Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Movie Marketing, Posters

Yep, Faizon Love and Kali Hawk are missing from the poster used in the U.K. As reported by London's Daily Mail, Universal Pictures says they just wanted to "simplify" the poster for foreign release, to focus on "actors who are most recognizable in international markets." Nonetheless, after getting complaints about racism from British viewers, the studio has apologized and scrapped plans to use the revised poster in other countries.

I feel a little sympathy for Universal here. It's certainly true that Love and Hawk are less famous in other countries than they are in the United States. (Heck, they're not that famous here, either.) Their characters are fourth in importance in the story; even in the American poster, they're all the way in the back. If you had to remove a couple from the poster, they'd be the logical choice.

Ah, but there's the problem -- why did Universal think they had to remove a couple? The poster with all eight characters did fine in America. Why change it? Do international audiences reject movies that appear to have too many characters? Is "clutter" a big complaint among British poster aficionados? If nothing else, someone at Universal should have realized that removing the black couple -- even if race had nothing to do with it -- would at least look sketchy. You'd think that as bad as the movie is, they'd be extra careful not to turn off any potential viewers with their marketing. Live and learn!

[Via Huffington Post.]

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Filed under: RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand

To further prove that people with lots of money still care about people who used to have lots of money, The Daily Express reports that Johnny Depp may help bail actor Nicolas Cage out of his growing financial problems. Cage, as you may or may not know, is in some serious debt. He's already had two of his homes go into foreclosure, he owes something like $6 million in back taxes and he's currently suing his former business manager for $20 million claiming he sent "him down a path toward financial ruin."

Now, though, things may be looking up for Cage as Depp could be coming to his rescue. The Daily Express says that Depp has contacted Cage and told him not to worry, that he'll sort everything out. Why Depp, you ask? Isn't that sorta random? What, was Depp a big fan of Con Air or something? Actually, no -- Depp feels like he owes his career to Cage in a way since Cage reportedly recommended Depp to his agent wayyy back in the day when Depp was a struggling musician. The story goes that Cage's recommendation led to Depp nabbing a role in the original Nightmare on Elm Street (his first), and the rest is history.

So, is Johnny Depp really going to pony up some crazy cash to bail Nicolas Cage out of trouble? And can Hollywood somehow find a way to turn that into a movie with both power actors starring opposite one another? And would you go to see it?

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(A typical scene of nuanced, intimate human drama from "2012")

It's the end of the world as we know it, and America's moviegoers feel fine. "2012" raked in $65 million over the weekend by giving audiences what they want: unparalleled global disaster in which no one really important (John Cusack, for example, or that cute l'il dog) gets hurt. The movie played on 6,500 screens in 3,404 theaters (that's a $19,000 per-theater average and a still-impressive $10,000 per-screen average), so there was no place to run. Imagine if "2012" had been released in 3D, as will no doubt be the norm within a few years' time -- we'd all be ducking as Africa sailed past our heads.

That said, the opening take for Roland Emmerich's latest Ragnarok-o-rama washed up just short of "The Day After Tomorrow" ($68.7 million in 2004) and doesn't compare with "Independence Day," which back in 1996 opened with $50 million in less than half the theaters "2012" did.

In second place, the returning "A Christmas Carol" dropped only 26% of its opening week take, both a sign that the 3D extravaganza might have decent legs and an indication that holidays are upon us, no fooling. Coming in fourth, after "The Men Who Stare at Goats," was the surging "Precious," which went art-house wide and expanded from 18 theaters to 174, pulling in an astonishing $6 million and $35,000 per-theater average. Reviews help, and so does Oprah, but the buzz is building from the film itself. It opens (finally) in Boston this Friday; not sure what took it so long. or why Texas is getting the movie before we are.

"Pirate Radio" sank like a rusty tub in a North Atlantic gale: $3 million at 900 theaters. Things look good for Wes Anderson's stop-motion Roald Dahl adaptation "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," though -- it opened at four theaters and averaged $65,000 at each. Again, we're going to have to wait a few weeks for the film to open here, but mostly because Fox (the studio, not the character) wants to take advantage of the long Thanksgiving break. Good luck selling the film to families -- it's as flaky, if not as morose, as "Where the Wild Things Are." That's not to say it isn't very good. I've seen it, and it is. But more on that later.

More grosses at Box Office Mojo and from Leonard Klady at Movie City News.