Warns 'The Avengers', Talks 'Iron Man 2'
Posted Nov 25th 2008 5:40PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, RumorMonger, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
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Former Fox executive Jeff Katz is praising
X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the heavens -- or at least to
MTV's Splash Page. He thinks Wolverine's solo movie will be his finest hour (or two) yet, and insists that everyone involved has a perfect grasp on the character.
"To me and [Hugh] Jackman, our mantra for Wolverine has really been one term: 'bad-ass.' As long as Wolverine is consistently bad-ass, people are generally going to go with you. That's what they want from that character.
Iron Man comes out and it does a tremendous business,
Batman comes out and it does a tremendous business, and the inclination in the movie biz a lot of the time is, 'Well, that thing just worked, so we have to chase that. But as comics people know, Batman is not Iron Man is not Superman is not Wolverine - they're all different."
Call me infatuated, but I don't doubt Jackman's take on the character, and I fervently hope all claims of darkness, grit, and violence come to pass. My concern has always been how many mutants they crammed into a Wolverine film that are, as Katz puts it, "fanboy friendly" and poised for sequels of their own. Deadpool is one thing, but Gambit and Emma Frost are another.
What
does wind me up, though, are the possible plans Katz was privy to for future Wolverine films. "I can't speak to what's been discussed in the interim since I've been gone, but Mr. Jackman certainly has a desire to go to Japan." And with that, Mr. Jackman, you just became my favorite person in geekdom. Let's get together sometime and talk
a certain Frank Miller book, just for laughs.
Look for the first
X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer in front of
The Day the Earth Stood Still in theaters December 12.
Posted Nov 25th 2008 1:45PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images, Trailers and Clips, Posters
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A new trailer for J.J. Abrams'
Star Trek has just debuted over at
AICN, but be warned that it's exactly like the other trailer save for one particular scene that comes right at the end. Yup, I won't tell you exactly what happens, but one look at the image above and you can imagine what you'll see. This particular scene was part of the four
Cinematical screened last week, and it takes place on the icy planet where Kirk (Chris Pine) gets sent to. It's there where he meets an older version of Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) and a younger version of Scotty (Simon Pegg). Check out the trailer over at
AICN.
Star Trek hits theaters on May 8.
Also, a brand new motion poster for
Terminator: Salvation just arrived online (check it out at
this link). Really digging these flash posters -- this particular one begins on an overhead shot of Los Angeles before slowly transforming into the face of our favorite robot via explosions and fire. Oh, and don't forget that memorable score. Sweet.
Terminator Salvation hits theaters on May 22.
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Posted Nov 24th 2008 10:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Horror, Fandom, Geek Report, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Holiday Movie Junk
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Is "bobble-head" hyphenated? Someone remind me to ask Professor Rocchi. Anyway, collecting is fun. Especially if you're collecting things that make you happy. Like, for example, rare stamps or old coins or small bits of latex that were (allegedly) used in the original Giger face-hugger puppet. Kids love to collect action figures, comic books, and (I'm told) Barbie dolls, but we tend to get a little more discerning with our dollars as we get older. In other words, we quickly learn the value of a buck and therefore spend our "collectibles" allowance a lot more smartly. Hopefully.
But that's it. It's official. I'm definitely starting a bobble-head collection. No, not Dwight Schrute (although that one's hilarious) and not Mike Schmidt either -- but I'm going to devote two or three shelves to some of these toys. They're cheap, they're nifty, they work as simple "mini-statues," but they also elicit a chuckle from nerds who flick on the head part. Bobble-heads are A-OK in my book, and most of these nerdly treats were introduced to me by a website called
Entertainment Earth. Yes, they get a free plug because they have more flick-related collectibles and novelties than I'd know what to do with. Plus they emailed me at just the the right time and gave me this bobbly new epiphany. So check out the bouncy gallery below, but feel free to click through the EE
website -- and prepare to get your nerd on. (Additional BHs were found at
ToyLounge.com,
Graphitti Designs, and
NecaOnline.com.
Special thanks to E-Rappe for the pic help and Tom for the gallery!)
Continue reading The Movie Character Bobble-Head Hall of Fame!
Posted Nov 24th 2008 9:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Seeing as it's a slow news day, let's check in with
Justin Theroux, who's hard at work penning
Iron Man 2. The cool people of
UGO did a nice interview with him, where he talks all about
Tropic Thunder,
Iron Man 2, and even a little bit about
The Avengers.
Theroux says the script is around "the first draft" and is chugging right along with input and notes from Robert Downey Jr. The writer was quick to dismiss rumors that he was involved in the Terrence Howard/Don Cheadle change-up, that his script will reflect it in any way, or that the role of War Machine will be scaled down. "No, that's all nonsense. Whatever their reason is, I'll leave that up to Marvel. We're writing the thing, virtually the same for Rhodey that we would for any actor. We're really taking what's going to be the most interesting story for the fans, and what are they going to enjoy watching. And who ever's in that part is going to have to play that part and make it work ... I haven't met Don, and I think I'm going to in a little bit and I think once I get a better sense of his voice and also hear what he has to say about what he likes about the character and just pick his brain a little bit, then we'll obviously start to tailor it to him."
Theroux is also unsure what Gwyneth Paltrow's status in the sequel is -- he's "planning like she is there" but has no confirmation as to whether she will return. Will we end up with a
new Pepper Potts? Will Tony Stark look around and see strangers replacing those he knew and loved in the first film? Because that would send any man to the bottle!
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