Congratulations to whoever's distributing this movie overseas. And my condolences to the people desperate enough to rent it. Also thanks, Ryan Landry for your nice note when the movie came out in February.I'm sure you'll appreciate it.

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Politics

Hey, remember the weeks and months approaching the recent writers' strike, when all of Hollywood panicked and began rushing projects into production and feverishly coming up with contingency plans? Have you wondered why the looming Screen Actors Guild strike and the ongoing SAG/AFTRA catfight have not really provoked a similar hysteria? The New York Times' answer: because producers are calling SAG's bluff.

Or, in the Times' more tactful language: "the film industry's needs have overwhelmed any conviction that actors will actually walk out." That's its explanation for why big, expensive productions like Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Angels & Demons are steadfastly forging ahead despite the risk that a strike will send most of their casts off the set, leaving them with half a movie.

Could just be hubris, or willful stupidity. I haven't followed the recent guild developments closely enough to be able to speak with any authority on whether there will be a walkout any time soon. But look: the idea behind election markets (for example) is roughly that the best way to forecast the future is to see where large numbers of people are willing to put their money. That this time Hollywood bigwigs -- in particular, many of the people who will have a say in the outcome of any contract negotiations -- don't seem to be blinking in the face of a possible strike suggests to me that we aren't heading toward one, or at least not a protracted one. If we are, then it looks like a lot of people are going to be out a lot of money.

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Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

Mark Millar is becoming a real Hollywood insider these days, a Frank Miller in training. He dropped quite an intriguing bombshell to Scotland's Daily Record -- claiming that there's a Superman movie revamp on the way. While some of his claims could be dismissed as wishful thinking by a man who merely wants to fulfill his Kryptonian dreams, he's certainly talking it out with someone. Says Millar, "I've been planning this my entire life. I've got my director and producer set up, and it'll be 2011. This is how far ahead you have to think. The Superman brand is toxic after that last movie lost 200 million, but in 2011 we're hoping to restart it. Sadly I can't say who the director is, but we may make it official by Christmas. But fingers crossed it could work out, that would be my lifetime's dream."

Now, this flies directly in the face of Bryan Singer confirming he was attached to the sequel. But there's been a peculiar lack of progress with it. He's obviously busy with Valkyrie, but when you look at how quickly the Iron Man and Spider-Man franchises are moving, well, someone's not moving faster than a speeding bullet anymore. Could Warner Bros really be open to rebooting the franchise? The parallels between Ang Lee's Hulk and Bryan Singer's Superman Returns are striking, and I can honestly see the studio choosing a similarly clean slate. But they would be ditching a pretty expensive investment in Returns, and creating quite a controversy in the process.
Far more people loved Superman Returns than Hulk, and Singer commands a lot of geek cred.

Continue reading Mark Millar and a 'Big Name Action Director' Revamping Superman?

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Filed under: Action, Comedy, New Releases, Sony, Celebrities and Controversy, Box Office, Fandom, Distribution, Exhibition, Home Entertainment

It seems fairly certain that Hancock will do decent business when it hits theaters this week, if only because Will Smith rarely stars in a dud these days -- especially when it's his face selling the movie before all else. Whether or not the film has staying power after opening weekend, however, remains to be seen, but Sony Pictures clearly has a lot of faith in its potential: Last week, the studio revealed its intentions of releasing the film online sometime after its theatrical run and before its DVD release, but only to users with Sony Bravia TV sets. It's a bold maneuver, one that assumes its core base of consumers actually have an interest in Hancock -- but the movie will make a profit either way, so it's a reasonable choice for this intriguing experiment.

Left in the dust by Apple's iPod, Sony continues to struggle in its search for a piece of the digital revolution. Company head Howard Stringer recently told the New York Times that the strategy for releasing Hancock "vanishes the memory of the failures of the Sony Walkman." Well, maybe. While on-demand technology has changed the way audiences consume their media, they don't like paying more money than necessary. Asking your audiences to buy a special device in order to access what, at this point, amounts to one movie -- well, that's asking a lot. But it's still a step in the right direction.

What do you think?

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I was on my way into work the other morning, listening to the soundtrack for "The Wackness," ye olde coming-of-age comedy opening here next month. It's redolent of New York City circa 1994, and you can smell the urine and other indecencies that Mayor Giuliani gleefully wanted to purge from his Big Apple. The music in the movie takes you back to that high-school dance/summer-before-college house party, where you first heard Biggie Smalls and Craig Nice. The soundtrack happens to include DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's surprisingly durable "Summertime." Listening to it got me thinking about two amazing things: the Fresh Prince is now the biggest movie star in the world and that this song is 20 years old.

The interesting news this Monday isn't that "WALL-E" kicked metallic butt at the box-office -- $62.5 million at just under 4,000 theaters -- but that the R-rated "Wanted" (above) kept pace. The Angelina Jolie action orgasm made $51 million at 3,175 theaters, which means its per-theater-average ($16,100) was actually higher than the Pixar movie's ($15,656). Give the people what they want, and they'll turn up, especially the women; surprisingly, 52% of the audience for "Wanted" was female. And 22% of the audience for "WALL-E" were adults without children, so forget the cliches about Pixar attracting only family audiences.

It'll be interesting to see how these two fare in the coming weeks: "WALL-E" is getting a rapturous response from most moviegoers but I'm expecting a right-wing backlash against its eco-friendly message to kick in any day. Oh, wait, it already has.

The rest of the chart is the same old same old: "Kung Fu Panda" holding steady in its fourth week and closing in on $200 million total gross, "Get Smart" also hanging in there in its second week, "The Happening" and "The Love Guru" tailing off fast with 60-plus percent drops from the week before. So far the big dog of the summer isn't "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ($299 million total) but "Iron Man" ($309 million). It'll be interesting to see what "The Dark Knight" does to the playing field when it arrives in a few weeks.

Here's the full chart, courtesy of Box Office Mojo, along with Leonard Klady at Movie City News.

Filed under: Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, MGM, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Newsstand, Peter Jackson, Remakes and Sequels

There has been a lot of heated debate about that second Hobbit film. Many Lord of the Rings fans will take anything Middle-Earth, even if it's two hours cobbled out of appendices. Others see it as a betrayal of the Tolkien canon, and a blatant money grab by all involved. I readily admit I fall into the first category -- but I certainly don't want to see a bad film just to get a visual Middle Earth fix.

No matter what camp you fall into, however, Guillermo del Toro just made a statement that should please everyone. According to Defamer, he promises they are looking at adapting The Hobbit first and foremost -- and that a second film may not even happen. "We believe there is a second movie," del Toro said. "If there isn't, there will not be. If we find it, we will shoot it, but by God, if we do not find it, we will not shoot it. I am anxious to shoot the book, and I'm willing and able to dedicate myself to shooting the [second film]. In the four books that are in the domain of the copyright, there are appendices and ideas and things that can be traced without risk. But I have to be careful not to overstep. We believe there is a way to create this film and make it interesting, but it's too early."

Continue reading One 'Hobbit' Movie to (Maybe) Rule Them All

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Fido’s premise is a unique one; take the 1950’s suburban era and add flesh-eating zombies. You would think that the idea itself would give all sorts of opportunities for great social satire. Sadly, this is not the case. Perhaps if the movie was an animated cartoon, the laughs would have occurred more often; I only found myself merely chuckling every once in a while. Upon more thought, Fido, simply takes the last 30 seconds of Shaun of the Dead (a much superior film) and struggles to extend it to 90 minutes. (more…)

Filed under: Animation, New Releases, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Newsstand, Politics

A couple of people have been griping about Wall-E director Andrew Stanton's refusal to admit that his cute little movie about a robot in love actually contains some pretty upfront green politics, but there's a far more polarizing reference in the film than its harmless pro-environment agenda. It's no major plot spoiler to reveal that, about an hour or so into the story, Fred Willard appears in a recorded message as the mysterious president of Earth's corporate government and orders the ship's captain (Jeff Garlin) to "stay the course." Wait, we've heard this one before: It was the go-to statement used by the Bush administration for about three years or so when describing its modus operandi in Iraq (the term was abandoned when staying the course started to sound like a bad idea). In Wall-E, the context is quite different -- it's an order to not do something, rather than take action -- but hard to ignore nonetheless.

Certain critics with (surprise!) conservative slants have taken issue with this. At Dirty Harry's Place, John Nolte expresses his disappointment in the first paragraph of his review: "Have we lost the wonderful studio who brought us The Incredibles and Ratatouille to Bush Derangement Syndrome?" he asks. New York Post critic Kyle Smith picked up the rant and decided to write his own, even though he hadn't seen the film yet: "This kind of crack, lame as it is, also breaks the spell of the movie by hurling you out of the theater and back into reality."

Continue reading Discuss: Do Politics Belong in Kids Movies?

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When I first saw the trailers for Wanted, I wasn’t excited to see CGI bullets spinning in slow motion, but the cast alone is worthy of checking out the film. In addition, the film is under the direction of Timur Bekmambetov, best known for the Nightwatch horror-action film series out of Russia. It’s alright if you haven’t seen his past work before, but even if you have, a good chunk of Wanted screams stylist to and fro; it’s one of those films where nothing really makes sense, and maybe it isn’t supposed to. It’s also a film that is too big, and overpraised for its britches. (more…)