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Wait Till You See Who Sank Your 'Battleship'
2 hours ago
As it stands now, I may have to retract what I've been saying about Battleship. Peter Berg is attached to direct the board game movie and he said a couple months ago what a big Navy buff he is and how he has this vision of a great big non-historical WWII naval battle film, and that would be fantastic. Or could be; I should soften my certitude.
Anyway, Berg updated his stance since latching on to the project, saying it would be a contemporary action flick set at sea. That's Ok, too, I guess. But now Latino Review says it looks like Battleship might involve...wait for it...aliens. That's not confirmed by Universal, but it's sufficiently daffy enough to be the kind of directive only a studio could come up with. »
- Colin Boyd
Box Office - 'Christmas Carol' Takes Friday
3 hours ago
A Christmas Carol is the widest-ever 3-D release and it again reinforces that studios are looking to capitalize on the new technology. A $9 million Friday won't hurt, although that shouldn't push the film above or even near most box office estimates for the weekend, anywhere between $37 - $42 million. More than likely, this will be a low-$30s, which isn't bad, given the powerful months ahead for the film nationwide and around the world. But it's not exactly a ringing endorsement.
It was a first-place start, though, and it will win the weekend without a lot of trouble, but it's lower start than director Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf, which you could certainly argue is less mainstream. There were a couple positive surprises, too. The Fourth Kind jumped out to a $5 million Friday, good enough for second place in a competitive weekend. I wrote on Thursday that if any of the new »
- Colin Boyd
Stephen Frears Reteaming with 'High Fidelity' Writer
6 hours ago
High Fidelity should have done better at the box office a million years ago. It did Ok considering - $27 million plus about another $20 million internationally, but I think Disney was probably the wrong place to distribute it, and it probably never made a big impression on a lot of people until it hit the home video market.
One of the things the film shows is the versatility of director Stephen Frears (The Queen). It doesn't hurt that they had a fantastic Nick Hornby novel to work from, and now, a decade later, Frears and High Fidelity screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis might reunite to tackle "a dramedy set in the world of geeky gamblers," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project is an adaptation of the upcoming memoir Lay the Favorite, Take the Dog by Beth Raymer, which is basically 21 with middle-age guys. »
- Colin Boyd
J.J. Abrams In Talks to Produce 'Micronauts' Movie
8 hours ago
Should this news turn out to be true and a movie version of Micronauts happens, I'm pretty glad J.J. Abrams would be involved. The Wall Street Journal says Abrams is in talks to produce a film based on the old Japanese interchangable toys - a precursor to Tranformers, Go-Bots, and Alexis Arquette.
Hasbro recently acquired the property, and we know that Hasbro has put itself on the forefront of this whole toys n' games movie tie-in business. While I don't want to necessarily take this one to the bank just yet, it's a powerful combination of a company on the move and filmmaker who can call his own shots. Plus, J.J. is already talking, and he never does that. »
- Colin Boyd
Two New 'Wolfman' Posters, And One Is Even Good
10 hours ago
What to do about The Wolfman? Originally, this was a fantastic idea. Universal was going all the way back to its vaults and reintroducing the monster movies of the 1930s, most of which have stood the test of time. You had Rick Baker doing make-up effects (the created the Oscar in that category for his work on An American Werewolf in London, still unsurpassed), and Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) lined up to direct Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving.
Romanek left and was replaced by Joe Johnston (Jurrasic Park III) and then there were grumblings that the visual effects were so bad a fair percentage of them had to be redone. The movie went from April to November to the following February, and that's where we are now: A re-tooled bit of classic monster madness opening on Valentine's Day, already carrying more than its share of dashed expectations. »
- Colin Boyd
'9/11' Tops 'Telegraph' Movies of the Decade List
13 hours ago
We're just a couple months away from the acknowledged end of the decade (it's really next year, because there was never a year zero, so this decade actually ends in 2010), and that means we'll get Best of the Decade lists on top of Best of the Year lists. I'm actually looking forward to the process myself and I'm revisiting some of the 25 movies or so I think have a chance to make my own list.
The Telegraph has unveiled a top 100 list, but not necessarily in terms of quality. Instead, we have the most significant hundred films from the past decade, the movies that "defined" the decade. There are, of course, some picks you'll certainly agree with; we have the top 25 listed and you can read the paper's entire list and see even more great films. But their selection of Fahrenheit 9/11 as the number one movie of the past ten years is almost completely unqualified. »
- Colin Boyd
Director Julie Taymor Unveils Broadway's Spider-Man
15 hours ago
It will not be Jim Sturgess slinging webs on Broadway in the new comic book musical Spider-Man Turn of the Dark. Instead, director Julie Taymor (Across the Universe) has hired another young actor she recently cast in a film version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Reeve Carney will play Peter Parker to Evan Rachel Wood's Mary Jane Watson, and here's a look at the 26-year-old actor.
In addition to acting, Carney is the lead singer of a band that features his last name, and is the final piece of the puzzle to the 2010 Marvel musical, which will open at the Hilton Theatre in New York in a few months. “Having recently finished shooting The Tempest with Reeve as the young prince, I am thrilled to cast him in an entirely different role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man," Taymor said in a statement.
"When I first saw Reeve, he was performing with his terrific band Carney. »
- Colin Boyd
Gyllenhaal, Portman, Maguire - New 'Brothers' Trailer
22 hours ago
I would have thought Brothers would be in the conversation by now. You know the conversation, the end-of-the-year talk where movies come out of nowhere to gain the indie world's rapt attention. But so far, it's kind of flying under the radar.
Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan are a pretty good foursome. Seriously, Jim Sheridan has six Academy Award nominations, so maybe Brothers being under the radar is par for the course. (No more golf references, I promise.) The lone trouble spot - unless it's just terribly maudlin - is that this has a war undertone. That won't diminish the quality of the film, but it could stand in its way when it comes to finding an audience.
There's a new version of the trailer, heavier on the Portman, methinks. The film will be in theaters on December 4th, so there's enough time »
- Colin Boyd
Get Your Name on the 'Paranormal Activity' DVD
23 hours ago
There's a great opportunity for Paranormal Activity fans to have one final, permanent connection with the micro-budgeted horror flick/multiplex phenom. Paramount is giving the fans a chance to have their names featured on the DVD credits.
This has been done before, and it's always a bit of a publicity stunt, but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed Paranormal from its "Demand It" infancy to back-to-back $20 million weekends to the most profitable movie ever made and a date with $100 million any day now. The success of this film has as much to do with creating buzz as it does the movie itself.
It's impossibly easy to get your name listed; it took me about ten seconds and I'm a gigantic moron. So just go to ParanormalActivityProject.com and sign up. First and last name, e-mail, and date of birth is all you need. »
- Colin Boyd
Aykroyd, Faris, Jt in Talks for 'Yogi Bear'
6 November 2009 12:06 PM, PST
If these things lived in a vacuum, it might be a different story. On its own, there's nothing wrong or inherently evil about making a movie based on The Flintstones or Scooby Doo or even Rocky & Bullwinkle. But when you add them all up (and pay attention to the success rate), you start to get a bad taste in your mouth. That's probably why I was so opposed to this update initially.
I enjoyed Yogi Bear as a kid, although it wasn't an all-time favorite. And because it has a big presence in the pop culture firmament, a movie version isn't a stretch. It just seems that way since we've been inundated by so many of them already. Entertainment Weekly has some casting updates, and I'm not really thrilled about those, either. »
- Colin Boyd
Deleted Scene: Brüno Sits Down With Pete Rose
6 November 2009 10:03 AM, PST
Brüno was damn funny in small doses, but as an entire movie, it kind of lost its way. But when the film comes out on DVD November 17th, it will have a few more small doses, like this deleted scene with Pete Rose.
If you saw the film, you know that Sacha Baron Cohen tried the same stunt with Paula Abdul, using "migrant workers" as makeshift furniture for an interview. I didn't think it would be funny the second time through, but I was kind of wrong about that. I don't love the clip, but it's so weird to see Pete Rose here that it's worth a quick look.
The only trouble is, Rose is so well-known for taking any payday at this point that this one could be a complete plant. Sure, he's seen a lot of strange things in his day, but I think I'd be a little »
- Colin Boyd
Portman Calls 'Black Swan' Sex Scene "Extreme"
6 November 2009 8:56 AM, PST
We've gotten plenty of traffic here at The Big Picture thanks to the story alleging that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis will have mad sapphic sex in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, so thanks for the hits. Portman recently talked to V magazine about the film and the scene, and while she makes a semantics argument against what's been reported, Natalie is certainly not denying it.
"It's not raunchy - it's extreme," she said. I'm sure there's a difference, if only qualitatively. The tone of the profile makes me think that the extreme scene will involve nudity. Both Portman and Kunis have done nude scenes before, Portman in the short Hotel Chevalier and Kunis in some direct-to-video thing, but now Portman says she's more open to that possibility than she would have been earlier in her career.
"Previously I was figuring out my own sexual identity, likes and dislikes and all that stuff, »
- Colin Boyd
Four New 'Kick-Ass' Character Posters
6 November 2009 6:12 AM, PST
After footage from the film debuted at Comic-Con, Kick-Ass immediately became one of next year's most anticipated fanboy movies. There was a bidding war to secure the rights for the young non-superheroes superhero movie, which Lionsgate eventually won. The irony is the subject matter and the tone kept all the studios away from Mark Millar's comic book title before director Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake) financed the project himself.
I know, I know: It's hard to believe the studios all missed what looks like a guaranteed crowd pleaser in favor of stuff like G.I. Joe. I'm sure they've all learned their lesson. Kick-Ass comes out on April 16th, just enough time to make a bunch of money just before the summer movie season. Good planning, I think.
IGN has four new character posters (mind the watermark) from Kick-Ass, which means we're probably not far away from the official trailer. »
- Colin Boyd
Week in Review - Oscars, 'Prince of Persia,' 'Risk,' 'Terminator' for Sale
6 November 2009 3:52 AM, PST
So what did we learn this week? Well, we learned that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will host the Oscars, we learned that if you've got the coin, you could buy the rights to Terminator, and we learned that Owen Wilson is either out of options or a much bigger fan of Marmaduke than anyone else I know.
There were also a couple new trailers for next year's summer movies, which we're featuring below, and we found out that if you want The Hurt Locker for the holidays...that holiday better be Martin Luther King Day, because it won't arrive until January. That's a dumb move.
Go:
Terminator rights being auctioned this month
Hurt Locker not on DVD until January 12th
New trailer for Prince of Persia
Seriously, Owen Wilson can't do better than effing Marmaduke?
You heard it here first: Fox Searchlight gives up on Gentlemen Broncos
Boondock Saints, »
- Colin Boyd
Movie Review - 'A Christmas Carol'
6 November 2009 1:20 AM, PST
Starring Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Rated PG
There are two ways to perceive A Christmas Carol. You can either look at this film and see a brave new use of technology to bring a classic piece of literature into the future about as far as it can go or you can see a classic story kidnapped and outfitted with bells and whistles that just get in the way.
I'm voting for the second option. And it's to the point now, three movies in, that I begin to question why Robert Zemeckis isn't picking stories that could more realistically benefit from his decade-long obsession with performance capture technology.
When it was The Polar Express, it didn't matter as much because it was the director's first foray into this new form of computer animation. More on that later. The second movie was 2007's Beowulf, »
- Colin Boyd
Movie Review - 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'
5 November 2009 10:49 PM, PST
Starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
Directed by Grant Heslov
Rated R
It's a deviously warped story, the kind that has to be at least partially true, and according to the disclaimer at the beginning of the film, it is: "More of this is true that you would believe" replaces "Based on a true story" or "Inspired by a true story" in The Men Who Stare at Goats.
And while it veers off the road from being true at some hard to define point, it's much easier to pin down where the movie itself drives into a ditch. And that's a shame, because Stare at Goats really does feel like it's heading somewhere.
The story goes that journalist Jon Ronson picked up the scent of one of the military's biggest secrets. Back in the 1970s, Ronson learned, the Pentagon was developing »
- Colin Boyd
Uwe Boll Squeezes 'BloodRayne' from a Turnip
5 November 2009 9:01 PM, PST
I think you should just go ahead and ask Kristanna Loken out. Clearly, she'll say yes to just about anything. Director/pugilist/laughingstock Uwe Boll says Loken will return for yet another BloodRayne movie. Seriously: They're not done making BloodRayne movies. Somehow.
Boll tells DreadCentral that BloodRayne 3: Warhammer, which might be the greatest album title Armored Saint never used, will shoot beginning in January. Also, we'll have Nazis this time around. Can it get any better? Can it get more Uwesque? I think not. »
- Colin Boyd
Weird Trailer for Casey Affleck's 'Killer Inside Me'
5 November 2009 6:38 PM, PST
I read The Killer Inside Me about 25 years ago, and in general I'm an admirer of the work of pulp novelist Jim Thompson. His most recognized works are probably that title, The Killing (later turned into an early Kubrick film), The Getaway, and The Grifters, released as a film over 10 years after his death. I heard about him while growing up in Oklahoma, because that's where he was from.
The Killer Inside Me is a whale of a book. I wouldn't say it's a must-read, but it's tougher than a bus station corndog. It's been turned into a movie before, and a new version was filmed this summer mostly in Oklahoma, even though Thomspson's book is set in Texas. Casey Affleck plays the sociopathic lawman Lou Ford, and you'll see what I mean when you watch this promo trailer.
According to The Playlist, this is very likely what's being used »
- Colin Boyd
'Taken' Director Attached to Paranoid Thriller 'Signals'
5 November 2009 4:10 PM, PST
There are two names you probably need to get to know in this article if you're not familiar with them already. The first is Pierre Morel, director of Taken and the upcoming From Paris With Love, which looks not nearly as good. Still, he's in demand these days and has another blood-pumping thriller called Pursuit in the works over at Universal.
The second name to file away for later is Media Rights Capital. It's a company that bankrolls movies at TV shows. This year, it's had Bruno, Shorts, The Invention of Lying, and this weekend's The Box. Bruno is probably the only real hit among that group, but Mrc got in the Matt Damon business a few months ago and is producing The Adjustment Bureau for next year, plus 2011's Devil, spearheaded by Night Shyamalan.
Take Morel and Media Rights Capital and throw 'em together and what do you get? »
- Colin Boyd
Zhang Ziyi Picks a 'Snow Flower'
5 November 2009 12:59 PM, PST
It's not a great big news day and she's really hot, so naturally, we'll tell you about the latest Zhang Ziyi project. Can you believe it's almost been a full decade since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? It's the biggest foreign language film ever, the only one to ever top $100 million in the Us. That's Zhang's introduction to most western audiences, although you have to see her in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home from one year earlier. Heartbreaking.
She has not been a major American star, even though she did get her chance with Memoirs of a Geisha, but some of her other foreign language films - Hero and House of Flying Daggers - have also made an impression on audiences here in the states. Hero, in fact, is the third-highest-grossing foreign language film ever.
For her next trick, The Hollywood Reporter says Zhang will produce and star in the Wayne Wang »
- Colin Boyd
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